DC Doesn't Like Going After GOP Leaders-- But Who Cares What They Like. Lisa Brown Is Taking On Cathy McMorris Rodgers

It's ironic that notorious Republican closet case and child molester Mark Foley of Florida helped destroy the GOP House majority in 2006, considering that that majority was built with a lie about another Foley, Democratic Speaker Tom Foley. That Foley was a decent, if conventional, politician from Spokane, Washington. In 1964 Foley had defeated Republican Congressman Walt Horan and ably represented eastern Washington in Congress for 30 years, working his way up the ladder to become Democratic Whip in 1981, Majority Leader in 1987 and then House Speaker in 1989. He was defeated in 1994 by some minor and inconsequential character primarily because Newt Gingrich started a baseless whispering campaign that Foley was a closeted gay person, at the very time that Florida Republicans were warning Gingrich that a new GOP candidate for Congress, Mark Foley, actually was a closeted gay person. Gingrich thought it would be fun to "mix up" the two Foleys. Mark, the child molester, won the same day that Tom Foley became the first sitting Speaker of the House to lose his bid for re-election since Galusha Grow (R-PA) in 1862.

Tom Foley's district, WA-05, includes 10 counties, although almost all the votes come out of Spokane County, Stevens and Walla Walla counties being the second and third biggest. WA-05 includes the state's entire border with Idaho. McCain and Romney both beat Obama there, McCain with 51% and Romney with 54%. In 2016 Trump beat Hillary 52.2% to 39.1%, dragging the PVI down into redder territory, from R+7 to R+8. Hillary's status quo, establishment message couldn't have been worse for the district and in the Washington state caucuses, WA-05 went very strongly for Bernie. Bernie took Spokane County 78.1-21.7%. Stevens County was even better for Bernie where he beat Hillary 80.8% to 18.4% and in Walla Walla County, Bernie won 70.8-29.2%. It tells you a little something about the change that Democrats in eastern Washington are looking for.

This cycle many Democrats are also looking for revenge for what Gingrich and the GOP did to Tom Foley-- and the obvious target is Speaker Paul Ryan, who Democrats hope to see defeated by union iron worker Randy "Iron Stache" Bryce in Wisconsin. However, icing on that cake would be also defeating the 4th ranking Republican in the House, rubber stamp Cathy McMorris Rodgers who represents WA-05, Foley's old district. And the candidate eastern Washington  Democrats have rallied around is Lisa Brown, an economist who was majority leader of the state Senate before retiring to become Chancellor of Washington State University Spokane. When I asked her to introduce herself to DWT readers with a guest post, she mentioned that there are 10 counties and that she intends to contest every one of them and decided to do a Letterman-style list of the top 10 reasons voters should engage in her campaign.

Guest Post
-by Lisa Brown

10. Marijuana. I support removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act so states can exercise their rights. That’s a common-sense approach supported by the majority of Washingtonians. But in August, Rep. McMorris Rodgers said on the topic "I’m a mother...It’s against federal law… I would support his (AG Jeff Sessions) efforts….") Despite voter overwhelming support, she says she still needs more information.

9. Net Neutrality. I fully support it and worked to create rural access to broadband in the legislature. She "applauded" the FCC announcement overturning net neutrality. She now says she supports an open internet, but Congress should "come to the table" and write the rules. Don’t hold your breath...

8. Students. One in seven people in Washington owe money they borrowed for college or workforce training. I want to give those struggling with student loan debt a break, but McMorris Rodgers voted for (and promoted around the country) the original House tax bill that took away student loan interest deductions and taxed graduate student tuition waivers. She now says it was very important to her that those provisions not be included in the final bill. Do you see a pattern here?

7. FISA Section 702. She voted for it. I oppose it. We can strike a better balance of individual privacy rights and protecting our national security.

6. Healthcare. In the state legislature I led on creating mental health parity and standing up to Big Pharma to save taxpayers money on Medicaid prescription drug coverage. Then I helped start a medical school headquartered in eastern Washington. She voted dozens of times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, then voted for a replacement plan that would’ve kicked an estimated 24 million Americans off their plans.

5. It’s the economy, sweetheart! (because let’s be civil and not call each other losers or stupid). True economic growth and jobs come from investing in people (through education) and in infrastructure. I championed early learning and delivered infrastructure projects to eastern Washington (working with legislators on both sides of the aisle and all corners of the state).

4. The planet. I worked to clean up the Spokane river, lands contaminated by uranium mining on the Spokane Indian reservation, and to create incentives for solar and wind power. Rep. McMorris Rodgers stands silently by as the Trump administration reduces national monuments and rolls back environmental protections.

3. Human rights. I voted consistently for women’s reproductive rights, LGBT rights, and criminal justice reform at the state level for 30 years. She is a leader for anti-choice legislation and is letting Dreamers languish.

2. Leadership and results. I listen and lead, find common ground, and get results, from help for homeless youth to in-state tuition for service members to a medical school. My son, Lucas Brookbank Brown, an infant in 1993, was kicked off the legislative house floor, when, as a single mom, I brought him to my seat for a night session. Now, a kick-ass guitarist and singer-songwriter (he’s in the recording studio now, stay tuned!) I asked him, what do your friends say about this campaign? He said, "Mom, they say you get sh*t done!" My opponent also has the title of leader, many times the only woman at prominent Republican photo ops, but her views are so party-line, there is no daylight between her and Speaker Paul Ryan. She has diligently refused to criticize the President, no matter how vile his remarks, calling him repeatedly, "a positive disruptor." This is not the leadership we deserve.

1. Congress. If we take back this seat, we change the leadership of Congress!