How Sharron Angle, the choice of the Tea Party, became Harry Reid’s challenger

Tarkanian spokesman James Fisfis told The Daily Caller that his candidate, also beloved by conservatives and Tea Partiers, was never approached by TPX before the group made its endorsement. “There was no interview process or anything like that, they just kinda endorsed her,” Fisfis said. “Nevada Tea Party groups were upset by that. They were saying, ‘Well you’re a national group, but what about us? You’re overshadowing us.’”

Yet, the endorsement definitely helped Angle. Joe Wierzbicki, a founding member of TPX, said of her transformation from long shot to nominee: “It was funny, the first time we met Angle it was so simple and Spartan.  She was considering challenging Reid, and had been doing her grassroots activism thing since leaving office…This week she’s been chased by local, state and national media who can’t get enough of her.”

As for how Angle’s campaign caught fire among the voters, Dr. David Damore, a professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, listed a number of factors, including how voters began to abandon Lowden after a series of embarrassing gaffes, including her now-infamous suggestion that health-care costs could be lowered through bartering chickens, as well as an initial refusal to take a position on the Civil Rights Act. Damore said Lowden often gave voters the impression that she was a lightweight.

Now that Angle moves from hopeful to nominee, the scrutiny will increase dramatically. Reid, who did not face a legitimate challenger in the Democratic primary, has already spent $10 million on the race. In an interview with The Daily Caller, Angle described herself as a “mainstream Republican” – an acknowledgment that she’s likely to painted as something other than mainstream.

A spokesman for Reid did not return a request for comment. But one Democratic leadership aide said in an interview that Angle’s election shows that Republicans “keep nominating troubled candidates.” The path for Harry Reid’s re-election, the aide said, is now “clearer and easier.”

“She’s going to make Rand Paul look like a reasonable statesman,” the source said, referencing the unquestionably conservative Republican from Kentucky.

Democrats will likely pounce on her stances — like wanting to abolish the Department of Education, proposing withdrawing from the United Nations, suggesting phasing out Medicare and Social Security through privatization, among others — as extreme. Even though she’s a Southern Baptist, her opponents have tried to link her to Scientology through her past support of therapy for state prisoners used by members of the religion.

But Hart hinted that Reid’s campaign isn’t the only with opposition research at its disposal.

“There’s a lot of things about Harry Reid that people don’t know,” he said.

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