Club for Growth’s ad attacks Lowden for taxes and Reid support
The conservative Club for Growth’s first TV ad for Sharron Angle attacks her top U.S. Senate opponent in the GOP primary, Sue Lowden, for raising taxes and supporting Harry Reid in the past.
The 30-second spot is the first effort by the fiscally conservative group to promote Angle’s campaign. It comes in response to a recent ad Lowden has run, criticizing Angle for supporting at least two bills as a Reno assemblywoman to raise legislative salaries, although the measures failed.
“Sue Lowden’s attacking Sharron Angle? You gotta be kidding,” the Club for Growth ad says, according to a preview of the spot viewed Tuesday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“Sharron Angle’s Nevada’s leading fiscal conservative, a common sense fighter always working to cut taxes for Nevada families and reduce government spending,” a narrator says in the ad, which features rotating images of Lowden and Angle on separate TV screens.
“And Sue Lowden, she voted to raise taxes, supported huge spending increases and backed Harry Reid for years,” the ad continues without adding any detail of the charges.
While in the state Senate in the early 1990s, Lowden opposed most tax and fee increases, but she also voted to impose taxes and fees in some cases, ranging from those on slot machines to water distribution. She also voted for changes to an employment tax that increased revenue an estimated $7.9 million, a vote her campaign now says wasn’t a tax increase but a “matter of fairness.”
Lowden’s other main GOP opponent Danny Tarkanian has criticized her for donating at least $1,000 five times each to U.S. Sen. Reid’s campaigns during the 1980s, something Lowden has acknowledged, saying she used to support Reid when she felt he represented Nevada better.
The Club for Growth ad finishes with a pitch to support Angle as voters go the polls during the early voting period now with the June 8 primary just two weeks away.
“Sharron Angle – the best choice for Nevada Republicans,” the ad says in its endorsement.
The ad is scheduled to begin airing statewide as soon as Wednesday or Thursday, according to Club for Growth spokesman Mike Connolly. He said it would be a “substantial” buy, although he wouldn’t say how much the group would spend in the final two weeks of the primary campaign.
The Club for Growth endorsed Angle last week, saying she was the most conservative Republican in the race and was the best candidate to take on Reid in November. The organization helped raise $900,000 for Angle in 2006 when she ran for Congress and barely lost to Republican Rep. Dean Heller.
Angle’s own TV and radio ads have been positive, focused on her ability to bring together a coalition of conservatives and other groups who want to defeat the Democratic Senate leader in the fall.
The outside support for Angle allows her to stay positive while the conservative groups attack her GOP opponents, although she is not allowed to coordinate with the organizations helping her.
The Tea Party Express has spent more than $300,000 for Angle so far and plans to spend more than $500,000 during the primary campaign. The group said it also is working on a new TV ad that will respond to attacks on Angle, who has become the one to beat in recent days.
