Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.
As you can imagine, the time immediately before and after our Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada readers’ poll is crazy around here. Add to that the biggest popularity contest in the country, the national election, always both a distraction and an addiction for journalists. Finally, pile onto that the compression of the Reno News & Review offices—the editorial staff moved back downstairs—and you’ve got an October that just about crashed my system.
But I love it. Except for the elections, all that stuff is in the past now. Today, Kat, Brad, Kelley, Dennis and I can fully indulge our addictions to the political races. But election results fall into the Sargasso Sea between our Tuesday 5 p.m. press deadline and Thursday distribution. We have a certain amount of wiggle room on Wednesday morning, but really, if any of these races are as tight as they feel they might be, we won’t know the final outcomes for quite some time.
I, like most of America, have been fascinated by the Senate race featuring Harry Reid and Sharron Angle. It’s been a very dirty race. But I’ll cast a prediction into the void between Nov. 1 and Nov. 4: Whoever wins, few people in Nevada will be happy. Even if Reid loses, the Democrats will probably keep Senate control. That means America is likely to have Dick Durbin of Illinois or Chuck Schumer of New York as Senate Majority Leader. That will likely mean nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, reform of the 1872 mining act with federal fees and taxes, and less money for Nevada.
If Reid’s elected, expect Senate politics as usual, which has enraged half the country.
If Angle is elected, she will join a group of five or six tea party representatives whom I think the Republican Party will swiftly marginalize—because they have to, in order to get something, anything, done before the 2012 presidential election.
Get ready, Nevada. It’s going to be a rough and tumble couple of years.