Harry Reid's future as U.S. Senate majority leader may hinge on whether fellow Nevada Democrat Shelley Berkley can survive an ethics probe involving her kidney doctor husband's businesses.
The House of Representatives Ethics Committee announced in July it was investigating Berkley, a seven-term congresswoman, over whether some of her actions as a legislator were meant to benefit her husband financially.
The news comes at a bad time for Berkley, who is locked in one of the country's closest Senate races against Dean Heller, even before news of the ethics probe. Polls since have shown her trailing the Republican ahead of the November 6 election.
Heller, a former congressman and Nevada secretary of state, has a higher statewide profile than Berkley and the benefit of incumbency. He was appointed to the Senate seat in May 2011 to replace fellow Republican John Ensign, who resigned after a sex scandal.
Berkley is known as a tireless campaigner, but she is not well-known across Nevada and risks having the ethics probe being the main reason voters know her outside of her Las Vegas-area district.
"If that's the first and the last thing people say about Shelley Berkley, she's in trouble," said Eric Herzik, chairman of the political science department at the University of Nevada in Reno. "She certainly has some major damage control to do."
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/07/us-usa-campaign-nevada-idUSBRE87605X20120807
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