From the Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2002 issue

Pullout

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT NO. 8 REPRESENTATIVE

Vote for Heidi Behrens-Benedict

This is Democrat Heidi Behrens-Benedict's third try to unseat incumbent Republican Jennifer Dunn, but don't tell her the challenge is a long shot. District 8 may never have sent a Democratic rep to Washington, D.C., but D's such as Al Gore and Gary Locke have won the Eastside suburban district, which gives the Glee Club some hope that endorsing Behrens-Benedict isn't simply a Hail Mary.

Behrens-Benedict is convinced that Dunn is the wrong choice for the district and the Glee Club agrees. Five-termer Dunn consistently gets props from conservative groups with her votes for public-school prayer and for prohibiting government "discrimination" against doctors who refuse to provide or refer abortion services. Dunn also gets low marks from environmentalists (she approved of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). And she voted against the ACLU's preferred position 93 percent of the time--yikes!

She's also a close ally of the Bush administration (she raised money for Bush's campaign, and coached him on how to appeal to women and minorities in hopes of getting a Cabinet appointment), and she has a ton of corporate-interest donors--over $64,000 from the insurance sector and $47,000 from the pharmaceutical industry in the last year, plus $14,550 from Microsoft.

Unfortunately, beyond trashing Dunn, Behrens-Benedict doesn't have a whole lot to offer. She's enthusiastic about jump-starting the economy and creating jobs (isn't everybody?), protecting the environment, and improving education. Still, we'll take her over Dunn any day.