Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman Would Do Better Than Harry Reid in Nevada Senate Race

The polls aren't getting any better for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, with a new survey by Daily Kos/Research 2000 showing him behind the two top Republican contenders, former state GOP chair Sue Lowden and businessman and former college basketball start Danny Tarkanian.

The Research 2000 match-ups, conducted Jan. 18-20, generally found that Democratic alternatives to Reid fared better against the GOP pair in a general election race, particularly Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman,

Lowden leads Reid by 51 percent to 42 percent with 7 percent undecided, with independents (17 percent of the sample) supporting her by a 54 percent to 37 percent margin. Tarkanian leads Reid, 52 percent to 41 percent, with 7 percent undecided, and independents support him by 56 percent to 36 percent. Lowden gets nine points more support from fellow Republicans than Reid does from Democrats, and Tarkanian gets 12 points more.

The margin of error is four points.

Goodman, a Democrat who has talked about becoming an independent and running for governor, performs much better than Reid if he ran as the Democratic candidate for Senate. He leads Tarkanian 44 percent to 41 percent with 15 percent undecided and erases the advantage among independents that Tarkanian has over Reid.

Goodman leads Lowden 44 percent to 40 percent with 16 percent undecided and leads Lowden among independents.

In those match-ups, Goodman gets the support of about 80 percent of Democrats compared to Reid's 75 percent against Tarkanian and 77 percent against Lowden.

If six-term Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley entered the race, Lowden would lead her by 45 percent to 40 percent with 15 percent undecided, while Tarkanian comes out ahead 46 percent to 40 percent with 14 percent undecided.

Tarkanian leads Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller by 44 percent to 36 percent with 20 percent undecided, and Lowden beats him 43 percent to 37 percent with 20 percent undecided.

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