New GOP Ad Warns 45th District Voters Of Antifa Liberals From Seattle

REDMOND, WA - Are you scared of left-leaning folks from Seattle? A new ad paid for by the state GOP aims to convince 45th Legislative District voters that a scattered group of Seattle lefties - everyone from aging hippies to Amazon yuppies - are working to get candidate Mankra Dhingra elected in order to raise taxes and put Antifa in charge of bike lanes, or something.

The ad supporting Republican Jinyoung Lee Englund was produced by Eastside Values, an Issaquah-based political committee headed by Alex Hays, a Republican political consultant. The committee has received a single $200,000 donation from the state GOP, which presumably paid for this ad.

One part of the video depicts a young woman wearing a Dhingra shirt standing in front of the Vladimir Lenin statue in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. The woman is also wearing a black bandanna around her neck, a Kshama Sawant button, and another button that says "Raise taxes!" Sawant, a socialist, not a Democrat, probably has as much in common with Dhingra on policy as she does with Seattle Mayor Tim Burgess; and members of Antifa would never support a Democrat, let alone a county deputy prosecutor.

Dhingra's policy positions are not extremely left: she's pro choice, but against safe-use consumption sites; she believes in climate change; she is against a state income tax, and wants to lower car tab fees after the ST3 tax hike.

Voters should expect things to get silly right about now. The race between Dhingra and Englund is extremely important because the winner will determine which party controls the state Senate, and thus control state government. If Dhingra wins, Democrats will control the Legislature and the governor's office. The race has even attracted attention from the other Washington: last week, former vice president Joe Biden endorsed Dhingra.

Englund has been painted with a broad political brush, too. Last spring, she told KIRO radio host Dori Monson that she supports President Donald Trump, but only because her husband is a U.S. Marine and Trump is commander-in-chief. She has said that she didn't vote for Trump.

A committee supporting Dhingra, Eastside Leadership Council, used the Monson interview in a video, but took took her comments out of context. Here's what Englund told Monson:

"Well, [Trump] is our president. And I don’t know if a lot of people know, but my husband, he’s an active duty Marine. And President Trump is his commander in chief. And I was always taught, you know, you respect your elders, and you respect the people who are in leadership. And I really respect the way that President Trump and his administration … they’re for a strong military, and they’re also for military families."

In the Eastside Leadership Council video, it appears that Englund simply states that she respects Trump:

Ballots are hitting mailboxes now - maybe fill yours out before you turn on the TV?

Image via YouTube