(Steve Sebelius/Slash Politics) – In the end, the truest statement in the entire campaign of 2010 may have been uttered by Sue Lowden, when the former Republican Party chairwoman said she was the only candidate who could beat Harry Reid.
Certainly, Angle did not, losing by a decisive 40,000 votes or nearly 6 percent to Reid in the general election Tuesday.
Angle, in her concession speech, sounded as if she’d already decided to take on another race. Although Angle says she hates government, she really, really wants to be a part of it. But much like her attempts to pass a Proposition 13-style reform to cap property taxes in Nevada or sue to overturn a particularly egregious court ruling, she just can’t seem to accomplish her goals.
Two years ago, Angle tried and failed to defeat state Sen. Bill Raggio in the Republican primary. She lost that contest by just 548 votes out of more than 9,000 cast. (BTW, Raggio is still waiting for his election-night call of concession. Although Angle called Reid to concede the race on Tuesday, she failed to make that call to Raggio, who this year endorsed Reid for re-election.)
Four years ago, Angle gave up her seat in the state Legislature to try to beat Dean Heller, who was running for Congress. She lost that race by just 421 votes out of nearly 70,000 cast. Angle also didn’t place a concession call in that race, but that’s mostly because she was suing to overturn the results. Unsuccessfully.
So, after running nearly statewide for Congress, in a small state Senate district in Reno and then statewide for U.S. Senate, some might suggest Angle cannot be successful in politics outside her former Assembly district, where she served from 1999-2005, winning four times. The election of 2004 — ironically the last time Reid was on a ballot himself — is the last time Angle won any race before she emerged from this year’s crowded Republican primary. (She won the primary decisively, with 40 percent or 70,436 votes to Lowden’s 45,882 votes, or 26 percent.)
But if you look at the numbers, Angle’s failures are always close races, sometimes razor-thin. She clearly has a fan base in Nevada politics, albeit not one that’s ever been able to propel her to any officer higher than member of the Assembly. But her defeats have never been definitive enough to end her career in politics. Or, more properly, attempting to be in politics.
Finally, what of Angle’s remark to the Christian Broadcasting Network that God has been in her campaign from the beginning, and that he’d prepared her to run for Senate? As always, it’s tricky stuff to divine the will of the almighty. But this passage from Romans should strike a chord with Angle, who peppered her campaign talk (publicly and privately) with quotes and stories from the Bible: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”
In other words, according to that verse, God simply must have wanted Reid to win instead of Angle.
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