WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Minority Leader is at it again.
Known for meddling in politics at all levels in his home state of Nevada, the Democrat intervened earlier this week to help kill a GOP-backed bill in the Legislature that would have allowed Nevada to trade its presidential caucuses for primaries, seen as friendlier to establishment candidates like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida
who might be tougher for Democrats to beat.
The surprise outcome exasperated Republicans from Las Vegas to Washington and served notice that even as Reid heads into retirement, Republicans will have to get around him if they hope to win Nevada in 2016. And it was just the latest move from a masterful tactician who rules his home state’s political scene like no other and is determined to keep the White House and his own Senate seat in Democratic hands though his name will never again be on the ballot.
“Harry’s an icon, there hasn’t been anybody in politics like him. Whether you like his politics or not he’s carved out a spot that quite frankly is unique in the history of Nevada politics,” said Republican
, a former state party chairman. “He’s a results-oriented guy, and until we really hug ‘what are they doing, and how do we compete with that’ there’ll continue to be days where we struggle.”
For Reid, 75 and blind in one eye as the result of an accident while exercising earlier this year, working against the primary bill was just one of his recent moves designed to boost Democratic prospects in Nevada.
Some of his top lieutenants run the state Democratic Party and will be instrumental in working for presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. The former secretary of state and first lady surrounded herself with some of Reid’s allies in the immigrant community when she visited the state last month, and she plans another appearance in a couple of weeks.
