First of all, I’m a little biased about Hong Tran.

When I first started at the Stranger—back in 1970 when we used to be called the Electric Raincoat Stranger Review —Tran handed me my first big story.

I was impressed w Tran at that time for being on point and smart and righteous. And quite frankly, humble.

I’m a little perplexed that her first go at public office is a U.S. Senate campaign. She takes a shot at explaining why in the Tran press release I’ve linked below.

U.S. Senate Candidate Hong Tran Answers Questions: Why This Race? Why Now?

Seattle, Washington, 23 May 2006

Responding to questions raised in internet weblogs and at recent speaking engagements, U.S. Senate Candidate Hong Tran today released the following statement:

"As a legal services attorney and national expert in housing advocacy law, a significant aspect of my work in the last 14 years has been reviewing federal legislation and explaining to lawmakers how the laws they made affected my clients. Often I found myself arguing with them, trying to convince them to make the laws I knew we needed. Unfortunately, not much has changed since then. My clients still need roofs over their heads and they need them today, not tomorrow. They need affordable housing, affordable healthcare, and good jobs right now. I am running for US Senate so I can make the laws I know we need. Simply put, I am applying for work in my area of expertise — federal legislation.

I believe Washington State deserves a better Democrat for its next U.S. Senator. This is a blue state. We don't support trade policies that send American jobs overseas, we don't support legislation like the Patriot Act that violates our civil rights, and we don't support the Iraq War, so we shouldn't have a Senator who does.

I have directly experienced war, and I have an understanding of what the Iraq War means to the Iraqi civilians, the men and women of our armed services, and their families here at home. My family escaped Saigon, Vietnam, on a rusty barge when the Viet Cong took over our city and our home. We were rescued by U.S. Sailors, and once in the United States, taken in by St. Michael's Episcopalian Church. I haven't forgotten that I owe my life to those sailors that plucked my family up out of a barge adrift at sea. I want to bring our troops home safe, and bring them home now. Every day our troops are in Iraq, more American and Iraqi lives are lost.

Among Democratic voters in Washington State there is tremendous disappointment with Maria Cantwell for abandoning core democratic values. She has moved so far to the political right it can be difficult to distinguish her from her Republican counterparts. In fact, she recently co-sponsored Republican Senator Rick Santorum's so-called "Iran Freedom and Support Act,� which lays the groundwork for military intervention in Iran. Even her environmental record, often touted in her defense, does not hold up under scrutiny.

During my fourteen years as a legal services attorney working with federal legislation, I learned that a Senator's greatest influence is often wielded through his or her support of or dissent from the appointment of agency directors. When federal lawmakers draft a bill, it is usually a general statement of what rights or ills they intend to address. The laws typically include a statement directing a specific federal agency (i.e., HUD, OSHA, Department of Interior) to flesh out the rights and responsibilities created by the law. An agency director will not only prioritize which rules are written and published, he or she will also decide where the agency will direct its enforcement efforts and what funding the agency will pursue in order to fulfill its objectives. These agency heads wield great influence over the federal legislative process.

Maria Cantwell supported and praised the Bush Administration's Department of Interior appointment of Dick Kempthorne, who received a 1% lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters. Dick Kempthorne opposes the very "Roadless Wilderness� policies that are associated with Cantwell, and he supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Yet she supported his appointment to the Department of Interior where he will have great influence over the direction of this nation's environmental legislation. Either she is not the environmentalist people have hoped her to be, or she does not understand how to fight for what is important to the citizens of Washington State.

People have asked me why I didn't begin my campaign sooner, and I have told them, "money.� It is an unfortunate fact of American politics that elected office is becoming a privilege of the very wealthy. Unlike the other candidates who are able to campaign at their leisure with multi-million dollar bank accounts at their disposal, a working-class candidate such as myself is in the position of having to balance real-world commitments with plans to campaign for elected office. I am the mother of a working family. I announced my candidacy two weeks ago because this was the soonest I was able as a working mother and sole provider of my family's health-insurance coverage to begin to campaign full-time.

I want this to be a grassroots campaign. Washington State doesn't need another millionaire in politics. We need a strong voice for working families, someone who understands their issues and will stand up for them in a competitive global market. Trade agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA, and the WTO — trade agreements that Maria Cantwell supports — are sending middle-class jobs overseas. I don't believe that a democratic candidate needs a multi-million dollar war chest to win an election in this state. Nor does a candidate need to abandon core democratic vales and move to the political right as Maria Cantwell has done. People will vote for a candidate with sound ideas and sound values that can connect with them through substance, not just money alone. I am running this race as the mother of a working family because this is who I am and who I represent — Washington State's working families.â€