His name is Peter Goldmark. He doesn't have a website yet (soon), has hired a campaign manager, and is taking it very seriously. How does a schoolteacher who lives in Virginia and teaches in Maryland know all this? Because I have known Peter for more than 40 years, and because we talked by phone for about 30 minutes last night.
I cannot offer a lot of information about the campaign right now. But if you continue below the fold, I will give you some background on the candidate, and tell you why this race is important.
For those who don't know, the 5th CD in Washington is in the Eastern part of the state. It was held for many years by Tom Foley, who was defeated by a Republican named George Nethercut, who after promising to abide by term limits (election of 1994) violated his promise to his constituents. He stayed around until he ran for the US Senate in against Patty Murray in 2004. Fortunately he lost.
The seat is thus held by someone completing only her first term, a point at which many incumbents are at their most vlunerable. Cathy McMorris has been marked for stardom by the powers that be in the Republican party, and is part of the party's Steering Committee in the House. I believe that she was during this term something of a protege of Tom Delay, and it will be interesting to see if we can identify those connections.
Peter and I began as freshmen living in adjacent rooms on the 2nd Floor North of Barclay Hall at Haverford College. That was September of 1963. Peter is quite bright, having achieved a Ph. D. in Microbiology in 4 years at Cal Berkeley. But he grew up in rural Eastern Washington, and has never lost his connections with the rural area and agriculture. This is not his first run for public office, having been elected to his local school board. And as you will read in the material below, he has statewide service in agriculture and in higher education.
There will be a major rewrite of agricultural legislation in 2007. Having someone with both the experience (growing wheat, for example) and the knowledge (he is a trained scientist and has built his own extensive laboratory on his ranch) would be a real plus for Dems.
This will not be an easy race, especially as Peter's entrance is so late. But it might well be winnable.
I will update the dailykos community as I learn more. Read the material I provide below to get a better sense of Peter.
Peter was briefly state agricultulture director onder Mike Lowry. You can get a few of his ideas on issues in this piece from the Spokesman-Review newspaper.
In a piece from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer entitled Rural Democrat mounts uphill battle we read
With the infamous Redbaiting of his father from the Washington Legislature in the 1960s, and the Christmas Eve 1985 murders of his brother's family in Seattle, Peter Goldmark has reason to guard his privacy.
But the Okanogan County rancher and decadelong Washington State University regent is headed back into the public arena. Goldmark is mounting an uphill campaign for Congress in Eastern Washington against freshman GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris.
"In difficult times, every citizen's responsibility is to do what he or she can to help out," said Goldmark, 59
One can find a little more about his background in a brief biography that has appeared in a number of places on the web:
PETER GOLDMARK has a life-long involvement with wheat ranching, science and public service. After receiving his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from UC Berkeley in 1971, Goldmark returned to the family wheat and cattle ranch. He was appointed Director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture in 1993 by Governor Lowry. Goldmark is currently a member of the Washington State University Board of Regents and served as President of the Board and chairman of the presidential search committee in 1999-2000. He has published papers in national and international scientific journals on plant molecular genetics and currently runs a wheat breeding program for crop improvement.