The Washington Redistricting Commission gave 9th District Rep. Adam Smith a good news-bad news result – a district so strongly Democratic that he is mostly immune from a Republican challenge but more likely to draw a Democratic challenge.
The Seattle Times’ Jim Brunner reports here that Seattle City Councilman Bruce Harrell is considering just such a challenge. He quotes Harrell’s niece and campaign manager saying, “There is a fantastic opportunity. He has been approached by a number of people to consider it… It is definitely a serious consideration.”
The new district is a majority-minority district and Harrell is the …
The Washington State Redistricting Commission outlined a draft congressional plan today that puts most of Thurston County including Olympia in the new 10th Congressional District, while shifting U.S. Rep. Adam Smith’s 9th district northward to become a minority-dominated district that ranges from northeast Tacoma to Renton, south Seattle, and Bellevue. The plan also preserves Tacoma as an urban anchor for Rep. Norm Dicks’ sprawling 6th district that retains the Olympic Peninsula and sends part of Rep. Dave Reichert’s 8th district over the Cascades into Eastern Washington.
The bipartisan draft map appears to leave Democrats with strong positions in five districts including Smith and Dicks, Republicans with strong positions in four districts including Reichert and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler in the 3rd, which retains a band of south Thurston County, all of Southwest Washington and all of Klickitat County east of the Cascades. Read more »
U.S. Rep. Adam Smith Thursday compared himself to Ross Perot, minus the billionaire stuff.
He was joking about the line of charts and graphs that he placed on easels in front of Tacoma Rotary 8 members to illustrate his viewpoint on the federal budget problems. A pie chart showed the distribution of federal spending. A bar chart showed how the feds will raise $2.16 trillion and spend $3.4 trillion.
The federal government borrows more than one-third of what it spends, Smith said, yet when asked what specific area of government they would support cutting, a majority of Americans can’t agree on a single area.
U.S. Rep. Adam Smith
“Which gets us to the problem,” Smith said deficit reduction. “If you’re 40 percent out of whack and you don’t want to cut anything and you don’t want to raise taxes you’re not going to get there.”
Smith’s advice for the so-called Super Committee charged with finding $1.2 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years is that everything be on the table – savings in entitlement programs, cuts in defense and more revenue.
“Revenue has got to be part of the equation,” he said. But when asked by a Rotarian if he thought the Super Committee, which is co-chaired by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, has a chance of succeeding, Smith said, “probably not.” The reason is that the committee is afflicted with the same politics that nearly brought the U.S. government to a budgetary standstill in August.
“A lot of Republicans still say no revenue increases. Democrats are not as reluctant to put entitlements on the table but they are still very reluctant,” Smith said. Read more »
WASHINGTON – In its national report card released today, the Sierra Club gave the Washington state delegation five As, three Fs and one C.
For the Sierra Club, a national environmentalist organization, the only middle-of-the roader is Republican Rep. Dave Reichert, who earned the C. On Capitol Hill, he has clearly established himself as a moderate, often in step with Democrats on environmental issues.
The Sierra Club gave top marks to Democrats Norm Dicks, Adam Smith, Rick Larsen, Jay Inslee, and Jim McDermott. It gave failing grades to Republicans Doc Hastings, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers and Jaime Herrera-Beutler.
WASHINGTON – Just last week, Rep. Adam Smith warned that the nation’s debt ceiling had to be raised immediately.
“This is non-negotiable,” said the Tacoma Democrat.
But on Monday, when the House finally decided to increase the debt limit, Smith voted against it.
What happened?
For starters, Smith didn’t like what congressional leaders left out of the legislation.
He complained that the debt package didn’t include any tax increases and predicted it would result in “devastating cuts” to scientific research, education, roads and bridges and national security.
“To prevent the worst of these cuts from taking effect, revenue must be on the table,” said Smith, 46, who’s serving his eighth term.
In an interview Tuesday, Smith said it marked the first time in his career that he had voted against increasing the debt limit.
“I will tell you – I thought about it long and hard,” he said. Read more »
U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, was one of the “select members of Congress” invited to go to CIA headquarters today and see the photographic evidence that Osama Bin Laden was indeed killed.
Smith said no thanks.
Here’s the statement from Smith press office:
Congressman Adam Smith (WA-9), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, released the following statement after the Central Intelligence Agency granted clearance to members of the House Armed Services Committee to view photos of Osama bin Laden’s body:
“I have decided not to go to Langley to view the bin Laden photographs myself at CIA
WASHINGTON – Since getting shot in the head in Tucson 10 weeks ago, Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona has turned to a trio of her closest friends to keep her official operations running.
Last week, Rep. Adam Smith of Tacoma, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, all Democrats, hosted a fundraiser in Washington, bringing in about $200,000 for Giffords’ 2012 campaign.
And on Wednesday, Smith concluded a two-day visit to southern Arizona, where he toured military installations and met with Giffords’ constituents. Next week, he’ll visit the recuperating congresswoman at a hospital in Houston to discuss his trip to her congressional district.
“We want to make sure that if she comes back to work, it’s all there ready and she can pick up and run with it,” Smith said in a telephone interview from Tucson. “She’s a great member of Congress, and the work she’s doing is important and we want to make sure it continues.” Read more »
WASHINGTON – When Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona introduced a bill last week to cut congressional pay by 5 percent, Democratic Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state quickly signed on to the effort.
Smith has had a particularly close relationship with Giffords: They’re both members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dogs Democrats, and they both have seats on the House Armed Services Committee.
“She is a dear personal friend,” said Smith, the top-ranked Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.
Smith is not the only Washingtonian with ties to Giffords, who was shot Saturday just outside of Tucson.
