OLYMPIA—Washington Republicans wasted little time trying to draw connections between a Democratic Senate loss in Massachusetts and election prospects in the Evergreen State.
Washington Democrats conceded that the loss of a supermajority in the U.S. Senate complicates plans in the Legislature. They can’t expect Congress to adopt health care reform or a stimulus package before they have to patch a $2.6 billion budget hole and leave town.
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State GOP Chairman Luke Esser called Scott Brown’s election to the seat
previously held by Democrat Ted Kennedy “a national election with a
national reason for celebration for Republicans.” Candidates will
follow Brown’s strategy of reaching out to independents and Democrats
unhappy with federal health care reform, he said.
Washington state has its own U.S. Senate race this November;
Republicans have five announced candidates hoping to take out
three-term incumbent Patty Murray, but none is a household name.
Although many people question whether any Republican can defeat Murray,
Esser said people said that about a Republican winning Kennedy’s seat
just a few months ago.
The party hasn’t chosen to back a particular candidate, as it did in
some previous statewide elections, Esser said: “That’s the old
paradigm. In the current atmosphere, it’s important to let the
grassroots know it’s not going to be a top-down, hierarchical decision.”
The Democrats loss of a filibuster-proof supermajority throws
contentious issues like health care reform into doubt. Legislators had
been advised to draft state health care legislation with an eye to what
the federal government would do and new money it might provide.
“We’ll continue that work, but we have greater uncertainty about what
may happen,” Rep. John Driscoll, D-Spokane, said. “We ought to keep
doing what we’re doing, but we’re in a real fuzzy zone.”
State Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown of Spokane said a complete
health care reform package may not pass before the Legislature adjourns
on March 11, but a separate bill that adjusts Medicare funding may pass
because it has support from governors of both parties.
“We haven’t counted on it yet. Regardless of what happens, we’re going
try to aviod any cuts to the Basic Health Plan,” Brown said.
The Massachusetts outcome was unexpected, but Brown said she hasn’t
analyzed it yet. It does show the strength of independent voters, and
“independent voters are a big deal in Washington state.”
Spokane7
61°
Jim Camden is a veteran political reporter for The Spokesman-Review.
Jonathan Brunt covers Spokane City Hall for The Spokesman-Review.
randydutton on January 21 at 11:54 a.m.
Why is the press so afraid of mentioning the challengers’ names?
Here they are:
Dr. Sean Salazar (Chiropractor & military vet) sean4senate.com
Craig L. Williams (nuclear engineer and energy expert) votewilliams2010.com
Wayne Glover (truck driver) realchange2010.org
Rod Rieger (electrician) rodrieger.com
Dr. Arthur Coday, Jr., a physician from Shoreline
Exploratory Committee
Clint Didier (former NFL player, small business owner) clintdidier.org
Chris Widener (Professional speaker) chriswidener.org
Each of these candidates is a fiscal conservative who is interrupting their careers (note each has more business experience than Murray) to help reign in out of control spending, stop abusive regulations, and return Constitutional limitations to government. Patty Murray is ranked the #1 most liberal in Congress. She’s even worse than Senator Boxer. That’s hard to beat. And to illustrate just how fiscally irresponsible Murray is, she supported the Bridge to Nowhere so as to protect her own pork projects, and told her cohorts to do the same.
randydutton on January 21 at 11:58 a.m.
The press keeps saying about the challengers that “none is a household name”, and then they refuses to interview them, or even mention their names.
But they seem very willing to give Murray a mention. WHY?
Are they perhaps hoping for that multi-billion newspaper bailout bill in Congress?
I ran across the same problem when I ran against Rep. Lynn Kessler last year. Many in the press refused to acknowledge she had a conservative challenger.
joetheinformed on February 16 at 11:10 a.m.
Sen Patty Murray is a champion in the state of WA, fighting for Washingtonians everyday. To say we need to elect some unknown fiscal conservative is wrong. Voters, just remember the George W. Bush was considered to be a fiscal conservative while running our deficit from a 248 billion dollar surplus to a 12 trillion dollar deficit. Don’t be fooled by the smoke and mirrors Republicans are trying to pull off. They only stand for helping the corporations, banks, and wall street bankers to intensify their stranglehold on average Americans. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell have done an exemplary job of standing up to those who want to hurt people in this state, while protecting our most vulnerable citizens. So please, don’t drink the kool aid they are offering, it will seriously hurt you.
ZagChuck on February 21 at 5:39 a.m.
@ Joetheinformed: Perhaps your name is meant to be ironic, or perhaps you use it as a tool of misinformation. Either way you are incorrect.
First: George W Bush was NOT a fiscal conservative. He never once used the veto pen for a spending bill. Just because he was an elected Republican, does not make it so. In fact, he strongly supported other republicans who were also not fiscal conservatives. The easiest example is Arlen Spector, the RINO senator from Penn. He overspent, and it’s a shame. But at least when he overspent, people had jobs. Unemployment was about half what it is now, and the government was at least collecting more revenue each year. The problem was they were spending more than they made. Also remember from your constitution classes… who has the power of the purse strings? CONGRESS, most specifically, the House of representatives. For the last 2 years of the Bush Administration, the bills he signed to spend money were approved by a congress run and controlled by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Sure he signed the checks, and it is a shame, but the amounts were written on those checks by the Democrat party. Now were taking in even less revenue, and spending at a much higher rate…. Doesn’t make much sense to me!
Second, Sen. Murray has cost each taxpayer in WA thousands of dollars, for every penny she has saved us. She is also part of the problem. With just the stimulus package alone, we spent $12 to get $2. How does that work out in our favor? FYI (Easy math with the stimulus package: According to Obama it cost $827 Billion dollars, that’s about $2510 per person nationally based upon an estimate of 330 million people ($827 Billion / 330 million). So the 4.5 million people of Washington paid a little over $12 Billion in stimulus money. (4.5 Million *$2510) According to Gov Gregiore, we’ve received about $2 billion in stimulus money (Her press release on Feb 1st of this year) Seems to me we’re getting a LOT less than we gave. Unwillingly gave, I might add. So we gave $2510 each, but we got back about $444.50 ($2 billion / 4.5 million) I’d hate to be your accountant or banker, if that is your idea of a good deal.
You claim fiscal conservatives are drinking the Kool-Aid, but it is clear that you have already consumed much more than your share. Math doesn’t lie, Joe, regardless your opinion. And these are just the numbers of the so-called stimulus package. It’s is beyond belief!
The reality is much easier to take if we all use our brains, instead of our hearts, when it comes time to spend money. Just like our own budgets at home, OUR GOVERNMENT MUST STOP SPENDING MONEY WE DON”T HAVE!!! It really is that simple. The previous administration, and the Republican controlled house and senate from 2000-2006 failed to recognize this simple fact, and look where it got them. Both were removed from office.
The message about spending doesn’t seem to be getting thru to our Governor, our senators, and their party that control both of the houses in our state, and both houses at the federal level. Nor does it seem to be getting through to the current White House Administration. Hopefully we can replace them with fiscal conservatives who will do what is right, and reduce the burden on us the taxpayers, so that we may go out and create the jobs required to re-build the economy.
ZagChuck on February 21 at 5:43 a.m.
@ Randy, They’ve already gotten a partial bailout from Gregoire, in the form of a reduction in tax rates to allow them to keep their doors open. Perhaps they are not listing the names as a quid pro quo…. I’m just sayin……