How long will it be before Michele Bachmann becomes the “voice of reason” in the Republican Party?
…because that’s what she’s going to be in a couple of years.
Angle recently announced that she will run for Congressmember Dean Heller’s congressional seat (Heller is running for disgraced Senator John Ensign’s seat). I think she’ll win it. Yes, there will be a contested primary, but if anything that helps Angle, who can always rely on the Second Amendment Remedies/Off-Their-Medication/Scientologist faction in the GOP to get her the plurality she needs to win the primary.
And unlike her 2010 Senate campaign, when she ran against a sitting Senate Majority Leader in a purple state, Nevada’s Second Congresional District is quite conservative: it has never elected a Democrat (albeit with only a 30-year history). Its Cook PVI is R+5, which is on the outside of being winnable; so conceivably, in a very good Democratic year, it could be won. But 2012 doesn’t figure to be that: Obama will probably pull through and the Dems will gain House seats, but nothing like 2006 or 2008.
So get used to it: Congreswoman Sharron Angle. Remember how to spell “Sharron.” Also “insane,” “unhinged,” “bats**t,” and other appropriate adjectives. Every time we think that the Republicans can’t get crazier, they surprise us yet again.
Author: Jonathan Zasloff
Jonathan Zasloff teaches Torts, Land Use, Environmental Law, Comparative Urban Planning Law, Legal History, and Public Policy Clinic - Land Use, the Environment and Local Government. He grew up and still lives in the San Fernando Valley, about which he remains immensely proud (to the mystification of his friends and colleagues). After graduating from Yale Law School, and while clerking for a federal appeals court judge in Boston, he decided to return to Los Angeles shortly after the January 1994 Northridge earthquake, reasoning that he would gladly risk tremors in order to avoid the average New England wind chill temperature of negative 55 degrees.
Professor Zasloff has a keen interest in world politics; he holds a PhD in the history of American foreign policy from Harvard and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University. Much of his recent work concerns the influence of lawyers and legalism in US external relations, and has published articles on these subjects in the New York University Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. More generally, his recent interests focus on the response of public institutions to social problems, and the role of ideology in framing policy responses.
Professor Zasloff has long been active in state and local politics and policy. He recently co-authored an article discussing the relationship of Proposition 13 (California's landmark tax limitation initiative) and school finance reform, and served for several years as a senior policy advisor to the Speaker of California Assembly. His practice background reflects these interests: for two years, he represented welfare recipients attempting to obtain child care benefits and microbusinesses in low income areas. He then practiced for two more years at one of Los Angeles' leading public interest environmental and land use firms, challenging poorly planned development and working to expand the network of the city's urban park system. He currently serves as a member of the boards of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (a state agency charged with purchasing and protecting open space), the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (the leading legal service firm for low-income clients in east Los Angeles), and Friends of Israel's Environment. Professor Zasloff's other major activity consists in explaining the Triangle Offense to his very patient wife, Kathy.
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Nevada is going to be redistricted and gain a seat, so she may have the choice of running for the mostly rural vacant seat or the Las Vegas exurban new seat.
The comic relief will be welcome. I may give some money to her campaign. Why, you ask? My dollars may do more to wreck the GOP than if I were to give money to the spineless opposition party.
You’re probably right, and I have to say it doesn’t really bother me. She’ll do vastly less damage as the replacement Republican Rep. than she would have in Harry Reid’s Senate seat.
“Moderate” Republicans and people like Angle who are fringy even for the Tea Party fringe vote pretty much the same way anyway. So actually, she’ll be an improvement over Heller. Let’s all welcome Congresswoman Sharron Angle, and make sure she never wants for the spotlight.
Whenever I despair about the insanity/stupidity/evil of some of our political leadership, I forget about the people who elected them…then I get even more depressed.
This is really very premature. Here’s why:
1) NV-02 as it is currently configured will not exist in 2012, because of redistricting as ZZ notes. It’s quite possible that the new district will become more Democratic, with strongly R exurbs added to NV-03 so as as to shore up the R incumbent in that district. In any case the PVI of R+5 overstates GOP strength- NV has been trending D over the past decade, and presidential turnout will be very helpful for the Democratic nominee (the district was 49-49 between McCain and Obama in 2008).
2) She may win the primary and she may not, but consider that she will likely be running against the state Lt. Governor and GOP party chairman, not pushovers. Furthermore she already lost a primary for this same seat back in 2006 to Dean Heller, admittedly by only 421 votes. Polls have indicated that many R voters regret nominating her for Senate, that her approvals have collapsed, and there is even suggestion that some internal polls (not leaked yet) have shown her trailing in Senate and House primaries. In other words, there is good reason to suspect she will do worse than she did in the 2006 primary.
And I have yet to touch on the caliber of her general election opposition- if the Dem State Treasurer gets in the race, as has been rumored, the race would be even less favorable to Angle. Ultimately, Rep. Sharron Angle is a real possibility, but it is far, far from guaranteed.