Seattle-bashing is so yesterday

In the old days of Washington politics, Republicans delighted in using the state's premier city as the ultimate wedge issue. Say something nasty about Seattle liberals — or Seattleliberals, all one word — and automatically drive up the Republican turnout and vote in Eastern Washington.

The strategy worked in statewide election contests... well, until it didn't.

The GOP's proclivity for Seattle-bashing has run its course. In the 1994 election, the shorthand of trashing a tax-and-spend Seattle liberal resonated and helped re-elect Sen. Slade Gorton. In 2000, Gorton's anti-Seattle rhetoric energized rural Washington but backfired in the suburbs as he lost to Maria Cantwell.

In 2006, Mike McGavick, the top Republican candidate opposing Sen. Cantwell, plans not only to abandon the tired politics of division but to plumb more votes out of Democratic Seattle.

The most recent proof of the failure of the Seattle-as-the-root-of-all-evil approach was the vote on Initiative 912, which would have recalled a 9.5-cent gas-tax increase. New gas-tax revenues are dedicated to road and bridge projects around the state, but the biggest single chunk of money, $2 billion, goes to replacing Seattle's dangerous Alaskan Way Viaduct. Seattle has the largest population, the most daunting transportation problems.

Radio talk jocks who sponsored the failed initiative sang from an old songbook. KVI's John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur and their listeners railed about Seattle getting too much gas-tax revenue, about Seattle wasting money on a monorail and Sound Transit light rail, about the mayor's proposed overpriced tunnel to replace the viaduct.

Suburban Washington wasn't listening. Getting angry at the state's largest city feels warm and rosy for about 15 minutes, then voters have to be practical about transportation and safety measures that directly benefit them. Most of the $8.5 billion package is aimed at projects outside the city of Seattle.

Eastern Washington counties for the most part voted to recall the tax, but Whitman and Walla Walla counties in southeastern Washington saw past clichéd geographic divisions and opted to improve roads and bridges in their own communities. Community leaders have worried about U.S. Highway 12 outside Walla Walla for a long time. New gas-tax revenues will help widen a dangerous two-lane road to four lanes.

What does animus toward Seattle have to do with that? Not a thing.

Twelve counties, some as far away from Central Puget Sound as Clark County, rallied to say, You know what? You can cut taxes too much and ruin a wonderful state.

Further evidence that Seattle-bashing is seriously past tense lies in the approach of McGavick, chairman and CEO at Seattle-based Safeco. He is launching his campaign opposite from his former boss, Gorton. Gorton moved to Bellevue, opened a campaign headquarters there and railed often against the state's largest city.

McGavick wants to improve on Gorton's 24-percent Seattle showing in 2000, a wise strategy considering the raging unpopularity of the top of the GOP ticket, President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

McGavick says, "I was born and raised in Seattle. It's my home." His campaign office is located, unapologetically, in downtown Seattle, with a view of the Space Needle.

If he is to win, McGavick has to be a different kind of Republican. He has to be more independent-minded, offering practical solutions to suburban voters.

The suburbs, especially close-in older suburbs, are changing. Mercer Island, Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond are becoming more Democratic, more like the central city they surround, as urban problems seep across traditional boundaries.

"You can't attack Seattle without risk because people from Snohomish, Pierce and the eastern rim of King County are commuting to the city," explained Randy Pepple, longtime Republican strategist. "They look to Seattle as a place of sports games and concerts. They use the viaduct."

Animosity from rural parts of a state toward the major city is common. Upstate New York versus New York City. Northern California versus Southern California. Illinois and Chicago.

A woman from Shelton, Mason County, called a radio talk show recently to say she is sick and tired of everyone beating up Seattle. She loves the city, loves to shop and take in sports and arts events. Enough already of this over-hyped, over-packaged acrimony.

Enough already is right.

Joni Balter's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is jbalter@seattletimes.com