Washington's 3rd Congressional District
To all Kossacks: Please take note that these Congressional District Information Diaries are not meant to evaluate whether or not the districts are beatable. They are meant for Kossacks and others to share information on any knowledge they have on the districts.
There have been recent Congressional District Information diaries where Kos user comments are talking about "how this person will never be beaten," or "even a scandal wouldn't change anyone's minds." To be frank, we're not looking for this kind of feedback. We want real, inside information about the Congressional Districts we cover in our diaries.
We'd like to reach out to any of you Kossacks from Washington's 3rd Congressional District for information. Feel free to add your understanding of the communities, issues, etc.
What issues directly affect people in Washington's 3rd Congressional District? My colleague Augustin and I are working on the Knowledge Democrats project and I've started working on a wiki page for the 3rd Congressional congressional district in order to assist in our long term efforts to promote progressive candidates in that district, whether at the local, state or federal level. We understand this district may in fact have a bit conservative constituency but we're looking to reach out to any Kossacks, Democrats or progressives in the state anyway. It helps for long-term planning.
We also plan on contacting Local and State Democratic Parties that cover each of the Congressional districts for more information. We first want to know what thoughts any of you Kossacks have.
We also know that the current representative of the district is Jaime Herrera Beutler, not a Tea Party Republican but also not exactly genuine either.
Here's a snippet of Congressman Herrera Butler's recent guest column in The Daily News Online criticizing the Affordable Healthcare Act:
http://tdn.com/...
It’s now been three years since the President and Congress passed a massive overhaul of our health care system. While I didn’t support this specific bill, I embrace the idea that folks in Southwest Washington should be able to afford quality care for themselves and their families. Unfortunately, the health care bill’s three year checkup reveals that we’ve drifted farther from this goal.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was ushered through Congress under pledges of lower health care premiums for hardworking people, reduced health care costs, and coverage for those with pre-existing conditions. Instead, folks are facing higher costs, more taxes, and some with pre-existing conditions are still being turned away.
Consider the alarming comments about the health care law by the ACA’s co-author, U.S. Senator Max Baucus, D-Mont., during an April 17 hearing: “I just see a huge train wreck coming down.”
Here are the 2012 election results
.S. House, Washington, District 3 General Election, 2012
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler Incumbent 60.4% 177,446
Democratic Jon T. Haugen 39.6% 116,438
Total Votes: 293,884
Source: Ballotpedia - Washington's 3rd Congressional District
http://ballotpedia.org/...
(Washington State Secretary of State Office no longer seems to show the 2012 election results)
However, Denny Heck (now in Congress) challenged Jaime Herrera Beutler in 2010 and got 47% of the vote. This means Beutler can be beaten, can it?