Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican rival Sharron Angle share a local stage and a national spotlight Thursday in the only debate of a caustic campaign that pits the embodiment of the Democratic establishment against a tea party-backed challenger.For Angle, a 61-year-old former state lawmaker, the encounter is a chance to counter Reid's months-long attack on her as an extremist who is bent on destroying Social Security and other government programs.
For Reid, 70 and seeking a fifth Senate term, it marks an opportunity to persuade skeptical constituents that he deserves re-election at a time when unemployment in Nevada, 14.4 percent, is the highest in the country.
The debate is taking place at a particularly critical moment in their race, with early voting set to begin over the weekend and polls showing an extremely tight contest.
Both candidates unveiled new television attack ads in the hours before the debate was scheduled to begin.
Angle's criticized Reid, saying he has voted to raise taxes more than 300 times.
Reid's commercial called Angle a "wild" legislator who would force pregnant rape victims to give birth and dismantle Social Security.
Former President Bill Clinton campaigned with Reid earlier in the week and urged voters not to take their anger over the economy out on the four-term senator.
But Angle jolted Democrats in the state and in Washington when her campaign announced it had raised $14 million in the three months ending Sept. 30, a staggering sum that reflects her rise to prominence as the Republican challenger to the Senate's top Democrat.
Democrats responded by noting that Angle had not disclosed how much of the money she had remaining in her campaign treasury, suggesting she had already spent most of what she reported raising. But at the same time, Reid rushed out a fundraising appeal that said Angle's surge in donations meant she might be able to swamp him on television in the campaign's final days.
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