LAS VEGAS (AP) - A newspaper poll says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid faces some formidable opposition next year when he seeks a fifth term in office.
A survey of 400 registered voters for the Las Vegas Review-Journal released Sunday paints the Democratic incumbent as an underdog when matched against either of two Republicans in the next election.
The poll, taken last week by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., has Reid lagging by as many as 11 percentage points against one candidate. Nevadans favored that candidate, real estate professional and former UNLV basketball player Danny Tarkanian, by 49 percent to Reid's 38 percent.
In a separate matchup, the survey gave Nevada Republican chairman Sue Lowden 45 percent to Reid's 40 percent. Lowden has yet to commit herself to a race.
The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.
The Tarkanian campaign reacted Sunday by saying it was redoubling its efforts.
"The word is spreading fast that the Nevada GOP finally has a candidate that will take the fight to Harry Reid," said Tarkanian adviser James Fisfis. "We are putting together an experienced team, and we have yet another major voter outreach initiative planned for this week. This is no time to be complacent."
Tarkanian is applying lessons from his former unsuccessful campaigns for Nevada secretary of state and the state Senate. He is "far and away" Republicans' best hope to defeat Reid, Fisfis said.
Reid's Washington status makes him an icon of the Democratic Party and ties him to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Democratic President Barack Obama.
Winning "becomes more difficult when you are actually the one having to carry the water for the president," said Richard Davis, a professor of political science at Brigham Young University in Utah. "He (Reid) has got to get something out of the Obama administration that he can claim as his own."
Reid's campaign says it has plenty of time to shore up support with the election more than a year away. During that time, aides said, Reid plans to work to lower health care costs and bring new jobs to Nevada, which has an unemployment rate pushing 13 percent.
"He fights for Nevada on those issues and others every day and he'll continue that battle to get our economy back on track," Reid spokesman Jon Summers told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Summers said Reid has won endorsements from nearly 150 Republican leaders in Nevada, "who recognize that he is a powerful voice."
