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Angle: I Would Help Anyone Meet With Coburn Or DeMint

Eric Kleefeld | October 7, 2010, 4:24PM

US Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R-NV)

Sharron Angle is offering a novel explanation for her seeming secret quid-pro-quo offer to a third-party conservative candidate that she could get him access to top GOP Senators if he dropped out and helped her win the race. Instead, as Jon Ralston reports, she now says she would help any constituent in Nevada meet with big-name Senators.

Earlier this week, Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian released a secret tape of himself meeting last week with Angle. As she had told Ashjian: "That's really all I can offer to you (Ashjian) is whatever juice I have, you have as well...You want to see DeMint, I have juice with him...I go to Washington, DC, and want to see Jim DeMint, he's right there for me. I want to see Tom Coburn, he's right there for me. I want to see Mitch McConnell, he's there."

But that wasn't improper at all, Angle told conservative talk radio host Heidi Harris: "Well, of course, I offered him meetings with people that are friends of mine. Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn are friends of mine, and I would offer that to any constituent in Nevada."

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Angle Lawyer Tells TPM: Meeting With Tea Party Candidate 'A Setup'

Christina Bellantoni | October 4, 2010, 10:33AM

Republican lawyer Cleta Mitchell represents GOP candidates and causes.

Cleta Mitchell, a top Republican lawyer representing Sharron Angle's Senate bid in Nevada, told TPM this morning that the campaign ignored her advice about avoiding getting involved with Tea Party of Nevada candidate Scott Ashjian.

Mitchell said in a phone interview that the meeting -- which Ashjian recorded and leaked to the press -- was "a setup."

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NV-SEN

Angle Met With 'Tea Party' Candidate, Trashed GOP -- And Offered Him Perks To Drop Out

Eric Kleefeld | October 4, 2010, 9:47AM

NV Senate candidate Sharron Angle (R)

Republican Sharron Angle is definitely worried that she could lose the Nevada Senate race due to vote-splitting with Scott Ashjian, who is running on the "Tea Party" ballot line. She's so worried, in fact, that she personally met with Ashjian last week to tell him how much she really agrees with him about bashing the Republican Party, and offered him access to the party's upper echelons if he dropped out. Oh, and there's a tape of the meeting to prove it.

As Jon Ralston reports, Angle sought to convince Ashjian to drop out and endorse her -- though Ashjian himself did not seem particularly eager to do so, thanks in no small part to the heavy-handed attacks that have been made against him by the state GOP and the California-based group Tea Party Express.

Angle clearly sought to show Ashjian that she was on his side. "The Republicans have lost their standards, they've lost their principles," Angle said. She also added: "Really that's why the machine in the Republican Party is fighting against me...They have never really gone along with lower taxes and less government."

And she made him an offer: "That's really all I can offer to you (Ashjian) is whatever juice I have, you have as well...You want to see DeMint, I have juice with him...I go to Washington, DC, and want to see Jim DeMint, he's right there for me. I want to see Tom Coburn, he's right there for me. I want to see Mitch McConnell, he's there."

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NV-SEN

GOP Pollster: Reid Leads Angle By Five Points

Eric Kleefeld | September 24, 2010, 6:39PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Here's another fun data point in the Nevada Senate race. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now being given a five-point lead over Sharron Angle -- by a Republican polling firm.

As Jon Ralston reports, a survey conducted for the Retail Association of Nevada by a well-known GOP polling firm, Public Opinion Strategies, showed the following numbers: Reid 45%, Angle 40%, plus 1% for Tea Party candidate Scott Ashjian. The survey of likely voters has a ±4.38% margin of error. The last publicly-released POS survey of this race was all the way back in February, and put Reid ahead of Angle and Ashjian by 37%-32%-16%.

According to this poll, Reid's favorable rating is only 44%, with 51% unfavorable -- a position that ought to spell political death for an incumbent. However, Angle is even lower at 38%-52%.

The TPM Poll Average currently gives Reid an edge of 47.2%-44.9%.

Florida Tea Party

Florida Fakers? GOP Cries Foul Over 20 Tea Party Candidates

Christina Bellantoni | June 21, 2010, 2:35PM

Tea Party protest in Florida

Fearing that even marginal voter preferences for tea party candidates could spell doom in November, Republicans now claim that the dozen or more Florida Tea Party candidates running for statehouse seats are part of some Sunshine State shenanigans.

