All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

A new poll suggests even more trouble for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his home state.

Only 38 percent of the 625 registered Nevada voters polled had a favorable opinion of Reid in the poll released by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research that was commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Forty-nine percent of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of Reid in the poll with 13 percent remaining neutral.

The results follow an aggressive early advertising campaign by Reid.

"I'd be worried," Bowdoin College political advertising specialist Michael Franz tells the Review-Journal. "I'd stop if I had aired ads for two or three weeks and it wasn't moving the needle."

Sensing an opportunity to oust the leading Senate Democrat, Republicans are facing a crowded primary, with 9 candidates running. The leading names are former state party chairwoman Sue Lowden, and businessman Danny Tarkanian.

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Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) may have some tough competition in his 2010 bid for re-election, a new poll shows, in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- his high profile role as Senate Majority Leader.

Reid currently trails two Republican challengers, Danny Tarkanian and Sue Lowden, in a general election match-up, according to a Mason Dixon Polling survey released by the Las Vegas Review Journal. The statewide poll of 400 registered voters shows Tarkanian, a real estate professional and former UNLV basketball player, beating Reid 49 percent to 38 percent. Voters polled also preferred state Republican Party Chairwoman Lowden over Reid, 45 percent to 40 percent.

The poll indicates that Reid's leadership position may be a double-edged sword for the senator, who is seeking his fifth term.

"Senator Reid's leadership for Nevada has earned him broad support, including from nearly 150 Republican leaders in Nevada who recognize that he is a powerful voice for Nevada," Reid spokesman Jon Summers told the Review Journal.

On the other hand, Richard Davis, a professor of political science at Brigham Young University, told the newspaper that winning "becomes more difficult when you are actually the one having to carry the water for the president."

CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris said that voters may think Reid has put national priorities over statewide interests.

"Clearly, based on these polls there's a sense that Reid not might be in step with what voters are thinking there," he said. "Being in the national news as often as he is only amplifies that."

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Updated 6:55 p.m. Eastern Time

Sen. John Ensign, a Nevada Republican, has admitted having an extramarital affair with a member of his campaign staff.

"Last year I had an affair. I violated the vows of my marriage. It's absolutely the worst thing I've ever done in my life," Ensign said at a press conference in Nevada this afternoon.

"If there was ever anything that I could take back in my life, this would be it," he continued. "I take full responsibility for my actions."

Ensign said the affairtook place "about a year ago," and that it involved a married female campaign staffer with whom he was close friends. "That closeness put me into situations during a very difficult time in my marriage which led to my inappropriate behavior," Ensign said.

The senator missed an important vote on the travel industry in Washington to return to Nevada to make the announcement. He did not take questions.

Ensign is believed to have been considering a 2012 run for president. He made a speech in Iowa on June 1st widely seen as an attempt to test the waters for a national bid.

The Associated Press reports that Ensign's wife released a statement saying the affair was first revealed to her last year, and that the family has since "worked through the situation and we have come to a reconciliation."

"This has been difficult on both families," said Darlene Ensign. "With the help of our family and close friends our marriage has become stronger."

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One hundred days after he signed the $787 billion economic stimulus package, President Obama lauded the impact of the bill during a speech Wednesday afternoon at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada. The president argued that the bill "has helped to fuel demand that is helping businesses put more Americans back to work" and said it has already saved or created nearly 150,000 jobs.

The speech was the latest volley in Mr. Obama's public relations battle with Republicans over the bill, known formally as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The GOP has painted the package as a waste of taxpayer money that has done little to help the economy.

Earlier today, Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele released a statement arguing that a report put out by the Obama administration celebrating the stimulus package amounted to PR from the president designed "to convince voters his reckless spending plan is working."

In his remarks today, the president said the stimulus package was "designed not only to revive the economy in the short term, but to rebuild the economy over the long term." He announced funding for two new stimulus programs, one for solar energy technologies and another for developing the use of geothermal energy.

He also detailed the jobs that he suggested would not exist without the stimulus package, including "jobs building solar panels and wind turbines." He said the package was responsible for keeping teachers, police officers, young people and nurses employed and for creating jobs fixing the nation's infrastructure and working at small businesses.

Republicans dispute the president's claims; the RNC released a "research briefing" earlier today arguing that "after 100 days, the stimulus has produced waste and fraud, but no jobs."

As Factcheck.org notes, the 150,000 jobs figure, which dates from last month, comes from an estimate on the part of the president's Council of Economic Advisers. It does not reflect a claim that 150,000 jobs have been gained, but rather that 150,000 fewer jobs have been lost than would otherwise have been. The estimate is based on established models, though Factcheck argues that "there’s very little hard data…[on] how many jobs may have resulted from the legislation."

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