Harry Reid on the Democratic Race

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harry-reid.jpg Harry Reid is making vague promises of his rainmaking power, so I went to his communications shop to find out what he thinks about the Democratic primary.

I asked Jon Summers, Reid’s communications director, what the Senate Majority Leader meant when he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he has spoken to Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean and that “things are being done” to bring the Democratic primary to a close. “As the top elected democrat in the country,” said Summers, “Senator Reid talks to Governor Dean and other leaders in the party about how to move forward. He’s hopeful it will be taken care of soon. At the end of the day though, like every other Democrat, he’s excited we have two good candidates, candidates that Democrats across the board are excited about.”

On the question of whether the Democratic nominee would be better positioned against John McCain if he or she was able to turn his or her attention to the general election sooner rather than later, Summers admitted, “If you have more time to run a general election campaign, that is helpful.” He said he wasn’t aware of the specific plans Governor Dean and Senator Reid have, if any, to bring an end to the race.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We canā€™t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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