Koster to challenge Rick Larsen
Snohomish County Councilman John Koster on Wednesday announced that he would challenge Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., who beat Koster 10 years ago.
A former dairy farmer, Koster was an outspoken conservative and property rights advocate in the Washington Legislature. He is currently the lone Republican on the Snohomish County Council.
Larsen has established a solid hold on the 2nd Congressional District, which stretches from Mukilteo to the Canadian border. But the 2nd is designed to be a swing district.
The district elected Democratic congressmen from 1964 to 1994. A Republican, Jack Metcalf, won the seat in the 1994 GOP landslide. Metcalf held it, with fundraising visits from then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, until obeying a self-imposed limit of three terms and retiring in 2000.
Koster ran ahead of Larsen in the 2000 primary, but the Democrat took the seat in November.
Larsen has excelled at retail politics: During Congress’ work periods, he can be found at such local hangouts as Neil’s Clover Patch Cafe on Whidbey Island. Last summer, as colleagues faced hostile crowds, Larsen presided over a peaceful town hall meeting that drew 8,000 people to an Everett stadium.
Larsen worked to win concessions for oil refiners in the energy and climate bill narrowly passed by the House last summer. He has worked to win improved staffing and security at the U.S.-Canada border.
Larsen was a principal architect of legislation creating the 106,000-acre Wild Sky Wilderness Area in eastern Snohomish County.
Still, the National Republican Congressional Committee has showered journalists with
relentlessly negative press releases about Larsen. And the congressman has his share of critics on the right, as can be seen in comments on the on-line petition encouraging Koster to run.
“We need truly conservative elected officials,” wrote a couple from Lynden.
On the positive side, David Hulbert of Snohomish wrote: “John, you deserve to make this run. Go, go, go.”
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