KPLU Local News
(2010-07-08)
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Rep. Norm Dicks gives a thumbs-up as he is introduced with Rep. Rick Larsen, Rep. Jay Inslee and Sen. Patty Murray during a rally for employees on the KC-767 production line in Everett.
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Full Story
For more than three decades, Norm Dicks has represented Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Today he's chairman of the powerful defense appropriations subcommittee. But in recent months Dicks has been dogged by ethics questions related to defense spending earmarks. There was even a Congressional inquiry which closed without disciplinary action. Now comes a Huffington Post investigation. It suggests Dicks is attempting to funnel money through the University of Washington to a private defense contractor in Port Townsend. It's a charge Dicks denies. The University of Washington says the funding is not an automatic pass-through. Either way retired UW political science professor David Olson says Dicks' reputation as a prolific earmarker is not a political liability.
David Olson: "We can get all in a fuss about earmark legislation, but in that district, in this state I am not persuaded that it is a problem for his re-election, in fact I think it's a plus."
Another longtime Dicks-watcher is Seattle PI dot com political columnist Joel Connelly. He says Dicks has inoculated himself by cultivating a reputation at home as a fierce defender of Boeing and Puget Sound.
Joel Connelly: "He does a fair amount of good which counteracts some of the charges and some of the stuff that's thrown at the wall against him and he's also an enthusiastic, larger than life person who gets out into his district, talks to people. He is a presence."
Dicks has not drawn a high profile rival in years, although one of his Republican challengers this year hopes to gain traction with a "Let's Clean House" platform. I'm Austin Jenkins in Olympia.
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