McMorris, Barbieri head toward showdown for congressional seat

The farm girl from Kettle Falls was the woman to beat in the congressional primary race, as Cathy McMorris won a surprising 48 percent of 5th District Republican votes on Tuesday.

When vote-counting stopped late Tuesday, Larry Sheahan won more than 29 percent of the vote and Shaun Cross nearly 23 percent in their attempt to replace Rep. George Nethercutt as their party’s candidate for the U.S. House. Nethercutt is leaving the seat open for the first time in 62 years to challenge Sen. Patty Murray, an indication the party feels it can keep control of the sprawling Eastern Washington district seat.

“I think we can keep this Republican,” McMorris said late Tuesday at a primary election party at her downtown Spokane headquarters. “I am confident we can win and looking forward to a spirited debate” with the Democratic candidate, Don Barbieri.

Barbieri, running unopposed in his party’s primary, earned more than 38,000 votes Tuesday night.

“It’s exactly as we expected the outcome would be and we look forward to running against McMorris,” Barbieri said. “We are going to continue to go out and do just what we’ve been doing, talking about health care and jobs.”

All three Republicans, sharing the same conservative political ideology, appeared in forum after forum across the district, which stretches from Oregon to the Canadian border. In the campaign’s final weeks McMorris and Cross invested heavily in television advertising while Sheahan’s campaign, struggling in the financial race, focused on doorbelling, direct mail advertising and radio.

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

Though her political base is in the northeastern Washington counties, she received 42 percent of the Republican vote in Spokane County on Tuesday.

McMorris said the competition in the primary helped her to emerge a stronger candidate.

“We focused on jobs, the economy, health care and our national security,” she said, adding these will continue to be the issues in the general election.

Her backers include former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, the state Farm Bureau and the Club for Growth, a national conservative group known for opposing moderate Republicans seen as soft on taxes.

Cross, who has headed the largest law firm in the region, attempted to play up his lack of political experience, saying he was “not another professional politician.” He was supported by prominent area business leaders and health care providers, including the heads of Spokane’s three major hospitals.

Sheahan claimed both legislative and business experience. He has represented the 9th Legislative District since 1992 and worked as a partner in his family’s Rosalia law firm since 1986. In 1999, he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the state Senate, where he was elected majority floor leader last year. He had been endorsed by many local politicians and the state’s most prominent law enforcement unions.

“The key now is for Republicans to rally around the winner and make sure we do everything in our power to keep the district Republican,” Sheahan said at his north Spokane headquarters Tuesday night. “I’m sure Shaun and I will get behind Cathy.”