Nevada GOP chairwoman prepares challenge for Reid's Senate seat

As her tenure as state party chairwoman comes to a close, Sue Lowden (R) says she is "emboldened" by the reaction to her likely challenge to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Lowden will leave the Nevada Republican Party on Wednesday in order to make the race against the Senate majority leader. In an interview with The Hill on Friday, Lowden said she would bring business experience to the Senate at a time when her state blames the federal government and the Obama administration for its precarious economic condition.

"Being part of our business community down here in Las Vegas and Laughlin makes me a little unique," said Lowden, a small-business owner. "Right now, when we're racking up record numbers of deficits and not being able to pay for all the stimulus and bailouts that are being voted on, I would bring a business sense to the Senate."

Early polls suggest she, or any Republican who emerges from what will likely be a competitive primary, will begin the campaign ahead of Reid. The latest Research 2000 poll, conducted Aug. 31 through Sept. 2 for the liberal DailyKos website, showed Lowden leading Reid by a 44 percent to 41 percent margin, results similar to a Mason-Dixon poll taken in late August for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"As Gov. Gibbons's hand-picked chair of the Nevada Republican Party, Sue Lowden doesn't have much of a record to run on," Reid spokesman Brandon Hall said. "If she applies her self-proclaimed 'business sense' to the Senate race, voters should be very worried."

Reid also trails businessman Danny Tarkanian (R), the son of legendary UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, 45 percent to 40.

Though Lowden is not well-known around the state, she would begin the race in better position than Reid, who has seen his favorable ratings plummet.

In fact, all three of Nevada's top elected officials — including Sen. John Ensign (R), who admitted to an affair earlier this year, and Gov. Jim Gibbons (R), whose term has been buffeted by nearly nonstop controversy — have net-negative approvals. Just 36 percent of Silver State voters see Reid favorably; only 28 percent say the same about Ensign; and a paltry 17 percent have a positive view of Gibbons.

But, Lowden argues, it will be the federal government, and most notably President Barack Obama's efforts to make an issue of businesses and federal agencies taking trips to Las Vegas — trips that do not make for good press at a time when government is bailing out several industries — at the crux of the contest.

Still, Lowden says, with the president suggesting companies not travel to Las Vegas for conventions and meetings, the federal government is contributing to record-high unemployment rates.

"Nevadans have seen the policies of the Obama administration. They have heard the president say that people shouldn't come to Las Vegas and are resentful of his negativity toward Las Vegas," Lowden said. "People look at that and they are shocked and disappointed."

Reid himself has pushed back against suggestions that government agencies not hold their events in Las Vegas, introducing legislation to ban any restrictions. He and Ensign also shepherded the Travel Promotion Act, which will boost advertising abroad for Las Vegas and other U.S. travel destinations, through the Senate.

Lowden will bring more to a contest than simply hitting the Obama administration, but she will also play a role in a Republican primary in a state in which the GOP must develop a comeback strategy. The Silver State gave Obama a 12-point margin in 2008, and Democrats knocked off ex-Rep. Jon Porter (R) in the rapidly growing 3rd district.

With an expanding portion of Hispanic voters, three-quarters of whom voted for Obama, according to exit polls, Nevada could prove an emerging challenge for the GOP. Lowden said the Senate primary will prove a good chance for Republicans to determine the future of their party.

"We have in front of us an opportunity for Republicans to have a great debate on the gubernatorial side and the Senate side on where we are in Nevada," she said. "It's a great debate within the party to decide where we are and where we're going. If we are a big tent, then we need to be more inclusive."

And with Gibbons down in the polls, Lowden said she would welcome involvement from Ensign, who is still recovering from the scandal that cost him a post in Senate Republican leadership.

"Sen. Ensign is very popular here in Nevada, and he has an excellent voting record," Lowden said. "I hope that he becomes part and parcel of what's going to be a very vigorous campaign."

Along with Tarkanian, Lowden could also face state Sen. Mark Amodei (R), former State Assemblywoman Sharron Angle (R) and three other lesser-known candidates in the June primary.