(Chuck Muth) – Indicating again that the re-elect campaign for Sen. Harry Reid not only believes Republican challenger Sue Lowden is going to win the GOP primary, but is the Republican they most fear, as well, the Readites issued a scathing press release yesterday slamming Lowden’s husband over his compensation last year.
“According to her company’s (Archon Corporation) annual report,” said Team Reid, “which she just got around to filing this week, (Sue) Lowden gave her husband a $200,000 bonus at the same time they reduced their workforce by nearly a quarter and cut off the company’s 401 (k) match for the ones who actually got to keep their jobs. The 401(k) matching program cost the company less than $70,000, but the Lowdens’ combined income for 2009 was nearly $1 million. So much for all that talk about being a ‘job creator,’”
That brief, one-paragraph statement is so full of false and distorted information that one would be excused for thinking it came from Danny Tarkanian’s campaign, not Reid’s. Nevertheless, here’s the Lowden camp’s point-by-point response (hat tip to Elizabeth Crum’s “The Blog”).
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: February 24, 2010(Las Vegas, NV) — Today, Nevada businesswoman and U.S. Senate candidate Sue Lowden responded to yet another desperate attack from Harry Reid. On a day after he spent another $15 BILLION of our taxpayer money on the assumption that Washington is better at job creation than private citizens, Harry Reid attacked Sue Lowden for being an executive at a company that has lost jobs and revenue during the recession.
Lowden responded with the following statement:
“Harry Reid has been living off the Nevada taxpayer his entire adult life, gladly accepting generous pay raises and writing government-run health care bills that he won’t even enroll in himself. I am not sure he has ever held a private sector job, nor has he ever created one. He has no idea what it’s like to meet a payroll – because hardworking Nevada taxpayers provide his payroll. He has spent a career in Washington raising our taxes, increasing the size of an already bloated government and recklessly saddling our kids and grandkids with trillions of dollars of debt.
“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. In our recent SEC filing, we requested and received an extension. We are hopeful that the rest of Nevada’s job providers and workers can survive Harry Reid’s careless tax-and-spend policies until I defeat him this November.”
Here’s their defense, in bullet format:
BACKGROUND:
* Paul Lowden has not received a salary increase since 1996, and is known to have previously declined significant stock option awards.
* Sue Lowden is not on the Compensation Committee for Archon Corporation.
* Since Harry Reid passed his taxpayer-funded $800 BILLION stimulus bill (which was supposed to create jobs), unemployment in Nevada has increased by 33 percent.
* Due to Harry Reid’s failed policies, there are currently more than 178,000 Nevadans who are unemployed.
* Since January 2009, there have been over 30,000 bankruptcies in Nevada alone.
* Since Harry Reid became the Senate Majority Leader, the number of unemployed Nevadans has TRIPLED – with unemployment rising from 4.4 percent to 13 percent! Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
* Harry Reid, just two weeks ago, said Nevada’s economy is experiencing “robust growth”. http://www.suelowden.com/index.php/robust-economy/
* The Lowdens are longtime, well-known and respected Nevada philanthropists, donating their time and money to numerous charitable organizations and causes.
