This is Democrat State Chairman Tom Collins’ worst nightmare. The unions ain’t gonna be too happy about it either. But if all goes as planned, former state Sen. Sue Lowden, Las Vegas Republican, will be the next Chairman of the Nevada GOP. And since a lot of new Republicans have moved to Nevada since Sue last roamed the halls of Carson City, now might be a good time to reintroduce her.
First, let me disclose that I am far from objective when it comes to Sue Lowden and her husband, Paul. Back in 1996, when the dastardly Culinary Union targeted Sen. Lowden for political extinction in her re-election effort, Sue still took time to help me out in my own campaign that year against Sen. Dina “I’m Not Happy” Titus (D-Las Vegas). While just about every other person in the state was scared to death to contribute more than $500 to my campaign - which would have triggered public disclosure and, consequently, the wrath of Sen. Titus – Sue wrote me a check for $501.
“I want Dina to know I’m helping you,” she told me at the time.
Sue and Paul not only helped me raise additional money for my campaign, but she walked door-to-door for me, as well…even though she had her hands full with the Culinary jihadis in her own race at the time. And for both of my debates with Sen. Titus, Sue was right there for much-needed and much-appreciated moral support.
The first debate was held in Titus’ backyard; on the grounds of UNLV where Professor Titus teaches Tax & Spend 101. Suffice it to say this was not exactly a friendly audience or territory for a fiscally conservative Republican. Having Sen. Lowden in the audience that day was a true source of comfort.
The second debate was our televised dust-up on Channel 10, the local public television station. As a political novice with no real experience in government, debate or television, to suggest I was a bit nervous while sitting in the green room could be the colossal understatement of our times (rhetorical hat tip to my friend Greg Ferraro). But then Sue and Paul, both professional entertainers in their earlier lives, showed up unexpectedly with a full-makeup kit and proceeded to prepare me for the Klieg lights.
Granted, there wasn’t enough makeup in the kit to make this frog into Prince Charming – and Al Gore hadn’t yet invented PhotoShop - however, the thoughtfulness and kindness of this simple gesture, again while Sue had her own political troubles to worry about, made an impression on me I’ll never forget.
Oh, and she’s also a big Baltimore Orioles fan and loves crabcakes. As a Baltimore native who grew up eating crabcakes while watching the likes of Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer and Earl Weaver at Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street, I can appreciate her fine sense of culinary and sports preferences.
So no, I’m not exactly objective when it comes to Sue Lowden. But that doesn’t change the fact that her election as the next Chairman of the Nevada Republican Party would be an inspired choice which grassroots activists and donors alike should cheer.
And that’s no reflection on current Chairman Paul Adams.
THE ADAMS FAMILY
Contrary to much speculation, Chairman Adams isn’t being forced out by the Gibbons administration because of his tough-minded approach to various campaigns in 2006. From what I’m being told, Gov. Jim Gibbons truly has enough on his plate already – including control of the lower legislative house by the opposition party and sniper fire over his budget from extremist right-wing budget hawks like, well, myself. So a proactive effort to replace Adams was nowhere near his radar screen.
And despite breaking a few plates in the proverbial China shop, Adams did a solid job of running the party last year under very difficult circumstances - including several rather heated GOP primaries for many of the state’s top offices. And unlike other states, where Republican senators and congressmen were dropping like flies, Nevada held its own. And we elected another Republican governor. Not a bad record of accomplishment whatsoever.
But even when you have a solid quarterback and are concentrating on beefing up your defense, when someone comes along an offers you Joe Montana, you’d be nuts not to jump at the chance.
In addition, Gibbons and Lowden are far from strangers. They served together in the 1993 Legislature, and Lowden is one of the 4,397 people who served on the governor’s transition team after the November election.
I jest. There were only 4,382 people on the transition team.
Anyway, from what I’m hearing, Chairman Adams not only understands the situation, but is in complete agreement with the decision to bring on Lowden. To suggest any of this is all coming about because of bad blood between the governor and a state chairman appears to be off base.
That being said, and acknowledging that Lowden still needs to be elected by the state’s Central Committee at their next meeting, let me share a little about Sue Lowden which many of you may not know or may have forgotten over the last ten years that she’s been out of the political spotlight.
THIS IS NO RUN-AROUND SUE
Sue Lowden has been married to one man for 24 years - as opposed to Britney Spears, who I believe was once married to 24 different men in one year.
Sue and Paul have four children: Christopher, Jennifer, Paul W. IV and William (1986-2004).
Born the grand-daughter of a poor, black sharecropper in eastern Alabama…no, wait, that was Condi Rice. Never mind.
At the age of 16, Sue worked as a waitress at Urie’s Fish Fry in Wildwood, N.J., to pay for college. (Kenny Guinn had not yet invented the Millennium Scholarship)
She has a bachelor’s degree from American University in Washington, DC, where she graduated magna cum laude. I don’t speak French, but that sounds pretty darned impressive to me. (Actually, it’s Latin…and it means “the second-highest level of academic honors at graduation”) Sue also has a masters degree, cum laude, from Farleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford, NJ - which, as you all know, was named after the actress who played Sgt. Pepper Anderson in “Police Woman.”
