Tea party candidate is Nevada hopeful on the rise

Sharron Angle wants to wipe out Social Security, shutter the Education Department and return to the days almost a century ago when the federal income tax was unconstitutional. A tea party conservative testing the limits of anti-government sentiment, she's also the Republican on the rise in an unpredictable race to pick an opponent for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a top Democrat in Washington who's in trouble at home. What's more, she is evidently the Republican whom Reid would like most to run against. Witness a costly television campaign financed by the majority leader's backers to erode the support of the shaky Republican front-runner, Sue Lowden. "I am the tea party," said Angle, a 60-year-old former Nevada lawmaker. With early voting under way for the June 8 primary, Angle has nearly erased Lowden's double-digit lead in recent polls, thanks in part to endorsements from the Tea Party Express and other conservative groups, including the anti-tax Club for Growth. Lowden, a former state senator, has stumbled after she suggested people might barter for health care using chickens and she faced financial questions about the use of a leased bus...more