Cut and run /kut n run/ v. Avoiding the real issues in a cowardly denial of reality. See "Republican incumbents."
In two new television advertisements, Cathy McMorris cuts and runs, denying her lockstep submission to her Republican Party bosses and lying about Peter Goldmark's tax position.
Meanwhile, Peter's fundraising success, which focuses on individual citizens rather than PACs from which he has refused contribution, has continued to outpace expectations.
"Bipartisanship"
In the first new advertisement, the announcer asserts that Cathy McMorris believes that "bipartisan cooperation isn't a sign of weakness, but of strength." Jeremiah Levine, Goldmark's campaign manager, notes that this is the same pattern as seen across the country, with Republicans attempting to separate themselves from an increasingly unpopular leadership. However, according to Levine, McMorris is a member of the Republican Whip Team, charged with the duty of keeping Republican House members voting the party line.
According to an article in the Spokesman-Review ("Ad's bipartisan claims challenged," October 11, 2006):
In a Washington Post database of 671 votes taken in the last two years in the House, McMorris voted with the Republican majority 629 times, or 93.7 percent, a researcher for the Spokane Public Library said. Of the remaining 42 votes, she voted with Democrats 18 times, and didn't cast a vote the other 24.
She was more likely to avoid a vote altogether than vote with the Democrats.
Using these data, we can calculate what "bipartisanship" means to Cathy McMorris. Of the votes she participated in, McMorris voted with the Republican leadership 97.2 percent of the time, a ratio of 35 Republican votes for each Democratic vote.
"Tax Man"
The second new McMorris advertisement literally paints a picture of Peter Goldmark as an advocate for higher taxes. As an outline of Peter Goldmark is slowly colored in, the announcer says that Peter Goldmark and his party will raise taxes, including reinstatement of the so-called "marriage penalty," and states that "the ranch man is the Tax Man."
In a statement released to the press, the Goldmark campaign said that "[McMorris] has made up a story about her opponent, Peter Goldmark, and then tried to tie him to a false view of his party."
"I support keeping taxes low. I run a business and I have a family, and I know how excessive taxes can burden businesses and families," Goldmark said. "I'll fight to keep taxes down."
Sources close to the campaign say that, with his focus on ordinary, hard-working Americans, and McMorris' emphasis on tax giveaways to the richest 1 percent of the population, her claim doesn't even make sense, but shows how desperate the McMorris campaign is just one week before voters receive their ballots and
polling which shows her lead is evaporating.
Fundraising
On October 12, the Fox News Channel ran a segment entitled "Gun-totin' Democrat" on "Special Report with Brit Hume." Goldmark was portrayed as the kind of Democrat which can win in the West. Cathy McMorris responded by saying that the Goldmark campaign was funded by the usual Democratic sources: "trial lawyers, labor unions and extreme environmentalists."
Goldmark's campaign responded by saying that it does not accept PAC contributions,
unlike McMorris' campaign, and "Peter Goldmark's support comes from ordinary Americans who want their country back." In an email addressed to Cathy McMorris, and sent to supporters, the Goldmark campaign continued:
Peter Goldmark is proud to be supported by the Spokane Labor Council, the Washington State Labor Council, and dozens of affiliated unions. In case you aren't aware of this fact either, Cathy: labor unions represent working Americans. Ordinary, hard-working men and women of every race and ethnicity and from every walk of life. Teachers and truck drivers, food service workers and flight attendants, musicians and miners, pilots and public employees, electricians and engineers, carpenters and communications workers - and more.
Goldmark's campaign then turned the tables:
Her attack is intended to distract us from the strength of Goldmark's message with Eastern Washington voters. "She wants to keep us from seeing the astronomical debts of this administration--debts she and her party has rubberstamped. This administration has managed to DOUBLE the debt of our nation," Goldmark said.
"Those debts will have to be paid, somehow, sometime--by us and by our children and grandchildren. Congress has failed. McMorris has failed. And now she's desperate to cover it up," the congressional challenger stated.
Goldmark's campaign announced that, while its goal for this point in the campaign was $720,000, it has now raised over $800,000 on its way toward its Election Day goal of $1,000,000.
Update [13 Oct 06, 11:32 AM Pacific]: Peter Goldmark has just completed a debate with Cathy McMorris where he debunked McMorris' claims. According to the campaign:
Goldmark seized the debate opportunity to confront freshman incumbent Cathy McMorris about false claims on taxes in her television ads.
"When have you heard me advocate for higher taxes?" Goldmark said.
McMorris claimed Goldmark had been critical of tax cuts on his website and in community forums. But a careful examination of the website shows no such claims. McMorris's inability to prove her statement drove home the emptiness of her claim.