Crist Announces CD-3 Candidacy at Olympia Press Conference

Olympia, WA -

Cheryl Crist proclaimed herself the "Peace Candidate" for Washington's 3rd Congressional District this afternoon, officially embarking on a primary challenge to unseat the incumbent, Rep. Brian Baird (D-Vancouver).Cheryl Crist Announces Her Candidacy for Congress at the Olympia Library

The event, which took place at a conference room in Olympia's Timberland Public Library, brought an audience of fifteen to twenty supporters, staffers and press. Crist advocated for a "peaceful uses of our tax dollars", and cited a GAO report, a dvd about Iraqi civilian labor leaders, a poet who was spent time in Iraq, conversations with frustrated citizens and financial figures from the National Priorities Project to advocate for her pro-peace platform, which she said was being unacceptably advocated by Rep. Baird.

"There is a clear choice for this election: more war, stay the course in Iraq, give the military whatever they need, whenever they need it, or stand for peaceful purposes, the kinds of things that civilians want for their country."

As a member of Congress, Crist said she would vote for peace, vote to cut off the funding. In addition to her opposition to the Iraq war, Crist is an advocate of single-payer health care.

The Politicker caught up with Ms. Crist after the event and asked a few questions about her campaign.

PolitickerWA: What do you think will be your geographic strongholds within the District?

Crist: I probably will run best in the 49th in Vancouver. It is a progressive, very open-hearted district. A lot of other areas around Vancouver have really changed from ten years ago when Brian Baird first got elected here, opening up and way more progressive these days. I also think I have a lot of strength in Thurston county, our 22nd Legislative district, but Thurston county is very progressive, very pro peace.

PolitickerWA: Have you spent much time in the rural areas of the district talking to voters?

Crist: Not yet, but I will. I have a meeting with Skamania County, their local Dem district passed a resolution asking for someone to challenge BB in the primary, so I have a meeting set up with them in a couple of months.

PolitickerWA: Do you have any worries that the anti-war, or pro-peace, sentiment has faded a little bit as the public has become accustomed to it?

Crist: I don’t think so because we’re going to be reminding them of the cost of the war. We are now up to 15B for the two wars, Afghanistan and Iraq, 15B every month, so when people say maybe we should stay a little longer its like how long are you willing to go with that? You know is it going to be 2 mo, 3 mo, 2 yars, or 3 yrs or 5, JM is talking about 100 years, damn the cost.

Ms. Crist is a former financial consultant, real estate agent and educator. Her campaign website is http://www.cristforcongress.us. This is her second candidacy for the CD-3 seat, having run once before in 2004.