And he’s glad to have them in the race:

Facing dismal poll numbers in his home state, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid has devised a re-election strategy: welcome third party candidates who can split the opposition in the uphill battle to hold on to his U.S. Senate seat.

The Nevada Democrat and Senate majority leader filed to run for election to a fifth term on Monday, and said he embraces independent contenders in the race.

“They have a right to file,” Reid reportedly said of prospective third-party candidates. “You have to understand that this election is going to mean more than Democrats and Republicans.”

“We have the third-party candidates. We have the American Independent Party. We have the Tea Party now,” he said, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.

The embattled Democrat, whose public approval is below 40 percent in state polls, is currently trailing all three Republican candidates vying to unseat him.

Some of the Tea Party groups in Nevada are calling B.S. on the Tea Party candidate:

It’s a grassroots protest movement composed of the newly politicized and people distrustful of hierarchy. So how is it possible to be an illegitimate Tea Party member?

Ask Republicans in Nevada. Some are accusing Jon Scott Ashjian, a new Tea Party candidate running for U.S. Senate, of being a fake. The allegation? He was put in the race by agents of Senate Majority leader Harry Reid to siphon votes from the GOP.

“No doubt about it”, says Danny Tarkanian, one of the many Republican senate candidates hoping to challenge Reid in November. “Nobody in the Tea Party knows who he is. He didn’t know any of the principles of the Tea Party,” Tarkanian tells CNN. He even accuses “Harry Reid’s staff, campaign, whatever” of picking Ashjian because he’s Armenian, as is Tarkanian. He explains, “They know the Armenians are very close they’ll vote for each other.”

This guy’s a plant. He’s not speaking at any of the upcoming Tea Party events, has no official support from any Tea Party organizations in the state, and is clearly in the race as an effort to draw votes away from the GOP candidate. Reid is so far down in the polls it’s doubtful this guy will have an actual impact on the race.