Poll: Sharron Angle leads in Nevada

Former primary front-runner Sue Lowden is in third place in the race to challenge Harry Reid

Published June 3, 2010 3:30PM (EDT)

** CORRECTS SPELLING OF SHARRON ANGLE ** Sharron Angle participates in a Republican primary forum for Senate hopefuls Tuesday, May 18, 2010 in Las Vegas. The winner of the primary contest will challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken) (Isaac Brekken)
** CORRECTS SPELLING OF SHARRON ANGLE ** Sharron Angle participates in a Republican primary forum for Senate hopefuls Tuesday, May 18, 2010 in Las Vegas. The winner of the primary contest will challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken) (Isaac Brekken)

A Suffolk University poll has Tea Partier Sharron Angle leading Sue Lowden by 8 points in the Nevada Senate primary race. Lowden, the establishment GOP candidate, is now polling in third place.

Former UNLV basketball star Danny Tarkanian -- another Tea Party candidate, though the Tea Party Express has begged him to drop out of the race and throw his support behind Angle -- is 1 point ahead of Lowden. (But that's with a 4.9 percent margin of error, so it's more humiliating for Lowden than statistically significant.)

The Nevada GOP establishment is convinced Lowden is their best chance to beat a weak Harry Reid in November, but at this point she's damaged enough by her chicken-bartering comment to make that debatable.

Markos Moulitsas says a forthcoming Research 2000 poll has Angle with a "significant lead" in the primary and, unbelievably, Reid beating all candidates in the general election. Apparently Sue Lowden's masterful "Sharron Angle wants to massage convicts" ad was no match for Angle's muckraking newspaper.


By Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene

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