Moyer Launches Re-Election Effort 3rd District State Senator Faces Tough Race Against Lisa Brown

State Sen. John Moyer ignited his re-election campaign with a rousing breakfast party Thursday as more than 300 people and a Dixieland jazz band crammed into a Spokane ballroom.

The festive throng gave the Spokane Republican several standing ovations and chanted “GO JOHN GO” at the $15-a-plate event.

The grandfatherly doctor likely is in for a dogfight with Democratic state Rep. Lisa Brown for the Senate seat from the 3rd Legislative District, one of the poorest and most Democratic legislative districts in the state.

Moyer, who has delivered more than 8,000 babies, is running with the slogan “For Our Children.” He stuck to that theme in his speech in the Skyline Ballroom of Cavanaugh’s Inn at the Park.

“We need child care and we need it badly,” Moyer said. “TV is a rotten baby sitter and TV does too much baby-sitting for us.”

Moyer also lamented that too many children are starting school without the basics. “Kids need to get to first grade with a moral compass that works,” he said.

Moyer said he is intrigued by a state experiment to help Spokane residents get off welfare by paying their child-care costs and half their salaries for a while.

The senator’s harshest remarks were aimed at deadbeat dads. “We have drive-by fathers,” Moyer said. “Somebody gets pregnant and they’re gone. … Drive-by fathers are going to have to learn that if you have a child, that child is going to be your responsibility.”

Moyer, who described himself as a coalition builder, said nothing about his Democratic opponent. But state Sen. Jim West, R-Spokane, couldn’t resist a jab.

“I can tell you Lisa Brown is very liberal - and probably too liberal for Spokane,” he told the crowd that included 10 legislators.

Cheney Republican Hugh Mills went further, cornering Moyer’s campaign manager, Erik Skaggs, to offer his analysis of Brown. “She’s not a socialist; she’s a communist.”

Skaggs said Moyer, the first Republican to represent the 3rd District in the Senate in more than 60 years, will need the support of many Democrats to keep his job.

, DataTimes