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Morning News

Gorton, Cantwell Locked in Tight Washington State Senate Race

Aired October 30, 2000 - 10:43 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Want to focus now on two rather important Senate races, the first in the state of Missouri.

Sources tell CNN that Jeanne Carnahan, the widow of the late governor, Mel Carnahan, will announce today that she will accept appointment to the Senate if her late husband does win election in Missouri. His name is still on the ballot against Senator John Ashcroft, and the race is regarded as very close at this time.

Carnahan died two weeks ago in a plane crash that also killed his son, Roger, and a campaign aide.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Another close Senate race is in Washington state. It's a place where the environment is a critical issue for many voters along with prescription drugs, Social Security and taxes.

Republican Senator Slade Gorton is running on the strength of his three terms in office. But his challenger, former Congresswoman Maria Cantwell, is putting up a strong fight.

Joining us now from Washington state is Mindy Cameron, editorial page editor of the city's largest newspaper, "The Seattle Times."

Hi, Mindy.

MINDY CAMERON, "SEATTLE TIMES": Good morning.

PHILLIPS: Can you briefly set up both of these candidates for us before we begin?

CAMERON: Well, Maria Cantwell is a -- just completed about five years as a high-tech executive where she made a lot of money. That was after she lost -- after her one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Before that, she was a state legislator.

She is spending a lot of her money. She spent a lot of her money through the summer to get herself acquainted with voters across the state, and now that she's done that, she seems to be doing pretty well against a three-term incumbent, Senator Slade Gorton, who's running on, listen, folks, I've been there, I know how to get things done, I've got a lot of clout. And that's working pretty well for him. It's a very tight race. PHILLIPS: Now, Ms. Cantwell has funded her campaign herself, obviously, because she's done very well with the dot.com industry. What kind of feedback has this received?

CAMERON: Well, obviously, it's a point of criticism by Slade Gorton and the Republican Party, but it doesn't seem to be working that way. Maria is presenting herself very much as a reformist. Her primary issue is to go back to the Senate and work on campaign finance reform, and she says that she can do that because she's not taking any money from PACs, she has no special interest backing her.

This is her first priority, and it seems to be playing pretty well so far.

PHILLIPS: Mindy, do you think the generation gap here is playing among voters at all?

CAMERON: Well, Maria Cantwell sure hopes so. That's very much the main difference, in addition to a couple of the issues, as you mentioned, is the generation gap. It's a very stylistic differences. Maria is a reformer, a much softer message in the way she delivers it. She's very attractive on camera.

Slate Gorton is a three-term incumbent. He's been in public office in this state for over 40 years, and she's presenting herself as new ideas for a new century, go back and change the way things are done. He says, listen, I know how to get things done, and send me back because I can deliver for Washington state.

PHILLIPS: Mindy, finally, Ralph Nader, very interesting factor here, wouldn't you say?

CAMERON: Right. A very interesting factor, and I think if those voters -- and there's a lot of support and excitement around Ralph Nader in this state -- and if those voters, many of them young, perhaps many who've not voted much before, if they turn out to vote for Nader and affect the presidential outcome, that could be a plus for Maria Cantwell. They would be more likely, I think, it's safe to presume to vote for Maria Cantwell, largely on environmental issues.

PHILLIPS: Mindy Cameron, "Seattle Times," thanks so much for being with us.

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