August 22, 2007 by Bravo.

The McMorris Rodgers 2008 campaign is out of the gates more than a year early this time. And she’s making full use of our tax dollars to pay for it. McMorris Rodgers visited Walla Walla on Wednesday (August 22) for a town hall meeting.

Of course meeting announcements were printed in full color and mailed on the congressional franking privilege at taxpayer expense. She brought a staff of four to the meeting (at whose expense?). The meeting was held at 1:30 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon for the convenience of workers in the area. And she took the opportunity to collect names and addresses for her monthly newsletter.

But more than 120 locals skipped work and turned out, most with some bone to pick—from vets and peace activists to medical marijuana users and reproductive rights advocates.

McMorris Rodgers took questions in writing only, so she could pick and choose which to respond to. And to her credit, she has learned to dance lightly around a number of issues with the help of Frank Luntz and his political bromides—working in references to the “death tax” and the “Healthy Forests” initiative.

And she gave us, once again, the “happy Iraq” story, praising benchmarks that have been set and met there and promising no long-term military presence.

One of the toughest questions came from a Planned Parenthood representative who asked why she had voted to cut funding for the organization. McMorris Rodgers responded that she’s pro-life and doesn’t support federal funding for these types of organizations. The questioner persisted asking where the 3,000 people who currently use Planned Parenthood services in the area were supposed to go. McMorris Rodgers just buried her head in the next card.

Posted in 2008, Walla Walla, Campaigns, Fifth CD, Cathy McMorris | 1 Comment »

June 13, 2007 by Bravo.

Looking for a change, former Walla Walla County Democratic Party Chair Nina Roth has turned her position over to retired dairy farmer Bill McCaw. Roth will continue to serve the state party as the committee woman for the county, with Conrad Cavazos serving as the county’s male party rep.

Tom Schmerer, an IT contractor, has assumed the role of chair of the 16^th Legislative District, a position formerly held by Pasco’s Roy Dehart. Schmerer lost a state senate race against Mike Hewitt of Walla Walla in 2004.

Roth did a fabulous job during her tenure as county chair in organizing party efforts, including recruiting volunteers, turning out voters at rallies and distributing yard signs. The party has worked hard in this county to make itself heard. And it has had to. The Rs in the county hold such a numerical advantage that they seem to have become lax about such distasteful political activities as door-to-door canvassing.

Finding good Democratic candidates to run in this district is another challenge. In fact, Democratic candidates sometimes feel they can do better running away from the party than with it—some go so far as to say that being hand-picked by the party is, in this county, the kiss of death. So the party doesn’t have much real leverage in enticing good candidates to run.

The strength for the WW County Dems in 2008 may be in the work they have done to encourage grassroots activism among the party faithful here. They have a base to build from, experienced volunteers, and more than a few voters dissatisfied with the direction of the country.

Posted in Rural, Fifth CD | 2 Comments »

June 12, 2007 by Stuck In Spokane.

I was the recipient of a pretty interesting email that was forwarded to me yesterday. Written by someone within the state Democratic party, the party official was asked about who would be running for Congress here in the Fifth. The response was that the party would be asking Chris Marr to run for Congress. If he wasn’t willing to run now then ask him to MAYBE consider running in 2010 or 2012? This is an interesting possibility and one that has definite potential.

Marr could give McMorris a definite run for her money. If Marr can get past the city slicker aura and reach out to rural communities, then this race will be as dangerous to McMorris as Bush is to the free world. He has the fundraising structure in place, more importantly, that fundraising base is centered here in Spokane. This is something recent candidates for the Fifth Congressional District have notoriously had problems with. Combine the ability to raise money in Spokane, with money that will surely flow in from the coast, and Marr will hit Cathy McMorris hard right out the gate.

Chris won’t face name recognition problems that many candidates in the past have had. Chris ran a lot of television ads in 2006 for his State Senate seat. These ads ran through almost the entire Congressional District as the Spokane television market covers from Okanogan county all the way down to Asotin county. The ads will be fresh in the minds of district residents when they start to hear his name come up as the campaign cycle kicks off.

Best of luck Chris, we know with your work ethic and your character you will do us proud!

In other news, there also seems to be some credence to the rumor that Cathy may not seek re-election after all. She may have just hired a campaign manager to keep a presence and also to meet her fundraising needs for the R.N.C.C. At this point I suspect her fundraising goals are fairly steep, considering the scramble the Republican party is in to regain power. So keep an ear to the ground and see what you hear, maybe we’ll learn that Cathy will step aside and let a more qualified individual represent our district.

Posted in Spokane, Campaigns, Fifth CD, Cathy McMorris | 9 Comments »

June 2, 2007 by Stuck In Spokane.

The left has never been accused of being particularly nice to Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, but we can’t help but sympathize with the situation she is presently in. She has consistently voted to cut special education spending, and put children with disabilities across the country at a disadvantage.
Cathy announced on Thursday that her son, Cole McMorris-Rodgers has been diagnosed with Down Syndrome. I truly hope that it is not a severe case and that he will grow up to lead a happy and for the most part normal life. I also hope that this will give Cathy a different perspective on one of the many social issues she has neglected during her time in public office. My thoughts are with Cathy, her husband, and most of all Cole.
However, despite giving birth a month early, and this latest revelations Cathy is still very much in the game (despite rumors to the contrary). On May 1st (just days before her son was born) Cathy’s new campaign manager arrived in Spokane, his name is Lonny (lonny@cathyforcongress.com). He has been seen at parades all around the region with Cathy’s father, Wayne McMorris. She has clearly decided that 2008 will not be a repeat of 2006 where Peter Goldmark caught her with her pants down and she had to pull out every stop in order to beat him (Tax Man anyone?). He is working 40 hours a week and attempting to develop a grass-roots network so that Cathy can glide to an easy re-election.
This serves as a warning to the residents of Eastern Washington. We may not have a candidate yet, but that sure as hell isn’t stopping Cathy from running against the Democrats in general. I would expect that Cathy will probably begin doing mailers when she is home in August, and probably doing several fundraisers (she still has around 100k in the bank from the last time round) to build her war chest and be ready to character assassinate anyone who runs against her.
On another note, I’d love to know who the Spokane County Democrats have been talking to regarding running against Cathy this time round. I know that despite popular rumor Dr. Goldmark is choosing to run for a different elected position in this cycle, one that will definitely suit him. I’ve heard rumors that Chris Marr is thinking about a run against her as he is not up for re-election until 2010 which means even if he loses to Cathy he isn’t down and out. I’d love to hear some names kicked around and maybe even a firm announcement before the end of the summer. Whoever it is will definitely be playing catch-up in the money game with Cathy starting this early.

That’s all for now folks,
Stuck in Spokane

Posted in Campaigns, Fifth CD, Cathy McMorris | 1 Comment »