Race tightest for state's 1st Congressional District seat
SEATTLE (AP) - In the newly redrawn 1st Congressional district, Democrat Suzan DelBene faces Republican John Koster Tuesday in the state's closest congressional race.
Spanning from the suburbs of King County to the Canadian border in Whatcom County, the sprawling and redrawn district was seen as a toss-up throughout the election. It is Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee's old seat.
DelBene, a former Microsoft executive, defeated a group of Democrats in the primary to challenge Koster, who faced little opposition from his own party. DelBene has spent more than $2 million of her own money in the campaign.
After the 2010 Census, Washington gained a congressional seat. The state now has 10.
Denny Heck, a longtime Democratic politician, is leading Republican Dick Muri, a Pierce County councilmen, in the race for the state's newest district - the 10th, which covers sections of Mason, Thurston and Pierce counties.
Former state senator Derek Kilmer appears to be headed to Congress as retiring Rep. Norm Dicks' replacement. Kilmer, a Democrat, won Dicks' endorsement early on for the seat that covers most of the Olympic Peninsula.
Incumbent Democrats Rick Larsen, Adam Smith and Jim McDermott from the Puget Sound region are also expected to win re-election.
In the Republican stronghold of Eastern Washington, GOP incumbents Doc Hastings and Cathy McMorris Rodgers are cruising to re-election campaigns. In southwest Washington, Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler also seems headed to re-election.
Newly redrawn districts favor Republican representatives Dave Reichert and Jaime Herrera Beutler. Reichert did not see much opposition this year for his seat covering eastern King and Pierce counties as well as parts of Douglas, Chelan and Kittitas counties. In his old, less rural district, Reichert saw contested and expensive races, including one against DelBene in 2010. In southwest Washington, Beutler also seems headed to re-election.
Meanwhile in the state's lone race for a U.S. Senate seat, Sen. Maria Cantwell is likely to clinch her third term on Tuesday.
Cantwell, the state's Democratic junior senator, led from the start, amassing a money war chest worth more than $8 million that dwarfed Baumgartner's effort of a $1 million.
Baumgartner is a first-term state senator from the Spokane area who previously worked as a foreign policy consultant.
Spanning from the suburbs of King County to the Canadian border in Whatcom County, the sprawling and redrawn district was seen as a toss-up throughout the election. It is Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee's old seat.
DelBene, a former Microsoft executive, defeated a group of Democrats in the primary to challenge Koster, who faced little opposition from his own party. DelBene has spent more than $2 million of her own money in the campaign.
After the 2010 Census, Washington gained a congressional seat. The state now has 10.
Denny Heck, a longtime Democratic politician, is leading Republican Dick Muri, a Pierce County councilmen, in the race for the state's newest district - the 10th, which covers sections of Mason, Thurston and Pierce counties.
Former state senator Derek Kilmer appears to be headed to Congress as retiring Rep. Norm Dicks' replacement. Kilmer, a Democrat, won Dicks' endorsement early on for the seat that covers most of the Olympic Peninsula.
Incumbent Democrats Rick Larsen, Adam Smith and Jim McDermott from the Puget Sound region are also expected to win re-election.
In the Republican stronghold of Eastern Washington, GOP incumbents Doc Hastings and Cathy McMorris Rodgers are cruising to re-election campaigns. In southwest Washington, Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler also seems headed to re-election.
Newly redrawn districts favor Republican representatives Dave Reichert and Jaime Herrera Beutler. Reichert did not see much opposition this year for his seat covering eastern King and Pierce counties as well as parts of Douglas, Chelan and Kittitas counties. In his old, less rural district, Reichert saw contested and expensive races, including one against DelBene in 2010. In southwest Washington, Beutler also seems headed to re-election.
Meanwhile in the state's lone race for a U.S. Senate seat, Sen. Maria Cantwell is likely to clinch her third term on Tuesday.
Cantwell, the state's Democratic junior senator, led from the start, amassing a money war chest worth more than $8 million that dwarfed Baumgartner's effort of a $1 million.
Baumgartner is a first-term state senator from the Spokane area who previously worked as a foreign policy consultant.
I am a republican clear through but no way could I vote for Koster. Sad that he is the candidate. We should have picked better.
 I cannot believe there are people who really believe the GOP will stomp on the poor, will take away their SSI and borrow their kids future, along with other lies. The ignorance of what the GOP stand for is beyond my ability to comprehend. The ignorance of what President Obama has accomplished with tax dollars, Libya, fast and furious must be something they want their children to live in or they have been drinking "cool aide"  enough to be drunk on their inability to understand what is clearly in front of them. Oh, they must also believe the Christians are violent and the Muslims wear the crown of peace.Â
I usually don't write negative stuff, but I am fed up with those who have closed their ears and eyes to anything except what they want to believe.Â
 @master's mate Do you really want a video montage link of Flip-Flop Romney saying one thing and then the opposite every 3 seconds? He's pro-choice, he's pro-life/he's for keeping taxes on the rich, he's for lowering taxes for everyone/he's for cutting FEMA, he's for NOT cutting FEMA... the list goes on.
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I agree, I don't like Obama but the GOP put up a pathological liar for the ballot.
