Candidate Takes Issue With Meth Bill Nethercutt Demonstrated Poor Judgement, Clear Says

Congressional candidate Richard Clear is turning Rep. George Nethercutt’s stand on a bill to combat methamphetamine into a campaign issue.

The “Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act” - co-sponsored by Nethercutt - would grant law enforcement powers that Clear says are blatant violations of the Bill of Rights.

Clear is airing 60-second radio commercials in Spokane, Walla Walla, Pullman and Colville accusing Nethercutt of trying to strip the 4th Amendment.

The bill stiffens federal jail sentences for methamphetamine manufacturing and makes spreading recipes for the drug a crime.

But in its original form filed last September, the bill, HR 2987, also allowed police to wait 90 days to tell landlords of a search-and-seizure action on their property. It also allowed authorities to not inform landlords at all of “intangible” evidence.

That provision was removed after civil liberties groups objected. The bill has not yet advanced out of a congressional committee.

But Clear, a Republican running against Nethercutt in the September primary, said his opponent’s sponsorship of the bill showed “very poor judgment.”

“If you are going to put your name on it, you need to know what’s in it,” Clear said.

“(Methamphetamine) is huge and very troublesome, because of the heinous impact on people’s lives. But we have to be reasoned in our approach. We can’t just throw out the Constitution.”

In his radio ads, Clear links the bill’s “attack on the Bill of Rights” to Nethercutt’s reversal on his 1996 stand for term limits.

Nethercutt spokesman Tom McArthur said the congressman agrees with Clear that the search and seizure clause was troublesome.

“The constitutional concerns are valid, and we share them,” McArthur said. Nethercutt would have withdrawn his support if the provision had not been taken out, McArthur said.

Nethercutt sponsored the bill to raise discussion on the growing popularity of meth, McArthur said. The drug is now the hard drug of choice in Spokane and North Idaho.

“The general thrust of the bill is we need more resources for and attention paid to the fight against meth,” McArthur said. “We don’t want to trample the Constitution in our effort to get drugs out of our neighborhoods.”