The Peter Goldmark campaign website will shortly be adding its Issues page. If the latest addition to the site is any example of what we can expect, WA-05 is well on its way to returning to its rightful blue condition. See below.
(Update: Please consider this diary a footnote to the excellent Cautionary Tale Too: A Stealth Candidate by peagreen. And please see this Walla Walla Union-Bulletin article for background.)
Veterans deserve our respect by planning for the future
If we can find the funding to send our sons and daughters to war, we need to find the funding to care for them when they return.
I will work to restore and restaff the intensive care and emergency units at the Walla Walla VA. And I will work to appoint an independent administrator to assure full functionality.
So what? Here's what: At the end of the statement we are given a link to the details of eleven votes against veterans' interests by his opponent. The details include bill numbers, dates of passage, etc. that we can actually cite. The evidence is clear and compelling.
This is a winning issue and this is how it's done. Given proper publicity (LTTE's, etc.) this information alone will go a long way towards carrying Walla Walla and the surrounding area. I have had to haul a disabled veteran to Seattle for care that should have been available at the Walla Walla VA hospital. Many other aging, ill veterans have had to make similar trips to Seattle or Portland. And it is widely realized, at least by vets, that the Walla Walla facility would in fact already be closed were it not for the vigilance of Patty Murray.
Goldmark's message is a bullseye: Democrats will support veterans now and in the future with more than lip service.
A few other DailyKos diaries on Peter Goldmark:
Peter Goldmark Rides for Democrats in WA-05 by nudger
Shilling for Peter Goldmark (WA-05) by Cyalume
A conversation w/Peter Goldmark WA-05 by teacherken