Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark has outraised first term Republican incumbent Rep. Cathy McMorris for the second reporting period in a row, reporting over $300,000 raised during July and August compared to McMorris’s $161,000. Over the past five months Goldmark has now outraised McMorris nearly two-to-one, $510,000 to a paltry $286,000.
Goldmark is catching fire. The more money he raises the more people he reaches… and the more money he raises. At this point his biggest obstacle to an upset victory in November is no longer demographics or even an entrenched incumbent… it’s time.
Meanwhile the Spokane media is entirely missing one of the biggest political stories of the year, and it’s happening in their own backyard. McMorris won by a 60 – 40 margin two years ago against a well financed opponent, and yet Congressional Quarterly recently upgraded the race to the precarious “leans Republican” category. Reports from the campaign trail tell of enthusiastic crowds and easy converts amongst usually diehard Republicans, but you wouldn’t know that from watching the evening news or reading the Spokesman-Review because they’ve all but ignored the race. Yet with virtually zero press coverage Goldmark signs are popping up like wheat stalks throughout the economically struggling 5th Congressional District.
There’s gonna be an awful lot of red faces in the Spokane media come November if Goldmark merely makes this close, let alone wins.
Goldmark is a farmer and rancher with a gut-level understanding of the agricultural crisis that is decimating his district… indeed, that appears to be his primary motivation for jumping into politics. He brings to this race the same kind of mix of red state authenticity and economic populism that has made Brian Schweitzer and Jon Tester Democratic superstars in nearby Montana… and the same type of opportunity for Democrats to win back a seat that most Republicans take for granted.
If it were possible in this day and age for a Congressional candidate to triumph on word of mouth alone, Goldmark would win in a landslide. But let’s not put this thesis to the test. All Goldmark needs to fight this campaign on an even footing is another half million dollars between now and November. That’s chump change when control of the House may lie in the balance. So please give now.
So Goldmark now trails McMorris in fundraising by only somewhat over $600,000 instead of about $750,000. She still leads him by over two to one, and once you reach the level you need to win, you stop twisting arms so hard.
All Peter has to do is keep out-fundraising Cathy by this pace until April of next year, and he’ll pll even.
Problem is, the election is in November.
Nice spin, though…
My conversation with “My Left Foot”, Carl Grossman, Q:What is that printed on your T-shirt?
A: It’s Arabic. It means, “We will not be silent.”
That’s the shiniest buffed up turd of spin I’ve seen in a long time. Nice job Goldy.
Goldmark has a number of factors working in his favor, but there are some challenges, not the least of which is the Spokane media is part of a severely entrenched power structure. On the bright side, Goldmark is an intelligent, honest, hard-working man who compares exceptionally well to the incumbent. If everyone in the district met both candidates, Goldmark would win in an walk.
Therein lies part of the problem. With the “major” (Spokane) local media denying coverage, Goldmark is not reaching the voters as easily as he would if the Spokesman was a real paper and the television stations actually cared about the people of the district enough to do their jobs. This should change after the primary, when ignoring the race becomes harder to justify.
That said, Goldmark is doing a great job of working the rural areas and getting covered by the small-town papers. That’s where Barbieri failed in 2004. It could be the difference this time, and it doesn’t cost much money.
Well, it’s time to put a stop to the whining about income inequality and those big huge tax breaks the evil rich have received from George Bush. The Treasury Department is about to release the numbers for 2004, and as usual the highest achievers are taking it on the chin.
The Democrats, with no small amount of help from Republicans, are making headway on their goal of shifting the entire federal tax burden in this country onto a minority of income earners. In 2004 the bottom one-half of income earners paid only 3.3% of all federal income taxes. That’s down from the Clinton years. In fact, that’s the lowest share paid by the bottom half ever.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the majority of American families with incomes less than $40,000 pay no income taxes at all! When you factor in the welfare program known as the Earned Income Tax Credit, many of these families are coming close to getting a completely free ride!