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As for the GOP as a party, it's ironic you are trying to argue about Koster and the republican beliefs. The OFFICIAL GOP PLATFORM says it opposes abortion without any exception for rape and incest, which is completely in-line with Koster's extreme and callous comments about "that rape thing."Â
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What do you have to say about that?
 @NorthwestEconomist "the GOP put up a pathological liar for the ballot."
You need to pay attention.
Either way, we all lose. A fiscally sane but overly religiously-driven guy on one side, and a fiscally insane serial loser on the other. cannot EITHER party come up with better than this sort of choice?
That this race is close is shameful beyond belief. An electorate so greedy, narrow-minded, selfish, stupid and hateful give GOP candidates like Romney and Koster a complete pass on civility, respect, truth and transparency in exchange for the hope that they will finally deliver on their insane promises to allow bordeline middle class losers to stomp on the poor to get theirs, borrow their own children's financial future into oblivion, get government services without paying a dime in taxes, arm themselves to the teeth and never have to coexist with anyone outside their pinheaded "culture." Of course they refer it with atrocious non-sequitirs like "accountability" and "freedom", but all they really mean is an every-man-for-himself free-for-all to give one last gasp of relevance to the increasingly irrelevant gun-toting, everything-hating bitter white male slobs before they finally slink off into the margins of extinction as society goes forward without them.
 @wysoumible "everything-hating bitter white male slobs before they finally slink off into the margins of extinction as society goes forward without them".Â
Nah. We just hate Liberal retards who SUPPORT the genocide of Americans through abortions, while they call themselves HUMAN, and call ADOLPH Hitler a maniacal hitler. We make Hitler look like a saint.Â
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Hypocritical arses who will get their just deserts when Obama hands this country over to the UN, and their stormtroopers start pouring into our country, and destroying their families. JUSTICE served, for your stupidity.
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Easy choice
 @Komo Dragon Yah, heads = nut1, tails=nut2.
There's a number of people that are opposed to Koster in Snohomish County rural areas for his part in pushing "Rural Cluster" developments down our throat. Drive out in the country and see the mess these have created for local citizens,
Her ad stating "I'll make sure millionaires pay their fair share" is what is sealing the deal for Koster for me.
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The comment smacks of someone who is totally ignorant of the facts. Â Millionaires pay over 60% of all federal taxes. Â They're also the ones that create jobs for us regular people. Â Do I wish I had more money? Â Sure. Â But do I want to see the government version of Robin Hood? Â No thanks.
 @JoeKing2 No, as a percentage of income they don't. "They're also the ones that create jobs for us regular people", if this were true we would be swimming in jobs. Trickle down economics has failed. The wealthy, my family included, pay less in taxes now then they did 40 years ago. Our tax rates have never been lower in modern times then they are now.
 @thebigteacher  @JoeKing2 The sad truth is they've been hanging onto money and not letting corporations hire this past year to try and make the public blame Obama and force him out, unfortunately it backfired on them and now they will have to spend that money and hire like crazy before Jan 1 when the Bush tax cuts expire.
I don't care if they top 1% pay 95% of all federal taxes. Mitt Romney paid less than half the % of what I paid (actually having a job) on his capital gains income. That is wrong. I should not be paying half of the % that he (or anyone at that income level) pays. That puts a much higher tax burden on me in the middle class. If you think tax breaks for millionares creates a job I need to borrow $20K from you to get $20 million out of a trust in the name of my Nigerian princess wife.Â
 @JoeKing2 You realize we rose to greatness as a country where the rich paid a 90% and 70% top tax rate right? That's where most of those crumbling roads and bridges you are driving on came from, and where most hospitals came from. The change in tax rate is also why we're crippled and can't build anything without going into massive bond debt. I guess you want your kids to go back to home-medicine and using horses and wagons for transportation.Â
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 @Grr Time  @JoeKing2 Are facts and history a problem for you? Can you tell me what the tax rate was under Dwight Eisenhower?  How about Nixon? How about Theodore Roosevelt?
I hope Koster loses, his comments about "that rape thing" were inexcusable. You expect that in the midwest, NOT in WA.
 @NorthwestEconomist I don't think we should be accepting it anywhere in America. Period.
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The most important aspect regarding abortion, is that it was declared a legal medical procedure in the US in 1968 or '69. Before that, hackers in back alleys in the US and Mexico were killing desperate women.
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Before then, since then, now, and into the infinite future, it was, has been, is now, and WILL ALWAYS be a very personal choice of a female who is faced with an unwanted pregnancy. So, it doesn't matter what Koster or ANY OTHER POLITICIAN thinks. They all need to shut the hell up and quit making abortion a political issue. NONE of us were put on this earth to be the judge of anyone else's VERY personal choices.
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Like I said: Some moron is going to call the results early in the day.
 @Gino Obama will win. Why?
1, WOMEN want to continue to be the only people ALLOWED to LEGALLY murder living human beings.
2. They love being taxed to death, and then whine about it.
3. They like being beat up on by other countries, and having a president that will do nothing about it.
4. They love Socialism/Communism, which has been proven such a success in all those other Socialist/Communist countries. <cough>
5. They love paying higher taxes to fund Obamacare for all those ILLEGAL aliens, whom are here taking our jobs, and not paying their taxes for it.