There is one thing you can count on for Republicans, and that’s the fact that they don’t want you thinking on your own.
In attack ads against a Democratic candidate in Eastern Washington State where a Republican challenger doesn’t even exist yet, Republicans have started telling whoppers larger than the King Salmon they’re pulling out of the Sound. Ads are in the media attacking Democratic candidate Don Barbieri for “putting profits before jobs”, because after a merger between Barbieri’s company and another, a quarter of the workforce was laid off. What they’re not telling people is that the company that was merged into Barbieri’s was going bankrupt, and 100% of the people would have been out of a job.
Leave it to the job-outsourcing-supporting Republicans to criticize a man for keeping jobs in the US!
Article archived here.Sunday, September 12, 2004 – Page updated at 12:36 A.M.
Republicans air ad targeting Eastern Washington’s Barbieri
By David Espo
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Seizing the offensive in their campaign to retain control of the House, Republicans have begun running a television ad against the Democratic congressional candidate in Eastern Washington even before his GOP opponent is selected.
The commercial, which first aired Friday night in Spokane, was paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee at a cost of $87,000 over several days. It accuses Democratic candidate Don Barbieri of “putting profits before jobs.”
The commercial says that when Barbieri’s hospitality company merged with another business, “they laid off nearly a quarter of their work force.”
Barbieri’s son, Stephen, the campaign press secretary, disputed the contention. “They came after him on something they haven’t done their homework on,” he said.
Stephen Barbieri said the company purchased a dairy that was headed for bankruptcy and “actually saved jobs that would have been going away. … He acquired the company, kept it going and kept those jobs alive.”
Barbieri’s Republican challenger will be selected in Tuesday’s primary in the 5th District, which has been in GOP hands for a decade.
Democrats must gain 12 seats in the 435-member House to win a majority in November.
“The fact that they are already going on the attack before the Republicans even have a nominee shows that they are very, very worried about holding the seat,” said Greg Speed, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Carl Forti, a spokesman for the Republican committee, declined comment.
Both parties have reserved advertising time in the Spokane area, where GOP Rep. George Nethercutt’s decision to run for the Senate triggered a competitive race for the House seat he won in 1994.
Barbieri emerged quickly as the Democratic contender for the seat, which has symbolic value. Former House Speaker Tom Foley, the last man to preside over a Democratic-controlled House, held the seat until Nethercutt defeated him in the watershed election of 1994 that brought the GOP to power.
Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company