OK … but what about the evil rich?
In 2004 the top 1% of all income earners earned about 19% of all income. So … the rich really are benefiting from Bush’s tax policies, aren’t they? Just 1% earning 19% of all income? Sorry to burst your bubble, but that figure was higher in the Clinton years. During the time Clinton was in office this figure went from 13.8% to nearly 21%. Funny how you didn’t read a lot of newspaper stories during the Clinton years about growing income inequality, isn’t it? Now, under bush, the share of total income earned by the wicked rich has fallen!
But what about the income taxes! Surely George Bush has all but wiped out income taxes for the nasty rich, hasn’t he?
Nope.
In 2004 the top 1% of income earners — that crowd that earned 19% of all income — paid 36.9% of all income taxes. The top 5% of income earners paid a whopping 57.1% of all income taxes. That’s an increase under Bush. So much for “tax cuts for the rich.”
OK .. well how about the super-rich? What about the top one-tenth of one percent of income earners? Lordy, I don’t even know how much you have to earn to be in this crowd. From 2002 to 2004, with the hated Bush tax cuts firmly in place, the top 0.1% of income earners saw their share of total income taxes paid go from 15.4% to 17.4%. That’s up a full 2% for those of you who went to government schools.
OK … that’s income taxes. But what about capital gains taxes and taxes on dividends? Bush cut those taxes too, didn’t he? That’s where the rich are making out like bandits, right? Well … glad you asked. Since Bush’s tax cuts the Imperial Federal Government has seen an increase of 79% in capital gains taxes, and 35% for taxes on dividends.
Just remember these figures the next time you see some Democrat whining about income inequality and the need to redistribute income. It looks like we’re doing quite a bit of redistribution as it is.
” . . . once you reach the level you need to win, you stop twisting arms so hard.” Jim King @ 1
Your delusions are entertaining. If Cathy McMorris has stopped twisting arms because she’s confident of victory, then she’s even dumber than she otherwise appears to be. Nice spin on tough news.
A retired and very Democratic friend of mine in a small town in the 5th district, regularly joins a bunch of old fart men for morning coffee in a local eatery. He told me that there are generally about three Dems and five hard core Republican die-hards in the group. Three of the Republicans in that bunch went to hear Goldmark speak when he came to town last week. And all three told my friend that they will vote for Goldmark. They like what he had to say and they said Goldmark understands the problems and has ideas about what to do about them. Multiply that one out….
“Oh Lord, please let Katherine Harris win the Republican primary in Florida today.
I really could use the entertainment for the next two months!”
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....ris05.html
Thanks for the report, bluesky. It’s great news (if not surprising to those who’ve seen Goldmark in action).
@6- Proud Leftist you might have noticed I wrote “the level you NEED to win”- after you’ve raised a certain amount of money, you have pretty much what you need for your campaign- win or lose, you have what you NEED to win. No amount of money GUARANTEES a win. But a lack of money can all but guarantee a loss- unless your opponent is indicted (in this state, if your opponent dies or is convicted of a felony, they can be replaced on the ballot).
So spin away- bragging about Goldmark’s fundraising is like bragging that the guy in the back of the marathon covered 3 miles- mileposts 10 to 13- while the leader only covered two- mileposts 18 to 20. Lot of ground still to make up and time is running out.
#5 – You hack.
I just love how the wingnuts always manage to forget payroll taxes.
As I said last week when I got back from a week over in the Spokane area, Goldmark is running a very good campaign. He has a good TV presence (and a very good ad), and you see his signs through out the area. McMorris seems to have thought she had the campaign sowed up, and wasn’t doing much. This could be tactical; why waste your money in August. But it was nice to see a Dem running a very good campaign.
