Nevada Republican party chairwoman Sue Lowden is indeed considering running for Senate in 2010 and Rep. Dean Heller's decision Tuesday not to seek the post ups the chances she will.
While "not a candidate today," Lowden is "testing the waters," said Robert Uithoven, a Republican strategist and former aide to Gov. Jim Gibbons, and Heller's withdrawal from the race as well as recent polling results in the state provide ample encouragment.
"I think everyone was waiting on the Dean Heller decision, Sue Lowden certainly was," added Uithoven, who is an ally of Lowden's and has been encouraging her to consider a campaign. Uithoven told CQ Politics he thinks Lowden would make the best candidate to take on Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, saying she would have the ability to appeal to critical independent voters.
Bernie Zadrowski, who serves on the Nevada Republican Party's executive board, said Lowden had already begun raising money, and said she was capable of raising the funds to compete with Reid.
It was Uithoven and other supporters who convinced Lowden of the need to commission a poll to test her standing in Nevada. The poll, conducted by Denver-based Vitale and Associates and publicized earlier this week, found Lowden leading Reid 48 percent to 42 percent in a hypothetical match-up. Though a partisan survey, it did echo previous polling which has found Reid's favorability ratings hovering in the 30's.
The results, said Uithoven, will help encourage Lowden to run, but she still "needs to talk to people around the state," as well as consider how a campaign will impact her family, he said. Lowden herself was away from the office for personal reasons when CQ tried to contact her Wednesday to talk about her political considerations.
"There's plenty of support for her, there's plenty of encouragement for her, I think that part is pretty well determined," Uithoven said.
Said Zadrowski: "You can expect her decision will come fairly quickly ... within weeks not months."
Several other Republican candidates are exploring a campaign or officially running, but none -- including Lowden -- has the proven ability to win statewide office. Even Heller, a popular two-term congressman from Nevada's largely rural 2nd District, would have been a decided underdog against Reid, who already has more than $7 million in the bank to ward off an expected challenge.
Republicans, however, point to recent poll numbers and argue the campaign will be less about who the GOP candidate is and more about Nevada voters' growing disenchantment with Reid.
CQ Politics rates the general election contest Leans Democratic.
To see how the 2010 Senate races are shaping up, check out the CQ Politics' election map.
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