Hopefuls try to set selves apart

With three days until the primary, it is anyone’s guess which of three Republicans will take Rep. George Nethercutt’s place on the GOP ticket this fall, but it is clear Cathy McMorris is taking the most 11th-hour attacks.

The only real survey that any of the three admit to, a “push poll” of 250 voters done early last month for the McMorris campaign, showed that more than 40 percent of voters were undecided and that she and Larry Sheahan were in a virtual dead heat for the lead.

That does not mean you can count out Shaun Cross, whose campaign sent out fliers late this week criticizing McMorris for missing one of many debates and accepting money from Seattle contributors.

As time runs out before Tuesday’s primary, the three candidates, who share virtually the same political ideology, have been trying to distinguish themselves through their experience, endorsements and fund-raising ability.

“Sheahan has raised half of what Cathy and I have raised,” said Cross, who makes much of the fact that 90 percent of the $359,000 he had raised as of Aug. 25 came from within the district.

“I’ve out-raised her almost 6-to-1 in Spokane County,” he said of McMorris.

“And I’ve out-raised him in the 11 other counties” in the 5th Congressional District, said McMorris, in countering Cross’ claim that most of her big donations have come from moneyed interests in the Puget Sound area.

She said 80 percent of the checks she’s received and 59 percent of the $383,000 she has raised came from contributors who live within the district.

According to figures provided by the Federal Election Commission, McMorris’ campaign had $83,000 cash on hand and Cross had $47,000 as of Aug. 25. Sheahan, who borrowed heavily to help finance his campaign, had $6,700. The candidates have all continued to raise money since the latest pre-primary reporting required by the FEC.

These numbers may reflect why the Sheahan campaign has declined to purchase expensive television advertising as his rivals have. But his campaign manager, Phil Van Treuren, said the campaign made a decision early on to devote its resources to direct mail advertising and is the only campaign to have purchased billboard space.

“Using TV is like shooting a bullet into a swarm of bees,” Van Treuren said. “You’re not going to hit many bees.”

Sheahan said he has run “probably the most comprehensive grass-roots campaign that’s ever been run in Eastern Washington,” visiting 25,000 homes, the majority in Spokane County.

Sheahan believes he has the most name recognition and undecided voters are going to go with the name they know.

How much money the winner has on hand at the end of the primary race is unlikely to make much difference in the general election. Though the Democratic candidate, Don Barbieri, has raised more the $1 million – half of which he still has on hand – state and national Republicans will not leave their 5th District primary survivor without the means to mount an effective campaign against the wealthy Spokane businessman.

“National party and interest groups will pour as much money in as they need,” said Blaine Garvin, a political science professor at Gonzaga University. “Any open seat is going to be contested.”

Voters trying to decide among the three Republicans, who share the same conservative ideology, may find guidance in the candidates’ experience. It may also be helpful to look at their endorsements.

Cross has said that what he lacks in political experience he more than makes up for in business acumen. Born into a prominent Ritzville family, he first pursued a career in physics and engineering. But he has been an attorney for the past 25 years. As head of the largest law firm in the region, he said, he specialized in helping businesses in trouble. He said this experience puts him in a unique position to help business in Congress.

He has served as chairman of Spokane’s Public Facilities District and was instrumental in securing the Spokane Convention Center expansion. He stepped down as president-elect of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce to run for the House seat.

Cross’ list of supporters reads like a who’s who of the Spokane-area elite and includes the heads of the major medical centers. Health care providers have contributed heavily to his campaign, he said, because “they are hopeful that I can make a difference” in the insurance crisis gripping the state and nation.

Sheahan has both legislative and business experience. He has represented the 9th Legislative District as a state representative since 1992 and was a partner in his family’s Rosalia law firm since 1986. He was appointed in 1999 to fill a vacancy in the state Senate, where he was elected majority floor leader last year.

He has been endorsed by many local politicians and the state’s most prominent law enforcement unions. Davenport Hotel owners Walt and Karen Worthy co-chair his campaign. Sheahan’s supporters include conservative Spokane businessman Duane Alton on the right and Lunnell Haught, of Republicans for Environmental Protection, from the left.

McMorris, who grew up working for her family’s Kettle Falls orchard and fruit stand, has represented the 7th Legislative District since she was appointed to fill the seat in 1994. She was the first woman to become state House minority leader, in 2002.

She is backed by former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, the state Farm Bureau, the Associated Builders and Contractors, the Susan B. Anthony List and the Club for Growth, a group that may be only a little less conservative than Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, from which McMorris expects a formal endorsement any day now.

This week the liberal-to-moderate Republican Main Street Partnership PAC, based in Washington, D.C., mailed fliers to homes in the district attacking McMorris for accepting the support of the Club for Growth, a group known for opposing moderate Republicans seen as soft on cutting taxes. Cross and Sheahan also sought the group’s endorsement.

“We saw her as the best candidate in terms of policy and electability,” said David Keating, executive director of the Club for Growth.

“McMorris might have some advantage by being the only woman in the race,” Garvin said, adding that she is making the strongest pitch to the conservative base of the Republican Party with her emphasis on family values and “standing up to the Seattle liberals.”

But Sheahan has not been willing to relinquish the conservative mantle to McMorris without a fight. In a recent media release his campaign said he was “very proud to learn the liberal Seattle Times” endorsed McMorris over him in a recent editorial because of his 100 percent rating from the Washington Conservative Union.

McMorris only rated 77 percent from the group.

“All three of us have sought the same endorsements,” countered McMorris. “The difference between the three of us is not who is more conservative.”

In a race in which Cross, Sheahan and McMorris all support a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, an overhaul of the Endangered Species Act and making President Bush’s tax cuts permanent, any argument over who is the most conservative may be counterproductive.

It may also leave the winner vulnerable in the general election against the moderate Barbieri, Garvin said.