Democrats’ leaders fire up crowd

VANCOUVER, Wash. –Delegates to the Washington State Democratic Convention on Saturday cheered U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Democrats in Congress, applauded the call to create clean energy jobs, differed on whether to endorse a marijuana legalization initiative, nominated two of their own in this year’s congressional races – and managed to squeeze in most of the World Cup match between the U.S. and Ghana during their lunch break.

A total of 714 voting delegates attended the convention proper at the Clark County Events Center, a cavernous venue that left plenty of empty space around the folding chairs. In contrast, nearly 1,200 delegates attended the state GOP convention at the Hilton Vancouver Washington two weeks ago.

Two messages dominated the day: Democrats are the party that represents the middle class, and Americans can’t afford to turn back the clock to 2008.

“Voters are anxious and confused,” said Washington Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz. “Americans are looking for answers. I truly believe Americans are trying to decide which party cares about the middle class.”

“We cannot go backward,” said U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver. “The last time it happened we had a young, charismatic president,” Baird said, invoking 1994, when six of Washington’s then eight congressional seats shifted from Democrats to Republicans midway through President Bill Clinton’s first term.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine delivered a feisty speech in which he invited Republicans to pin their 2010 congressional campaigns on repeal of the health reform bill.

“Let that be the battle,” Kaine said. “Bring out the bumper stickers that say, ‘Bring back pre-existing conditions.’”

Kaine called the health reform bill that Democrats passed this year an addition to the party’s enduring legacy, in the same category as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Civil Rights Act.

The difference, he said, is that on those landmark bills, there were at least a few Republican votes. This time, he said, “the Republicans would not lift a finger. We put this one up on the mantle by ourselves.”

After President Barack Obama’s election, Kaine said, “We were in a ditch and we had to build a ladder.

“The issue Democrats face in the midterms is, Do we want to keep climbing or do we want to put it back in the hands of the guys who put us in the ditch in the first place?”

Murray, wearing jeans and her trademark tennis shoes and accompanied by her own parade of supporters, delivered her second speech to the convention in as many days. She was introduced by Seattle fifth-grader Marcellus Owen. He told Murray a sad story about his mother, who died when he was 7 after she became ill and lost her job and health insurance. The boy became Murray’s cause célèbre during her campaign for passage of health care reform.

“I am going to need your help this year more than ever before,” Murray told the delegates, acknowledging the tough challenge she faces in her race for a fourth term. Former two-time gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi and tea party Republican Clint Didier, a former NFL player, are the leading Republicans running in the August top two primary for the chance to challenge her in the fall.

Though Murray refrained from mentioning Rossi by name in her stump speech, she took a shot at the commercial real estate investor Saturday. “Unlike some others who are giving lectures on how to profit from foreclosure,” she said, she is fighting to help people keep their homes and get mortgage counseling.

In a press conference after her speech, Murray was asked her reaction to a new Rasmussen poll showing that if she and Rossi faced each other in an election today, each would get 46 percent of the vote.

Murray waved off the poll results. “I have been told I’m vulnerable every time I’ve run for re-election,” she said.

Asked whether she’d rather face Rossi or Didier, she said, “I so don’t worry about that. They have a right in this great democracy to tell people what they believe in. I’ll tell people what I believe in.”