SEATTLE – U.S. Sen. Patty Murray kicked off her re-election campaign Thursday, promising that she would keep fighting to improve the state’s economy, education, health care system and environment if she wins a third term.
Democrat Murray faces a challenge from U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., who gave up his seat in the House to run against her. Both are expected to win easily in the primary election.
Murray spent most of her 30-minute speech listing her accomplishments, saying they are proof that she gets things done.
“When the Bush administration tried to shut down our veterans hospitals, I fought back, held a hearing in Walla Walla, and Washington state won,” she said. “When Chinese producers were unfairly dumping their apple products and hurting our farm families, I fought back, got our apple producers some of the help they needed, and Washington state won.”
Murray, who was known as a “mom in tennis shoes” when she first entered politics, has a 2-to-1 edge in fund-raising in the race against Nethercutt. She has about $10 million to Nethercutt’s $5 million, and enjoys a comfortable lead in the polls.
More than 1,500 supporters listened to her speech, filling dozens of breakfast tables for the event in the foyer at Qwest Field, where the Seattle Seahawks play football.
She told them her personal story. Her parents and her six siblings had to go on food stamps after her father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and could no longer run his Bothell dimestore, she said.
She told them how her mother went back to school, became an accountant and sent all seven children to college.
People in Washington have shared that same can-do spirit throughout history, “whether it was bringing electricity and irrigation to the desert or helping our country win World War II and the Cold War,” she said.
If re-elected, Murray said her priorities would include strengthening Social Security and Medicare, investing in renewable energy, preserving 105,000 acres of Cascade forests as the Wild Sky Wilderness, and banning asbestos, a substance once used in most construction materials that’s considered a major health threat when airborne.
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