When the dust settled — and did so quite quickly on Election night — GOP pollster Frank Luntz had it right and everybody else had it wrong. Instead of experiencing a fatal wound or even the electoral near-death experience of 1998, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), cruised to a surprisingly comfortable five-point win. (Luntz predicted seven but he was a lot closer than Las Vegas Review-Journal pet pollster Mason-Dixon, they of the skimpy sampling rates. M-D had Reid -4%. In the Third Congressional District M-D projected a 10% margin for the winner, who actually eked out an 0.5% victory.) What threatened to be a long evening was over before it started. The halls of the gushy Sharron Angle fanzine known as the R-J must be reverberating today with frustrated cries of “Thunderation!”, “Consarn it!” and “Jumpin’ Jehosaphat!” Its cutting-edge 19th century technology was certainly in full glory on Election Night.
If ever there was a “must-win” for the casino industry, this was it. The loss of face would have been industry-wide and crushing — although Steve Wynn backed Reid with such ill grace he might as well have endorsed Angle, whose whackdoodle rhetoric he dyspeptically echoed. Had Reid lost, not only would MGM Resorts International, Harrah’s Entertainment, Station Casinos and a host of other industry movers and shakers have looked like toothless lions. They’d then devote six years to abasing themselves and sucking up to a candidate who’d spent her entire candidacy spitting venom upon them, starting with a refusal to take campaign donations from gaming. “Undue pressure,” y’know. (Translation: “Casinos … ewwwwww! Yucky!”)
Even if a frosh Sen. Angle had been willing to turn a receptive ear to the casino industry’s financial predicament, her well-established go-it-alone tendencies wouldn’t have earned her many markers on Capitol Hill. With Sen. John Ensign at this point a dead man walking, Nevada‘s #1 industry would hold scant influence in Washington, D.C. One of the advantages of having a Majority Leader in your corner is that if you need tax deferrals in return for buying distressed debt, it can be — and was — slipped into the legislative hopper with little fuss or notice. And if you want to protect your brick-and-mortar casinos by keeping UIGEA off the floor, old Harry’s your man. Were I a casino executive, Reid vs. Angle would be a no-brainer. From the industry’s viewpoint, it just made cents … er, sense.
But we cannot leave the topic without mentioning again the heavy hand laid down by Harrah’s in its effort to get out the vote on Reid’s behalf, his reelection having been deemed critical to the Nevada economy by Senior Vice President of Communications & Government Relations Jan Jones. In its understandable zeal to protect its interests, Harrah’s went way over the line. Asking employees whether they’ve voted or not is totally beyond the pale, while the fact that some suit can open a spreadsheet and see how many workers have voted and have not is a monstrous infringement of privacy — to say nothing of an affront to the democratic process. This may be a one-day story or it might end with a token Harrah’s veep taking the fall. But it should neither forgotten nor forgiven.
Internet gambling was a big Election Night loser. Now that “Sixty Votes” Reid has finally gotten the message from the Strip that partial UIGEA repeal is acceptable, he’s frittered away his senatorial supermajority, meaning UIGEA is here to stay for at least another two years. The best chance for repeal came when Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) proposed it as a means of offsetting the cost of the health care overhaul. Sixty Votes kiboshed that overnight, so thanks a lot. Online punters’ greatest congressional champion, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), sailed past an overhyped challenger but will possess considerably diminished clout in the next Congress. Perhaps online poker can be legalized during the lame-duck session but I don’t think old Sixty Votes has the stones for it.
Various and sundry congratulations are in order. The savior of Nevada’s problem-gambling fund, Assembly James Ohrenschall (D), was reelected with a crushing 73% of the vote … Nevadans shook off the anti-Hispanic venom of the bilious Angle campaign, electing men with names like “Sandoval” and “Ochoa” to high office … Despite having backed Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid over former Nevada Gaming Commission Chairman Brian Sandoval for governor, MGM CEO Jim Murren was quick to laud Sandoval (whose 11-point win was a close as that race ever got), calling his election a plus for the industry. That’s not a compliment one could convincingly pay the outgoing incumbent.
Damn you, MGM and Wynn Resorts and Ameristar Casinos. What the heck are you thinking releasing quarterly earnings reports on the day after a national election? Then again, if there’s something in there you want quickly forgotten, today’s a good day for trying to sweep things under the nearest available rug.
I agree Harrahs crossed a privacy line in the vote email scandal, but I feel one should weigh that against all the secret corporate money that flooded Nevada and the entire country. These corporations did not have stockholder approval to make these secret donations. Virtually all this money was used on ads that were dishonest and negative. Harrahs was rightly concerned with it’s bottom line, and was facing an onslaught of money that was advocating promoting a dangerous simpleton to high public office. Why should Harrahs sit there and allow it’s stake in Nevada be threatened by a big con?
After reading your report it is apparent that once again voters were given the choice of choosing the lessor of two evils. With the casinos and Reid joined at the hip it was paramount that he be re elected. Nevada is still stuck with Reid until a real and qualified candidate throws their hat in the ring. Looks like another 6 years of the same-o same-o.
Can’t argue w. that.