In the meantime, however, the tea partiers want the U.S. attorney to investigate claims that tea party candidates are being intimidated and threatened. The Democrats, meanwhile, swear they have nothing to do with the Tea Party candidates, even though at least 3 of them were once registered to vote as members of the Democratic Party.

It's an old-fashioned whodunit, fueled, in part, by the mysterious candidacy of Democratic Senate nominee Alvin Greene in South Carolina and the Tea Party of Nevada candidate who tea party activists there say is a faker.

Let's break it down.

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NV-SEN

Tea Party Of Nevada Candidate: 'Absolutely Not' A Democratic Plant (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | March 29, 2010, 5:42PM

Geraldo Rivera and NV Sen. Candidate Scott Ashjian

We've been writing about Jon Scott Ashjian, the official Tea Party of Nevada Senate candidate aiming to beat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) this fall.

Ashjian has been taking heat from groups that make up the tea party movement who say he's just been set up to siphon votes from Republican candidates, and he's also facing a felony charge of writing a bad check to a business consultant for his asphalt company. He's also had his contractor's license revoked and other business woes.

Geraldo Rivera asked Ashjian in a recent appearance on Fox News if he was a Democratic plant, a few days after the Tea Party Express group produced an Internet ad suggesting Ashjian is a fraud. Rivera also asked about the legal troubles.

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Former GOP Chair: Bad Check Charge Against NV Tea Party Candidate 'Isn't Political In Nature'

Christina Bellantoni | March 29, 2010, 12:55PM

Nevada senate candidate Scott Ashjian (Tea Party) and Clark County Deputy District Attorney Bernie Zadrowski (R-NV)

I just spent about half an hour on the phone with Bernie Zadrowski, a district attorney who heads the Bad Check Unit in Clark County, Nevada that is likely to file an arrest warrant today against Jon Scott Ashjian, the official Tea Party of Nevada candidate on this fall's Senate ballot.

Ashjian has been charged with writing a $5,000 bad check to a consultant who did work for his asphalt business -- his second offense and another legal problem he's facing as conservatives affiliated with the state's tea party movement target him as a fraud. Eyebrows were raised when the felony bad check charge surfaced because Zadrowski is the former chairman of the Clark County Republican Party and also is on the ballot in a judicial race this fall.

But Zadrowski told me that the victim of Ashjian's bounced check (written in December) came forward last month before Ashjian filed to run for Senate in early March. He also said his own political affiliations have nothing to do with it, especially since he is running to be a justice. That race is nonpartisan and candidates are barred from making endorsements or getting involved in political races. "This isn't political in nature at all, this is simply my job," Zadrowski told me.

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Tea Party Express Accuses Nevada 'Tea Party' Candidate: 'We Think You're A Fraud' (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | March 29, 2010, 12:48PM

Senate candidate Scott Ashjian (Tea Party-NV)

The Tea Party Express, a division of Our Country Deserves Better PAC, has a new Web ad excoriating "Tea Party" candidate Scott Ashjian in the Nevada Senate race, accusing him of being a Democratic mole trying to help re-elect Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The ad has not been put on television just yet -- but it could be soon.

Ashjian has registered as a candidate with an actual "Tea Party" label for the general election, rather than running in the Republican primary. Right-wing talk radio host and Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams tells Ashjian to "get lost." "Dozens of Tea Party groups across Nevada have spoken out against your candidacy," Williams says. "None of us has ever heard of you, or even seen you at a Tea Party rally. Nothing. We think you're a fraud who's trying to split the vote and help re-elect Harry Reid."

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NV-SEN

Nevada Tea Battle: Grassroots Groups Call New Third Party Fake, Ban It From Events

Christina Bellantoni | March 15, 2010, 9:48AM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and a tea partier

Is there a fake tea party brewing in Nevada? Tea partiers who have declared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) public enemy No. 1 sure seem to think so.

The Tea Party of Nevada formed an official third party in the Silver State, with candidate Jon Ashjian hoping to defeat Reid. But tea party groups that oppose becoming official third parties cried foul. Some conservatives have even accused Ashjian of being a front for Reid supporters who hope to dilute the Republican and tea party votes in the fall.

Twenty of Nevada's self-proclaimed "grassroots tea party groups" signed a statement denouncing the Tea Party of Nevada. The groups issued a blanket ban, saying the third party won't be invited to or welcome at any grassroots events in the state.

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