Obama Backing Reid in Mid-Term Election
I realize this is from a few days ago already, but its important to point out. President Obama will be attending a fundraiser in May to support Harry Reid. Obama is “evidently eager to to keep Senator Harry Reid as his top Senate ally“. This won’t make our task of getting rid of Reid any easier. Obama will definitely bring in the campaign contributions. We have to stay aware of what’s happening and press as hard as we can to defeat Harry Reid in the midterm election. Email me if you wish to contribute to our blog with good, factually-based articles. Let’s get the Beat Reid movement going!
-Charlie4Nevada[!!!@t!!!]gmail.com (replace everything within the brackets, including the brackets as well, with just an “@” sign.)
Click the following link to access the original site: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/obama-will-headline-fund-raiser-for-senate-majority-leader/ or just
Obama Will Headline Fund-Raiser for Senate Majority Leader
by Carl Hulse
President Obama is evidently eager to keep Senator Harry Reid as his top Senate ally.
In what appears to be a first, party operatives said the president has agreed to attend a May fund-raiser in Las Vegas on behalf of the majority leader, who will be on the ballot in 2010 and could potentially face a difficult fight.
“I am sure they are going to find somebody to run against me,” Mr. Reid told reporters last week. “I know I have a target on my back and on my front. But I am, you know, comfortable that I will be competitive.”
The still-unannounced presidential trip reflects the close ties the president and the Senate leader have developed during their time together in Congress as well as the first frantic months of the Obama administration.
Mr. Reid has so far delivered in the Senate for Mr. Obama and his efforts organizing the Democratic Party in Nevada were considered an important factor in Mr. Obama easily carrying the usually Republican state.
Having the president on hand for the May 26 event is a coup since the president has so far not done campaign events for individuals. White House strategists say they have purposefully delayed serious fund-raising activity in the first months of the administration. But they expect to step up the pace at the beginning of the summer, combining official trips with political events. Mr. Reid’s fund-raiser would appear to mark the beginning of that effort.
Republicans would like nothing more than to knock off the Democratic leader, repeating the feat they accomplished against former Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota in 2004.
But Democrats have learned a few lessons since then, and Mr. Reid is taking no chances, trying to build a formidable bankroll. He said he has raised $2 million so far this year and has about $5 million in the bank, while taking other steps to avoid a repeat of his razor-thin win in 1998.
Aides also tout the recent endorsement of Mr. Reid by notable Republicans in the state, including some prominent mayors. Plus, Nevada is undergoing a demographic transformation and is no South Dakota as far as deep-seated conservatism.
Still, the majority leader’s popularity at home is hardly overwhelming and his state has a serious unemployment problem. A mid-term election conducted against a backdrop of economic turmoil is not the best time to be before the voters.
But the president, at least so far, is a very valuable political asset.
“I think that our success is tied to Obama’s success,” the majority leader said. “I think that we have a situation where we have a dynamic young president who has indicated he wants to change things in our country that need changing.”
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