Voters See Red in 1st Congressional District - Sign & Counter-Sign

by Johnny Walker

@KingstonJW on Twitter

Washington State voters in the 1^st Congressional District are likely to see more red today. Designed in part to pry out entrenched and evasive candidate Jay Inslee to directly debate critical financial positions, the James Watkins for Congress campaign deployed hundreds of new red signs this morning challenging Inslee for his support of high taxes and out of control spending. The signs, pictured above, are graphically similar to typical Inslee signs but evoke a starkly different message.

Bankrupting America, Jay Inslee since 1992

According to a press release, the Watkins campaign is calling this new sign tactic issues based “insurgent campaigning” and is the first in a series of new signs he expects will serve as a catalyst for more open debate of the issues.

“Today, volunteers for the Watkins for Congress campaign deployed the first wave of hundreds of new issues-based signs across Washington’s 1^st Congressional District in Kitsap, Snohomish, and King Counties. The signs are vivid and highlight one of the issues critical to voters – out of control government spending by long-term career politicians in bankrupting the United States and putting our future at risk.”

While the press quote seems a mouthful, it challenges some important realities of the Inslee campaign. Jay Inslee has been in office 14 years and has voted with Nancy Pelosi 98.8% of the time – he hasn’t done much to proactively manage financial distress but has instead exasperated it. According to James Watkins, this is non defensible and probably why Inslee is avoiding debate.

• Government-run health care that has increased insurance costs, threatens to reduce the number of physicians the U.S. has in the industry, and robed Medicare
• Ineffective stimulus spending and bailouts that have cost nearly a Trillion dollars
• Rising energy taxes while failing to leverage sustainable energy resources the country has access to now.

More information about this release will be available on the Watkins campaign web site at 1:00 PM today, including a 17 page comprehensive issues guide that will detail and resource Jay Inslee’s voting record.

“It’s not an attack ad if it’s true,” responded Watkins to concerns that the new signs could be portrayed as dirty tactics. Acknowledging Inslee supporters are likely to be “livid” over the new signs, he said the campaign needed “to do something different” that would draw out Jay Inslee to debate his record. Watkins expects the new sign campaign to be a catalyst for more informative debate, including this evening's Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum in Edmonds, Washington.

Know your candidates and vote! November is coming.