By Emily Cadei, CQ-Roll Call

Dick Wadhams, the Colorado Republican party chairman and campaign manager for Sen. John Thune ’s 2004 defeat of then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), has penned a fundraising letter for Republican Sue Lowden’s Nevada Senate campaign.

In the e-mail, sent to Lowden supporters on Thursday, Wadhams wrote that “Daschle was a rank amateur compared to Harry Reid ,” the Democrats’ current Majority Leader, whom Lowden hopes to take on in 2010.

“Tom Daschle was a mere obstructionist of the Republican agenda. Harry Reid is the chief architect of the worst parts of the Obama-Democratic agenda,” Wadhams wrote.

“As someone who saw up close what it takes to defeat a sitting Democratic leader, I know that Sue Lowden has what it takes to win in 2010,” he concluded.

Lowden advisor Robert Uithoven said Lowden and Wadhams are close friends, having gotten to know each other over the years in their “respective roles at the state parties.” Lowden has been active in the Nevada Republican party, most recently serving as party chairwoman during the 2008 election cycle.

Uithoven said Wadhams has been acting as a “senior strategist” on the Lowden campaign.

Lowden also got a boost Friday with the release of the latest Las Vegas Review-Journal poll, which showed her leading Reid 51 to 41 percent, despite the senator’s recent barrage of television ads.

She must first get past a crowded GOP primary field, however.

CQ Politics rates the general election contest Leans Democratic.

To follow all the 2010 Senate races, check out CQ Politics’ election map.