And don’t underestimate the number of people who have been voting Republican for the last 14 years but are now fed up with the inability of the Bush administration to come to reality and the fact that they see that the Republicans are being run by fundamentalist and people like your local neighborhood wingnut that haunts this board just making stuff up. You have to figure that for every post that Mark the Yellowback, Janet S. or that Ol’ queer JCH post, you get at least three people switching their vote to the Democrats.
Yea, I can immagine that MTR’s posts to the effect that “anybody making minimum wage is a LOSER” goes over real well among traditional Republican voters in some of the hard-hit areas of Eastern Washington.
Let’s face it. Republicans have been able to capture the rural heartland by depicting Democrats as lazy welfare cheats. To hard-working farmers, nothing gets them riled up more than having to support someone who isn’t pulling their own weight. Maybe its my Scots-Irish roots, but that part of the conservative philosophy has always appealed to me, also.
But now they are realizing that its the Republicans, not the Democrats, who are wasting the national treasury, attempting to sell of our national assets to pay for their tax cuts, and rewarding the already-rich while screwing the working man & woman. When you have the real alternative for them, like Goldmark, I think we could see a big change in Eastern Washington.
JCH,
So do you plan on watching the impeachment hearings of George W. Bush next year, or are you going to bury your head in your pillow and cry your way through it all?
Me, I’m going to TiVo every second of it and watch it while I’m enjoying a nice, cold, union made Miller Genuine Draft.
Mmmmmmmmm. . . good fun!
“During the time Clinton was in office this figure went from 13.8% to nearly 21%. Funny how you didn’t read a lot of newspaper stories during the Clinton years about growing income inequality, isn’t it? Now, under bush, the share of total income earned by the wicked rich has fallen!”
Nice one dildo!
“A rising tide lifts ALL boats — it’s the economy, STUPID!”
Nobody complained because the bottom earners were earning more wages, spending more money, propelling the economy to umprecedented highs, bringing in more money to the US Treasury, the national debt was PAID DOWN!!!.
Grow up, JCH, or become a good American. The Thomas Jefferson, George Washington type of American. Not the Bush, Cheney, DeLay, Duke Cunningham corrupt type of American.
Never thought in my life time I’d have to clarify the meaning of being a “Good American” but the corrupt, Rubberstamping Bush Republicans require it be done.
Loser.
rhp @ 8
I am so down with that. I would almost move to Florida to experience that first hand. This woman has no concept of reality. I would pay her $5.00 for a lap dance though, she is awfully proud of her, um, assets.
GBS, Welcome back from Thailand. Are the little boys there still “firm”?
“I am so down with that.”
Commentby My Left Foot [……..A little “Ebonics” from Jew Carl to show he is “in with da brothers”!!!!!]
“A rising tide lifts ALL boats – it’s the economy, STUPID!”
Commentby GBS [Agreed. My “boat” is “rich,retired, and living in Hawaii.” Your boat is still being a wage slave!!! Enjoy!! JCH
GBS:
Well, “bury your head in your pillow and cry your way through it all” is how JCH gets through every trick he does, so I think it is clear what he will choose. The ol’ queer is consistent, if nothing else.
Since that dumbass “JCH” is lifting rethuglican propaganda from gawd knows where (I’ve NEVER read anything that coherent from HIM)…here’s a little in the way of re-BUTT-al:
…Polls show that swing voters — the category that candidates most want to attract — are unhappier than the rest of the population about their economic circumstances. According to a recent survey by Bloomberg News and the Los Angeles Times, six in 10 self-described independents said the economy was doing badly, and seven in 10 said the country was on the wrong track. A Fox News poll, taken at the end of last month, showed that 23 percent of Americans consider the economy the most important factor they will weigh when they cast their ballot in November — more than those who cited Iraq (14 percent) or terrorism (12 percent).
