To date in the 2010 cycle, I’ve met and talked with Sue Lowden, Dr Joe Heck, Mike Montandon, Danny Tarkanian, Brian Sandoval, and an assortment of C-teamers so I can comment more thoughtfully on the other side for our ever growing readership.
Let’s give you the lowdown on who we’ve met so far in no particular order:
Sue Lowden: Cute for a granny, very sharp, and media savvy. She’s in it to win it, not to give Harry a pass again; she’s the GOP’s strongest horse for this race. She will have broad appeal to voters because of her media savvy; her ads must be 5 star quality.
She must reintroduce herself to the state, speak directly to us that she’s a wife, a Mom, a Grandma, and a businesswoman…and greatly minimize those in her orbit speaking for her; they’ll all be trouble for her if she loses control of her own campaign to those more interested in making a name bringing down Reid; yes, that includes you Chuck Muth my friend!
She will lose if that occurs.
I hit Sue up in a hallway and had her all to myself for a few minutes. Nice chat; if she doesn’t veer too far to the right, embrace the religitards, or scream and shout the whole campaign, she should win her primary and the general election. She’s got 16 of 17 counties right out of the gate.
Gaming is delighted she’s one of their own from their wing; the only wing for both parties in Nevada.
For her, it’s Nevada’s independents and snagging a good chunk of moderate/conservative Democrats to win. If the GOP doesn’t come out in droves in 2010 for their entire ticket, they should de-list themselves as a party.
They’ll come out; bet on it!
Danny Tarkanian: He’s got the name, he’s a likable schlub, but he’ll have to conquer the ‘dumb jock’ image and his Pop is too sick to assist the campaign. I like Danny, but he is shooting way too high and should try again against another fellow ‘dumb jock’, Ross Miller, who hasn’t done a damn thing over four years.
Neither is a ‘dumb jock’ by the way, but that’ s the public’s perception of both.
Danny can’t win the US Senate seat in the general, so he shouldn’t win his primary if the grown-ups in the GOP wish to retire Harry Reid. Change offices Danny; try again for NVSOS because Ross is weak this cycle and the 2nd or 3rd time is usually a charm! You need to build your brand before such a big office son.
Mike Montandon: Mayor Mike swears up and down he’s staying in his race and that’s too bad because he is well known in Clark County and that would almost certainly ensure a general election win for any office other than the one he’s running for; Governor. He is one of Nevada’s tallest dudes. I don’t have to look upward for many here except Montandon. Mrs M is a major, undisclosed asset to him.
Dr. Joe Heck: I had always wondered why I had never met him and it’s because I couldn’t see him; he’s one of the shortest politicos in the state! He will be the first GOPer to engage his brain, sacrifice himself out of the Gov’s race and take on Dina Titus, thus becoming a national hero to GOP operatives and honchos all over the country. Very smart Dr Joe because the GOP knows how to take care of their own. He should raise a lot of money by switching. He’s quite personable, he does have a sense of humor and self, he just has to have a media team that captures that for TV and mailers. He failed badly at media when Harry engineered his loss in 2008. Now its payback time to see if he’s learned anything from last year.
My guess is that he did.
I’d spend it all on media if I were him and avoid the big staff (3-4 tops Doc; flush the rest) and all the hangers-on trying to make money off of him after he switches to the CD03 race. He needs the GOP’s ‘A’ team with him to beat Titus.
Brian Sandoval: He too is a shortie and showed up in the required GOP uniform of khaki pants and blue blazer, shoes polished, and face scrubbed. He’s just too damn good looking, but was very nice with me and chatted me up quite convincingly.
He’s going to have trouble not appearing robotic but like a regular guy who farts, bowls, and shops at Wal-Mart (preferably, all at the same time); a genuine guy, a real person. I’d have him doing nothing but regular guy stuff; I’d want to see him in Levi’s standing in cow shit up north too; he’s got the women, now he has to win the men which he does not have today. There is a mannequin quality about Sandoval that must be overcome. That he’s running against a cadaver will help, but isn’t enough to win outright. He literally devours the Hispanics ethnics in both parties, but they don’t tend to vote in primaries and are very tough to get out in generals too. He can’t just phone this race in; he too has to reintroduce himself to the entire state and give us a reason to trust him after the current knucklehead.
He’s forced to mop up Gibbons’ messes and he should embrace that, not pretend it doesn’t exist.
He should be the nominee on the GOP side and with Harry Reid personally assisting him with a big DNC Hispanic voter registration drive; he’s the beneficiary of Reid family father/son hatred that is the underlying, festering theme on the Dem side for 2010.
It will be the national headline 11/3/2010 because both Reids can’t win, and today, neither Reid would win.
The others aren’t on my radar yet and that means they haven’t stood out, but we’ll get into all of them and all running in the lower offices in both parties as the weeks and months go by, so you’re better informed.