This article was originally posted on Friday.
GOP Hopeful Clint Didier
On Thursday night, at a forum organized by the King County Young Republicans, six of the GOP candidates angling to take on U.S. Senator Patty Murray in November sat together on the stage of the North Bellevue Community Center. More than 150 people packed the common room to hear the candidates talk about the economy, health care, and the limits of national government. (One candidate, Craig Williams, an energy trader from Vancouver, even presented a constitutional amendment that would prohibit politicians for running for reelection if the national debt hadn’t been lowered within their term of office.)
The crowd was mostly older, despite that the event was being put on by the Young Republicans–but not decisively so. (At one point, a couple of college-aged kids came up to me and said they were sure they had played beer pong with me at a house party once).
The six candidates on the community center stage represented a fraction of a field that includes at least 11 actively-campaigning candidates, all of whom have been dismissed as having little chance of beating Murray. State Sen. Don Benton (R-17, Vancouver)—a prominent Republican leader in the state Senate, and former state Republican party chairman, notable for, among other things, proposing the complete elimination of state property taxes and introducing legislation that would put convicted drug users in jail for life—was not at the forum. Nor was Dino Rossi, about whom the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is clearly nervous.
Likely to win or not, the GOP crew was united in their belief that the Federal government is dangerously intrusive and even tyrannous. All of the candidates noted that the U.S. was on the path to socialism, and each emphasized their commitment to, above all else, the Constitution.
Clint Didier, a former NFL star and Eastern Washington hay farmer, repeatedly referenced his tenure in the NFL. And his decision to run, the way he told it, sounded like a personal vendetta against the government. “When I get to DC, there’s gonna be hell to pay. When they flirt with my kids’ future, their individual liberty and their freedom, there will be hell to pay,” Didier said.
His pace slowed, and his voice lowered: “You see, when somebody gets into a fight, it’s that person who’s willing to die, that’s gonna come out the winner. If I have any strength left in me, I will fight and die for our future, our children, and this country.”
The crowd seemed to shudder, and then broke out in applause; every person I talked to after forum seemed struck by Didier’s enthusiasm. “If this new healthcare is so damn good, put the Senators on it,” added Dider. “They think they’re better than us. They’re not. They’re Americans, just like us.”
“This early on, it’s really for the political junkies,” said one guy in front of me, and it seemed true—a couple of people had drawn large matrices on sheets of paper and were charting the candidates’ positions as they responded to questions, like how to address health care and what the first thing they would do upon arriving in DC would be.
Sean Salazar, a chiropractor from Mountlake Terrace with very good posture who said he grew up in public housing in Holly Park, said he wanted to reach out to the inner city and argued the Republican party “should never have lost the black vote … we pioneered the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment, and wrote every piece of civil rights legislation on the books” (nevermind Democratic Senator and President LBJ, I suppose. Salazar also called me “Boss”).
Salazar.
The conversation hardly veered from the economy and health care (the candidates unanimously hailed Attorney General Rob McKenna for joining a multi-state lawsuit to overturn the healthcare legislation signed into law March 23).
Art Coday, a primary care physician from Shoreline, scored points when he talked about how he exclusively sees medicare and medicaid patients. He also talked about keeping troops in Afghanistan, and about his own record of public service—Coday was one of two private citizens who made legal challenges to Christine Gregoire’s 129-vote victory in the 2004 gubernatorial election.
Chris Widener, a stocky, spikey-haired author and leadership coach from Preston, who was the last prominent candidate to join the race, said his target is moderate voters, particularly in Western Washington. “As you leave tonight, and pass apartment building after apartment building, ask yourself which candidate is going to be able to get the votes of those independent, moderate voters who are going to determine this election.” This meant, within the context of the forum, at least, sharply eschewing social issues like abortion and gun rights that the other candidates mentioned and focusing on the issue of the decreasing the national debt. The crowd seemed to like Widener, but didn’t seem nearly as energized as they were by Didier or Coday.
James “Skip” Mercer, a UW geophysics professor from Kenmore, and Paul Akers, a wood products manufacturer from Bellingham, had the least traction with the audience. They were the only names that didn’t come up as I asked forum attendees to tell me who they like most. Mercer played a one-note tune about how the country was headed toward socialism; Akers said he would cut government waste and kept talking about a business concept he developed called “lean thinking.”
I talked to Jeanie McCombs, an accountant from Kirkland, and Bev (who didn’t want to give me her last name), a retired public school worker from Everett, as they were leaving the forum. They liked Salazar because he wants to reach out to lower-income and non-white voters in the city; they liked Coday because they said he was someone they felt they could talk to about intimidating issues like health care.
“People see conservatives as not caring about the downtrodden, which is not true” said McCombs, who said conservatism was about empowering people to succeed for themselves—she mentioned she was especially disappointed with UW students who had protested the state legislature asking for more tuition assistance. She said she liked Salazar because he “wants to go out and teach conservative principles.”
Brian Ellis, an employee at a software company from Sammamish, said Didier struck him the most of the whole bunch. “The way he spoke, you could tell it really mattered to him.” His eyes lit up. “I was also really impressed with Craig Williams.” He also liked Salazar and Coday, but said after tonight, he would be crossing out a couple of names, and took out his notebook to show me the chart he made during the forum.
