Chicken Quip Grounds High-Flying Senate Candidate

Right wing, left wing, chicken wing. Suddenly Nevada politics is all about chickens -- bad news for the Republican Senate front-runner but a ray of hope for struggling Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.

Sue Lowden recently suggested bartering with doctors for medical care -- ''our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor.'' The line from the millionaire casino executive and former beauty queen immediately became a late-night joke and YouTube sensation, and upended a GOP race that had been hers to lose.

Democrats set up a website, ''Chickens for Checkups,'' and dispatched a volunteer in a chicken suit to one of her fundraisers. GOP rival Danny Tarkanian circulated a video of her comments and asked if she were the best candidate to take on Reid.

Early voting begins May 22 for the June 8 primary and the inevitability that was building around Lowden's candidacy has eroded as others in the field of 12 Republicans sense an opening.

And somewhere Reid is cackling.

The Senate majority leader is considered one of the most vulnerable incumbents, struggling with low approval ratings in a state that's reeling economically from an unemployment rate of 13.4 percent -- well above the national average -- and the highest home foreclosure rate in the nation. Infighting among Republicans and the possibility that Lowden could emerge from the crowded primary as a scuffed-up winner would be a blessing for Reid.

''If the November race is about Harry Reid, Republicans win. If it's not about Harry Reid, it's a flip of the coin,'' said Ryan Erwin, senior adviser to John Chachas, a Wall Street banker who returned to his native state to enter the Republican race.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/05/07/us/politics/AP-US-Nevada-Senate.html