And a recent poll conducted for the AFL-CIO by the Democratic Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group found that 55 percent of voters said their income was not keeping up with inflation, and that the economy was a more effective campaign theme against Republicans than either the war or corruption. This rings true to many Republican strategists and their allies: Despite the unpopularity of the president’s Iraq policies, Bush’s approval rating is higher among voters who see the war and national security as the top issues in November than it is among voters who rate the economy as their top issue, according to one veteran GOP pollster worried about his party’s prospects this fall.
Republicans have approached the problem partly as a matter of perception. Eager to frame the issue for the fall, Bush recently met with economic advisers at Camp David and later announced that the economy is “solid and strong” and “creating real benefits for American workers and families and entrepreneurs.” The gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced, has slowed a bit since the beginning of the year but is still growing at a respectable annual rate of 2.9 percent. And the unemployment rate is near its five-year low.
But the sour mood is not simply a matter of psychology. Since 2003, the inflation-adjusted median hourly wage of most workers has fallen by 2 percent, according to the Labor Department. And this summer marked the first time since 1991 that the annual inflation rate exceeded 4 percent for three consecutive months, driven partly by $3-per-gallon gasoline.
Then there is debt. According to a study by the Federal Reserve Board, the ratio of financial obligations — primarily mortgage and consumer debt — to disposable personal income rose to a modern record of 18.7 percent earlier this year. The amount of mortgage debt alone has more than doubled since 2000, to nearly $9 trillion. And in July, for the 16th consecutive month, consumers in the aggregate spent all of their disposable income and dipped into savings or borrowed to finance the things they bought.
Among the most exposed are those who bought into one of the great fads in mortgage lending in recent years — adjustable rates. Next year, $1 trillion worth of adjustable-rate mortgages — about 11 percent of all outstanding mortgage debt — is scheduled to readjust to a higher interest rate for the first time, according to LoanPerformance, a research company. This will come after more than $400 billion of readjustments this year. That means millions of homeowners will either have to refinance or shoulder an increase of perhaps 25 percent in their monthly payments.
The political implications of these trends are obvious. “A large number of voters have a definite foreboding about the economy, and that isn’t good news for incumbents,” said Gregory S. Casey, chief executive of the Business Industry Political Action Committee, a nonpartisan electoral analysis organization. “They feel disappointed in government institutions that they think have let them down.”
“Republicans are worried,” added R. Bruce Josten, an executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a significant backer of pro-business — and therefore predominantly Republican — congressional candidates. “You have a portion of the middle class that doesn’t believe it’s benefiting from good economic news, and, in fact, it’s not. . . . All the blame doesn’t go to Congress, but voters are going to take it out on Congress anyway.”…
(from WaPo via http://www.firedoglake.com/200.....#more-4340 )
P.S.- The post comes with that nifty US map showing the chilling effects of the BushCo economy on median income across the country.
Win back a sit?
“Sit down, everyone! The muslims promised us they will land the plane safely. We need to trust them!” [Carl Grossman]
“Sit down on the plane! If you rush the terrorists, it will only make them mad, and create more terrorists.” [Carl Grossman]
@11- Well, small business owners don’t forget payroll taxes- be it FICA, or state UI or worker comp. It all adds up bigtime.
But I hear two conflicting points from liberals on FICA- it is regressive, so it is bad- but Social Security isn’t a welfare program, its an insurance scam, er, program. If FICA is a premium, then it should be capped because higher levels of income don’t get you higher benefits. If we’d just admit is is a welfare program and that FICA is a tax, not a premium, we could just FICA all income and maintain solvency.
Which way do ya’ll want to jump?
handbag prada tessuto discount genuine handbag prada handbag prada purse handbag prada white prada sunglasses prada handbags and discounts prada wholesale handbags handbag prada prada fendi prada handbags wholesale prada handbags prada tessuto handbag prada handbag catalog bargain prada handbags handbag prada sport fendi prada handbag designer fendi handbag prada discount gucci handbags fendi handbags prada bags prada gucci fendi handbag prada suade handbags handbag prada summer
“the time to go “”my prefered size””””http://derlink2.com“