SUBMITTED RELEASE FROM FRIENDS FOR HARRY REID
LAS VEGAS–For the the last month, embattled U.S. Senate candidate Sue Lowden has taken a beating over her suggestion people should barter with doctors for health care–offering “a chicken” or services like painting in exchange for medical treatment.
And during the entire “Chickens for Checkups” debacle, Lowden and her campaign have been “dark” on television–suspending all previous advertising over the last four weeks. So now, a national laughingstock whose flailing campaign is under fire from all directions, how does Lowden get back into the advertising fray?
By recycling a three-month-old, classless, widely criticized TV spot that attacks a recently deceased former opponent of hers.
Halina Vergiels, the widow of Jack Vergiels, told the Las Vegas Sun regarding Sue Lowden’s attack on her deceased husband, “I’m absolutely outraged.”
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“My husband never profited from anything in the Legislature. If anything, we lost money. I’m just flabbergasted. I think she should take it off the air and owes me an apology, and owes my husband’s name an apology.”
Robert Uithoven, Lowden’s campaign manager who Monday was named “Worst Person in the World” by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, claimed the charge Vergiels had enriched himself was a reference to a bill passed in 1989, increasing legislators’ pensions by 300 percent. But as the Sun reported, that already spurious argument wasn’t even true. Reported the Sun:
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After public outrage over the vote, the Legislature repealed the increase and Vergiels did not benefit financially from the law’s passage.
“From late night shows and cable news to local television and the blogosphere, Sue Lowden’s flailing campaign hits a new low with each passing day,” said Harry Reid campaign communications director Kelly Steele. “While Lowden’s bid to become the GOP nominee continues to circle the bowl, it is utterly disgraceful to try to change the subject by recycling this attack against her recently deceased former opponent and his widow–especially given that the previous severe backlash makes her cruelty entirely premeditated.”
