Nethercutt launches longshot U.S. Senate campaign (against Patty Murray)

[Ediacara]

Nethercutt launches longshot U.S. Senate campaign

By Jim Brunner
Seattle Times staff reporter


KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Rep. George Nethercutt greets representatives
of the Washington State Medical Association in
Washington, D.C.

Eastern Washington's last U.S. Senate win was 1922

In Congressman George Nethercutt's Bellevue apartment, you won't find many personal touches. The walls are bare, the furniture cheap or borrowed. On a worn coffee table sits a well-thumbed copy of "All the King's Men," a novel the Spokane Republican counts among his favorites.

It's the cautionary tale of Willie Stark, a small-town politician who becomes corrupted as a powerful U.S. senator. But today, as Nethercutt officially kicks off his campaign against Sen. Patty Murray, there is another name to keep in mind — Clarence C. Dill, the last politician from east of the Cascades to be elected senator from Washington.

Dill left office in 1934, and some observers say an Eastern Washington politician may never hold a U.S. Senate seat again, though Nethercutt, not surprisingly, disagrees.

More at the Seattle Times

[ashling]

1. Ah yess, Clarence C. Dill, the last Senator from

Eastern Washington.

Well, if Eastern Washingtonians - and Nethercutt - had a clue, they would notice something else about Dill which may be more instructive.

Dill, a progressive Democrat, rose from political obscurity to defeat the incumbant Republican in that seat. He gave the vice-presidential nomination speech for FDR at the 1920 convention. He was an ardent New Dealer and was a proponent of public ownership of power in the Northwest.

He would be fighting tooth and nail against the special interests that occupy the White House and the Senate and House today.

:dem: