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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

Afternoon Gotcha: Patty Murray’s Bailout Blunder

2010 Election, Politics   August 3, 2010 at 12:54 pm Josh Feit

US Sen. Patty Murray released an attack ad against Dino Rossi yesterday criticizing him for coming out against the Wall Street reform bill after holding a series of fundraisers with anti-reform bigwigs, including one with Wall Street hedge fund manager Paul Singer, at which Rossi raised $130,000.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqmy4s7HAuM&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

There’s a curious thing about the ad, though. It features a grim male voice saying “Bailouts” over an image of George Bush, an AIG logo, and a CBS News headline that says “Hard times, But Big Wall Street Bonuses.”

The problem is this: Murray voted for the Wall Street bailout herself. Twice.  She voted to approve the $700 billion in October 2008 and then she voted against a measure in January 2009 to block the release of the second $350 billion installment.

The Murray camp’s response? Referring to the financial reform bill that passed Congress last month, Murray campaign spokeswoman Julie Edwards says, “Patty Murray voted for a bill to end bailouts once and for all.  Dino Rossi wants to repeal that bill.”


  • Chris

    Cantwell did the right thing.

  • Zoomwsu

    lol, so Patty Murray has never had any fundraisers with “corporate lobbyists”?

  • tpn

    The reform bill does not end bailouts.

  • Robert_Cruickshank

    This criticism misses the point. Murray believed the bailouts were necessary to save the American economy and prevent her constituents from losing their savings. She was wrong, but she did so for the right reasons. And she voted for the recent financial regulation bill, which Rossi has said he would repeal – and Murray was right to hit him on that.

    Rossi, on the other hand, is in the pay of the Wall Street industry and would show no concern at all for Washingtonians who are suffering at the hands of the financial elite.

    Sure, this would have been a cleaner hit had Murray done the right thing and voted against the bailouts. But she didn't back them as a favor to the banksters. So the criticism here seems off the mark.

  • Zoomwsu

    That's funny, because Patty Murray has received more than $184k from the securities and investment industry this election cycle. Doesn't that mean she's also “in the pay of the Wall Street industry”?

  • RichardsonRocks

    I can't wait for the stink to hit the fan on this one. Patty Murray is a already running scared. I like Akers but I'm sticking with Dino this round. http://www.richardson4senate.com

  • Meg

    Nothing Murray has said so far lines up with the facts. The Seattle Times let the cat out of the bag that Murray is in the top two in the whole senate for taking money from big lobbyists. Patty also got a wad of cash from the infamous Abramoff scandal. But unlike others, she did not give it back – Patty kept it. Literally nothing in her ads stands up to examination. No wonder Washington D.C. is so fouled up. That needs to change.

  • Elizabeth

    I read that, too. Now others are picking up on the hypocrisy of her misleading ads. It's so obvious! I may have gotten suckered last time and now I feel duped. No more, Patty. Hear that? I'm done with you. Even if enough people believe your fibs I refuse to be one of them.

  • Elsa H.

    What's going to happen when people quit repeating what they hear about the “financial reform bill” and find out what it really does? It does NOT do away with bailouts. On the contrary, the so-called financial reform bill actually enshrines bailouts in federal law. That's why the big banks supported it after they wrote or rewrote key provisions. So Patty voted for bailouts before they were federal law and she voted to make bailouts federal law. The big lobbyists from who Patty gets more campaign money than anybody else in the entire U.S. Senate will handsomely reward her. Again.

  • Bryan S

    Worse yet, Piggy Patty claims to have stopped the airborne tanker award to a foreign company. I know several of the people involved in that. It was purely a Boeing protest that was investigated by the Government Accounting Office. Their report agreed with Boeing that irregularities had occurred in the process. That’s why it was not awarded. Patty did nothing. Except of course, try to take credit for something she never did. Time for pig face to go.

  • Fran

    The pig belongs on a spit over a hot fire.