No, wait and minute. That was ANGIE Dickinson. Never mind.
This is not to say that Sue Lowden is some intellectual egghead with all brains and no beauty. Au contraire. Sue was Miss New Jersey in 1973, and was second runner-up that year in the Miss America pageant…an event she continues to be actively involved with, serving last year as a preliminary judge and this year as a member of the pageant board.
Now here’s something most people definitely won’t know about Sue. Back in 1971, while many of her pot-smoking, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie contemporaries were hitchhiking their way to Washington, DC, to protest the Vietnam war (John McCain was still a POW at the time), Sue joined Bob Hope and the USO, touring American military bases all over the world - including Long Binh and Da Nang, Vietnam. Her tour of duty also took her to Okinawa, Thailand, Guam, Wake Island, the Rota Naval Air Station in Spain and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
While most Nevadans probably missed her SRO appearance at “Club Gitmo” that year, many longtime Las Vegans will remember her nightly appearances over a ten year period in the 80s as a reporter and anchorwoman for KLAS-TV8…where she broke the story of the Lindbergh kidnapping and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. And most people to this day don’t know that Sue Lowden was actually the first “embedded reporter” in a combat zone, assigned to Tom Hanks during the invasion of Normandy.
I’m just kidding. Everybody knows George Knapp broke that Pearl Harbor story.
Seriously though, a picture of Sue Lowden hangs in the KLAS-TV Hall of Fame. Another adorns the Hall of Fame wall at St. Viator’s School in Las Vegas, where Sue and her family have been active members for many years. Other honors for this pillar of the community include: The Chris Schaller Award from WECAN, the Heart Award from the Variety Club of Southern Nevada, the Woman of Achievement Award from the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Speaking of which, the Lowdens have been deeply involved with Jerry Lewis and the MDA dating back to the early 1970s. In fact, for many years the wildly successful Muscular Dystrophy celebrity telethons were broadcast from the Sahara Hotel on the Strip which the Lowdens once owned. Their contributions to this worthy cause could not possibly be overstated, and Sue continues to serve as MDA’s National Treasurer and Chairman of the Finance Committee.
And in her “spare” time, Sue presently serves as Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors of Archon Corporation, a large gaming and investment company, as a member of the Board of Directors for Colonial Bank, and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Nevada Donor Network.
There’s an old saying that if you want to get something done, give it to a busy person. If that’s true, Nevada Republicans wanting to get something done in the next election cycle will be handing the ball off to just the right person.
A REPUBLICAN’S REPUBLICAN
Speaking of Republicans let me not forget Sue’s GOP bona fides.
She was a Republican state senator representing Las Vegas from 1992 through 1996. While in the Senate, she served as Majority Whip and Chairman of the Taxation Committee…which, under her watch, would have been more appropriately named the NON-Taxation Committee. Sue Lowden never met a tax hike she didn’t want to crush like a bug.
Sue’s been a delegate to the Republican National Convention and served as Chairman of a Clark County Republican Convention. She was also honored as Clark County Republican Woman of the Year and Clark County Senator of the Year in 1995.
During her tenure in the Senate, there was never, to the best of my knowledge, a favor asked of the Lowdens by the Republican Party which wasn’t granted. In fact, the first campaign training seminar I ever conducted in 1995 was held in a room donated by Paul and Sue Lowden at the Santa Fe Hotel. And the number of fundraising events the couple hosted for GOP candidates and causes back then are just too numerous to mention.
All of which helped make Sue Lowden “Public Enemy #1” for the Culinary Union.
Well, that and the fact that the Lowdens never caved in to the demands of the Culinary thugs who wanted union representation at the Lowdens’ non-union Santa Fe Hotel. So the union launched a vicious, scorched-earth campaign against Sue’s re-election in 1996. They may have won that election, but if you know Sue Lowden, you know they never beat her. She’s lived to fight another day.
After that bitter race; however, Sue left public politics and devoted her time to raising her growing children. But her active behind-the-scenes support for the Republican Party never waned, contributing thousands upon thousands of dollars to deserving GOP candidates and causes over the past decade.
But proving that once the political bug gets into your blood the only way to remove it is with embalming fluid, Sue Lowden is ready to hop back in the saddle again.
As the new Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman, the GOP will be getting someone who is smart, articulate, media savvy, attractive, experienced, well-known, well-connected, knows the legislative process, is a generous donor, a proven fundraiser, a fiscal conservative, a battle-hardened candidate and someone who’s not only not afraid of organized labor, but isn’t going to take any crap off them either.
The party couldn’t do much better…and could certainly do a whole lot worse.
Nevertheless, some of the usual cranks who make up the rancor-and-file within the party will complain that Sue is being “forced down our throats” – which is kinda like Rosie O’Donnell complaining about a pint of Ben & Jerry’s “Chunky Monkey” being forced down her throat. Sometimes it’s best to just shut up, swallow and be thankful.
Best of luck, Sue. If you need any help, you know where to find me.
Posted on January 28th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
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