Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is not on the ballot this year, but the GOP is nevertheless angling to make him the focus of the 2014 campaign, arguing a vote for any Senate Democrat is a vote to keep Mr. Reid in power.
In several early-season campaign debates, Republican candidates have challenged Democrats, saying they are trying to hide their allegiance to Mr. Reid, whom they say is both the king of congressional gridlock and the man in charge of President Obama’s agenda on Capitol Hill.
Republicans are hoping that the ill will toward Mr. Reid can tilt the playing field against Democrats in much the same fashion that they tried to use against then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the 2010 elections, when the GOP flipped control of the lower chamber.
Democrats say the new focus on Mr. Reid comes because the Pelosi attacks have grown stale — but they doubted attacking Mr. Reid will sway many voters.
The attacks take several forms, but all of them involve pointing to the Nevada Democrat, who has been his party’s Senate leader for nearly 10 years, as the tyrant of Washington.
In Alaska, former Attorney General Dan Sullivan accused Sen. Mark Begich, a first-term Democrat, of being a “loyal foot soldier” for Mr. Reid, subverting the needs of his state to the Nevada Democrat’s wishes.
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“You have not been allowed by Harry Reid to offer one amendment on the Senate floor in five and a half years in the Senate. I think that is an indication of your effectiveness for Alaska,” Mr. Sullivan said, casting the Senate election as a chance to “retire” Mr. Reid from his leadership perch.
Mr. Begich dismissed the line of attack with laughter, saying he’s voted his own priorities and added, “Dan, you should read my record a little better.”
Others Republicans couch Mr. Reid as the key driver of Mr. Obama’s agenda, saying stopping the former will stop the latter.
“If you like what is going on in Washington, then vote for my opponent, because you know she will be more than a proxy for Harry Reid and Barack Obama, and nothing will change,” businessman David Perdue said at a forum with his Democratic opponent, Michelle Nunn, in the race for Georgia’s open Senate seat.
In Kansas, Greg Orman isn’t even a Democrat but rather an independent, but Sen. Pat Roberts accused him of being a conduit for Mr. Reid to remain in power. Mr. Roberts said Mr. Orman had donated money to Mr. Reid in the past.
“This is the man that he supported with money,” Mr. Roberts thundered. “This is the man that he supported in regards to the Obama administration. He is not an independent. He is a liberal!”
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For his part, Mr. Orman said, “I agree that Harry Reid is stopping progress on a lot of things, but so are Republicans in the House.”
Justin Barasky, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said the Reid attacks won’t resonate. He said voters will view it as a distraction from the policy issues that Democrats want to talk about.
“Republican Senate candidates want this election to be about anything other than their records of supporting plans to gut Medicare, privatize Social Security and restrict women’s access to common forms of birth control,” Mr. Barasky said. “Unfortunately for them, it’s not going to work.”
Mr. Reid’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Still to be seen is whether he is as polarizing as Mrs. Pelosi.
A Rasmussen Reports poll in 2010 found that 60 percent of likely voters disapproved of her. Last month Rasmussen found House Speaker John A. Boehner has the highest disapproval rating of the major congressional leaders at 60 percent, with Mrs. Pelosi at 56 percent.
Mr. Reid was disapproved by 54 percent, while his GOP counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, faced 49 percent disapproval.
Mr. McConnell himself is banking that the Reid attack will work. The five-term incumbent says he’s an agent of change, while voting for Allison Lundergan Grimes, his 35-year-old Democratic challenger, would mean backing a Democratic Party out of touch with Kentucky.
“Her first vote in the Senate will be to re-elect Harry Reid majority leader,” Mr. McConnell told reporters following their recent joint appearance at a forum hosted by the Kentucky Farm Bureau. “The most important vote she will cast will be to organize the Senate and make him the majority leader, who will then set the agenda, which guarantees that none of the concerns that the Kentucky Farm Bureau has will be dealt with.”
Tim Alborg, a Democratic strategist in Georgia, said the jury is out on whether anti-Reid messages will sway voters.
“Sure, there are some D.C. folks trying to demonize Reid down here in the same way they’ve attempted to use Nancy Pelosi’s name as a slur,” Mr. Alborg said. “And yes, some folks in the Republican base have bought into it since they’ve been experiencing Pelosi fatigue as of late.
“Most Georgians, though, are looking for practical solutions, and they’re sick of gridlock in Washington,” he said. “Michelle Nunn is focused on keeping Washington working for us rather than shutting it down.”
Forrest A. Nabors, University of Alaska political science professor, said that the anti-Reid message works best if it is done in tandem with attacks against Mr. Obama.
“The president’s unpopularity tends to be lower than the national average. Reid’s name is, of course, less familiar than Obama’s, which is why linking them together is more effective,” he said.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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