You can tell when liberals are worried about a political campaign, as the “extreme” word comes flying from different directions at the Republican candidate. Such is the case now with First Congressional District challenger Pedro Celis.
Celis, who is well regarded among Puget Sound area Republican and Hispanic leaders, had barely hit send on his campaign press release last week when the attacks started flying, starting with Congresswoman Suzan DelBene press secretary Sandeep Kaushik calling Celis “far too extreme”.
Of course, Kaushik is a veteran Democrat partisan who certainly knows extreme, having worked for The Stranger in Seattle, but he doesn’t know the First District or Pedro Celis. That didn’t stop him though, suggesting that Celis supported government shutdowns and privatizing social security. But Kaushik did admit that Celis’ candidacy may force DelBene to open up the deep pockets that she and her husband (a former Microsoft exec now charged with fixing the Obamacare web site) have dug into for more than $5.2 million in her last two campaigns.
And the Democrat Party doubled down on the extreme rhetoric in a fundraising email from new state chairman Jaxon Ravens this week. He said Celis was “an extreme conservative”, repeated the privatizing social security lie started by Kaushik and suggested Celis was a “hand-picked” Tea Party candidate.
Unfortunately, local media from the Associated Press to the Seattle Times provided a forum for the liberal smears against Celis, without asking for any citations about his political views from his Democrat attackers. It’s far more likely his outspoken support for immigration reform, among other positions, worries the Democrats about how to defeat a well-regarded Latino Republican.
Or it could just be that the liberals can read the polls, which show that voters are at a low-water mark (just 22%) in supporting the re-election of incumbent members of Congress like DelBene.
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