The Race is Close...
It is crunch time! The ballots were sent out last week to all the legal voters of Washington and the senate election race is close between Democrat Patty Murray and Republican Dino Rossi.
The First Debate:
On Thursday evening the first debate between the two senate candidates began with them disputing over tax cuts and the role of the government. This debate was nothing new, since mostly everything talked over has already been featured on the numerous television ads produced by each party. Patty Murray struck Dino Rossi, during this debate, for supporting extension of the tax cuts that will benefit the rich. Her argument was that these "tax breaks take away revenue that could be used for Social Security, Medicare and health programs." Murray claims that if Dino Rossi follows through with these tax cuts, there will be no way to maintain these important programs, but she is determined to make sure that they are sustained. Dino Rossi made a come back by criticizing Murray's consistent votes for "bigger government programs and more government control of business." Rossi labeled Murray as a "big spending liberal" during the debate, while Murray made Rossi out to be "a friend to Wall Street and big banks." The argument of tax cuts was brought up multiple times during the debate. Uncontrolled spending is causing our country to head in the wrong direction is another argument Rossi made, an example he referred to was the health care reform bill. He stated that more jobs would be created if there was lower taxes and more affordable costs for things like health care. Patty Murray said that due to the greedy people of Wall Street many families are struggling and that our country needs to make investments in things like education to open up for more jobs. Even though the two candidates disagreed on many topics during this hour long debate, they did agree that cleanup of nuclear waste at Hanford should be continued. Rossi made a point that the health care reform bill could eventually "bankrupt America" by increasing the costs for large employers. When each candidate stated one thing they like about the other, Murray said she admired Rossi for making sacrifices to join the election and Rossi said he believes Murray has done good work for the veterans.
Here is a link to a video giving an overview of the first debate:
The Second Debate:
On Sunday the second and final debate between the two candidates took place. Candidate Murray is hoping to win the election and enter into her fourth term and candidate Rossi is trying his third run after previous failing campaigns for governor. The polls that have been coming in have shown that this is going to be a competitive election between the two. During the debate, Murray and Rossi, argued about the "federal stimulus plan's effect on the economy." Dino Rossi's idea for decreasing Washington's high unemployment rate was to "spur the private sector to create jobs." Murray rebuttals this saying that private contractors are carrying out plenty of stimulus work and that "Mr. Rossi's going to give them a pink slip." Patty Murray questioned Dino Rossi on how he would pay for renewing federal tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which have not yet been extended. In his response, Rossi didn't answer this question directly but went on to say that "Murray should have ensured the Senate extended the tax cuts before Congress' recent adjournment" and that "Senator Murray is going to continue to raise" our taxes. The Republican's stance is that these cuts should be extended for all taxpayers, while the Democrats want to give relief to the lower tax brackets only. When Rossi was able to ask Murray a question, he blamed her for helping to spark a "trade war with Mexico, which has raised tariffs on U.S. goods after the cancellation of a pilot program allowing some Mexican trucks to transport good into the U.S." She came back saying that she had "fought the tariffs" but the "trucking policy was primarily about safety and shouldn't have brought any negative consequences for Washington farmers."
This summarizes the two debates that took place between the two Senate candidates, whose beliefs vary extremely, during this neck and neck race.
-Sara Lien.
