Chatting with anyone who will listen.
  • Mike Gore
  • Chatting with anyone who will listen.
The liberal campus of Western Washington University isn’t the first place that comes to mind when thinking about where to hold a rally for a Republican running for US Senate. It was, however, the last stop of the day yesterday for Michael Baumgartner, a man who frequently points out that he holds a Harvard master’s degree and is running against Democratic incumbent Maria Cantwell.

Baumgartner's rally was promoted on Facebook, in an ad in the student newspaper, on flyers pasted around campus, and on his website. Socialist rallies at Western routinely draw 50 to 100 pissed off hippies, so I was expecting Republicans to come out en masse—or at least en groupe—for this potential US senator.

But the “rally,” it turned out, included no more than few signs propped against a bench while Baumgartner and his aide handed out fliers to passersby that note his master's degree from Harvard. Before I could talk to him, though, Baumgartner plopped down at a picnic table with an elderly man and couldn't be bothered.

The aide, Joel Graves, said that Baumgartner, who stressed that his candidate has a Harvard master’s degree, is “pretty socially conservative,” and “not in favor of gay marriage.” This was also made obvious by his vote against the state bill legalizing same-sex marriage in February. Of course, as a freshman Washington State senator who represents Spokane, Baumgartner's opposition to marriage equality is not particularly groundbreaking news. With regards to higher education, Baumgartner is “in favor of funding it,” Graves said, and he tried to get 1 percent of our state sales tax to go toward higher ed.

When Graves was asked about how someone could be in favor of funding higher education while voting for Senator Joe Zarelli's budget, which attempted to cut over $30 million from higher ed, he said “you’ll have to ask him about that,” with a laugh. Finally, Graves described Baumgartner as “pretty awesome."