Free Republic

BELLEVUE -- U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt is moving his political base to Bellevue, where he will live and base his campaign to unseat Sen. Patty Murray this fall. A generation ago, George Nethercutt and his bride commuted to Seattle by ferry from a cabin on the Kitsap Peninsula, he to build up a new law practice and she to work for the City Council. Today Ne-thercutt is back in the 'burbs, the new kid on the block once again. The Spokane congressman, best known for knocking off a sitting speaker of the House in 1994, has moved to Bellevue and...

Congressman George Nethercutt of Spokane is making this perfectly clear as he wages his campaign to unseat two-term U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Seattle: The two biggest concerns facing the country are international security and the cost and accessibility of health care, and he and Murray are poles apart on how best to fix those problems. Campaigning in Vancouver on Wednesday and Thursday, he said the best way to deal with both is President Bush's way, while Murray is headed in the opposite direction. For example, Nethercutt cited Murray's opposition to limits on medical malpractice judgments. Consequently, malpractice insurance is...

WASHINGTON -- Jan-12 -- (CongressDaily) Software giant Microsoft is backing Democratic Sen. Patty Murray in her re-election bid against GOP Rep. George Nethercutt. "We've supported both Patty and George. We supported George when he was a candidate for re-election in the House, but we're supporting Patty in her re-election," Jack Krumholtz, Microsoft's managing director for federal government affairs and associate general counsel, said in an interview with National Journal's Technology Daily. Krumholtz added that Murray has been a "tremendous advocate for the industry and for our company." He added that Nethercutt is a "great guy and has been a great...

STARTING IN THUNE Dick Wadhams, who in past years successfully steered the initial campaigns of Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard and Gov. Bill Owens, jumped on board the South Dakota Senate campaign of former Rep. John Thune on Monday, in what may be a pivotal race for Republicans. Thune, in announcing his decision to challenge the troubled sitting Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, said he could not take the easy way out and run for a winnable seat in the House of Representatives, when a historic opportunity awaited him in a Senate run that could tip the scales more solidly for...

Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., said Monday he has hired a veteran political strategist from Minnesota to manage his Senate campaign against Democratic incumbent Patty Murray. Tom Mason now serves as chief of staff for Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and was a consultant to Coleman's victorious 2002 campaign. He will return to Coleman's staff after the election. Mason also has served as director of communications and research for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and as press secretary to former U.S. Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn. "We need a campaign manager who understands a diverse state like ours," Nethercutt said. "Minnesota and Washington...

Urgent Call to Action “WELCOME CHENEY RALLY” 4 PM MONDAY, DEC 22nd SOUTHWEST CORNER OF NE 8TH & BELLEVUE WAY (Crate & Barrel corner) Come when you can, stay as long as possible; bring welcome signs, flags & family · This Monday, Dec 22, Vice President Dick Cheney will be in Bellevue for a fundraising reception benefiting Congressman George Nethercutt’s race for the Senate seat now held by Patty Murray. · The protest group "Not in Our Name" will lead a demonstration against the Vice President on the Bellevue Hyatt Regency corner of NE 8th & Bellevue Way. · We...

WASHINGTON — Election night is a little less than a year away, but already fingers are pointing in the race for U.S. Senate. The charge? Which candidate in Washington state is going to run the most negative campaign. While supporters of Democratic incumbent Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Spokane, say they will stick to the issues, the first volleys in the contest have been about tactics that, for the most part, have yet to be seen. Already, even staffing decisions are becoming campaign fodder. Nethercutt is said to be close to hiring veteran political operative Dick Wadhams as...

Todd Mielke is running for Nethercutt's seat.

U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, R-5th District, who recently returned from a tour of Iraq, delivered an optimistic account yesterday of reconstruction efforts in the country. Nethercutt and 16 other members of Congress went to Iraq in late September. “I think we are making tremendous progress in [Iraq],” said Nethercutt. “The story of what we have done in the post-war period … has been remarkable. … The story is better than we might be led to believe in the news.” Nethercutt portrayed an Iraqi population with optimism similar to his. Although helicopters have been in the skies above Iraq for months,...

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer supported blame-America-first Sen. Patty "Osama Mama" Murray after her praise of mass-murdering terrorist Osama bin Laden, who, in her sick fantasy world, built "day-care centers" for those liberated career gals of Afghanistan, which "we haven't done." Now her challenger, Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., has taken out ads noting the paper "deliberately distorted" and "massacred" a comment he made about American efforts in Iraq. At a forum at the University of Washington on Oct. 13, the GOP Senate candidate said the reconstruction of Iraq was "a bigger and better and more important story than losing a couple of...

