Sue Lowden stands shoulder to shoulder with the working man.

Let me start by setting the stage.

The Place: Las Vegas, Nevada, home to the second highest unemployment rate for any city in the nation behind Detroit.

The Location: Lloyd D. George Federal Building 333 S. Las Vegas Blvd. LV, NV.

The Crowd: 35 or more people representing the contractors who built the largest private construction build to date in this country, the $6.29 billion MGM/Mirage City Center.

The Problem: they have not been fully paid by MGM/Mirage.

Today Sue Lowden proved once again that she is up to the challenges of serving Nevada in the US Senate. At a press conference that should have featured the sitting US Senator from Nevada but didn't, Sue Lowden drew attention to the plight of these construction workers, many of who are small business, minority and female owned businesses.

During the construction of the cash strapped City Center Harry Reid claims he was so instrumental in getting built, the owners of the project, MGM/Mirage required Perini (the General Contractor) to award more than $800 million in subcontracts to minority and women owned companies. However, they are part of the contractors who have not been paid for work they completed already on the project.

What gives Harry? Just over a year and a half ago when it looked as though City Center was poised to stall like Echelon and Fountaine Bleau (two other projects that sit on the strip in various stages of completion no thanks to Harry Reid) you jumped at the chance to role up your sleeves, pick up the phone and get to work for a constituent. Could it be because that constituent is the largest supporter of your re-election campaign on the strip? According to the FEC from 1989-2010 MGM/Mirage has dumped a whopping $315,850 into your coffers between their PAC and Individual donations.Their CEO even went so far as to say that standing against you would be "un-American".

It certainly isn't because you were unaware because I have copy of the May 3rd 2010 letter you were copied in on to Governor Gibbons sent by the executive officers of Perini Building Company. Your name is right there on the distribution list along with the Board of Directors of both MGM/Mirage and their partners, Dubai World, whom you have claimed you brought back into the fold, thus saving 20,000 jobs. Now let us be honest on the job saving thing... You saved 20,000 jobs for a few months until construction was done, but you never have claimed you made sure any of the 600 subcontractors and Perini themselves would get paid in full now did you? Seems they have been stiffed by your buddies at Dubai World and MGM/Mirage.

So where are you Harry? Is this your way of admitting you are not capable of handling your business in your state? I sure was happy to see a real candidate standing there with that group of average Americans offering her support to those guys. Do you know what they did when she was done talking to the press Harry, they stood around to talk to her, sharing their stories and she made time for every one of them who wanted to talk. That is called "representing" your constituents not just your big donors Harry. One was so moved he said, "Thank you for coming Sue. We need every voice we can get to get this done." See Harry, that is called a thank you and it quite often means more to a human being than money. (Not to you, but to human beings)

But where was the guy who "saved City Center"? Does your cape not work on cross country flights? Are you so taxed by the Health Care Reform Act you jammed down our throats that your powers are all but been tapped out?

Guess Perini and all those MBE/WBE owned businesses didn't get the memo that the "most powerful Senator in history" doesn't do a thing until the wheels of progress are "greased" a little like MGM/Mirage has always known. I guess you and Jim Murren, the CEO of MGM/Mirage who brought home a paltry $13.5 million last year for his services, and your TV add partner in crime can have a laugh over a glass of wine at the Ritz in Washington next time you get together over the poor little guys he has screwed with your unending support.

Hey Harry, thanks for all the help. With employees like you who needs to pay their bills?

Senator Elect Lowden (get used to it because it is coming), from all of us who were connected to the City Center Job and took a great deal of pride in being part of the biggest privately funded build in US history, thank you for taking the time to offer your support. As our Senator I have no doubt you will continue to stand for all Nevadans, both those who can afford to contribute and those who can't. You proved that today.

But what would I know; I'm just an Average American.