Harry Reid Can Meet a Hispanic Republican, Right in His Home State

Maybe if Rory Reid weren't having to distance himself from his father to the point of forgoing his last name, Harry Reid would be more familiar with the idea of a Nevadan, Hispanic Republican. In his quest for the Nevada governorship, Rory Reid is getting trounced in polls at the moment by Brian Sandoval, a former federal judge, Attorney General, and...Hispanic Republican. From late July's Las Vegas Review-Journal poll:

In the race for governor, Republican Brian Sandoval has increased his lead over Democrat Rory Reid to 19 percentage points, according to a new poll, despite being outspent and under attack by the Reid campaign.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal/8NewsNow poll says that 50 percent of respondents now support Sandoval, 31 percent favor Reid and 14 percent remain undecided, a widening of the 11-point margin of two weeks ago.

The polls shows Sandoval with a double-digit lead in every demographic group other than Democrats.

Presumably, "every demographic" includes Hispanic voters. In Clark County, the dense left-leaning Las Vegas area Democrats count on to deliver the state, Sandoval is still leading Reid 45-36 (14 undecided). He also leads among independents, 56-21. Those numbers suggest that Sandoval might not be the only right-leaning Hispanic voter in Reid's home state, no matter what Reid thinks.

Other polls have not put Sandoval's lead as high as this most recent Mason-Dixon poll, but his RCP average lead has consistently been over 10 points.

Here's a clue to how Reid's comment is playing in Nevada, where the publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal pointed out the obvious:

There are about 250,000 Hispanic voters in Nevada, about 50,000 of which register Republican. No telling how many Hispanic voters -- Republican and Democrat -- vote for the individual candidate and not a straight party ticket, like most Americans do. For Harry Reid to say that all Hispanics should then vote only for Democrats like himself is like calling a good cross section of Hispanic Nevadans little short of stupid.

And lest we forget, polls show that Nevada voters (which include that Hispanic electorate) are on the verge of overwhelmingly voting into office the state's first Hispanic governor, Brian Sandoval. A dreaded Republican. What is that -- stupid squared?