Nethercutt To Launch Campaign Today Democrat Tom Keefe Also Plans To Announce His Candidacy This Morning

With state Republicans and the U.S. Term Limits organization trading television barbs, Democrats jumping in and out of the race and a Republican rival complaining about stolen signs, George Nethercutt will formally embark today on something he once swore he’d never do:

Run for a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Nethercutt’s breakfast at Cavanaughs Inn at the Park will officially open a campaign that began a year ago and two blocks to the south, when the Spokane Republican announced at a hastily called news conference that he would renounce his pledge to serve no more than three terms.

Within days, Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Term Limits and its Spokane chapter launched a series of increasingly strident attacks against their one-time ally. They stalked him with a protester dressed as a weasel, suggested he was lying about his promise to protect federal dams and criticized him for going along with the latest congressional pay hike.

Nethercutt fired back, and in the last two weeks, he has gotten help from GOP campaign organizations. The Washington state Republican Committee bought nearly $100,000 worth of television advertising to denounce U.S. Term Limits for “mudslinging ads paid for by secret donors.” The Republican ad continues, “Why is this group from back East telling us what to think in Eastern Washington?”

There are two apparently unintended ironies in the GOP ad, which is being run independent of the Nethercutt campaign.

One is that it, too, comes from “back East.” It was written by an Alexandria, Va., media firm for the National Republican Campaign Committee, which is trying to keep the GOP in control of the House of Representatives.

The other irony is that complaints about secret donors giving money to faraway political groups first were made six years ago by House Speaker Tom Foley, the man Nethercutt ousted - with help from U.S. Term Limits.

In 1994, Nethercutt embraced term limits and has continued to support bills that would make them a national law. But last year, he said he had been wrong to think he could accomplish all his goals in six years and said he would run again despite his pledge to serve three terms and then “come back and live under the laws that I passed.”

U.S. Term Limits is countering the GOP with another commercial that repeats its charge that Nethercutt has voted to raise his own pay.

“Why are Nethercutt and his special-interest friends running a negative campaign?” it asks. “He’s trying to hide his record so he can stay in power.”

Paul Jacob, executive director of the group, said the fact Republicans have chosen this race as the first in the nation for independent issue ads shows they believe Nethercutt is in trouble with voters.

Just how much trouble is difficult to prove.

Term Limits’ own polling shows Nethercutt well ahead of potential Democratic challengers - but with less than half of those polled saying they will vote for him. About one-third told pollsters they were undecided, not an unusual number five months before an election.

Term Limits’ campaign against Nethercutt gives Democrats their best opportunity to reclaim a seat Foley held for them for 30 years - but only if they can unite behind a candidate, most local party members agree.

Democrats struggled at first to find a single challenger, then found themselves with two - and sometimes three - candidates.

Shortly after Nethercutt’s speech today, attorney Tom Keefe will formally announce his candidacy at 11 a.m. at the Davenport Hotel.

Keefe - a former aide to U.S. Sens. Warren G. Magnuson and Brock Adams, both D-Wash. - joins the Democratic primary against Tom Flynn, an executive with the regional carpenters union.

Flynn and another novice, labor specialist Wayne Brokaw, entered the race in November, but national and state party officials continued to look for candidates. They enticed downtown developer Julie Wells into the race, but she withdrew, citing business commitments. Brokaw recently quit and endorsed Keefe.

The most recent reports on campaign financing show Nethercutt has collected about $591,000. Flynn has raised about $59,000, while Brokaw has about $12,000. Keefe hasn’t been in the race long enough to file a report.

Nethercutt doesn’t have a free ride in the Republican primary. Former radio talk-show host Richard Clear, one of Nethercutt’s most vocal supporters during his first three terms, is incensed that Nethercutt is going back on his pledge and seeking a fourth term.

Clear has traveled Eastern Washington while Nethercutt has been stuck in Congress. Clear, who entered the race just a few weeks before the financial reports were due, listed $21,000 in contributions.

This week, Clear accused the Nethercutt staff of stealing 19 of his signs out of north Spokane yards, although he added he has no proof.

“This was obviously done by someone who feels threatened,” he said.

Jim Dornan, Nethercutt campaign manager, called Clear’s charges of sign stealing “just ridiculous.”

“He’s trying to pick a fight that just isn’t there,” Dornan said. “The last thing on our minds is Richard Clear’s yard signs.”