Lowden takes aim at gun rights voters

With dozens of spent shells at her feet, Sue Lowden shouldered a 20-gauge shotgun, peered through the sight and yelled "Pull!"

After a half-hour of missed shots, she finally hit a bright orange clay pigeon dead on.

"I demolished it!" Lowden shouted Tuesday, turning to a small crowd of supporters and friends at the new Clark County Shooting Park.

Nothing like the smell of fresh gunshot in the morning to rouse the gun rights crowd and raise a few bucks for Lowden's U.S. Senate Republican primary campaign. About 40 people paid $100 each to attend the fundraiser. For $200, they got to fire alongside the candidate and share lunch with her. The campaign didn't disclose how much was raised.

The event burnished Lowden's bona fides as a supporter of the Second Amendment, and gave her a chance to talk about the right of Americans to carry firearms to protect themselves. She has a concealed weapons permit and sometimes carries a handgun, she said.

"It's a very important part of being a Nevadan, being able to protect yourself," Lowden said. "It's very important to know what you're doing with a gun. I take it very seriously."

About 45 percent of Nevada households have guns, according to the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action.

"It'll be a miracle if I hit anything," Lowden joked before she started shooting, explaining she was out of practice and hadn't fired a shotgun in about a year since a political event in Washoe County.

After a series of misses, somebody at the shooting park asked a local, Mike Reese, to give Lowden a few tips.

"You never take your eye off the target," Reese said he told her. "She was shifting her eyes from the gun to the target and you'll never hit it that way. It's sorta like politics -- you have to keep your eye on the target."

In the end, Lowden shot nine targets out of the sky, the last four in a row.

"I'm gonna take a break now," said Lowden, finishing on a high note.

Friend Lynn Weidner made this observation about Lowden: "She's relentless. Failure is not an option with her."

Weidner has known Lowden since they both attended different high schools in New Jersey. She is married to former Las Vegas Sands Corp. President Bill Weidner and is a major Republican donor, having given more than $38,000 to various campaigns during the 2008 cycle, according to federal records.

"The real housewives of Nevada put those Jersey housewives to shame," said Weidner, laughing.

Another friend, Gloria Fine, who is married to Las Vegas developer Mark Fine, said she has known Lowden for 25 years. For her first shooting event, the former Neiman-Marcus publicist wore a camouflage T-shirt proclaiming her a member of SWAT: Sue's Washington Attack Team.

One political note about the shooting park, which took 25 years to be approved and was built at a cost of more than $60 million: Gun rights supporter Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., led the effort to get the money and the approval from the Bureau of Land Management for the 2,900-acre site, according to his campaign.

The Lowden campaign countered by noting that Gov. Jim Gibbons, a Republican and former congressman, actually got the bill with the money through the House.

In fact, several years ago, all four members of Nevada's congressional delegation at the time cooperated as co-sponsors of various pieces of legislation that led to the park's construction.

"Senator Reid played a big role, but it was bipartisan, not partisan at all, and built for all citizens," said Don Turner, the Clark County Shooting Park manager. "There is no politics here."

'Can you hear me now?'

Hello -- is anybody there?

That's the question Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Chachas was asking Friday when he held his first "tele-town hall" with voters from across the state.

More than 40 people dialed in, but only eight asked questions during the half-hour conference call that had a few glitches, thanks mostly to people using cell phones instead of land lines. That included the candidate, who was calling in from Philadelphia where he was fundraising.

"Can you hear me now?" Chachas asked after a female caller said he was breaking up. "Give me one second, I'll dial back in."

Callers seemed to appreciate his effort to reach out directly to voters. The former New York investment banker who knows his way around a financial spreadsheet gave them an earful about how, if elected, he would fix the economy and reduce the nation's record deficit, which the Treasury Department estimates will reach $1.56 trillion this year.

First, he would roll back federal spending to 2005 levels. He'd also encourage not spending everything that's been budgeted for the next fiscal year, he said.

Chachas said the United States also has to get rid of the trade imbalance that's growing with many countries, which means the deficit keeps growing.

Bottom line, Chachas said he wants the government to act more like regular people who don't spend what they don't have. He also wants the nation to stay competitive, whether that means building better, more efficient cars or allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines.

That also means looking for alternatives to oil to keep the energy home fires burning.

"Natural gas is a great place to start," Chachas said, as well as thermal and solar power.

Chachas, a multimillionaire who's originally from Ely, has returned to Nevada to run in the Republican primary for a chance to challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Chachas is a virtual unknown, something he's trying to change by reaching out to as many Nevadans as possible.

short on specifics

Political newcomers are heavy on anti-incumbent rhetoric when criticizing those they're seeking to replace.

But they're sometimes light on the specifics of what, exactly, they would do better.

Take Elizabeth Halseth and Patrick McNaught, for example.

Each is a young, energetic Republican challenging an old guard legislator.

Halseth is running in the primary for state Senate District 9, currently represented by Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas.

On Halseth's Web site she writes "raising taxes is NOT an option." But when asked how the state should fix a budget shortfall that could hit $3 billion in 2011, she declined to explain what spending reductions she would make to close the gap.

"It is a very difficult situation we are in right now," Halseth said. "I think there are different ways we can look at improving Nevada."

McNaught, who is running against Assemblyman Joe Hardy, R-Las Vegas, in the state Senate District 12 primary, says he doesn't buy the $3 billion figure, even though state budget director Andrew Clinger says Nevada will be "lucky" to face a $2.5 billion shortfall in 2011.

"Until we see what kind of revenue we can generate this year, I will hold off trying to put a plan in place that uses best-guess numbers and wait until real revenue presents itself," McNaught said in an e-mail.

Contact reporter Laura Myers at lmyers
@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Contact reporter Benjamin Spillman
at bspillman@reviewjournal.com
or 702-477-3861.