Sue Lowden

Sue Lowden
Member of the Nevada Senate from the Clark 3 district
In office 1993–1997
Preceded by	Jack Vergiels
Succeeded by	Valerie Wiener
Personal details
Born	(1952-02-08) February 8, 1952 New Jersey
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Paul Lowden
Children	3 sons (1 deceased) 1 daughter
Residence(s)	Las Vegas, Nevada
Alma mater	American University, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Profession	Elementary school teacher, TV anchorwoman, businesswoman, politician
Website	Official site

Suzanne Parkinson "Sue" Pluskoski Lowden (born February 8, 1952) is the former Chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party and a former State Senator in Nevada. Lowden is a former businesswoman, television news anchor and kindergarten teacher. Lowden was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2010 United States Senate election in Nevada.

A native of New Jersey, Lowden is a graduate of American University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. She served as a State Senator for Nevada from 1993 to 1997. During her four years in the state legislature, she held the senior leadership position of majority whip.

Early life and career

Born Suzanne Parkinson Pluskoski, and raised in New Jersey, Lowden graduated in 1970 from Gloucester Catholic High School. At age 16, she became Miss National Park, New Jersey. She accumulated other local and regional titles, including Miss Gloucester County, Miss Cape May County, Miss New Jersey Apple Princess, and Miss Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey at age 19 in 1971. Lowden was Miss District of Columbia USA in 1971, and a semi-finalist at Miss USA. Changing her name to Suzanne Plummer, in 1973, she was Miss New Jersey on her second try, and was 2nd runner-up for Miss America having won the swimsuit portion.

After a six-week USO tour, she completed a BA in education from American University in Washington, D.C, an MA in elementary education from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford, New Jersey, and was later granted an Honorary AA from then Community College of Southern Nevada. While finishing her degree, Lowden worked two years as a kindergarten teacher in Edgewater, New Jersey. Then, she moved to Los Angeles, California. Sending job applications to TV stations across the country, in 1978 she landed a job with KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, the local CBS affiliate for southern Nevada. She earned numerous awards for her work as a reporter and anchorwoman, such as the Associated Press and United Press International Award for Best Newscast. She became a member of the KLAS Channel 8 Hall of Fame. She left KLAS in 1987.

Lowden became an Executive Vice President of Sahara Hotel and Casino, then President of Santa Fe Station. Having a Nevada gaming license, she currently serves as a Member of the Board of Directors and Secretary-Treasurer of Archon Corporation, a gaming and investment company. For her work, Lowden received a Women of Achievement Award from the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. According to statements filed with the Senate Office of Public Records, she and her husband have more than $50 million in stock holdings, much of it in Las Vegas gaming companies.

State Senate career

In 1992, Lowden ran for the Nevada State Senate in Clark County District 3 (map), that usually elects members of the Democratic Party. She defeated longtime incumbent Jack Vergiels, who was then serving as the Nevada Senate Majority Leader.

In the Nevada Legislature, Lowden served as the Senate Majority Whip and the Chairman of the Senate Taxation Committee. Her work in office earned her the Guardian of Small Business Award from the Nevada chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), Senator of the Year Award from the Clark County Republican Party, the Woman of the Year Award from the Republican Women of Las Vegas, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 from the Republican Women of Henderson.

The Culinary Workers Union representing hotel workers, then the most powerful labor force in Las Vegas, has criticized her for her votes to reform the State Industrial Insurance System and because her casino fought efforts by workers to organize there. She said the union harassed her by picketing her home and threatened her to the point where she had to transfer her children to another school.

In 1996, she lost a re-election bid to Democrat Valerie Wiener, while most other incumbents held their seats. Subsequently, she was elected Chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party.

2010 U.S. Senate run

Main article: United States Senate election in Nevada, 2010

On October 1, 2009, Lowden announced her bid for the republican nomination for US Senate. Her main opponents in the Republican primary are businessman Danny Tarkanian and former State Assemblywoman Sharron Angle. Had Lowden won the republican primary, she would have run against U.S. Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader. She earned endorsements from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Jeri Thompson, the Susan B. Anthony List, and former Nevada Governor Robert List.

