Republicans Afraid Heller Might Lose

It's official: Republicans are afraid Heller might lose his re-election next year. The Las Vegas Gleaner alerted us to the news first published by the Hotline - which is behind a subscription firewall but the National Republican Congressional Committee was nice enough to republish the report from Roll Call (also behind a firewall) including the fact that they consider Dean Heller "vulnerable":

House Republicans have added 10 Members to the Regain Our Majority Program.

House leaders select Members they think might be vulnerable and raise and steer additional funds to their re-election campaigns.

Now, parse that rather neutral reporting with the Gleaner's choice words for Heller:

Apparently not red enough, though. Hotline reported Thursday that the War Party's "Regain Our Majority Program" has tagged Heller as one of the party's most vulnerable members of Congress. The ROMP distinction means that Minority Leader John Boehner and the rest of the House War Party leadership will do their level best to a) notify corporations who want to rip you off of the existence of Dean Heller, and b) urge them to give Heller lots of money that they stole from you in the first place so he can afford the televised assassination of his opponent's character and conduct in 2008, even if the opponent is Jesus H. Christ his own self.

Heller's appearance on the ROMP list must come as a bit of a disappointment to the campaign contribution brokerage profession. As aforementioned, in Heller's district (CD1 CD2), the needle on the bumpkin meter has been absolutely and immovably lodged in the extreme red for decades, and having an "R" after your name is usually all it takes. The ass-clown shouldn't need any more than perfunctory help from the rich and corporate to maintain the district's hallowed tradition of electing an impotent and obscure go-along get-along Republican for as long as Heller needs the seat before moving along to the next step in his exciting journey as a career politician. Imagine, if you will, being the guy paid to allocate corporate campaign contributions, and having to explain to your bosses that they need to give extra money to some guy in a district where Democrats are outnumbered by cows. Thank goodness we don't have that job.

Just trying to summarize it for you: Heller's weak. It took the help of President George W. Bush and a major fundraiser in Reno to help Heller across the finish line in 2006. With Bush being ever more unpopular, I doubt Heller would bring him in next year, so, yeah, he's heavily dependent on the corporate cash cows.

Now, that the legislative session has come to an end and some of the possible candidates (like Sheila Leslie and Debbie Smith) should have more time on their hands, how about one of them coming forward as a candidate in the near future? Whoever will run will have some serious fundraising to do.

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