When Democrat Maria Cantwell won her Senate race against respected incumbent Slade Gorton six years ago, she did so by a fraction of a percentage point. The freshman senator had a lot to prove.
She has lived up to that challenge, fighting hard and effectively – even from her minority-party position – for the interests of Washingtonians. Despite a strong and very credible Republican challenge from former Safeco CEO Mike McGavick, we believe Cantwell has earned another term.
McGavick is an impressive candidate, one who we believe would represent the state well. His grasp of issues is firm and deep, and he is well familiar with how the Senate works, having served as Gorton’s chief of staff. His campaign theme of bringing civility back to Congress is refreshing, as is his preference for pragmatism over rigid ideology.
Much the same can be said for the cerebral, self-confident Cantwell, who lives in Edmonds when she’s not in the other Washington. She has also shown independence (she was among a minority of Democrats who voted to give the president authorization to invade Iraq) and courage (she took on powerful and cantankerous Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens to oppose oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and oil tankers on Puget Sound).
She doggedly fought for Snohomish County PUD customers when federal regulators continually refused to hold Enron Corp. accountable for its criminal manipulation of electricity markets. Her persistence paid off when regulators finally ruled that the PUD didn’t owe Enron a dime for breaking an ill-gotten power contract, potentially saving the utility more than $100 million.
Cantwell also fought to win back a sales-tax deduction for Washington taxpayers in 2004 and 2005. Political gamesmanship by the Republican Senate leadership has kept it from being renewed this year – they’ve held it hostage to other, more controversial tax provisions – but Cantwell has vowed to keep fighting until the deduction is made permanent.
We find Cantwell better attuned than McGavick to the serious shift that the nation needs to take away from fossil fuels, both to lessen our dependence on imports and to cut emissions of gases that are warming the planet. McGavick’s support for more domestic exploration and drilling, we think, is symbolically the wrong way to go if we’re to make significant strides toward reducing our use of petroleum.
Both favor a comprehensive approach to immigration reform, but unlike McGavick, Cantwell doesn’t support spending billions on a southern-border fence that we suspect will be ineffective and lead to a false sense of control.
To McGavick’s credit, he is more specific than Cantwell on Social Security. Trouble is, his plan doesn’t do nearly enough to address the program’s impending solvency crisis. We’re still waiting for candidates from both parties with the courage to admit that for the program to remain strong for the long-term, the retirement age will have to rise, taxes will have to increase and/or benefits will have to be pared back.
Voters, we believe, would be well-served by either candidate. Our nod goes to Cantwell, based on a positive track record that we think she’ll continue.
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