Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Baird draws opponents for 2010

Two Republican candidates have stepped up to oppose Congressman Brian Baird in Washington's third Congressional district: Jon Russell and David Castillo.
A Republican city councilman from Washougal with a history of opposing gay rights has stepped into the ring to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Brian Baird.

[...]

Russell joins David Castillo, as the GOP challengers in the 3rd district, which runs from Olympia to Vancouver. Castillo is a financial adviser in Olympia, formerly served as state House Republican Caucus staff director, worked for the federal Department of Homeland Security and once was deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Jon Russell is a former Executive Director of the right-wing evangelical Faith & Freedom Network, and in addition to serving as a Washougal city councilmember, is the owner of the Columbia Gorge Medical Center.

Russell is so virulently anti-gay, that while making his point about his opposition to marriage equality, he ends up insulting heterosexual couples who have issues with fertility.
"Things that cannot reproduce or things that cannot provide that generational heritage are not a progressive value. Those are backwards values."
Way to go Jon. Marginalizing good people who, through no fault of their own, are unable to have children, is certainly a winning strategy. I wonder if Mr. Russell feels the same way about people who choose not to have children.

It gets better. On his Facebook political page, Russell looks to expand his base:
This race is about you, regardless of where you live in America.
By all means, go ahead and ask for votes in Oregon, Jon. And while you're at it, you might find a few votes in Idaho.

As for David Castillo, in addition to his other service listed above, he is a veteran of the U.S. Navy. Much like Russell, according to his website, he is running on the standard GOP fare of lower taxes and smaller government. It's actually part of a three sentence statement on his website, which is very heavy on the biography and completely lacking in positions on issues or any information that might give you an idea of what kind of Congressman he'd be. Castillo does have a blog, but it only has three entries and isn't updated every day.

It's going to take a lot more than these two pretenders for the Third Congressional District to have a new representative.

Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home