In a Aug. 2 Chronicle article, Rep Jamie Herrera Beutler made a claim to the media that her current lead in the 3rd Congressional District House race was due to her work in the district. In reality, her current narrow lead over Joe Kent is due to a combined GOP establishment effort between Jamie and Heidi St. John.
The “tipping point” of the race was a dishonest candidate (St. John) who remained in the race after former president Donald Trump endorsed Joe Kent. So far, she's siphoned off about 20,000 votes. St. John didn't campaign to replace Herrera Beutler. She campaigned for her by campaigning against Joe Kent.
Both St. John and Herrera Beutler were the benefactors of huge amounts of “dark money” coming into the district from at least four Republican political action committees with ties to the D.C. establishment (of which Herrera Beutler is a member).
They flooded our mailboxes daily with hit job ads about Kent. Herrera Beutler and St. John both claim Kent is a “Bernie Bro” Socialist. The Progressive Left in Washington claims Kent is a right-wing extremist. Neither are true.
If Herrera Beutler does eventually pull off the win and moves onto the general election in November, she's lost my vote that I have cast for her every time since 2010.
Herrera Beutler does what the D.C. uni-party wants her to do; for example, continue sending billions abroad (Ukraine) and supporting the D.C. Uni-Party First agenda rather than the America First agenda.
And congrats to Heidi St. John for accomplishing her mission; split the Republican vote.
Theodore Even
Chehalis
