Sue Lowden Demolishing Harry Reid, But (Fake? Plant?) Tea Party (?) Candidate May Save Harry Reid

Actually, Rasmussen has both Tarkanian and Lowden beating Reid by similar margins:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds Sue Lowden, ex-chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, with a 51% to 38% lead on Reid. Seven percent (7%) prefer some other candidate, but just three percent (3%) are undecided.

Businessman Danny Tarkanian posts a similar 50% to 37% lead over the embattled Democratic leader. Nine percent (9%) opt for another candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided.

...but I'm in Lowden's camp, partly because she was pretty impressive in a phone interview with bloggers. She had an interesting and crafty line of attack on Harry Reid: Not only is he spending the nation into ruin, but this Majority Leader can't even bring home the bacon for Nevada. I forget the figures she tossed out, but she noted that Nevada was something like 37th in the 50 states in terms of net cash back from Washington (taxes paid in minus benefits paid back). Seemed a pretty good way to neutralize Harry Reid's claims of bringing so much money into the state.

But the Tea Party (?) candidate threatens to keep Reid in office:

A poll from just earlier this week shows Lowden ahead of Tarkanian 47% to 29%, with both defeating Reid, but the twist in the November election could be the Tea Party candidate, Jon Ashjian. A Nevada businessman, Ashjian stands to bleed away as much as 11% of GOP votes. With the Tea Party candidate included in the latest polls, the conservative vote splits. Lowden leads Reid 42% to 37% with Ashjian garner 9% of the vote, and with Tarkanian as the candidate, Reid’s numbers get even better with him only trailing by one and Ashjian pulling 11% in a November match-up.

These numbers, and the strange beginnings of his campaign, are leading some in Nevada think that Ashjian is a part of a Democrat effort to help Reid win reelection by syphoning away Republican votes. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that the Tea Party of Nevada’s secretary is Barry Levinson, a registered Democrat and attorney, who is orchestrating Ashjian’s campaign. The Tea Party of Nevada has only been in existence since January and has many in the GOP suspicious, prompting a response from Ashjian. “I am not for Harry Reid, I have never been supportive of Harry Reid. My candidacy is real, The Tea Party is real, and we are not going away.”

Maybe he is for real, but his backers might have recruited him to split the conservative vote. Lowden, though, isn't conceding Tea Party nation:

. She has embraced the Tea Party efforts in the Silver State, even loaning 30 phone lines in her office to Tea Party volunteers during the tight race for the Senate in Massachusetts, so they could make get out the vote calls for Republican Scott Brown. Lowden also says that she has been a regular participant in tea parties herself. She reiterated that she’s a strong proponent of those who didn’t feel like they had a voice in politics until the Tea Party movement began last year.

Plus she's kind of hot:

Reidisms: Danny Tarkanian wants you to vote on your favorite Reidism.

posted by Ace at 02:49 PM

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