Attack from the left

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took care of the big money.

After attorney and businessman Byron Georgiou declared last year he was going to challenge Rep. Shelley Berkley in a Democratic primary for the right to run against Republican U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, Reid ramped up the pressure until Georgiou dropped out of the race.

But there's nothing Reid can do about Nancy Price or Barry Ellsworth, two other Democrats challenging Berkley in this year's primary.

Berkley isn't likely to be slowed down a bit by primary challengers; even one of her opponents acknowledges Berkley is the overwhelming favorite to win. But Berkley's going to need to muster all her dollars, time and energy for the general election against Heller, and having to fend off assaults from her left flank doesn't help.

Ellsworth couldn't be reached for comment, but his website blames Berkley for the deregulation that led to the housing crisis and the economic collapse. And Price -- a former university regent who challenged then-Rep. Dean Heller in 2010 and wound up with 32.6 percent of the vote -- has added the moniker "Occupy" to her name on the ballot. She says she closely identifies with the Occupy movement and its stands against corporate influence on politics. But Price says Berkley is a part of that problem.

"Eighty-seven percent of the country thinks Congress is doing a bad job. So why would you want either incumbent in there?" she asks.

It's a common argument made by long-shot challengers against entrenched incumbents. It's what Ralph Nader said about Al Gore in 2000, when Nader's candidacy siphoned some votes that would otherwise have gone to Gore's campaign. To this day, many Democrats consider Nader the self-indulgent spoiler who cost Gore the election.

Price won't be on the general election ballot, so the comparison doesn't hold, but isn't she worried she'll be considered a spoiler who sapped some of Berkley's attention when it should have been focused on Heller?

"It's not fun. You're isolated, humiliated. But it needs to be done," Price said, giving herself about a 6 percent chance to win. "Somebody's got to do something."

And that somebody, she says, is her. Although she spent only around $6,000 on her 2010 race against Heller, she still garnered more than 87,000 votes. And that was in the old 2nd Congressional District, which covered the entire state, outside almost all of Clark County. A run for Senate is a natural follow-up, Price says.

Price's agenda, should she win: A much more progressive income tax. (She criticized Berkley's vote to extend the Bush tax cuts, even though it was part of a deal that extended middle-class tax relief. Had she been in Congress at the time, Price says, she'd have voted to allow all the cuts to expire.)

She's also in favor of building more infrastructure, including renewable energy infrastructure, on the scale of the Apollo space program in the 1960s.

And, of course, she wants an end to "absurd wars," both to save money and lives.

Undoubtedly, Berkley is a more conservative Democrat than Price. She was much more hawkish on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, owing to her unwavering and high-profile support for Israel. She made the same pragmatic deal that President Barack Obama made when it came to extending the tax cuts. And while Berkley is in favor of renewable energy, her preference on spending may not be as high as Price's. Berkley's close allies in Congress include Steny Hoyer of Maryland; Price says her role models would be Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a socialist who caucuses with the Democrats.

(By the way, Kucinich lost his primary bid for re-election in Ohio last week.)

But as a Democrat, Price acknowledges that Berkley is preferable to Heller: "I certainly don't want Heller to win," she says.

But her worry about a Heller victory isn't so great as to stop her from challenging Berkley. And nobody from the party has called to try to stop her from trying. "I think they know me well enough," she said.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at (702) 387-5276 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.