National groups don't plan to buy more TV time for McGavick, Cantwell
Published Friday, October 20th, 2006
By the Herald staff
WASHINGTON -- Even though Mike McGavick was their handpicked Senate candidate in Washington state, neither the Republican National Committee nor the GOP senatorial campaign committee have plans to air TV ads supporting him in the final 17 days of the race.
Republican Party officials said Friday they remain optimistic McGavick will beat incumbent Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, adding they still could decide to buy advertising time.
Likewise, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has not bought any TV advertising time in support of Cantwell. But Cantwell has a low double-digit lead in recent polls and, though McGavick raised slightly more money in the last three months, Cantwell has $1.4 million more in her campaign account.
Some political analysts said the decision not to advertise shows national Republicans have all but conceded the race to Cantwell and have decided to spend their money elsewhere as they struggle to retain control of the Senate.
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http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/breaking/story/8324488p-8220555c.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Saturday, October 21, 2006 · Last updated 12:00 a.m. PT
As ballots arrive, McGavick distances himself from D.C. GOP
By DAVID AMMONS
AP POLITICAL WRITER
SEATTLE -- Republican Mike McGavick, challenging Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell in a Democratic-leaning state where George Bush's poll numbers are in the tank, offers this campaign twist: He's running against the GOP-dominated Washington, D.C., establishment.
He has just broken with the White House over how the Iraq war is being waged and says he would have voted against the invasion if he'd known there were no weapons of mass destruction. He'd dump Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He rails against out-of-control spending his party has allowed. And he decries partisan gridlock and failure to fix America's most vexing problems.
"I want people to understand clearly that I would be a different kind of Republican," says McGavick. "I'm running against that whole culture."
Cantwell, quite content to agree with his implicit criticism of the Republican status quo, doesn't think voters will buy the logic that it makes sense to send another Republican to D.C. as a way to change things.
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Wash_Senate.html