The Senate Debates:

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:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/105005354.html?tab=video

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.

Meet the 2010 Washington Senate Candidates:

2010 Senate Election:
Who are the candidates? Let’s get to know them shall we…

Patty Murray:

The Democrat Candidate!
She was born in Seattle on October 11, 1950. Murray is a Washington State University Alumni, she graduated from there in the year of 1972. From the years of 1977 until 1984 she was an educational volunteer. Patty Murray taught at Shoreline Community College from 1984 to 1987. She was a citizen lobbyist for educational and environmental issues from 1983 to 1988. She was part of the Shoreline School District Board of Directors from the years 1985 to 1989. Patty Murray was on the Washington State Senate from 1988 to 1992. She was the Democratic Whip from 1990 to 1992. She was elected as a member of the United States Senate in 1992, 1998, 2004. She is currently running for a fourth term.

-Ryan Fromm.

 

Dino Rossi:

The Republican Candidate!

Dino Rossi was born into a large family of seven children total on October 15, 1959 in the city of Seattle, WA. He attended college and graduated with a business degree in the year 1982 from Seattle University. While in college Rossi constantly worked, his jobs varied from construction jobs to janitor jobs. Dino Rossi co-founded the Eastside Commercial Bank and built himself a career in commercial real estate. He ran for the 1992 election of state legislature and lost, but tried his luck again in 1996 and won. In the year 2000 he was re-elected and in 2003 he served on the state senate's budget committee as chairman where he was in charge of producing the state's budget. During this year, he dealt with a massive budget deficit without raising taxes and was still able to protect the most vulnerable citizens of Washington. In 2004, he ran for governor and won the first two vote counts and narrowly lost the third by only 129 votes. After this Dino Rossi wrote a book on leadership and founded the Forward Washington Foundation, whose purpose is to improve Washington's business climate. He ran for governor again in 2008, but lost a second time even though he was ahead of the Republican nominee. Rossi went back to where he began and joined Coast Equity Partners in Everett, WA but after seeing the trouble our country was in he decided to run for U.S. Senate.

Dino Rossi currently lives in Sammamish, WA with his family, which consists of his wife, Terry, and their four children. He is serving on the Board of the Special Olympics for the State of Washington as Secretary and is a member of the Dean's Advisory Board for the School of Business at Seattle University.

He wants to start by getting government spending under control so that other things will straighten back into the order they need to be in. Dino Rossi is running for senate so he can help bring sensibility to the Congress, restore fiscal discipline and transparency, and keep the American Dream in reach for our future generations.

-Sara Lien.