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Monday, July 24, 2006

Selectively Open Mike

Posted by on July 24 at 11:05 AM

I interviewed GOP senate candidate Mike McGavick this weekend. I went to Moses Lake, WA. to catch his “Open Mike” campaign in central Washington.

During the interview, I asked McGavick his opinion of our state’s gay civil rights bill and attempts to repeal it by initiative.

He said: “I do not and will not talk about state issues. Because I’m working at the federal level. I’ve been asked about the gas tax last year. I’m now being asked about this. I’ll be asked about other things. I do not comment on state initiatives because I’m focused on the federal issues.”

That’s clever. It’s also pretty lame. (I think someone who has the audacity to run for U.S. Senate should be forthcoming with the public about something that has dominated local headlines.)

It’s also not true. Earlier last week, on a campaign swing through Colville, Washington, McGavick talked about state initiative I-937. I-937 would invest money in renewable energy, although the initiative does not put much focus on hydro power.

Colville is in the northeastern corner of the state in Stevens county—where, hydro power is key to the economy.

According to a tape of his July 17 stop in Colville, here’s what McGavick said just five days before telling me he doesn’t comment on state initiatives: “I find it strange to have something put on the ballot that says we’ve got to work more towards renewable resources—which I think is a good idea, by the way—to work toward renewable resources, that won’t include hydroelectric power as a part of renewable resources.”


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He want's to represent the state of Washington, but doesn't want to talk state politics?

Idiot.

Just because he's a damned liar, doesn't mean he's a fraud and a charlatan.

We'll have to wait until those two get discovered.

He's also wrong on the facts. I-937 counts increased efficiency at existing hydroelectric dams as contributing to the 15% goal.

Red State Eastern Washington hicks are ignorant inbreds. Why is he wasting his time over there anyway?

Hey, I used to live north of Spokane. You just need to translate the ideas - they're not dumb, they just have different focii to their lives. For example, look at wind turbines - selling it as "saving salmon" doesn't work in the east, but pointing out it means high-wage tech jobs for youth who would otherwise move west to the big city, and that it means an income stream during bad crop/cattle years with minimal impact to farming, now that wakes them up.

And at least they _use_ their trucks, unlike the suburbanites around here with their shiny unused giant trucks.

apart from being white and male, it appears lying and flip-flopping are something that jamie pedersen and mike! mcgavick! have in common. i wonder if that's where the similarities end?

nah, they're probably "friends with benefits", if you know what I mean.

Like anyone running for office, who is serious about surviving politically, Mr. McGavick is going to pick and choose what he talks about; it is called "steering the conversation" and is something most lawyers and salespeople specialize in. That is probably one reason most career politicians are attorneys. Mr. McGavick wants to talk about hydroelectric damns in the eastern part of the state, since he knows it's a hot button issue there. He didn't want to talk about gay and lesbian civil rights because he probably knows that the suburban voters - a key part of the Republican strategy and certainly the target of his "I'm just Mike" good guy in government campaign - would brand him as a homophobic buffoon if he came out (pun intended) against the legislation passed earlier this year in Olympia. However - and this is a big "however" - he certainly doesn't want to imply, while over in the eastern part of the state, that he'd support allowing gay and lesbians such things as equal rights for housing and employment. Yes, it's that bad over there - at least in regards to that issue. I worked as a reporter in the fall of 1980 at the Methow Valley News and while I liked the area, the people residing there fell into either one camp or the other: aging hippie or redneck. There wasn't a lot of in-between. I can still recall one brave African-American guy, who insisted on living there with his family (wife and two children) despite the fact that, as he himself told me, "The last black guy who lived here had two guys come up to him in Three Fingered Jack's (a bar then in Winthrop, WA) and ask him, 'Why don't you just get the fuck out of town?" Mike McGavick might not want to admit it, but in that climate, you are essentially steered into either acting like you are with them, or to their way of thinking, you're against them. Does that mean he has to pretend he's a bigot? Yes, that's exactly what it means. Sometimes, silence is indeed not golden. But it is yellow (as in the sign of a coward).

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