SUBMITTED RELEASE FROM FRIENDS FOR HARRY REID
LAS VEGAS–Just how bad has it gotten for embattled GOP senate candidate Sue Lowden’s tanking campaign for the GOP nomination?
Over the weekend one of her top Republican backers, Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, trashed Lowden and her campaign in the Las Vegas Sun, saying they had badly mismanaged the infamous “Chickens for Checkups” comments that made her a national laughingstock and then followed it up by botching the scandal over the illegal donation of a $100,000+ luxury campaign vehicle by one of her supporters. In the piece, Cashell was remorselessly brutal on Lowden:
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Cashell shook his head: “She’s suicidal—Suicidal Sue.” Cashell said he is no longer confident that Lowden can win and thinks former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle will clinch the Republican nomination.”
Scrambling to control the damage from her hemorrhaging GOP support and a campaign dropping precipitously in polls, the Lowden campaign hastily scheduled a “kiss and make-up” meeting over a couple of beers in hopes that Cashell would publicly reconfirm his support and confidence in Sue Lowden. Just one little glitch, though: Cashell never showed.
Astoundingly, the Lowden campaign “forgot” to tell Cashell this was a made-for-TV photo-op–and when he found out, he wasn’t pleased:
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Contacted by a reporter before the meeting, Cashell said he was surprised reporters were invited and questioned Lowden’s motives for inviting him. He said in a brief interview that “something came up” and he couldn’t make the meeting with Lowden.
Except he didn’t tell Lowden.
So, in mortifying fashion, Cashell’s snubbing of Lowden was captured by local reporters that had been invited to cover what Lowden hoped would be a positive make-up story. As KOLO-TV reported:
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U.S. Senate Candidate Sue Lowden waited more than an hour at South Reno’s Flowing Tide. But with the beer glasses low and the bill paid, Reno Mayor Bob Cashell still hadn’t shown.
A humiliated Lowden tried to make excuses for this painfully public snubbing, suggesting Cashell still supported her campaign and that his comments over the weekend trashing her in the media had been inaccurate.
“He was probably misquoted,” Lowden said hopefully in the KOLO-TV story.
And just as it looked that the public humiliation of Lowden couldn’t get more embarrassing, Cashell did an interview late that afternoon, doubling down on his comments about Lowden’s terrible mismanagement of her campaignx and its seemingly suicidal tendencies. Cashell told KRNV 4 of his remarks: “I said them, and I don’t take that back.”
“As Lowden and her campaign have done consistently for months, another self-inflicted wound has caused a major public embarrassment and further undermined any credibility Lowden has remaining regarding her readiness for a prime time US Senate race,” said Reid campaign communications director Kelly Steele. “Republican Mayor Cashell’s repeated public humiliation of Lowden these last few days makes clear that the proverbial rats are fleeing the sinking ship that is Sue Lowden’s tanking U.S. Senate campaign.”
