Platform Gets Planks At Gop Convention Delegates, Candidates Debate Education, Campaign Spending

U.S. Rep. Linda Smith won the battle for the hearts of delegates at the state Republican convention while former King County Prosecutor Chris Bayley appealed to their heads.

“This convention is clearly a Linda Smith convention,” state Chairman Dale Foreman said after the top contenders for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate addressed a crowd of 1,400 delegates and alternates. “The sea of signs proves that.”

Delegates gave Smith of Vancouver, Bayley and other GOP candidates what Foreman termed a “big tent platform,” calling for an end to limits on campaign spending, federal involvement in education and the income tax.

But candidates aren’t honor-bound to hold strictly to these or other principles in a platform hammered out at the biennial convention.

That means Smith, who makes campaign finance reform a centerpiece of every stump speech, is free to disagree with the platform that says “limits on contributions and spending are not necessary when there is fully enforced and timely disclosure.”

Smith said she couldn’t support that platform plank, adding she believes the people who wrote it were “thinking of $50-a-month” contributions from family. Lifting the current limits - some of which she herself helped place on state races - would be like saying “let’s have a free-for-all,” she said.

Bayley said he wouldn’t support an end to contribution limits, either, but thought the federal contribution limits of $1,000 per person and $5,000 per political action committee needed to be increased substantially to adjust for the inflation that has occurred since the limits were set in the mid-1970s.

“I think the main thing is instantaneous disclosure,” Bayley said. That would allow voters to know who was contributing to a campaign and make decisions accordingly.

Smith later argued that donations are sometimes laundered through unknown organizations. “You can’t always tell what’s going on,” she said.

When she addressed the convention, Smith was greeted with a sea of red, white and blue campaign signs waved by delegates. She even had the crowd chanting “the good old boys” in response to her questions about who Democratic Sen. Patty Murray was supporting when the incumbent opposed work rules for welfare recipients, school choice and an anti-missile defense system.

The crowd’s response to Bayley was more reserved, with polite applause when he called for such things as tax reform and an end to federal education programs. He got some of his best response by saying the Clinton administration should keep its “hands off Microsoft” - a reference to anti-trust action against the computer software giant, which is one of the state’s largest employers - and by mentioning former President Reagan.

“India and Pakistan would not be playing chicken with nuclear bombs if Ronald Reagan were still in the White House,” Bayley said. In a press conference after his speech, Bayley acknowledged that most delegates didn’t feel as passionately about him.

“They may love Linda Smith,” he said. “But winning an election against an incumbent takes more than love.”

Republicans have previously nominated candidates who were unable to win general elections because they didn’t have broad enough general support, Bayley said, citing 1996 gubernatorial candidate Ellen Craswell. Told about Bayley’s comment’s later, Smith replied: “Have I ever lost a race? No.”

Smith is undefeated in a series of legislative and congressional races since 1983 and led successful initiative campaigns to limit state spending and political spending.

The convention crowd spent little time debating an issue that has previously divided the party - abortion. It adopted a platform that opposes the practice and calls for “protection of all innocent life, from conception to natural death.” It also called for a ban on a rarely used procedure, the so-called partial-birth abortion. But after a brief debate, they rejected a suggestion that the Constitution be amended to outlaw abortion.

More time was spent debating education policy. Delegates amended the platform, which already called for the end of the U.S. Department of Education, to make it even tougher. “All federal involvement in education, including funding of any kind, must be strictly prohibited,” the amendment says.

Delegates spent the morning listening to speakers who alternately extolled the virtues of conservatism and blasted the Clinton administration.

U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton used the convention to get a two-year jump on criticizing the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“This convention is the first step in our effort to stop Al Gore,” Gorton said. “Al Gore does not trust Washington state to make good decisions about salmon, electricity, irrigation, navigation and recreation.”

He also criticized the administration for imposing trade sanctions on India, which buys Boeing airplanes, and Pakistan, the region’s top wheat purchaser. “They impose a series of regulations on farmers that have no common sense … and prevent them from selling wheat to our state’s No. 1 export market,” he said.

Highlights KENNEWICK Associated Press

Here are some highlights of the Republicans’ platform adopted Saturday at their state convention. Delegates: Adopted a conservative platform that calls for lower taxes, a ban on “partial-birth” abortion, opposition to state and federal education-reform laws and land-use management.” Rejected was a “human life amendment” to the U.S. Constitution banning abortion. Endorsed an initiative to largely roll back state affirmative-action programs, declared that public schools should not teach homosexuality as a healthy or morally acceptable lifestyle, and said that alternatives to the state’s no-fault divorce should be considered. Decried any salmon-enhancement programs that involve “wasteful spills, drawdowns or dam removal.” Suggested moving the state’s September primary forward to June. Turned down a call for impeachment of President Clinton “for placing the lives of all Americans at risk by his treasonous transfer of missile technology to the Chinese communists.” But they passed a resolution later equating the sale to treason and asked Congress to “investigate and identify those responsible for the release of this technology and consider their punishment to the fullest extent of the law.” Passed a resolution opposing tobacco tax legislation in Congress and added a kicker: “Further, we oppose any future similarly inspired actions against the manufacturers of firearms, legal tobacco products, high-fat foods or sedentary lifestyles. “We support the position that men have all been blessed with free will and as long as tobacco products, alcohol and hamburgers remain legal, the government has no legitimate interest in their regulation.”