Goldmark counting on populist appeal

SPOKANE — During an appearance at a recent labor rally at the county fairgrounds, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer beamed as he told some 500 union members how he and other Democrats took control of a state long dominated by Republicans.

Schweitzer predicted it could also happen here in Eastern Washington — a place that he said "looks like, smells like" Montana.

"It's a good time to be a gun-toting, red-meat-eating, dog-loving Democrat," said Schweitzer, clad in his trademark blue jeans, boots and bolo tie.

Waiting his turn to speak was Peter Goldmark, a Democrat who is trying to whip up the same sort of insurgent mood here that propelled Schweitzer to power in Montana in 2004.

Goldmark, a rancher from Okanogan, is running against freshman Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris in the 5th Congressional District — a sprawling region that takes in many of the state's most conservative communities.

Like Schweitzer, Goldmark has been strumming a lot of populist chords: railing against record-high oil-industry profits "while you and I are going broke at the pump," and promising to help reform a Congress controlled by "big-money lobbyists who don't care about you folks."

Goldmark has also been painting McMorris as a loyal follower of President Bush and the Republican leaders in Congress. Those ties, he suggests, make her partly to blame for everything from Washington's sagging farm economy to the military quagmire in Iraq.

"I'm very worried about my country in ways I haven't been worried my entire life," Goldmark said.

Goldmark and his supporters know the odds are heavily in McMorris' favor. She won the seat two years ago with 60 percent of the vote, despite being outspent by her Democratic opponent.

McMorris, who jumped to Congress from the state House, is widely seen as a rising star in the Republican Party. And so far this year she has raised more than twice as much money as Goldmark.

The Goldmark-McMorris race has been overshadowed by the battle in the 8th District, where Darcy Burner's bid to unseat Republican Rep. Dave Reichert is seen as one of the key races in the Democratic Party's quest to seize control of the U.S. House.

But Goldmark is starting to make a bigger blip on national radar screens.

Last month, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee upgraded Goldmark to "emerging races" status in its Red-to-Blue fundraising program. And McMorris sent out a fundraising letter urging supporters to take the race seriously.

"New West" Democrat

The 5th District covers more than a third of Washington state — stretching from Walla Walla to the Canadian border.

Goldmark, a pilot who owns his own plane, has logged more than 120 hours flying to campaign appearances. But the bulk of his time is spent in Spokane County, where two-thirds of the district's voters reside.

The district hasn't always been a Republican stronghold. Former Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley held the seat for three decades, getting nearly 75 percent of the vote in one election.

But Foley was ousted in 1994, and Democrats have never come close to winning the seat back.

Foley's fall came during a nationwide Republican sweep. He also faced an angry backlash over his lawsuit to overturn the state's voter-approved term-limits law.

But Goldmark says there are other reasons Democrats lost so much ground in Eastern Washington.

For instance, he says, during the past decade or so the Democratic Party alienated farmers and other rural residents by aligning too closely with environmentalists who pushed to protect spotted owls and remove dams on the Snake River.

"Environmentalism at any cost is the wrong approach," Goldmark said. "The [Democratic] Party essentially turned its back on many working families, and the Republicans took adroit advantage of the situation."

In the past several years, however, Democrats have made significant gains in the interior West.

They're doing it with people such as Schweitzer — a tough-talking politician who is unabashedly pro-gun but sounds every bit as progressive as coastal Democrats when talking about health care or renewable energy.

Goldmark calls them "New West" Democrats. He says he knows that most voters he meets in Eastern Washington probably haven't voted Democrat in more than a decade.

"We don't call them Republicans," he said. "We call them persuadables."

Jill Strait, spokeswoman for McMorris' campaign, said Eastern Washington remains solidly Republican. But she added, "I don't think anybody in any race this year can take anything for granted."

Strait disputed Goldmark's assertion that McMorris is a rubber stamp for Bush. For instance, she said, earlier this year McMorris fought an administration attempt to raise energy rates.

"She votes and fights for what's important for Eastern Washington, even it that means standing up to the administration or leadership," Strait said.

Not a typical rancher

Goldmark, 60, was born and raised on his family's 7,000-acre wheat farm and cattle ranch a few miles south of Okanogan.

His father, John Goldmark, was a well-known Democratic state senator during the late 1950s. He lost his bid for a fourth term after a political foe published accusations that he and his wife were communist sympathizers. He later won a landmark libel suit against the paper but never re-entered politics.

Two decades later, Charles Goldmark, Peter's brother, and his family were murdered on Christmas Eve in their Seattle home. The killer said he murdered the family because he thought they were communists.

Peter Goldmark is not your typical rancher. He earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology, went on to do postdoctoral studies at Harvard University and was headed for a career as a research scientist.

But after getting married in 1972, Goldmark and his wife returned to the ranch, where they raised five children. His wife died of cancer three years ago, and he has since remarried.

While most of Goldmark's livelihood comes from farming, he still dabbles in science. He patented two varieties of wheat developed to thrive in the Northwest.

Goldmark served a brief stint in the early 1990s as director of the state Department of Agriculture and is former president of the Washington State University Board of Regents.

On the campaign trail, Goldmark conveys a variety of images.

He dressed like a business executive recently to meet with the CEO of Itron, a local high-tech company. A short time later, working the crowd at the labor rally, he ditched the coat and tie and rolled up his sleeves.

In May, he launched his campaign by riding into Spokane on horseback. In most of his campaign ads and fliers, he's shown wearing a cowboy hat and jeans.

But despite his burly cowboy looks, when it comes to talking about the beef cattle he raises, Goldmark uses the term "sacrifice" instead of slaughter.

"I think some amount of respect and appreciation is in order," he said.

A focus on Iraq

Don Barbieri, the Democrat who lost badly to McMorris in 2004, said Republicans did a good job that year of convincing voters they needed to "rally around the president."

But now, he says, many voters have lost faith in Bush and want a Congress that will keep him in check.

Goldmark is banking on that.

He is especially critical of America's occupation of Iraq. He says the Bush administration "stampeded" the U.S. into war and decries a "total lack of accountability" for military leaders, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield.

Goldmark does not advocate an immediate pullout of troops but says he doesn't think enough is being done to wean the Iraqi government from U.S. support.

He also talks a lot about corruption and conspiracy.

At just about every stop, Goldmark repeats his pledge to not accept gifts, meals or plane rides from special-interest lobbyists.

And he says he is convinced the recent decline in gas prices — just weeks before the election — is evidence of price manipulation for political purposes.

But Goldmark sometimes tempers his rhetoric with doses of pragmatism.

When asked at a community forum what he would do about health care, he described himself as an "incrementalist." In 1993, he said, first lady Hillary Clinton went too far when she pushed for a radical overhaul.

And when someone else insisted on knowing whether he would push to impeach Bush, Goldmark said he'd be willing to listen to any evidence.

"But I want to be a positive element," he added. "I'm not going back there to try to get revenge."

Ralph Thomas: 360-943-9882 or rthomas@seattletimes.com