DelBene is running against a Republican House incumbent, Dave Reichert. The 8th district is now a swing district. It's never been held by a Democrat, but Gore carried it in 2000 (49-47), Kerry carried in 2004 (51-48), and Obama carried it in 2008 (57-42). Cook rates it as leaning Democrat (+3 D) So she has a chance to win the district, though I would say that this year the odds are against her.
In the last two weeks, I've been seeing this DelBene commercial on our local TV stations. It begins by showing Congressman Reichert on the House floor. Here's my rough transcript:
Reichert: The American people are sick and tired of broken government. They're sick and tired of business as usual.
Announcer: Dave Reichert's right. After six years in Congress, voting against Wall Street reform, while taking their contributions and requesting $325 million in earmarks, we can't afford Dave Reichert's business as usual.
Suzan DelBene: I'm Suzan DelBene, and I approved this message.
I've spent my business career focused on the bottom line, and I'll cut my own pay until we balance the budget.
Because it's time we stopped passing on debt to our kids
If you, like nearly everyone in the Tea Party movement, are worried about our massive Obama-Pelosi-Reid deficits, then you'll probably find that commercial appealing. She's says she's against business as usual, earmarks, and deficits. She'll even give up her own pay until the budget is balanced, perhaps because she is independently wealthy, perhaps because she hopes to be in Congress a long, long time.
But the commercial did leave me wondering just how she intends to balance the budget. (And whether she has told our senior senator, Patty Murray, that she will have to give up earmarks, or the Democratic congressman from the nearby 6th district, Norm Dicks, that he was going to have to give up some of that military pork.)
So I looked at her campaign site and found her economic plan. Although it's ten pages long, it has no bottom line. She favors R&D tax breaks for businesses and more spending on inefficient "Green" jobs. She favors patent reform, which is probably a good idea, in principle. She favors spending more money on our inefficient education system. She favors tax breaks for small business. She's a "strong supporter of the Obama Administration's National Export Initiative", but says nothing about the three unratified free trade pacts with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. She wants to spend more money on infrastructure, including that classic boondoggle, high speed rail. She wants to go back to Depression era financial regulations, but says nothing about the problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. She is in favor of vastly expanded regulation of our financial industries — and does not seem to understand that the consumer often ends up paying for those regulations.
So, all together she's in favor of more tax cuts, more spending, much of it on dubious projects, and more regulation — and she favors a return to "fiscal responsibility".
She does not explain how more tax cuts and more spending would lead us to fiscal responsibility.
Nor does she mention, even once, in that entire document, entitlements.
Her economic "plan" appears to have come from a different candidate than the one who approved that commercial.
So which do we believe, that entertaining commercial, or that dismaying economic "plan"?
I'm inclined to believe that the "plan" gives us a more accurate picture of her thinking. But I don't really know, since I can't see into her mind. But I know how I would bet, and I know how I would vote, were I in the 8th district.
Cross posted at Jim MIller on Politics.
(Incidentally, this little post should give our local reporters some interesting questions to ask Ms. DelBene — assuming, for the sake of argument, that they would like to commit journalism.)
Posted by Jim Miller at September 20, 2010 02:28 PM | Email ThisIt is, by the way, especially bad manners to make the first, or even one of the first ten comments, off topic.
Please show ordinary politeness and comment on DelBene's commercial and economic plan. You can either agree with me and say they are inconsistent, or disagree with me and argue that they are consistent.
But do try to behave in a civil fashion, leaving out the insults, and staying on topic.
Behave as a guest, not as a vandal or graffiti artist.
She doesn't represent me; and I'm in her district.
PS--I think CnR is working hard on getting banned from this site.
Posted by: Michele on September 20, 2010 04:25 PMI also heard that Dick Muri vs. Adam Smith is now rated a toss-up according to David Boze - that's a good surprise.
Posted by: KDS on September 20, 2010 06:31 PMWashington State appears to be the only state in the union that is not in open revolt against Obongo, Pelosi and their all-out war against the Constitution and the American people. Up here in pork & latte land, it's Patty Murray and business as usual. Why?
Posted by: Saltherring on September 21, 2010 06:32 AMA critical mass is being reached with regard to the incompetent, irresponsible, obnoxious PC and feckless governance of Demo-marxists. A severe recession coupled with the incompetent/ ineffective policies of leftist elites are combining to create a perfect storm for them.
Your average idiot Seattle socialist is not immune from watcing his/ her tax dollars pissed away on bad government and pay-offs to government union folks. Captitol Hill apartment Trolls will continue to back the status quo.
Anyone who has a stake in the future (you own a home of have children) will see the negative/ destructive nature of the liberal status quo.
Posted by: Attila on September 21, 2010 08:39 AMSecond, on the flip side, I have not seen a Tea Party candidate who is serious about really reducing the deficit and cutting spending. Most still stick with the "starve the beast" mentality and assume if one cuts revenues that Congress will cut spending accordingly. Theory doesn't meet actual practice however, on either side of the aisle when it comes to cutting spending. Earmarks are drop in the bucket compared to the big cuts that need to happen. A good question for any candidate would be are they willing to dramatically alter Social Security, like raise the age and cut benefits, especially for wealthier receipients? Another good question is are they willing to tackle the defense department budget? If they rule both of these out of bounds and want to add back in the cost cutting to Medicare that was in the Health Care bill (i.e.,repeal health care == let Medicare run rampant), then in my mind they are not any more serious about cutting the deficit and government spending than Ms DelBene.
Maybe we should be like Nevada and have "None of the Above" on the ballot. It would be interesting to see how many votes that choice gets.
Posted by: tc on September 21, 2010 10:23 AMBut as many now have some skin in the game, they are waking up to the reality that bottomless spending and unfunded pension liabilities doesn't make for a balanced spreadsheet.
I just don't buy it for a moment. A liberal is a liberal to the bitter end.
Posted by: Crusader on September 21, 2010 11:47 AMMany such people I know have privately confided to me that they've lost faith in the bureaucracy that continually rewards incompetence and union allegiance. I just had this discussion with an elementary school teacher the other day. She sees just how much waste there is in administrative overhead. She hates the fact that incompetence is protected by the unions.
Posted by: Jeff B. on September 21, 2010 12:13 PMWhat little I read of her bio reminded me an awfully lot (in a awfully BAD way) of Darcy Burner but she does come off less shrill and far less condescending than DB.
Posted by: RagnarDanneskjold on September 21, 2010 03:52 PMIn their own minds, the unwashed masses should be cheering for liberals, laying flowers at their feet and signing over their assets to them out of profound gratitude for obamacare, tax increases, quadrupling our debt, and insulting our intelligence with new speak such as "man caused disaster".
Posted by: Attila on September 22, 2010 10:23 PMShe's just Darcy Burner with a bank account. Nothing new here except this is a Repub. year and will mean Reichert's biggest win yet.
Del Benzene didn't vote in nearly all recent elections. Not voting in regular elections = not representing me in Congress.
Posted by: Obama's Teleprompter on September 22, 2010 11:32 PMDave Reichert is one of the few Republicans out there who realizes that Global warming is for real and is willing to stand up and take action to do something about it.
It took much courage for him to buck the Republican line and act independently to protect our environment by voting for critical cap and trade legislation. He's support made the bill bipartisan.
Here's a video that sums up why we should all support Dave Reichert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqR4PJR3xYA
Yes, thank you Dave Reichert. I am hoping with him in office he can help to stop the Republicans from electing more envirohaters to office but instead get into office more people who are in line with with the Mainstream of America.