Catching up with the Challengers: 'Roosevelt Democrat' Don Moody wants new economic deal for 4th District

4th District Democratic candidate for Congress Don Moody grew up in Peshastin, Washington and became known around the Wenatchee area as a Sheriff's dispatcher and radio newsman in the 1970s and 80s. He never went to college, but has become well-versed in history and economics on his own, spending hours a day reading journals on the subjects. He even published a book called "America's Worst Train Disaster" about the Wellington Avalanche on Stevens Pass in 1910. Now, his path brings him to politics for the second time, having run for the state legislature in the 12th District in 1990.

Of the two Democratic candidates in the 4th, Don Moody can easily be distinguished as the most intense. His voice booms across the telephone speaking words of urgency about our economy. Moody is not the only public voice speaking out about economic worries, as nearly every media source from the last two weeks will prove, but he is one of the few seeking a seat in congress to do something drastic about it.

"The economy is everything," Moody told PolitickerWA in a recent interview that took place the day of the Bear Sterns bailout. "We've got a depression coming. Not just a recession. This is 1932 all over again. And there isn't anything in everyday life that isn't going to be affected very very soon by this economy."

"We've got so much work to do in January," Moody said referring to the inauguration of the next guard of elected officials in Washington, "but the good news is we've been through this before. There is a blueprint in place, and it stems back to 1932. I'm a Roosevelt Democrat, I was raised a Roosevelt Democrat."

In line with that ideology, Moody has an entrenched belief that the government's role is to look out for people, and he claims that many people are "having problems through no fault other than the government right now."

His chief goal is to re-install the Glass-Steagall Act by undoing the two Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 that permitted the Federal Reserve to regulate interest rates in savings accounts and 1999's Graham-Leech-Bliley Act that repealed the part that kept bank holding companies from owning other financial companies.

More to the point, Moody believes the Bear Sterns-JP Morgan bailout was the government telling the people who lost their homes to foreclosure and lost their savings in accounting scandals that, "We don't care. We are going to bail out the banks, and this is an administration that said hands off, let the economy take care of itself."

"This $600 dollars is a slap in the face," Moody said of the latest tax rebate, "and this JP Morgan thing is a slap in the face."

He sees that as indicative of the growing indifference of the Federal government toward the poor.

"Every time there is a bank scandal or collapse, they come in and save the banks, and not the people they burn." Moody calls that the Gordon Gecko syndrome. "We can't let that happen this time."

Moody believes that the Democrats need to unite and focus on the economy if they want to have a chance in rural districts like the 4th. Particularly, he stresses issues pertinent to Central Washington like tax rates for working families relative to the rich and tangible, everyday prices.

In places like Yakima and Franklin Counties, where poverty affects roughly 20% of the population, taxes take a major toll on everyday life for the poor, Moody suggests, when they struggle already to make ends meet in an economic atmosphere that is only getting worse.

"Wheat is $24 a bushel, and it was previously only $10," Moody said. "Gas will be $6 a gallon, and McDonald's is at record pace because people can't afford to eat anything but the dollar menu."

Moody also believes it is crucial to bolster the unemployment program now to prepare for what he sees to be the coming economic downfall.

"We're going to have to put extensions in for unemployment right away," Moody charged, citing an 8% unemployment rate in many areas his district. "We've got to tie that into inflation. The people at the lowest rung of the ladder have got to be taken care of. We [the Democratic party] are the only thing the poor ever had to hang their hats on."

As for the jobs part of the economy, Moody wants to rehash the WPA and CCC that were begun under Roosevelt, and rebuild America at the government's expense and create jobs along the way. Moody believes that America's reinvestment in itself will help to cure a lot of social ills, too.

"Having no money affects every aspect of your life; domestic violence drops, alcoholism drops, associated violence drops," Moody says. "It's stress, self esteem."

Education is the other priority for Moody, who firmly believes that America can't afford to be an uneducated country, and he blames a lot of the poor recent performance on the recent push toward a heavy test emphasis. Instead he prefers to support teachers, who he said were his greatest influences growing up in the tiny Peshastin-Dryden School District.

"No Child Left Behind has left every child behind. That was just a political ruse. That was just an unfunded mandate."

These ideas certainly do not come cheap, and he proposes deficit spending to achieve them.

"The balance the budget part, that's not gonna happen," Moody said. "Right now we can reduce the deficit somewhat, but we have to put in these business restrictions," he said, citing a long list of articles from the day talking about the economic gloom and doom. "I'm not going to balance the budget at the expense of someone who can't afford a loaf of bread."

In terms of campaign nuts and bolts, Moody is lagging behind on many campaign aspects. He has yet to file with the FEC, and remains in strategy mode for staffing and fundraising. Still, Moody intends to raise a decent chunk of change for his campaign, but insists that money is not everything in the 4th District.

"We've spent $1 million to try to get Hastings' seat," he said of the past few campaigns, and all for not.

He has a fundraising push planned out for April, but he plans to spend whatever money he raises more wisely than the other Eastern Washington Democrats. Moody suspects that the traditional means of pursuing Central Washington Democrats can only attract 45% of the voters no matter what, and that Hastings' incumbency and ideology will garner him a near majority regardless of his record.

"Nobody cares whether he's corrupt or not," Moody said, pointing to Hastings overwhelming victory in 2006 on the heels of Republican scandals like Mark Foley and Jack Abramoff.

In order to get that elusive extra 5.1%, Moody intends to mobilize the vote in the Latino community and among the Yakama Confederated Tribes. He has been working with people like Yakama Tribal Council member Matthew Tomaskin to register voters, and has been preparing Spanish language media to actively court Latinos.

"I'm not guaranteeing a landslide, but I can win this thing," Moody predicted. "And winning's the name of the game."

So in the land that the folk populist Woody Guthrie used to sing about for the BPA, where Lake Roosevelt lies and the river is dotted with great public works projects of the 1930s, Don Moody wants to bring back the times when Democrats in the 4th District were singing "Happy Days Are Here Again". Ironically, he is counting on a very sad economy to get them back there.