In Nevada, Angle keeps low profile
She avoids the media and rarely makes public appearances. Reid has taken notice.
LAS VEGAS - Sipping beers and sporting Sharron Angle T-shirts, Republican partisans mingled with the happy-hour crowd at Shari's rock 'n' roll diner one recent evening and waited to cheer their candidate.
Waited and waited and then waited some more, it turned out, before it became evident that the 61-year-old Republican who threatens to send Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid into retirement was a no-show.
It wasn't the first time in the final stretch of a close and unpredictable Senate race. Since a debate two weeks ago - the only one Angle would agree to - public appearances by the gaffe-prone former state lawmaker have become as common as a desert waterfall and her interaction with the media virtually nonexistent.
Spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said Angle spends her days going door to door in rural Nevada or attending private fund-raisers. "She is doing what she does best," Matthews said. "That's how Sharron Angle wins elections."
If anything, Angle has become even less of a presence since she and Reid debated on Oct. 14. The next day, she spoke without public notice to a group of Hispanic high school students who had been told to submit any questions in advance. A videotape surfaced showing her saying, "some of you look a little more Asian to me" and drawing gasps from her audience.
She also suggested that one of her commercials that used Hispanic men and a map of Mexico to criticize Reid on immigration wasn't what it seemed to be. "I'm not sure that those are Latinos in that commercial. What it is, is a fence and there are people coming across that fence."
A few days later came the nonevent at Shari's diner. Manager John Kinikin said Angle's campaign blamed a scheduling conflict.
Most recently, Angle called off an appearance Wednesday at Aguilas Centro Familiar Cristiano in Las Vegas. Church secretary Ana Martinez said Angle's campaign had called weeks ago to request a visit.
Angle has avoided public events. And when she has ventured out for a handful of closed-door appearances, she has refused questions from the media.
Angle popped up for a closed-to-the-media appearance at a Reno business Monday, then left by a side door. Reporters were camped out by the front entrance, and some complained the campaign tricked them with a decoy getaway vehicle.
Not surprisingly, Reid and his allies seek to turn Angle's campaign style to their advantage.
"If you can't talk to the media when you're running for the United States Senate, you shouldn't be running for the United States Senate," Reid told dozens of college students at a recent Las Vegas rally. "But, really, if you had made some of her comments, I think you would go underground also."
Democrats have taken to goading Angle, releasing details of her private, undisclosed events to the media and sending a volunteer dressed in a chicken costume to taunt her.
Matthews said Angle has never skipped an event and accused the Reid campaign of setting her up. "It is not unusual for the Reid campaign to say we are going to be at events we were never scheduled to be at," she said.