WA: Koster campaign fires back at Larsen for anti-Palin remarks

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The reaction of the campaign of Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) to Sarah Palin's endorsement of Republican John Koster was to go on the attack against both Gov. Palin and Councilman Koster. Today Koster's campaign returned fire:

In an amazing display of hypocrisy and hyperbole, Rick Larsen’s anti-Sarah Palin rant in a press release on Monday may have provided voters with a preview of how the 5 term incumbent intends to conduct his campaign against John Koster for Washington’s 2nd Congressional district.

Larsen referred to Palin’s supporters as “radicals” targeting Democrats across the country, and criticized Koster for “opening his campaign war chest to a potential landslide of out-of-state contributions that will fund his campaign to eliminate the help seniors are getting to pay for prescription drugs, privatize Social Security, and protect the lax regulations that led to the BP oil spill.”

Larsen did not mention that 65% of his campaign war chest ($736,671 as of March 31) has come from political action committees (including $1000 from BP), nearly all of whom list addresses from out of state. In comparison, Koster raised $168,717 (as of March 31) with 97% coming from individual donors from Washington State.

“It appears to me that Rick Larsen is suffering from a case of Washington D.C. beltway hypocrisy and arrogance,” said Larry Stickney, Koster’s campaign manager. “The symptoms include condemning your opponent for doing something you are doing, and then expecting to get away with it because you’re an entrenched incumbent with special privileges.”

“If Rick Larsen has a problem with the Koster campaign picking up a few bucks from out of state, he should return the hundreds of thousands he has received from the Washington D.C. PAC’s and special interests from around the country,” Stickney continued.

“For Larsen to beat up on Sarah Palin for endorsing John Koster and call her supporters ‘radicals’ and insinuate that they want to mistreat senior citizens and protect polluters is laughable.”

“This is the same Rick Larsen who ignores the will of his constituents and votes yes for government run health care, yes for the budget busting $787 billion stimulus package, yes for the economy stifling cap-and-trade legislation, yes to increase the national debt limit by $1.9 trillion, and yes on funding the anti-American disaster ACORN. All in all, he’s voted 98% of the time with Nancy Pelosi, earned a “0% rating from the American Conservative Union , and received an “F” from the National Taxpayers Union. Who’s the radical?”

Read both campaign's statements at Sam Taylor's blog on The Bellingham Herald's website.

- JP