After nearly whiffing on health care, Denny Heck now gets a second chance to take a stand on a vital issue in the race for WA-03, this time consumer protections from financial industry abuses. It seems Craig Pridemore isn’t afraid to take a stand for regular people on this issue either. From a Pridemore campaign news release today:
In the second of a series of reform statements, Craig Pridemore, candidate for Washington’s 3rd Congressional seat, endorsed the creation of a Consumer Protection Agency and called on Denny Heck to tell voters where he stands on critical legislation to hold Wall Street accountable.
“Everyday we find out more and more about the predatory lending and outright greed of Wall Street that drove our economy into a ditch,” Pridemore said. “We must enact strict oversight of financial institutions by establishing a Consumer Protection Agency to ensure this crisis never happens again.”
Pridemore’s statement comes on the heels of another he delivered earlier this month about health insurance reform. Just like before, Pridemore is the first candidate in the race for the 3rd district’s open seat to make clear his position on the debate surrounding financial reform in Congress.
“Several weeks ago I asked, “Where is Denny?” Pridemore continued. “We were in the midst of health care reform and it took my opponent hours until the final vote to state his position. Voters deserve to know where their next representative stands on the issues that matter.”
It’s a reasonable guess that the Republicans in the race will babble about the invisible hand of libertardian Randian goodness and such, so the question is whether Heck is with them or not on consumer protections. Behind all the political howling in this country lie real differences on how best to nurture capitalism while ensuring that its destructive tendencies don’t cause mass havoc too often. It will be interesting to see how Heck stands on this reform idea, and if he wiggles around and sticks his finger in the air until the last minute like he did on health care.
There’s a forum tonight in Longview, presenting an excellent opportunity for all the candidates to state their positions on how we curb the financial sector excesses and corruption that screwed up the economy. Yes, the Republicans would like everyone to forget about all that, but as we’re still suffering the lingering effects of Randian idiocy, one could argue this issue is even more fundamentally important than health care.
