Reid Runs TV Ads Amid Grim Poll Numbers

October 15, 2009 2:05 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) launched two TV ads on Thursday, seeking to allay jittery voters more than a year before they cast their ballots. Reid faces low poll ratings, in part due, according to pundits, to the recession and his leadership in Democratic efforts to pass a controversial healthcare reform bill.

The 60-second spots released by Reid's campaign feature focus on jobs and the senator's life story.

In Hard Work, images of Reid as a boy and a young man are shown while an announcer says, "The son of a hard rock miner, Harry Reid hitchiked 40 miles to high school, worked his way through college as a janitor and law school as a cop. But as tough as it got, he never backed down."

"When the mob took over Vegas, Harry Reid took them on and didn't blink, even when they put a bomb in the family station wagon," the announcer adds, referring the attempt to murder the lawmaker in 1981 when he was chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission. "It's the same determination he's using today as Senate leader to get Nevada's economy back on track."

"It's never easy, but we've got the people and the resources to come back stronger than ever," Reid says near the end of the ad.

Nevada Jobs, meanwhile, touts Reid's efforts to keep City Center, the nation's biggest construction project, from shutting down.

An $8.5 billion development that includes three hotels, a slew of casinos and a residential complex of two 37-story glass towers, City Center earlier this year faced bankruptcy due contractual disagreements between developers and the financial crisis.

The ad has MGM Mirage chief executive James Murren saying of Reid, "That man called every CEO of every bank that I know and said, Look, this is important to my state, get it done. Now we're going to open up City Center in December. We're going to employ over 12,000 people. They would not have jobs today if not for Senator Reid."

The spots come the same week as a Mason-Dixon/Las Vegas Review-Journal poll saying the senator would lose in a match-up with Nevada GOP chairman Sue Lowden, 39 to 49 percent, as well as UNLV basketball star Danny Tarkanian, 43 to 48 percent.

Only 38 percent of voters view Reid favorably, the survey added, while 50 percent see him negatively.

Lowden and Tarkanian each have better favorability ratios but also need to educate voters about who they are.

A full 40 percent of voters said they have a "neutral opinion" of Tarkanian while 19 percent said they don't recognize his name. Lowden has 29 percent viewing her neutrally, and 25 percent saying they have no opinion of her.

Reid also trailed both GOP contenders two months ago, but Tarkanian had showed stronger numbers than Lowden. The Mason-Dixon survey in August had the real estate businessman beating Reid by an 11-point margin. A match-up with Lowden, who at the time had yet to officially announce her candidacy, would be a narrow 45 to 40 percent win for Republicans.

A former lieutenant governor, Reid won his fourth term in 2004 with 61 percent of the vote, but observers attribute that victory to a weak Republican nominee. He became Senate Democratic leader in 2005, a year before the GOP lost the majority in Congress.

Nevada is a swing state that turned blue last year, voting for President Barack Obama over Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), 55 to 42 percent. Its unemployment rate has risen to 13.2 percent, the second-highest in the nation.