Secret Recording Shows New Side of Sharron Angle

LAS VEGAS (Aug. 15) -- After weeks of bumbling from one did-she-really-say-that moment to the next, Republican Senate hopeful Sharron Angle last week showed some signs -- in answers to questions on evolution, prostitution and gay marriage -- that she may be learning the fine art of politically shrewd phrasing, and becoming a more deft and potentially formidable candidate in the bargain.

At the same time, one of Nevada's most significant business leaders, Steve Wynn, became the first to publicly soften his support for Angle's opponent, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, by noting in an interview with AOL News that he disagrees with most of Reid's polices and is primarily supporting the incumbent because they are long-time friends.


'A Good Sign for Angle Supporters'

Since the June 8 primary, the narrative of the high-profile Nevada race has been set by a litany of statements and positions by Angle that allowed Reid's campaign to portray her as a radical conservative guided by a fundamentalist view of the Bible.

Yet at a business networking breakfast on Tuesday in Henderson, Nev., Angle navigated potentially treacherous waters with surprising aplomb, according to an audio recording of the event provided to AOL News by someone who hoped it would embarrass the candidate. (Listen to or download the full recording here.)

At one point, Angle was confronted by a man who told her he is gay and noted he won't be able to access his longtime partner's Social Security survivor benefits because the U.S. does not recognize same-sex marriages. "What's your position?" the man asked Angle. "What about those of us that are disenfranchised from Social Security because we are gay or lesbian and consequently are not allowed to marry, not allowed spousal benefits...?"

Angle is staunchly anti-gay; she recently filled out a questionnaire stating that she opposed allowing gays to adopt children and said she'd return money from corporate political action committees that include funding from companies that provide domestic partnership benefits to their employees. But she responded without addressing gay issues at all:

"You have just touched on what's wrong intrinsically with Social Security, and that is it doesn't belong to us. We pay 15 percent of our paycheck every two weeks into a system that doesn't belong to us. ... If you had a personalized retirement plan, you would be allowed to invest that 15 percent over the years, and that would then be yours to pass down as an inheritance. It wouldn't be something you had to apply to the government to say, 'Yeah, you can' or 'Yeah, you can't.' "

Another attendee asked Angle if she'd like to see an end to legal prostitution in Nevada. She said she was fine with the state allowing individual counties to decide that question. That's a far cry from a candidate so conservative that in a February 2010 interview with Liberty Magazine, she said she's friendly to a prohibition on alcohol.

On evolution, Angle offered her most controversial statement of the Tuesday event, but even here seemed to seek a balance. Asked whether evolution ought to be taught in public schools, she answered:

"Evolution is a theory just like creation is a theory. If we truly want educated children, we should give them opportunities to have every theory presented to them and then they can make up their minds which one makes the most sense. Because at the bottom of each theory, we can't prove it. We weren't there. We can't see and hear for ourselves and say absolutely this is how it happened. If we could, there would be no debate. When we're trying to raise logical thinkers, we have to give them every argument and allow for the debate."

Biologists might be dismayed with her dismissal of the advanced science and data backing up natural selection and the age of the planet. But her answers impressed some critics of Angle, who squandered a post-primary lead and is now a few points behind Reid in most recent polls.

"Pivoting off the gay marriage question to Social Security, that's a textbook example of answering the question you want to answer instead of the one you're asked," University of Nevada at Reno political science professor Eric Herzik told AOL News. "Her stumbling about for two months now was just shocking in terms of its naivete and lack of professionalism. This is a good sign for Angle supporters."

Angle spokesman Jerry Stacy insisted that the more savvy Angle heard on the tape has always been intact but that the campaign needed to find its groove and increase its manpower after her June 8 victory: " Sharron has always been a great retail campaigner and a skilled grass-roots candidate. Harry Reid is using an army of staffers to try and stop Sharron, so naturally we needed to add staff to our campaign in the general election."

Wynn Waffling?

Another potential good sign came in remarks by Vegas mogul Wynn to AOL News on Monday regarding his frustrations with Reid. Wynn, like most gambling executives in Las Vegas, has for more than a year been insisting that Reid's national clout was too valuable to Nevada to lose. Yet Wynn has also been vocal about his displeasure with President Barack Obama, the health insurance reform bill and the stimulus package.

This week, Wynn said his chief concern now is reining in the "the juggernaut of reckless, irresponsible spending and borrowed money" by Washington.

"I support Harry Reid in the sense of 'Harry, make it go away, make it stop,' something's gotta be done, it can't go on this way," Wynn said. "I don't know Sharron Angle, but I know Harry, and I complained to him over the phone. ... [But] you don't get any response from the Congress through Harry or anybody else to this debate."

Wynn also insisted that the other gaming executives and business leaders supporting Reid were in a similar bind as he is, torn by their affinity for Reid, who they've known for decades, and their displeasure with the laws passed on Reid's watch.

"Am I conflicted by my ideological differences with what the Congress has done and my friendship with Harry?" he said. "My answer to that question is yes, and I've expressed frustration over that conflict to my friend Harry over the phone."

Not surprisingly, Stacy pounced on Wynn's comments.

"These remarks exemplify Sen. Harry Reid's eroding support as more and more Nevadans and business owners, including longtime friend Steve Wynn, reject Senator Reid's out-of-control government spending habits," Stacy wrote in an e-mail.

Reid spokesman Jon Summers rejected the notion that the senator is unresponsive to Wynn's concerns.

Wynn is "someone who tells Sen. Reid what he needs to hear, not necessarily what he wants to hear, and there have been times when he has provided Sen. Reid with helpful guidance on policy issues," Summers told AOL News via e-mail. "And when it comes to voicing his opinions about President Obama's policies, he doesn't mince words and Sen. Reid shares his opinion with the White House."