Hastings faces two challengers for 4th District seat

Gordon Allen Pross hopes the sixth time is the charm. Or is it seventh?

A perennial candidate for Congress since the 1990s, Pross hopes he's not the odd man out in the Aug. 19 primary for the 4th District seat held by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, for the past 14 years.

With three candidates on the ballot, the money is on Hastings and Democratic challenger George Fearing to survive Washington's new Top Two primary. Pross says that would be a shame.

"Let's hope it's not my campaign" that loses, says Pross, who is 53 and lives near Ellensburg, "because I am the voice of America, and that's all there is to it."

His message is one of low taxes and constitutional reform. And having challenged Hastings many times over the years, he is quick to rail against the veteran GOP stalwart.

Hastings, he says, represents powerful special interests rather than the more humble folk that make up the constituency of the sprawling 4th District. "The voice of Hastings," he charges, "is a bought vote."

Having developed a reputation over the years as an also-ran, Pross has run against Hastings three times before in the Republican primary and also has made runs at the U.S. Senate and the White House. He's run so many times, in fact, that he's not sure whether this is his sixth or seventh campaign.

In a nod to Washington's new Top Two primary format, Pross filed his candidacy this year as a member of the "Grand Ole Party." It is a slam against the rich and powerful interests he alleges have hijacked the Republican Party.

"If you want a congressman who represents 5 percent of the people, then by all means vote for Doc," says Pross, who sells online health products and manages property. "But if you want a true Republican, I am the standard they need to rise to."

Hastings said in a recent interview from Washington, D.C., that he is looking forward to a campaign that will last well into the fall.

Hastings said he is focusing on skyrocketing energy prices as a key campaign issue this fall, along with the need to maintain the war on terrorism.

On a more local level, he said he plans to continue to seek ways to open markets to agricultural products from the region, continue to clean up Hanford and to solve the region's looming irrigation problems as exemplified by the controversy over the proposed Black Rock reservoir.

"The fundamental issue is still valid," he said. "We need more storage in the basin, and I'll continue to work on that."

Hastings is well-positioned for re-election. As of June 30, he had raised $476,876 in campaign funds and had $355,476 on hand in cash, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which posts campaign reports on its Web site OpenSecrets.org.

Fearing, the Democrat who is Hastings' odds-on challenger this fall, was far behind in fundraising. As of June 30, he had raised $172,373 and had $71,114 in cash.

Pross said he's running his campaign out of pocket and will raise and spend less than $5,000.

An attorney who makes his home in Kennewick, Fearing agrees with Hastings on only one point: reintroduction of nuclear power as a counter to energy prices and global warming.

Aside from that, he opposes the congressman's point of view on just about everything else, particularly health care and Iraq, and is quick to echo the Democrat mantra that Hastings is a GOP functionary who has done little for his constituents.

A relative newcomer who made an unsuccessful bid for the state Legislature in 2006, Fearing claims he has the best chance at unseating Hastings in more than 10 years. If elected, he says he plans to ask for assignments to House committees on Agriculture and Energy, two areas of extreme interest to voters in Central Washington.

"That resonates over and over again, among independents and even Republicans, that the purpose of being a Congress is to serve the district, not your party," he says, adding, "Hastings has been serving the party."

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