The Daily News endorses Rivers

It speaks for itself:

Send Rivers to Olympia; retain Takko and Blake

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Send Rivers to Olympia; retain Takko and Blake

Posted: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 12:15 am No Comments Posted

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• Related: Booth, Hanks are best choices in county races

Sept. 29 Daily News editorial

Three Southwest Washington House seats are up for grabs in the upcoming general election. Nineteenth Legislative District incumbents Dean Takko, D-Longview, and Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, have drawn challenges from Republican Kurt Swanson of Kelso and Independent Tim Sutinen of Longview, respectively. In the 18th Legislative District, Republican Ann Rivers of La Center squares off against Democrat Dennis Kampe of Brush Prairie on the Nov. 2 ballot. Rivers and Kampe are vying to replace Jaime Herrera, who gave up the 18th District seat to make a run for Congress.

....

Neither candidate in the race for the 18th District House seat has legislative experience. But Republican Ann Rivers impressed us as most capable of succeeding in the give-and-take of state politics. Rivers has a professional's understanding of the political process that likely would be of considerable value in Olympia. She's managed a number of political campaigns, as well as advised corporate clients on political issues. Rivers also has worked with the Republican Caucus in the Legislature and as a consultant with the House Republican Organizational Committee in Southwest Washington.

Rivers also is the candidate most familiar with Cowlitz County, having lived here for many years. We believe Ann Rivers can be an effective representative for the 18th District, and urge voters to send her to Olympia.

Cross posted at Clark County Politics.

Kampe campaign: mud slinging from the start.

With roughly 6 weeks to go until Dennis Kampe joins the long list of failed democrat candidates, his campaign, unfortunately, has already started the mud-slinging contest so reminiscent of the Jon Russell campaign.

Russell, who has publicly endorsed Rivers while privately supporting Kampe, who Kampe has described as his "good friend and political adviser," ran one of the most underhanded, filthy, inaccurate and flat out lying campaigns it has been my displeasure to witness.

Well, here's your sign: stick to issues, Dennis.

Look, I know you're a democrat with both hands tied behind your back: first, as I said, you're a democrat. In the 18th, that means you're in the wrong party in a year where democrats have become the political equivalent of child molesters due to their demand for tax increases in the middle of a recession, their kow-towing to union thuggery, their out of control spending, their efforts to bury this nation under a horrific mountain of debt, their failed economic strategies that screw the tax payer and their corruption and incompetence at the top.

Your second hand tied behind your back is your positions.

You support the bridge. You support light rail. You support a state income tax. You oppose privatization of liquor stores and any other government function.

So, you go so far as to attack Ann Rivers directly instead of talk about the issues... because, of course, you know you can't win on the issues.

"The voters of the 18th Legislative District have an important choice to make this November. Some people seem impressed that Ann Rivers already has plans. But are these plans that have been informed by her time lobbying for special interests?"

This is an excerpt from a canned Kampe campaign letter directly from Kampe's campaign organization that was farmed out to get someone who has no clue to sign it and send it in to a newspaper. (As a general rule, any letter that sounds like campaign talking points is, well, campaign talking points.) It is precisely the same thing that Jon Russell did, talking about precisely the same subjects.

And I'm surprised by all of this, given that Dennis now seems to be reduced to Russell's talking points... in this case, attacking a school district as a "special interest."

Of course, as a union leftist school administrator, Kampe wouldn't know anything about "special interests."

Would he?

So, here's the deal: stick to the issues. That way, when this is over and you get flattened, you'll at least have some shred of integrity intact.

Cross posted on Clark County Politics and Jon Russell Watch.

So, what's this all about?

My name is Hinton. I'm an elected Republican PCO for precinct 620 here in Clark County.

This political cycle has been, well, fascinating. I've seen things I was worried about happening... hoped would not happen... but happened anyway.

And now, we're down to two candidates: Ann Rivers and Dennis Kampe.

I make no bones about it: I support Ann Rivers. Have from the beginning. Efforts, both internal and external have been made to end my support or reroute it to others.

Not happening.

There's a lot of stuff going on out there... and this blog is a way to both keep track of it and present it.

Let's get this show on the road!