What are they afraid of?

Why do some candidates feel the need to hide what they really believe? Why do some candidates distance themselves from conservatives? I think in part the answer lies in this comment made on Facebook a couple of weeks ago by Erin Aboudara. “Where is the evidence that independent voters, who make up the majority of the electorate in this state, are just itching to vote for Clint Didier or any other conservative candidates.”

My response would be this: where is the evidence that independent voters, who make up  the majority of the electorate in this state,are just itching to support moderate to liberal-leaning republican candidates?

Okay, let’s take a trip down memory lane.  John Carlson (2000),  George Nethercutt (2004),  Mike McGavick (2006), Dino Rossi (2008), and  Susan Hutchison (2009). Yes, they all lost and in the end the outcome wasn’t even close. One of the biggest things they all have in common is they distanced themselves from the base of the party—conservatives. Another thing they all have in common is we never really knew what their position was on most issues. All you ever got from them was a bunch of double and triple talk. Let me cite a couple of examples of what I mean.

I remember back in the spring of 2005 that Grover Norquist of  Americans for Tax Reform came to see who of the potential candidates for US senate would sign the no tax pledge. Initially only Susan Hutchison signed it. (Yes, she did.) Mike McGavick refused to sign. Shortly thereafter Chris Vance  started getting questioned about why McGavick wouldn’t sign. Well he kept insisting that Mike McGavick had in fact signed the pledge. However if you were to check the list of signers on the Americans for Tax Reform’s website McGavick’s name was nowhere to be found. So I personally emailed Grover Norquist and asked whether Mike McGavick had signed the pledge. Well as it turns out he did, but this is where its gets a little weird. Grover’s assistant responded to my inquiry. She said that Mike McGavick signed the pledge but requested that it not be made public at that time. In other words, Mr McGavick wanted to have his cake and eat it, too. Were it not for Doug Parris it probably would never have been made public. Why would you want to hide something like this?

I remember in the fall of 2009 as we all watched the King county executive race unfold. Many times I wondered what in the hell was Susan doing! I will give you one example and there are many I could cite. I remember when Susan told a reporter from the Seattle PI “I will probably not be voting for Eyman’s spending initiative” (yes that’s what she called I-1033) and then a few weeks later during a forum called that same initiative a disaster. Ladies and gentleman, I had many discussions with Susan prior to the election, about politics and life in general. What all of you witnessed during that race wasn’t the real Susan. She doesn’t believe any of that crap that she and her staff shoveled in that election. Susan, as good as she is, knows that she can’t put one over on me. Without going into it, Susan knows she can’t and because of that she won’t ever try to. That whole thing was just a sad pathetic campaign of deception. Had Susan just been herself she would have won easily. Unfortunately all she ended up doing was causing permanent damage to her reputation.

2010 Dino Rossi and Hans Zeiger

Quick, think fast! Who said  “over time you kind of temper some of the things you once believed”? If you guessed Dino Rossi you would be right. However he wasn’t the only one who said something like that. From Hans Zeiger’s blog 10/1/2010 “My opponent’s campaign staff has been glad to point out that I was opinionated in my early college days. In time I outgrew some of those opinions…” [Zeiger is running for Washington State Representative  District 25 Position #2.]

Now let me say I like Hans and I hope he wins. I do. I’m a little disappointed and puzzled by some of the things he’s been doing during the election. If you look at the endorsement section of his website, so far as I can tell there’s only one conservative listed and that would be Bruce Dammeier. [Bruce is the State District 25 Position 1 representative.] At the top of the list is none other than Rob McKenna. For a while the Mainstream Republicans of Washington were at the very top of the list of organizations supporting Hans. Again, none of those on the list are conservative organizations and his Republican opponent from the primary has endorsed the Democrat in this election. Why? and why the lack of conservative support?

Dino Rossi’s  campaign might as well be called, “How to run for political office without really trying.” Did all of you know that Dino wasn’t the first choice of the State GOP or the RNC to run against Patty Murray? Believe it or not, Susan Hutchison was their first choice and we’ll just leave it at that.

Anyway, does anyone know where Dino stands on most issues? Well I guess we know where he stands on the new federal health care bill… or do we?  Back during the week of the State GOP convention Dino was asked at the Washington Patriot Coalition forum that very question. He at that point said he wanted to “fix parts” of the bill. Now Dino says he wants to repeal the entire bill. So now all of a sudden he changes his position on that issue. Why?

To sum this all up lets just take one issue and tell you what these four individuals have said about it.

Mike McGavick, during a debate with Maria Cantwell, when he was asked about abortion said “I find myself somewhere in the middle.”

Dino Rossi: Look, I know the National Right to Life organization has endorsed him [although they say in response to Reagan Wing questioning, that they would prefer a candidate with a "no exception" life policy] and sent out a flier showing the differences between Dino and Patty Murray. While it all sounds pretty good, I’m not convinced due to his actions and inaction of late, what he really believes. Challenged on his “exceptions” by the Washington Life Coalition in their “Little Emily” video, he refused to respond. His action? He dispatched third party apologists to claim endorsement of his “Morning After” position by the Catholic Church… endorsement no one can find and no one is willing to publicly remember. His inaction? Challenged by Clint Didier to take the simplest and most basic step, endorsing Ron Paul’s bill confirming the States’ right to protect innocent human life, he refused to move.

Hans Zeiger: He has chosen to not make social issues part of his campaign. He has said in the past that he is pro-life so for now I will take him at his word.

Susan Hutchison: Yes, Susan is pro-life. But during the King County Executive race this is what she said, when asked: “Abortion is a divisive issue and I’m a uniter not a divider.” When I heard her say this I wanted to grab her by the arm and say “Susan, that was a terrible answer!” This is what I would have said: “Abortion is a divisive issue but that’s because the Democrats have made that way. However I am pro-life. If standing up and trying to protect human life is wrong then I don’t want to be King County Executive.” That’s what I would have said.

Instead, what we have are candidates trying to hide what they believe or pretend to be something they are not. Since the advent of the internet this strategy of deception has failed repeatedly. The reason this strategy doesn’t work (it’s wrong to begin with) is because almost right away you are planting doubt in the minds of a lot of voters. They don’t think they can trust the prospective candidates.

We the people have to stop supporting these kinds of candidates. Because if we don’t hold our candidates to a higher standard than this nothing will ever change.

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