Catching up with the Challengers: Democrat George Fearing in the 4th says, ‘if it’s broke, fix it.’

George Fearing grew up the son of a preacher, and while his father's ministries took him all over the country, he always felt a connection to Eastern Washington. He spent much of his childhood in the region, went to college in Walla Walla, and returned to the Tri-Cities upon completion of his law degree in 1982. He has stayed there ever since.

Running for Washington's 4th District U.S. House seat is Fearing's second campaign for office. He lost the 2006 state legislative race decisively to Rep. Maureen Walsh (R-College Park) in the 16th District and he has been involved in local Democratic politics for a while now, including stops as a young intern for both Tom Foley and Warren Magnuson. His interest in the field can be traced to the early 1970s and a President of the opposite party.

"When I was 15 years old and I watched the Senate Watergate hearings during the summer I was shocked at how the Nixon administration was running the government," Fearing told PolitickerWA in a February interview. "It offended me and got me interested in politics and wanting to clean things up and I have been interested in politics ever since."

That desire to fix Washington, D.C. still guides him today, and Fearing's campaign has a lot to do with replacing the incumbent, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Pasco).

"Government is broke and the current congressman in the 4th CD is a poster child for the government being broke," Fearing said of Hastings, speaking deceptively harsh words by way of a gentle, monotone voice. "He simply follows what the leaders of his party, which at this point is George Bush, tell him to do."

George likes to tie Hastings to corruption by way of his connections with the disgraced like Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff, and brings up Hastings' staff calls to U.S. Attorney John McKay prior to his questionable dismissal.

"The Democrats who've run against Hastings haven't gotten into the race early enough or run hard enough. They haven't clarified just how bad Hastings is," Fearing told the Evergreen Politics blog last fall. "I will."

But his candidacy is about more than removing an incumbent who he says is out of touch with the people. Fearing considers signature change the signature issue for his campaign, in harmony with the wildly successful presidential campaigns of 2008, which he cites when talking about his candidacy. Still, Fearing acknowledges that change is a broad issue, and likes to talk more specifically about the economy. He believes balancing the budget and signing on to fair trade agreements are America's greatest economic priorities.

"The economy is not doing well because of the huge budget deficits. The economy is not doing well because of these trade agreements that we have that does not allow our manufacturers, that does not allow our growers to effectively compete on the world market," Fearing put it. "So I wish to end the tax breaks for the wealthy and I wish to reform the free trade agreements that we have, either end them or require other nations to trade with us fairly, to get a sense of treating their workers properly, treating the environment properly."

In the 4th District, with its farms and dams and the cheap electricity manufacturing industries they spawn, he sees those trade agreements as particularly important not just to the economy but also to the environment, especially regarding global warming.

"We need to take steps no for global warming and my district, Central Washington, the 4th, has high tech areas, has cheap electricity that can be used for new technology to reduce global warming and create high tech high paying jobs."

Fearing is also a staunch opponent of the Iraq War. He disagrees with the continuation of the conflict and says, "It leads us to huge budget deficits and makes us less secure. We're wasting resources on that war; resources that can be used in capturing Osama bin Laden and strengthen our security other ways. The military experts tell us that we're spreading our resources thin in other areas because we're focusing on Iraq."

In fact, Fearing was one of the early backers of the "Responsible Plan", an exit strategy for Iraq spearheaded by fellow Washington Democratic challenger Darcy Burner that now has at least 47 co-sponsors, all of whom are Democratic House challengers. That early backing can likely be attributed to Fearing's campaign organization which, while still barebones, is one of the top non-incumbent operations in the state.

Working out of the Tri-Cities, Fearing frequently travels around the district and the state, and already has a staff of two and a handful of volunteers. Mimi Latta, former chairwoman and current state committeewoman of Benton County Democrats, has been with the campaign from the start and serves as assistant campaign manager. Bill Monto, veteran of the victorious No on I-330 and Simple Majority school levy campaigns, took over as campaign manager earlier this month.

In line with the campaign's organization, they have been one of the top fundraising challengers in the state. "We had a goal of 50k by the end of last year and we raised 60k which I was very happy with because it's difficult to raise the money in the off year and it's difficult to raise the money when you're not the incumbent," Fearing said of his chances. "We have a goal to raise $100,000 by the end of March and we're well on our way to doing that."

The campaign has since announced that they have surpassed their goal by raising money predominantly from within the 4th District and, as Fearing proudly noted, even from Republicans.

Speaking of Republicans, Fearing will certainly need a lot of them if he hopes to win a 4th District seat that has been under GOP control for all but two years since 1981.