LAS VEGAS (AP) - Republicans said for months that if the Nevada
Senate race was a referendum on Harry Reid, the unpopular Majority
Leader would lose.

Reid didn't let that happen.

He adeptly painted opponent Sharron Angle as an extremist
immediately after she won her primary - and proceeded to make the
contest as much about her awkward and unconventional statements as
Reid's own troubles.

Then he deployed his secret weapon: a powerful turnout machine
that brought Democratic and Hispanic voters out to the polls in
droves.

Reid's relentless TV ad assault against Angle and his powerful
get-out-the-vote effort were huge factors in his no-holds-barred
victory over Angle on a day when Republicans seized control of the
House and gained Senate seats.

Talking with reporters Wednesday, Reid pointed to Angle's
proposal to privatize Social Security as a defining contrast
between them. He calls it one of the great government programs in
history.

Reid's first negative TV ad of the campaign, put up just days
after the June primary, portrayed Angle as a heartless
budget-slasher who would abandon the elderly. "Sharron Angle wants
to wipe out Social Security," a narrator intoned darkly. "What's
next?"

Angle argued that she wanted to make changes only for younger
workers, but the damage was done. It took her weeks to get her
campaign organized and air her own ads, a period when Reid had an
open field to define her on his terms, an image that stuck.

By the time he was done with her, Reid had pummeled Angle over
everything from her proposal to phase out Medicare to her
suggestion while in the Legislature that inmates enter a drug
rehabilitation program devised by the founder of Scientology.

"Before Sharron could put her hands up and put her (boxing)
gloves on, they did a pretty good job tagging her," said
Republican media consultant John Brabender, a member of Angle's
team.

"There clearly was a point when she was treading water, at
best. That ultimately hurt her campaign in the long run," he said.

Reid media consultant Jim Margolis said there was a window after
the primary to quickly define Angle - and the campaign seized it.

The campaign wanted "to tell the story we thought was
important," he said. "There was a real change in how people
perceived her. ... We continued that conversation through Election
Day.

Republicans also marveled at Nevada's Democratic turnout
machine, which helped President Barack Obama win a 12-point victory
here 2008. Reid built off that for 2010. The Democratic leader and
his union allies deployed hundreds of volunteers to knock on doors,
make phone calls and drive voters to the polls.

The turnout drive was boosted by several appearances in the
state by Obama, who helped build momentum behind the Senate leader
he called "my partner."

In contrast, the National Republican Committee didn't come
through with a comparable get-out-the-vote effort for Angle.

National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brian Jones,
who advised the Angle campaign, said "you have to respect the
Democratic operation in Nevada."

An Associated Press analysis of exit poll results showed that
Reid's turnout efforts seemed to help Reid trounce Angle among
minorities.

The exit poll showed that Reid won two-thirds of the Hispanic
vote, eight in 10 blacks and three-quarters of Asians. He said
Wednesday he has long sought to make inroads with Hispanics, even
when others questioned him.

"People, in fact, made fun of me, saying 'Why are you wasting
your time with a group that doesn't register, and if they register
don't vote?' Well, we proved that wrong in 2008 and we certainly
proved that ... wrong last night."

Never widely popular in his home state, Reid was struggling in a
year when he faced a litany of challenges: Voters were angry
because of the state's nation-leading unemployment and foreclosure
rates, and the tea party energized Republican voters across the
country.

But exit poll results suggested that while voters were unhappy
with Reid, he in many cases was a preferable choice.

More than half of all voters said they disapprove of the way
Reid is handling his job as senator. But the majority leader kept
more than one-third of votes among those who somewhat disapproved
of his performance.

Voters expressed overwhelming dissatisfaction for how the
federal government is working and a majority of voters expressed
unfavorable feelings toward the Democratic and Republican parties.

Even so, Reid carried the race by nearly 6 points.

There were other factors.

Reid collected the support of high-profile Republicans, who
viewed him as too influential to lose with the state's economy in
turmoil and were reluctant to vote for Angle because of her
extremist views.

A moderate Republican "would have had a better chance of
defeating Reid," said Republican state Sen. Bill Raggio, who
backed Reid. "Their positions were less extreme, more in line with
what the majority of Nevadans felt."

Angle's campaign was also slowed by internal bickering -
national operatives who joined her campaign after her
come-from-behind primary win often clashed with some of her
longtime Nevada advisers, a rift that never fully healed.

Reid denounced a long series of polls that projected a
neck-and-neck race - and when publicized in the media created an
unfair impression of the race.

"We've got to do something about these misleading polls," said
Reid, who uses pollsters himself. "Every public showed me
losing."