Article by Erik Smith. Published on Monday, September 22, 2010 EST.
Senate Democrat Denounces 29-Year-Old Challenger as ‘Career Bureaucrat,’ Says She ‘Stood Up Against the Governor’ — Fain is Fuming
Screen shot from Kauffman’s ad.
By Erik Smith
Staff writer/ Washington State Wire
OLYMPIA, Sept. 20.—Here’s one for the books – a 29-year-old King County Republican is a “career bureaucrat.”
He supported the biggest tax proposal in the county’s history, and now he wants to impose an income tax on business.
Can you believe it?
Actually, that’s not the most important question here. The most important question is whether the voters of the 47th Legislative District believe it. For the last week, state Sen. Claudia Kauffman, Democrat of Kent, has been sounding the charges in an ad airing on cable-TV networks in East King County.
You might even get the idea Kauffman is more of a Republican than her opponent. And there’s a reason for that. Challenger Joe Fain trounced the one-term Democrat in the primary 56-44. It has made the 47th District a bellwether district for the state, and has turned Kauffman into the number one Democratic target in this year’s legislative races.
The new message also makes Kauffman the top contender so far for this year’s stretch award – for the ad that reaches the farthest. Her chances might be better in that contest.
‘Stood Up Against the Governor’?
Fain says the ad is about the worst thing a Democrat can say about a Republican. It makes Kauffman look like the fiscal conservative, and somehow he comes out looking like the taxer and spender.
“She’s desperate,” Fain said. “We had a healthy margin on primary night, and it shows her tax and spending votes have really hurt her with the public. So she’s trying to besmirch me to win it back.”
The ad makes an interesting point. It observes that Kauffman voted against this year’s tax increases. It even contains a slide with the words “Stood up AGAINST the Governor.”
It’s true that she voted against the tax-increase bill, as did a handful of Senate Democrats from “swing districts” that might go either way this November. Democrats had 31 votes in the Senate and passage of the bill required only 25. But Kauffman also voted for the budget, which required $800 million in tax increases to implement it.
“We’re proud of our record on taxes,” said consultant Dean Nielsen. “She supported a lot of things in the budget. She just disagreed on how to pay for it.”
Career Bureaucrat at 29
The Kauffman campaign says it stands by the spot. The ad says in part:
“Claudia Kauffman’s opponent is a career King County bureaucrat who supported the most expensive tax proposal in county history, a tax increase the 47th District rejected by 65 percent. And now he supports an income tax on business.”
The career bureaucrat charge? Nielsen says it’s fair game because Fain has worked in political jobs for the King County Council for the last six years, most recently as chief of staff for councilman Peter von Reichbauer. “Ever since he graduated from college he’s been a political aide,” Nielsen said.
The thing is, Fain is just 29 – hardly an age when one is set in a career. And Fain notes that there’s a big difference between an at-will political appointee and a unionized employee who is protected by civil service regulations.
Who Wants an Income Tax?
The income tax charge? Nielsen says he has Fain on tape at a Kent Chamber of Commerce forum advocating an income tax. A quote from the tape was not immediately available Monday night.
For his part, Fain says he never advocated an income tax and never would support one. “I am absolutely opposed to an income tax,” he said. “I have no idea where they came up with that.”
Biggest Tax Increase Proposal Ever
What gets Fain the most, though, is the charge that he supported the biggest tax proposal in county history. That was Proposition 1 in 2007, a three-county ballot measure that would have raised $47.2 billion for rail transit and highways.
The ad doesn’t say he voted for it in any political capacity – he couldn’t have, because he has never been elected to office. It just says that he supported it. “It’s not something I worked on,” Fain said. “I was pretty distant from it.”
The Kauffman campaign points to a clipping from the front page of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, from the night the measure went down in flames. It shows a group of people huddled over a laptop as the returns came in. It calls them “Proposition 1 supporters.” Fain is standing front and center.
That’s proof enough, said Nielsen.
“If he wasn’t a supporter, he should have made it clear to the P-I at the time, I suppose,” he said.
Ad Called Act of Desperation
Supporters say Fain had nothing to do with the 2007 ballot measure, and they say the ad does its best to twist the facts. “I was working with Joe Fain on transportation issues at the time,” said Tom Pierson, CEO of the Federal Way Chamber of Commerce. “I know he was researching the issue for the county council and was not involved in the ballot tax measure of 2007 they referred to.”
Kathy Lambert, King County councilwoman of Woodinville, called the ad “desperation politics.” Fain doesn’t support an income tax, she said, or new taxes, period. Endorsements from the National Federation of Independent Business and the Washington Association of Realtors are proof enough of that, she said.
And councilman Reagan Dunn of Maple Valley said it’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The tax vote aside, he said Kauffman’s record demonstrates a certain lack of restraint. “Sen. Kauffman voted for the 2010 budget that spent over $800 million of new taxes… Moreover, she voted for every spending bill that came before her as a state senator. How can Senator Kauffman claim independence from Gov. Gregoire when she voted for all 61 of the governor’s special request bills?”
Fain said that if voters in the 47th District want someone who votes like a Republican, he can probably do a better job of it. “She’s just grabbing at every little straw,” he said.Your support matters.
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