<p>SEATTLE (AP) -- Rep. George Nethercutt has taken out advertisements in three of the state's biggest newspapers, saying the Seattle Post-Intelligencer "deliberately distorted" and even "massacred" a comment he made about American efforts in Iraq.</p> <p>The dispute stems from remarks the Republican congressman and U.S. Senate candidate made at a forum at the University of Washington on Oct. 13. He said the reconstruction of Iraq is "a bigger and better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day which, which heaven forbid is awful," according to a transcript from his speech.</p>

Here is the backround on this story.

U.S. Senate candidate George Nethercutt has bought newspaper advertisements to lambaste the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for a news story he called "the equivalent of a negative political commercial against me." In ads appearing today in the P-I and The Seattle Times, the Republican congressman from Spokane accused the P-I of publishing a story that "deliberately distorted" remarks he made about Iraq in a speech at the University of Washington Oct. 13. The P-I reported Oct. 14 that Nethercutt said Iraq's reconstruction was going better than news media portrayed it and that he added, "The story of what we've done in the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. government has launched a "good news" offensive in Iraq, and a couple of Baghdad street kids, peddlers of soda pop, have been recruited for the first wave of attack. On a two-day visit, U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans said thousands of new businesses have sprung up here since the war, and gave an example of new entrepreneurship: two boys he spotted by the road selling soft drinks to Baghdad's parched drivers. For the man who runs the Bank of Baghdad, however, those cola kids don't impress much. His own reading on new business is decidedly...

Supporters of Washington's Republican U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt rushed to the ramparts last week to defend their man from the dastardly liberal media. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who watched from sidelines, must have enjoyed the show. One of Nethercutt's defenders called me Friday, irate about a Maureen Dowd column in our opinion section that morning. In her trademark wicked style, Dowd had figuratively dragged 3-inch nails across Nethercutt's exposed skin. In the course of a column mocking the administration's attempts to counter bad press on Iraq, she wrote: "On Monday, Rep. George Nethercutt Jr. (R-Spokane), who visited Iraq, chimed in...

Nethercutt hails Iraq's recovery 'It is a better ... story than losing a couple of soldiers every day' Rep. George Nethercutt said yesterday that Iraq's reconstruction is going better than is portrayed by the news media, citing his recent four-day trip to the country. "The story of what we've done in the postwar period is remarkable," Nethercutt, R-Wash., told an audience of 65 at a noon meeting at the University of Washington's Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs. "It is a better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day." He added that he did...

The election of Tuesday past put on display, in Seattle and other places across our state, a desire by voters to throw open the windows of local government and let in some fresh air. It should be going to my head, since at the 36th District Democrats' debate, Seattle City Councilwoman Judy Nicastro singled out yours truly as responsible for the "negative, throw-the-rascals-out" atmosphere. Candidly, however, no Seattle columnist can take credit for the primary election defeat of Spokane Mayor John Powers, or that high-profile Bellingham Mayor Mark Asmundson trailed a challenger and took only 28 percent of the vote....

Potomac Watch: Murray fends off criticism of her 9/11 fund-raiser Saturday, September 13, 2003 By CHARLES POPE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT WASHINGTON -- While most of the nation was stooped in silence Thursday morning to commemorate the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Sen. Patty Murray was holding a $1,000-a-plate fund-raising breakfast in the nation's Capitol. The event, which raised $10,000 for Murray's campaign against George Nethercutt, was denounced by Republicans as tawdry. Even some Democrats privately questioned the wisdom of holding a fund-raiser on what is still a mournful day. "I think this says a great deal about...

Dear Mr. Nethercutt: I have received and pondered your requests for support for your campaign to unseat the despicable Sen. "Patsy" Murray (so called for her spirited defense of Bill Clinton's infidelities), but I have decided that I will not be supporting your campaign. The reason has nothing to do with you, however. Understand that like most people I have limited resources. For that reason I need to devote my time, money and efforts to campaigns that will make a difference to my life. It has recently become clear that this race is not one of those; it will make...

It's hard to say whether a news story out of Washington, D.C., reflects more shamefully on U.S. Sen. Patty Murray or on the whole congressional campaign system. According to The Hill, a newspaper that covers the capital, Democrat Murray's chief of staff has been warning political action committees not to contribute to her Republican challenger, Spokane Congressman George Nethercutt. Even if they give money to both candidates, Murray would treat it as a hostile act, according to a story by Hill writer Hans Nichols. Murray's press office declined to comment when asked by The Spokesman-Review about the report. Numerous sources...