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Edited on Sun Oct-31-04 01:43 AM by JDWalley
This was originally Republican Golden Girl Jennifer Dunn (a.k.a. "Congresswoman Dunnderhead")'s safe seat, but she decided to retire just at the time the district was moving from hard-conservative to swing (Gore won 49%-47% here in 2000).
The contest is between Democrat Dave Ross, a very popular local talk-show host who practically typifies "middle of the road," and Republican Dave Reichart, the King County Sheriff, whose main claim to fame is being "on watch" when the Green River Killer was apprehended (and who has not been shy about claiming credit for himself, to the extent of writing a book about it with the subtext that he was "the man who caught the Green River Killer" :eyes: ), and whose charismatic "good guy" demeanor masks a far-right agenda.
Up to a month or so ago, Ross was safely ahead by about a 10% margin. Then the Republican National Committee unleashed a series of attack ads the likes of which I've never seen before. The gist of these ads is a) that Ross, while broadcasting from a tour of Baghdad, described our occupation as "slipping into repression" (which means that he "blames America," has "insulted our troops," and "aided America's enemies") and b) that he once proposed the $100 billion missile defense system (which is spun as merely demanding a $100 billion cut in defense, with the implication that he wants to cut the security programs that would protect us from Big Bid Bin Laden).
These ads were the most shameless I have ever seen and, at the outset, seemed laughable. However, the RNC has been relentless in hammering the message home (there has only been one day in the past two weeks when we did not get a minimum of four direct mail RNC attack ads in our postbox). Apparently, the adage holds true that, if you throw enough garbage up against a wall, some of it will stick, and the latest polls show that Reichart has caught up with and passed Ross, with about a four-percent lead with eleven percent still undecided. It's not over yet, but the past month has given me no reason to doubt the gullibility of voters from my district.
:grr:
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