Sharron Angle leads while hiding Scientology connections; Sue Lowden is not chicken and pecks back
Original image by nonnie9999 at Hysterical Raisins
Las Vegas Sun: Sharron Angle campaign working to quiet Scientology question
Website removes names of the faith’s famous followers
By David McGrath Schwartz (contact)
Wednesday, May 26, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Carson City - Surging Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle has had to defend her support of a prison program that her opponents linked to Scientology. Trying to head off that theme, Angle has eliminated from her campaign website mention of prominent members of the church, whom she worked with on other legislative efforts.
Angle has removed the claim that she, along with actresses Kelly Preston and Jenna Elfman, approached Sen. John Ensign to sponsor legislation prohibiting school employees from requiring students to take psychotropic drugs, such as anti-depressants.
Preston and Elfman are high-profile members of the Church of Scientology, which does not believe in the use of psychiatric drugs.
Instead, Angle’s website, sharronangle.com, says only that Ensign sponsored a bill “at Angle’s request.”
More at the source in the headline.
So, week-old news is old, right? Not entirely. It turns out that Sharron Angle is now leading Sue Lowden.
News 4 (Reno, NV): Angle surges into lead in Nevada Senate GOP primary
Page Last Updated: Thursday June 3, 2010 12:00am PDT
A new Suffolk University poll released Thursday shows GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle surging to the front of the pack in a close race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in the Silver State's GOP primary.
"The 'Tea Party Express' endorsement of Angle has energized her effort to rise from relative political obscurity to flat-out front-runner," said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.
The poll was conducted by phone by the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston.
Among the 13 candidates vying to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, Angle, at 33 percent, led Las Vegas businessman Danny Tarkanian, at 26 percent, former chairwoman of the Nevada Republican state party and former Nevada state Sen. Sue Lowden, at 25 percent, businessman John Chachas, at 4 percent, Assemblyman Chad Christensen, at 4 percent, Dr. Garn Mabey, at 1 percent and U.S. Marine Bill Parson, at 1 percent, with 7 percent still undecided, according to principals at the research center.
The Suffolk University poll is the first to show Angle leading in the June 8 primary.
Again, more at the source in the subject line.
Sue Lowden isn't chicken when it comes to responding to this news. She attacks Angle's connection to Scientology.
Yahoo! News: Tom Cruise's unlikely cameo in Nevada GOP Senate race
- Holly Bailey is a senior political writer for Yahoo! News
Fri Jun 4, 1:28 pm ET
There's a cast of usual suspects you expect to show up in political ads in the final days of a campaign: President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, maybe even George W. Bush. But Tom Cruise?
Ahead of Tuesday's Senate GOP primary in Nevada, the actor makes a cameo appearance in an ad from former state GOP Chairwoman Sue Lowden attacking rival Sharron Angle for sponsoring legislation in 2002 supporting spa treatments for Nevada prison inmates - a plan, the ad alleges, hatched by the Church of Scientology. The camera lingers at one point on a makeshift shrine to Cruise, perhaps Scientology's best-known celebrity adherent.
...
As for the Lowden ad's depiction of the prison plan, it's slightly misleading. As Factcheck.org writes, Angle's idea, which was never formally drafted as legislation, was strictly aimed at female prisoners.
More, including an embedded video of Sue Lowden's ad, at the link.
As for the connection between Angle, a Baptist, and the Scientologist celebrities, I suppose Greta Van Susteren and Sarah Palin would approve.