By Greg Hazley
Scott Stanzel, former deputy White House press secretary for President George W. Bush who runs a Seattle PR firm, is mulling a run for the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell.
Stanzel said in a statement that he has spoken with leaders in the state and former White House colleagues about the idea of a Senate bid, adding that he’s focused on his pending wedding.
“After September, I’ll work to grow my business and will consider this opportunity to be a constructive voice for Washington,” he said.
Cantwell, former VP of marketing for RealNetworks, defeated incumbent Warren Magnuson in 2000 in a close race and was easily re-elected in 2006. She was pegged with a 40-52 positive-negative job performance rating in an Elwell Poll in May, although 46% said they are “inclined” to vote for her, while 36% said they were “certain” to vote to replace her.
Stanzel was a senior PR manager for Microsoft after work as a national press secretary for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in 2004. He led a 2010 campaign in Washington state in opposition to a ballot initiative that would have established a state income tax. The measure was torpedoed by 30 points.
“Washington, D.C., is broken,” he said Tuesday. “Voters of this state are hungry for principled leadership which addresses the serious fiscal crisis that politicians like Sen. Cantwell have caused.”
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