Washington state voters are sure to elect a woman to
the U.S. Senate Nov. 3. The question is, which woman – Democratic
incumbent Patty Murray or Republican Linda Smith.
Only nine seats in the U.S. Senate are now held
by women.
Smith jumped into the Senate race
after serving two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, where
she earned a reputation as a staunch conservative. Congressional
Quarterly reports that 91 percent of her votes matched the
Republican Party line. The League of Conservation Voters gave her a
score of 31 percent. But her fight for campaign finance reform has
drawn considerable criticism from GOP allies such as the Christian
Coalition. Says campaign spokesman Jim Troyer: “She really is a
populist.”
Sen. Murray is known as a Clinton
Democrat who has simultaneously gone to bat for environmentalists
and big businesses such as Microsoft. Murray’s work on behalf of
the environment has won accolades from some environmentalists. Her
League of Conservation Voters score is 86 percent. But Murray is
best known for championing education, health care and trade. The
first term senator says she’s still “just a mom in tennis shoes,” a
campaign slogan that helped the former preschool teacher win in
1992.
When Sam Hitt knocks
on a door in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights to ask voters to elect
him as New Mexico’s next state lands commissioner, he often has
some explaining to do.
“They
say, “Oh, state lands? I own it?” “””says Hitt, a Green Party
candidate. “They often confuse them with federal lands.”
So he carries glossy 8 1/2-by-11 inch
calendar-quality photographs of especially scenic state lands to
grab attention as he canvasses for votes in an unusual three-way
race.
Hitt, a founder of the Santa Fe-based
Forest Guardians, faces Democratic incumbent Ray Powell and
Libertarian challenger Maurice McDonald. No Republican has entered
the race for a job to oversee 9 million acres of state trust lands
and the accompanying oil and gas rights.
Each
candidate charts a separate course for the lands office. McDonald,
a Santa Fe real estate developer, says selling off public lands
isn’t a bad idea. Powell was the first state lands commissioner in
the nation to lease state grazing lands to a non-rancher – which
just happened to be the Forest Guardians. But Hitt says he’ll take
the land office even further, granting all citizens equal
opportunity to bid on state grazing lands.
The
lands commissioner race, which typically ranks among the state’s
low-profile races, has this year largely focused on the debate over
what to do about oil companies that owe the state millions of
dollars in royalties. Hitt has promised to sue the companies to get
the money, but Powell prefers to avoid the courtroom, adding “My
style is to try to get people together and work together. I hate to
spend any money on litigation unless I have to.”
– Dustin
Solberg
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline On The Trail.
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