Home is where the votes are

Fri., Sept. 24, 2004

By Jim Camden jimc@spokesman.com (509) 879-7461

Ad Watch

A regular feature truth-testing the claims made in political advertising.

The ad: "Professional Politician," a 30-second TV commercial for Democrat Patty Murray, criticizes Republican challenger George Nethercutt for three things: running for more than three terms despite a 1994 pledge not to, "moving" to Bellevue and missing recent votes in the House because he was campaigning.

Opponent's reaction: The Nethercutt campaign called the ad a lie and the National Republican Senate Committee called on stations to pull the ad (none has). To counter the claim Nethercutt moved, they sent out a copy of a certificate from the Spokane County Elections Office that he is registered to vote at the same South Hill address he's had since 1980.

Campaign response: As they have in the past, Murray forces sent out clips of Nethercutt telling Western Washington residents that he is "their neighbor" after renting an apartment in Bellevue as he campaigns in the more populous part of the state. "Sometimes the truth hurts," the Murray campaign argued.

Bottom line: The ad isn't false because Nethercutt did change his mind on term limits, has missed some recent votes and does have an apartment in Bellevue. But the argument over where he lives would have to be considered low on voters' priorities in a time of war and economic uncertainty. The certificate on his voting residence doesn't prove anything, because Nethercutt does not live at the address shown – he and his wife own that house but rent it out while they have a home in Virginia outside of Washington, D.C. Most of the year, Nethercutt – like Murray and most other members of Congress – lives in or around Washington, where voters sent them to take care of legislation.

For most people, the question “Where do you live?” is easy to answer. Not so in Washington’s U.S. Senate race.

Sen. Patty Murray has a television commercial questioning the residence – and by inference, the trustworthiness – of her Republican challenger, Rep. George Nethercutt.

He “moved to Bellevue to advance his political career,” says the commercial, airing on both sides of the state.

Nethercutt’s campaign and allies in the National Republican Senate Committee have called the commercial a lie that should be pulled from the air. They said a recent document from the Spokane County elections office proves his residence is on Spokane’s South Hill and that “he voted there … on Sept. 14, 2004.”

“Ms. Murray’s latest attack on George Nethercutt is more than a political stretch, it is blatantly false and intentionally misleading,” said Dan Allen, spokesman for the committee which pushes GOP candidates for the Senate. Murray once headed a similar committee on the Democratic side.

The Murray forces fired back with clips of Nethercutt telling West Side voters he was their “neighbor.”

“You’re in my neighborhood, I live right across the street over there,” he said during a June rally in Bellevue.

Television stations have refused to yank the commercial.

So where does Nethercutt live?

The certificate from the elections office shows only that he is registered to vote at an address on East Highland Boulevard in Spokane, and that he did cast a ballot in the Sept. 14 primary. But that doesn’t prove what the GOP campaign committee suggests.

The address on the certificate is the house where Nethercutt lived with his wife and two children before he was elected to Congress in 1994. For a year after he took office, they stayed in Spokane and he spent most weekends commuting to and from Washington, D.C. Then the family bought a house in suburban Virginia so they could spend more time together; the house on East Highland was rented out but never sold.

He’s registered to vote by absentee ballot, although this year he had planned to deliver that ballot to his old precinct polling station in Spokane for an election-day photo opportunity as he campaigned for the Senate. When a last minute-change forced him to return to Washington, D.C., for another kind of vote in the House, his wife dropped off the ballot at the polling station.

Because their South Hill house is rented out, when Nethercutt is in town he usually sleeps at his mother’s house on the North Side. Earlier this year, he also rented an apartment in Bellevue, a few blocks from his main campaign headquarters. When he’s campaigning in Western Washington, where the majority of the state’s voters live, he sleeps at that apartment – which is the place he means when trying to score points with Puget Sound voters.

Nethercutt said the apartment isn’t his home, just a place to sleep with bare bones furniture and a few changes of clothes. A campaign staff member said she loaned him some of the furniture that her college-age son was discarding.

Under Washington state law, Nethercutt can claim the East Highland address in Spokane as his legal residence for voting, even though he doesn’t sleep there. Twelve years ago, a Spokane County candidate was allowed to claim the camper he had on a vacant lot near Newman Lake as his residence when registering to vote, even though he stored his clothes in an apartment on North Division. Opponents claimed Skip Chilberg was listing the camper because his previous address was in a different commissioner district; Chilberg won the commissioner seat anyway.

Under the “anywhere I hang my hat” rule, home for Nethercutt would be Bellevue some nights, north Spokane others, and Virginia most of the year. On that last point, he’s no different than his predecessor, former House Speaker Tom Foley, who had a small apartment in Spokane, and townhouse a few blocks from the Capitol where he lived while in Washington, D.C.

Murray supporters are quick to mention that in 1994, Nethercutt cited the Washington townhouse as one sign that Foley had lost touch with his constituents.

Neither Nethercutt nor the Republican campaign committee has challenged the other two criticisms of the commercial: that he supported term limits and promised to serve only three terms when first elected in 1994 but is currently finishing his fifth term; and that he has missed some House votes while campaigning for the Senate.

Nethercutt said voters have already accepted his switch on term limits by re-electing him, and that he’s doing his best to balance campaigning and votes in the House until Congress adjourns. The Murray campaign regularly sends out notices of votes he misses, such as last week’s rejection of the Bush administration overtime rules, and his congressional office sends updates on votes he takes, including Thursday’s vote to extend tax cuts.