Teri Moats’ decision to run for Congress is one of the most curious of the election season.
Moats, an Arlington resident, is a Republican seeking the seat held by incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen.
She’s first running against Doug Roulstone, the Republican Party’s anointed torchbearer in this race who’s been campaigning for more than a year.
In that time he’s racked up endorsements from the local and state parties and raised several hundred thousand dollars for the effort.
He’s hosted Vice President Dick Cheney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Everett and been toasted by party strategist Karl Rove and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in Washington, D.C.
At this point, Roulstone seems a virtual lock on winning the party primary on Sept. 19.
Moats, on the other hand, waited until the final hour of the final day to sign up as a candidate and pay the nonrefundable filing fee of $1,621.
Her decision surprised Republican friends, including Snohomish County Councilman John Koster and state Sen. Val Stevens, both of whom back Roulstone.
It surprised her husband, Ed Moats who works for Koster. He asked her to consider withdrawing. Thursday was the deadline to pull out, and she didn’t.
Roulstone seemed most caught off-guard. He had worked months to get the party united behind him to avert this very situation of a contested primary.
“Everybody has a right to run,” the decorated Navy veteran said diplomatically. “I’m not looking at anything sinister in all of this.”
Roulstone does want to know why Moats is in the race. He phoned her to ask, but she didn’t return his call.
He reached out to Koster and Stevens to help get an answer or broker a conversation with her. Nothing came of it.
Meanwhile, Moats has done little to promote herself as a congressional candidate. There’s been no public announcement, no campaign Web site set up.
For days, she didn’t return phone calls to discuss the race. She did reply Friday with an e-mail.
“I will certainly attempt to win this election and to serve the people of the state of Washington with dignity and honor,” she wrote. “For obvious reasons, I prefer not to share my strategy with those outside of my campaign team.”
Why she is running is the big question.
“To represent the conservative, pro-life views in Congress,” she wrote.
Friends describe Moats as a strong-willed social conservative who backs candidates of like mind and soul.
Apparently Roulstone isn’t that type, though he’s not sure why, and she’s not saying.
Speculation is that she heard him speak about abortion, found his position to be too liberal for her political ideology and decided to run to keep the issue alive.
When asked if her campaign is intended as a message to Roulstone, she replied, “No comment.”
How curious.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield’s column on politics runs every Sunday. He can be heard at 7 a.m. Monday on “The Morning Show” on KSER (90.7 FM). He can be reached at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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