U.S. Sen. Patty Murray invited hundreds of cheering supporters in Vancouver on Friday to take a trip back to the last Washington State Democratic Convention, in the summer of 2008.
The economy was losing 700,000 jobs a month, seniors were “falling into the doughnut hole” of Medicare prescription drug coverage, and the United States had suffered a loss of respect in the world, she said.
“Those times were no laughing matter,” Murray said. “Our country had had enough.” But with the Democratic Party’s nomination of Barack Obama, she said, “the politics of fear gave way to the audacity of hope.”
Two years later, Murray told delegates to the 2010 Democratic convention, “The work that we believe in is under way. It isn’t easy.” But despite Republicans’ efforts to “stop progress,” she said, “we have begun to right the ship.”
Murray, a member of the Senate’s Democratic leadership team, is running for her fourth six-year term. She faces what promises to be a tough challenge from leading Republican candidates Dino Rossi and Clint Didier, one of whom will face her in the general election.
She spoke at the convention’s opening-night banquet and will speak again today at the convention’s business meeting, where she will be nominated by her party.
Murray said she was proud to stand beside President Obama when he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, the first bill he signed into law, which upholds the principle of equal pay for equal work regardless of gender.
She said Democrats have stood up for working families and small businesses, and vowed to “get back” the sales tax deduction that Washington taxpayers now enjoy. That deduction could soon expire as a result of Republicans’ refusal to support a Democratic jobs bill in a Senate vote Thursday.
Murray talked about her support for education and infrastructure, including a new Columbia River Crossing, but mostly she talked about her work on behalf of veterans.
“You’re going to see a lot of ads about spending money,” she said. Rossi and the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee have made Murray’s use of earmarks for Washington projects a keystone of their campaign.
But Murray recalled how she went to bat for veterans when the Bush administration proposed closing several veterans hospitals, including an earthquake-damaged facility in Lakewood, near Tacoma.
“I went back and got one of those earmarks,” she said to the cheering crowd. The $38 million appropriation built a new 83-bed residential long-term care center at the American Lake VA in Lakewood, which was dedicated Friday.
Murray also helped deliver $625,000 in federal stimulus funding to Vancouver’s veterans campus last year as part of a $23 million package for Washington’s five VA medical centers.
Gov. Chris Gregoire introduced Murray, with a prediction that Rossi would lose his third statewide race this year after losing to her in the 2004 and 2008 gubernatorial races.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who has worked closely with Murray, delivered an affectionate keynote address.
“I still think a lot about life through basketball,” said the lanky Wyden, who once dreamed of playing in the NBA. “If I was picking a congressional team, the very first person I would pick is Sen. Patty Murray. She’d always protect you, she’d run the court, she’d get 16 points and 11 assists and make no turnovers.”
He recalled that a reporter recently asked Murray whether she was running for election on her clout. Her response: “I’d never want to run on my clout. I’m running on my connections to people.”
Wyden, who chairs a subcommittee on foreign trade, took the opportunity to discuss a subject of regional interest: how federal trade policy affects the Pacific Northwest.
Noting that one out of seven jobs in the Northwest is dependent on foreign trade, he said, “We need to think through as Democrats what our trade policy is. We ought to be the leading advocates for a trade policy where we make things in the Pacific Northwest, we grow things in the Pacific Northwest, we add value to them, and we ship them somewhere.”
China is considering “the most protective trade policy ever,” which would lock out many U.S.-made products, Wyden said. “Democrats in the U.S. Senate are not going to let that happen!” he vowed. “We’re going to get those markets because we earned them.”
Wyden pooh-poohed the idea that Democrats are running scared this year. The party has plenty of accomplishments to point to, he said, including a good beginning on health care reform.
“Back east, all they are talking about is how Democrats aren’t motivated, how the Democrats are disappointed,” he said. “President Obama, as gifted as he is, can’t solve every problem in 15 minutes. “
Kathie Durbin: 360-735-4523 or kathie.durbin@columbian.com.
