Tarkanian goes on the attack in ad

Looking to ignite an election comeback, Danny Tarkanian on Thursday launched the first attack ad of the Nevada U.S. Senate race, directly criticizing Republican primary opponent Sue Lowden for shifting her position on abortion over the years.

The 30-second campaign commercial called "political convenience" is running statewide on conservative talk show radio stations that cater to Republican listeners. In it, a female narrator says Lowden "told conservatives she was pro-life, but since then the truth has come out."

The sharp ad is a sign of things to come in the crowded Republican primary, as a dozen contenders target GOP front-runner Lowden in an effort to weaken her support before the June 8 primary. The ad also comes the day before a "conservative" Republican debate in Reno organized by a local Tea Party-affiliated group, where Lowden is expected to be a popular target.

The new radio ad notes Lowden once supported Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that protects a woman's choice to have an abortion in the first trimester of her pregnancy. The spot also alleges that Lowden voted for an initiative "supporting abortion on demand" and was involved in an effort to "change the pro-life position of the Republican Party."

Lowden has acknowledged that in the 1980s and as a private citizen, she supported a woman's choice to have an abortion, saying at the time there was a stigma attached to unwed mothers. She also has admitted supporting a 1990 Nevada referendum that embedded abortion rights into state law, although last year she told conservative publication "Human Events" that Roe v. Wade was a "bad decision."

In defending her change of heart, Lowden has noted that as a state senator in the early 1990s, she helped lead an effort to require parental notification for abortions, although the bill failed on the Senate floor. And she said that as a public official she has always been against abortion.

"My views on abortion have clearly changed over the decades and I have become pro-life –– which I believe is consistent with the path of many other individuals," Lowden said in a statement late last year when the issue first came up in the U.S. Senate race.

Lowden has denied reports cited by the Tarkanian campaign that she tried to get the abortion issue out of the 1996 platform in the state Republican convention and has said she voted at the national convention to keep the conservative anti-abortion GOP position in the platform.

The Lowden campaign slammed Tarkanian's ad hit on the abortion issue, which hasn't been high on the GOP agenda this election year, when economic issues have resonated more with voters.

"Danny Tarkanian is doing what he always does late in a campaign, attack with desperate, misguided jabs that miss," campaign manager Robert Uithoven said. "His campaign is winding down with less support than when it started, and we predict he stumbles his way to another defeat."

Tarkanian, a Las Vegas businessman and former University of Nevada, Las Vegas, basketball star, has lost two previous elections for the Nevada Senate and for secretary of state. In the U.S. Senate contest, he has been trying to appeal to conservative Republicans who dominate primary elections.

His campaign will be unleashing more radio ads as well as television spots that attempt to portray Lowden as flip-flopping on issues ranging from Yucca Mountain to government bailouts to taxes.

Lowden has been leading the field of a dozen GOP contenders, beating Tarkanian by double digits in the latest two opinion polls commissioned by theLas Vegas Review-Journal.

The casino executive also has out-maneuvered former Reno Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, who has the most conservative voting record in the race, on the abortion issue by winning a key endorsement earlier this month. The Susan B. Anthony List, which lobbies against abortion, said it was backing Lowden and plans to spend $1 million in Nevada to try to help defeat the Democratic incumbent, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid.

Angle, however, remains a conservative favorite and could gain traction with more primary voters in the wake of the endorsement last week from the national Tea Party Express organization.

The national group on Thursday released its first radio ad for Angle, holding her up as the best candidate with "conservative constitutionalist principles," including fighting tax hikes as a state lawmaker.

"If you're looking for a strong conservative Republican to defeat Harry Reid you can't do any better than Sharron Angle," says the ad set to air next week on more than 30 radio stations statewide.

The Tea Party Express' political action committee, Our Country Deserves Better, is raising money for the Angle ad campaign on radio and television and is now halfway toward its initial $100,000 target, according to Bryan Shroyer, the political director for the national organization.

"Our fundraising goal for the first wave was $100,000. That, plus cash we have on hand, will determine how high we'd go," said Shroyer, suggesting the group will spend more money in the race.

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.