Lowden launches bio ad in first GOP primary spot in U.S. Senate campaign

U.S. Senate candidate Sue Lowden today launched the first TV ad of the Republican primary campaign.

The 30-second spot that will air statewide focuses on her biography – the daughter of an immigrant family who put herself through college by working and then went on to have successful careers as a broadcast journalist and businesswoman as well as a state senator. There's no mention of her near-dozen GOP opponents or of Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic incumbent seeking re-election.

"Her family sailed under liberty's light, stepped on freedom's shore, entered a land of opportunity," the ad says, showing a montage of black and white images of immigrants arriving in America as well as photos of Pennsylvania coal mines and New York shipyards where her family worked. The spot goes on to picture Lowden at the various stages of her life, from graduate to current candidate.

The ad titled "leading with integrity" calls Lowden a conservative state senator who fought for lower taxes and less spending, two GOP mainstay issues for voters.

The total buy is more than $125,000, according to her campaign. Top GOP rivals businessman Danny Tarkanian and former Reno Assemblywoman Sharron Angle are expected to begin airing ads soon as well as John Chachas, a largely self-financed investment banker returning to Nevada to run. Reid has spent about $1.2 million so far on ads yet remains behind Lowden, Tarkanian and Angle in early polls.

Lowden's first TV spots will appear on the four major networks – ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX – in Las Vegas and Reno as well as the cable Fox News Channel to target rural Nevada. Radio ads with the same theme will air statewide as well on stations based in Las Vegas, Reno, Elko, Ely, Winnemucca and Carson City, her campaign said.

Taking advantage of growing social networks, Lowden introduced the ads first on Facebook and Twitter with Internet users able to see it on her website.

The bio ad is meant to introduce Lowden to Nevadans, but the campaign plans to launch issue-focused ads in the near future.

"Many Republican primary voters haven't been introduced to Sue yet this early in the campaign, and many others remain undecided this far out," said Robert Uithoven, her campaign consultant.

The primary is in June and the general election is in November. "We are making sure voters know something about Sue – that she isn't a perennial candidate or a professional politician. She is a businesswoman who has created real jobs."