"I do not look at myself as a spoiler," Aaron Dixon insisted Thursday as the one-time Seattle Black Panther leader announced his anti-war Green Party candidacy opposing Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell.
At a news conference at an assisted-living center in the Central Area, the black community activist made clear that his campaign is built around the Iraq war and the one-term senator's votes supporting it as well as her votes for the Patriot Act and a few other Republican military and security initiatives.
State leaders of both major parties acknowledged that Dixon will take votes from Cantwell.
"We welcome his candidacy," state Republican Chairwoman Diane Tebelius said.
"I think that the Republican Party has learned from its excesses in the past that it's not good to have a third-party candidate out there who could siphon away votes from their main candidates," Tebelius said. "So I would think it could be a problem for the Democrats."
State Democratic Chairman Dwight Pelz said Cantwell "has a double-digit lead in the polls right now, and we don't think the people of Washington state want to help get Mike McGavick elected, and be one more vote for George Bush, by voting for a third-party candidate."-excerpted from the article in today's Seattle P-I.
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