You can't get much more unpopular than Harry Reid.
The Nevada economy, which leads the nation in unemployment and home foreclosures, is in its worst shape ever. The average Nevadan thinks the Obama administration policies Mr. Reid has championed as the upper chamber's top Democrat have only made things worse.
But thanks to Sharron Angle's Tea-Party-backed campaign for Mr. Reid's seat, the 70-year-old one-time amateur boxer is a contender again.
In a year when the Republican Party is fielding some of its most radically right-wing candidates in memory, the 61-year-old Ms. Angle may just be the most radical of them all. Dozens of Nevada's top business, academic and community leaders have formed Republicans for Reid to defeat her insurgent bid to upend American politics.
Otto Merida is one of them. He sounds like almost any other disgruntled business leader when he discusses Mr. Reid's role in steering the stimulus bill, bank bailouts and health-care reform through Congress.
"He has been carrying an agenda that is very difficult to support for most people," Mr. Merida says of the Senate majority leader. "We don't want to be like Cuba, where 95 per cent of the economy is government-controlled."
For Mr. Merida, the analogy is not abstract. He lived through Fidel Castro's revolution and was one of thousands of Cuban children brought to the United States in its aftermath under Operation Peter Pan. His politics have leaned Republican ever since. He voted for John McCain in 2008.
But on Nov. 2, Mr. Merida will cast his ballot for Mr. Reid. As president of the Las Vegas Latin Chamber of Commerce, his decision reflects both the pragmatism of a businessman and the antipathy of Latino-Americans toward Mr. Reid's GOP challenger.
Ms. Angle has suggested pregnant rape victims turn "a lemon situation into lemonade" instead of having an abortion. She blasted a state law that forces health-insurance companies to cover mammograms, colonoscopies and autism. She mused about Americans resorting to "Second Amendment remedies" - armed insurrection - to curb federal spending.
Her utterances have earned her epithets such as "extreme" and "dangerous" in Mr. Reid's television ads. Along with Ms. Angle's own attack ads and the omnipresence of those being run by national conservative groups, this is likely the nastiest race in the country, a singular distinction in a year of acidic politics.
Despite the oft-heard criticisms here of President Barack Obama's "anti-business" bias and interventionism on steroids, Mr. Reid has earned kudos in the business community for saving the state from what could have been a death spiral.
As Nevada's senior senator, he pressured lenders to MGM Resorts International into a deal that allowed the biggest hotel-casino operator on the Las Vegas Strip to complete its massive $8.5-billion (U.S.) CityCenter project, the largest privately funded development in U.S. history. The move turned the chief executive of MGM Resorts International, Jim Murren, into a Republican for Reid.
Still, it is Ms. Angle's attacks on illegal immigrants, and her support for Nevada's adoption of an Arizona-like law to ferret them out, that have most upset the business community. Las Vegas, still reeling from a recession-led plunge in tourism, is the country's top convention city. It can't risk a boycott by business and professional groups, many of which have vowed to steer clear of Arizona because of its law requiring police to verify the status of people they suspect of being in the country illegally.
Ms. Angle is undeterred. She calls Mr. Reid "the best friend an illegal alien ever had." One of her ads, which slams Mr. Reid for his proposed bill to grant citizenship to illegal immigrants who graduate from college, depicts young Latinos as gang members. Another shows them sneaking across the border with flashlights. Thanks to Mr. Reid, the narrator explains, they can collect Social Security benefits.
The blatant scapegoating is unseemly but effective. Polls show Nevadans are increasingly angry about illegal immigration. A strong majority believe undocumented immigrants are depriving citizens of jobs.
Then there are the crime statistics. Mr. Merida's office at the Latin Chamber of Commerce is located in the country's fourth most dangerous neighbourhood, according to a recent survey that ranked three Las Vegas sectors among the top 10 based on predicted rates of violent crime.
Nevada's one million registered voters may never have been this divided. Polls show Mr. Reid and Ms. Angle in a dead heat. Predicting the outcome of the race has been made even more difficult by the presence of a Tea Party of Nevada candidate. While Scott Ashjian's Donald-Trump-like demeanour has many questioning his grassroots authenticity - some think his newly formed party is a pro-Reid ruse - he could draw just enough votes from Ms. Angle to deprive her of victory.
Then there is the "none of the above" ballot option that Nevadans have enjoyed since 1974. Polls show more of them than ever may use it now.
Mr. Merida is not alone in predicting that Latinos will the crown the winner - Mr. Reid if they turn out, Ms. Angle if they don't. Latinos now make up more than a quarter of Nevada's 2.7 million residents. About 130,000 are registered to vote, including the 10,000 who signed up in time for this election.
"The only way Harry Reid will win is if the Hispanic community and the African-American community vote not only in bigger numbers than ever before, but overwhelmingly for Harry Reid," Mr. Merida reckons.
Latinos helped put Nevada, a swing state, into the Democratic column in 2008. An unprecedented 70 per cent of registered Latinos turned out to vote and an even larger proportion cast a ballot for Mr. Obama.
Mr. Reid's chances for topping those numbers do not appear strong. While Ms. Angle may seem like their worst nightmare, Mr. Merida concedes that not all Latinos are happy with Mr. Reid. Many feel taken for granted.
For most of this year, Mr. Reid has pledged to push through a bill in Congress that would provide for a path to citizenship for the country's 11 million undocumented immigrants. But he has made only half-hearted attempts to actually do so. His latest bill, the so-called DREAM Act aimed at granting citizenship to young illegals who complete college or enter the military, has also foundered for lack of political will.
A combination of Latino disaffection and Tea Party enthusiasm could make Sharron Angle the biggest - and most unconventional - giant-killer of them all on Nov. 2.
Konrad Yakabuski