Politico named Lowden's campaign one of "the worst" of 2010 stating "if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wins reellection in Nevada, it will likely be thanks to those 14 words spoken by Republican challenger Sue Lowden", referring to Lowden's statement regarding "bringing a chicken to a doctor." Politico also cited controversy over Lowden's use of a campaign supporter's RV, and "an inept response to a question about the Civil Rights Act as reasons.

Tarkanian was her closest primary opponent in two surveys conducted as of April 2010, but polling after Lowden's infamous suggestion that people use the barter system to lower their health care costs showed Angle moving to first place. In general election polling, she once held the largest lead against Reid in aggregate polling conducted as of April 2010. But later May polls showed Lowden losing to Harry Reid by 5 percentage points (42-37). In primary election polling, Lowden held an even greater lead of 18 points over her closest primary opponent in two independent surveys conducted April 2010. Her numbers then declined by more than 20 points.

Using data from a poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc.. the Las Vegas Review-Journal on May 28, 2010 stated that "Republican Sue Lowden has the best chance of defeating U.S. Sen. Harry Reid". The poll predicted that Lowden would win 42 percent of the vote over Reid's 39 percent with a margin of error "plus or minus 4 percentage points."

Sharron Angle went on to defeat Lowden by a margin of 13.98%.

Discussion of Harry Reid assassination attempt

On Heidi Harris's talk radio show in October, 2009, a 1981 incident was mentioned to Lowden during the interview. There had been an attempt on Harry Reid's life; the police report of the incident said an electrical device found in the Reid family car was linked to the fuel tank in an apparent attempt to ignite the fuel. At the time, Reid was chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission and Lowden was a news reporter. When asked, Lowden said she didn’t recall the 1981 bomb scare story and questioned if it was true. She later denied reports that she had laughed about the question.

Using barter to pay for health care

At a candidate forum in Mesquite, Nevada, on April 6, 2010, Lowden criticized the recently-passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and described her preferred system for financing medical care. While discussing her preference of consumer-focused reforms and her support of Health savings accounts paired with a High-deductible health plan, Lowden suggested that patients could pay cash and barter with their doctors for payment in order to reduce costs.

On April 16, Lowden affirmed her view that barter would be a viable way to pay for health care. Speaking on the TV program Nevada Newsmakers, she said "before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor, they would say I’ll paint your house, they would do... that’s the old days of what people would do to get health care with their doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I’m not backing down from that system."

Lowden's comments became the subject of jokes. However, on April 22, Katherine Hobson of The Wall Street Journal pointed out that in 2009, the American Medical Association's newspaper had referred to barter as a "creative way to collect from patients during difficult economic times", and that Kaiser Health News had said health care was becoming the "service in most demand" according to people running local barter exchanges.

Opposition criticism of Pioneer Hotel layoffs

The employment practices at the Archon-owned Pioneer Hotel & Gambling Hall in Laughlin, Nevada, where Lowden is the executive vice president, secretary, and treasurer, and her husband is the president, have been criticized by the Reid campaign. The campaign publicized information from an Archon report that from September 2008 to September 2009, the Pioneer laid off more than 100 of its 459 employees, while Paul Lowden received a salary of $550,000 and a bonus of $200,000 in each of those calendar years. According to statements filed with the Senate Office of Public Records, she receives an annual salary of $148,000 for her work at Archon, while the total salary for Paul Lowden is listed at more than $1 million. The Lowden campaign responded that Sue Lowden is not on the committee which established the bonus amounts, and that Paul Lowden had not received a salary increase since 1996. Sue Lowden said "My husband and I are proud to have created thousands of private-sector jobs in Nevada's leading economic industry. We have provided health care and retirement benefits."

Personal life

In 1983, she married Paul Lowden, a Nevada businessman. At the time, he owned the Sahara and Hacienda casinos. They later built the Santa Fe Station casino and remain majority owners of the Pioneer Hotel & Gambling Hall. He had a boy and girl, and together they had two sons (her youngest died at 17), and have one granddaughter. She and her husband reside in Las Vegas.

External links

• Sue Lowden for Senate