Sue Lowden, chairwoman of the Nevada's Republican Party until Wednesday, has officially entered the field of GOP candidates seeking to challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his 2010 bid for re-election.
Lowden last ran for public office as a state senator in the mid-1990s.
She announced at the beginning of September that she would be resigning her party post to pursue a possible challenge to Reid, a four-term incumbent whose central role in controversial national policy debates has spurred a dropoff in his job approval ratings at home.
In a release sent out Thursday morning, Lowden's campaign said she will file the official paperwork to become a candidate. Her statement did not take aim at Reid explicitly, but did say that Nevada's current economic woes were the product of "an unresponsive, out-of-touch federal government."
Lowden said she would "fight to create jobs" if elected to the Senate by keeping "our taxes low, our health care decisions in the hands of patients, and our federal government accountable to those who fund it."
"Unfortunately, Washington's recent actions have made matters worse. Nevadans simply cannot afford this rapid and unaffordable expansion of federal spending and control," she was quotedin the release.
As the head of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Reid is a ripe target for those unhappy with government's direction. And a series of polls over the summer have shown him looking more vulnerable than any time in his career.
That has attracted a large roster of would-be challengers that, along with Lowden, includes Danny Tarkanian, a Las Vegas real estate developer and son of famed college basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian; state Sen. Mark Amodei; former state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle; doctor Robin Titus; and Reno attorney Chuck Kozak, among others.
It also has prompted former Rep. Jon Porter, who lost his 3rd District seat to Democrat Dina Titus in the 2008 election, to reconsider an earlier decision not to get in the Senate race.
Lowden enters the contest as one of the GOP's top prospects at this point. Recent polls show her and Tarkanian leading Reid in hypothetical matchups, despite the fact that neither has particularly strong name recognition in the state.
CQ Politics rates the general election contest Leans Democratic.
To see how all the 2010 Senate races are shaping up, check out the CQ Politics' election map.
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bye bye Harry
Posted by: dante805
| October 5, 2009 7:36 AM
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