Harbor Republicans ramp it up

Republicans on Grays Harbor are seeing red — or at least they hope to when the votes are tallied in the next election.

At their annual Lincoln Day dinner, this year themed “This is Our Time,” Harbor Republicans gathered to listen to enthusiastic candidates for state and national office talk about how to take back the country.

Grays Harbor Republican Chairwoman Kristine Lowder kicked off the festivities by encouraging “recovering Democrats” to take the first turn at the buffet table, admitting that she once voted for President Jimmy Carter. After dinner, a parade of Republican candidates energized the crowd.

State Sen. Michael Baumgartner, who is challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, noted the night’s theme was very similar to a line Gen. David Petraeus used just before the surge in Iraq, while Baumgartner was there working for the State Department.

Baumgartner brings with him a laundry list of foreign policy credentials, including economic development advisor in Dubai, advisor to several business endeavors in Saudi Arabia, economics officer for the U.S. embassy in Iraq, and advisor to an Afghan counter-narcotics team in Helmand province. He graduated from the Kennedy School at Harvard University and Washington State University.

“We have to do better in the Middle East,” Baumgartner said. “Anybody who thinks we need to ensure free and fair elections in Kandahar to keep us safe doesn’t understand what’s going on over there.”

He also criticized Cantwell’s opposition to an oil pipeline from Canada, saying her opposition to the direct pipeline was more likely to create jobs in China, instead of here in the U.S.

“Maria Cantwell has the Chinese job growth plan, and I’d like to keep going with the American job growth plan.”

He encouraged all the attendees to get involved with at least one campaign in their efforts to turn Washington red.

“This is how we bring victory to Grays Harbor,” Baumgartner said. “Republicans will take back this state in 2012.”

Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman, who is running against state Sen. Jim Kastama for Secretary of State, also encouraged active involvement in elections, warning the crowd that Democratic activist George Soros had been encouraging Democrats to run for Secretary of State across the country.

Wyman has served four terms as auditor and spent eight years as elections manager, running 84 elections in a Democratic-leaning county.

“I’m the only elected Republican in Thurston County, so I feel your pain,” she said with a grin and a nod to County Commissioner Herb Welch.

She told the crowd that the key to her success has been to remain a strong Republican herself, but run her office in a non-partisan manner.

“This state is not as blue as everyone keeps telling us,” she said.

Jesse Young, challenging longtime U.S. Congressman Norm Dicks, told the crowd, “I was born the year Norm Dicks was elected, and I have five kids.”

Young said the country needs to get rid of career politicians like Dicks in order to move forward.

After several references to the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” Olympic hockey team and their coach, the evening closed out with a clip of the movie “Miracle” to get attendees fired up.

“Together, we’ll turn Grays Harbor into a red county,” said Fredi Simpson, national committeewoman.