Real Clear Politics: Smiley and Murray race a "toss up"

DAYTON–With a week left before the November 8 midterm General Election, Tiffany Smiley, the Pasco Republican challenging 30-year Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), announced to a standing-room-only crowd of Columbia County citizens, that the latest Real Clear Politics poll a "toss up."

Incumbent Murray is up by 4.3 points with a 49.3 rating to Smiley's 45.0, an average of four polls taken recently, with the notable Trafalgar Group (R) poll showing Murray with a 49-48 lead in the race to represent Washington as senator for the next six years.

"There's a new mom in town," Smiley said to the gathering, a variation on Murray's 1992 "mom in tennis shoes" campaign theme. "I think Senator Murray, especially after our town hall on Sunday night is beginning to understand it as well."

Momentum seems to be with Smiley while Murray's campaign, media reports indicate, has been infused with millions of dollars to ensure the seat remains Democratic. Smiley's polls hovered in the mid thirties in midsummer but have surged to nearly a dead heat with just days to go before ballots are counted.

Smiley's campaign has visited all 39 counties and, she said, the state is "resonating" it's ready for a change. "We are ready to retire, thirty-year, do-nothing Patty Murray," she said, asserting that Murray has sponsored just nine bills which have been signed into law.

"We have a message of hope how we can turn crisis into hope for all of Washington state," Smiley said.

"Senator Murray is spending millions of dollars to try to paint me and my family as a threat to democracy and that's really backfiring on her now," she said. "When I called her out on it, in the debate, it further divides our country, it divides our state. She likes to use a picture of me and Donald Trump to smear me all over Washington state, but that has backfired as well. Because when I was meeting with Donald Trump, I was fighting for every Democrat, Republican and independent service member and their families.

"She doesn't show the picture of me and her because that's who I am," Smile said. "I will work with anyone to deliver results and when you send me to D.C., I'm not going to be afraid to work with anyone to bring you results here in Washington state.

"Washington families are worried about the rising cost of living, gas prices, crime in our communities, fentanyl crisis and our education system," she said. "That's why we're winning, because we're addressing these issues at every turn."

Smiley spoke about gas prices and the cost of heating homes, pledging to work to "unleash our American energy independence to lower gas prices for you immediately, and for on an 'all of the above' energy approach. "Depleting our petroleum reserve is not a good way to start," she said. "I want our enemy countries to be buying energy from us."

Murray, Smiley said, was present when American energy independence was given away to "enemy countries" like Russia and she accepted campaign donations from the Nordstream II pipeline lobbiest.

"She would rather line her pockets than lower our gas prices," Smiley said.

She will work, if elected, to restore the 2017 tax cuts for middle-class Americans.

Smiley pledged support of law enforcement and the rule of law, noting that WA Cops and the Fraternal Order of Police have endorsed her candidacy. Murray, Smiley asserted, called for diverting funding from police in June, 2020, "then disappeared. She went into hiding. In fact, people all over Washington state said 'we didn't see her, Tiffany, or hear from her until she cam out attacking you."

Regarding support for education, Smiley said Murray initially campaigned for the Senate as the "mom in tennis shoes" concerned about education. "We've only gotten worse," Smiley said. "She was the champion of mandates and shutdowns and lockdowns with no plans, no leadership, she was nowhere to be found and we were struggling the most."

She pledged to strive to repair the image of America as a shining beacon on a hill. "We have a lot of work to do to regain our strength on the world stage, and our national security," Smiley said.

Smiley quoted Mother Teresa: "She said 'you can do things that I can't do. I can do things that you can't do. But together, around this room, we can do great things.'"