Skip to content

Angle Keeping Options Open for 2012

Republican Sharron Angle is keeping her options open for 2012 after losing a challenge to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) earlier this month.

“I will always be involved in politics. I have a lot of options next cycle. … Lots of options,” Angle told the Lahontan Valley News on Saturday.

Those options, she said, include running for Congress in the 2nd district should Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) challenge Sen. John Ensign (R) in the 2012 Senate primary. Angle has run in the 2nd district previously, losing the primary to Heller in 2006 in an open-seat race.

Ensign has said he will run for re-election despite having depleted his coffers to pay the legal fees associated with the federal investigation into his affair with a former staffer. Ensign would face a stiff challenge from Heller, who has statewide ambition.

Angle, a former state Assemblywoman, has not shied away from challenging incumbent Republicans in the past. She nearly knocked off state Sen. Bill Raggio in 2008. Raggio is term-limited in 2012, which would provide an opening for Angle as well.

“It would not surprise me for Sharron Angle to run for something in 2012,” Nevada GOP consultant Jim Denton told Roll Call.

Talking about her race against Reid, Angle told the northern Nevada newspaper that she would have liked to have run a more positive campaign but couldn’t because Reid “battered” her with ads. Because of disorganization and staff changes, Angle was slow to begin running general election TV ads.

“We finally got our ads on TV” after the primary, she said. “He was beating me unmercifully.”

She also expressed disappointment in having Republicans in the state come out in support of Reid.

“It surprised me a little bit, having Republicans for Reid with two mayors coming out in opposition” to me, she said. “That was the most surprising blow. I always thought in the end there is some kind of loyalty, but they shifted loyalties to the fellow who could deliver the pork.”

Recent Stories

Justice Department expands where it will monitor on Election Day

GOP centers election concerns on noncitizen voting, but it’s rare

Boozman, Klobuchar lined up to follow Stabenow on Agriculture

Awkward abound: Joe Biden and the lame-duck countdown

Ratings changes: What we do and don’t know about the fight for Congress

Trump advocates ‘nine barrels shooting at’ Liz Cheney