Maybe he wasn’t a swing voter, but a man holding a Kerry sign swung fast – with his fist – and connected with the cheek of a Bush supporter outside the Everett Events Center on Friday.
Otherwise, it was a mostly peaceful gathering of hundreds of supporters of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and President Bush drawn by Kerry’s private appearance.
Police did not report any other disturbances. Everett police Lt. Butch Braley estimated a couple of thousand people gathered at the center.
“It was pretty low-key except for the noise,” Braley said. “There were a lot of passionate people and a lot of shouting.”
While a long line of 600 or so Kerry supporters waited to get into the invitation-only event, other Kerry faithful and ardent Bush counterparts held signs and waved to passing cars on Hewitt Avenue and Broadway.
Drivers honked their steady approval for one side or the other.
Kerry supporters outnumbered Bush supporters by roughly three to one. But the Bush supporters had bigger signs – a group of handmade, white-on-blue signs about 3 feet by 5 feet bore slogans such as “Flush the Johns,” “Kerry is scary” and “Kerry against free speech.”
Several Kerry supporters stood in front of the Bush signs waving their own, and in some cases followed those carrying the large Bush signs around, holding their own smaller signs in front.
“I would never dream of doing that to you,” Bush supporter Jennifer Alexander of south Everett said to the Kerry supporter standing in front of her.
“I have a hard time believing that,” responded Mike Monas, of Snohomish.
Cecil Chapman of Mukilteo said he and a group of friends made the Bush signs. Chapman dressed as Uncle Sam as “a way of drawing attention” to his cause of supporting the president.
A 52-year-old Kerry supporter was arrested after punching Perry Valentine, 19, who was holding a sign for President Bush and wearing a Kerry sticker on the seat of his pants.
The men were shouting back and forth when the older man swung, said Braley, the Everett police lieutenant.
An Everett officer quickly arrested the man. He was booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of assault.
Most arguments were wisecracking but civil, though in one instance an officer separated two men who were having a heated discussion sparked by remarks about Bush’s National Guard service during the Vietnam War.
Several Vietnam veterans were there, some for Kerry, some for Bush.
“We weren’t killing babies, the people we killed deserved it,” said vet J.D. Muth of Tulalip, holding a sign describing Kerry as “Hanoi John.”
Vet David Selditz of Lake Stevens described the furor over Kerry’s war record as “a nonissue. I think the Republicans are using it as leverage. It’s pitted vet against vet.”
The crowd peaked at around 4:30 p.m., then dwindled. Only a few demonstrators were left by 7 p.m., when Kerry was finishing his talk.
Despite the political tiffs on the sidewalks, it was business as usual inside the Everett Events Center.
The Community Ice Rink was open, but empty. In the cold, quiet main arena, a few dozen people gathered to watch the Silvertips hockey team scrimmage. The only sounds were of hockey sticks and skates scraping the ice.
Sheila Howard was working in the gift shop and wishing she could “meet the next president.”
“I’m going to have to watch it on the news,” Howard sighed.
She did get to pick out the Silvertips jersey that was presented to Kerry on his way out of town.
The biggest impression, though, was left by the handsome Secret Service agent who did the security sweep of the place Friday morning.
“He was a man in black, a dark suit. Nobody dresses like that,” she said.
He bought a black Tips golf shirt.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com. Herald reporters Jennifer Warnick, Diana Hefley and Justin Best contributed to this story.
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