(WA Senate) As an anti-war candidate, Dixon says he's no 'spoiler' [View All]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/262469_senate10.html?dpfrom=thead

By NEIL MODIE
P-I REPORTER

"I do not look at myself as a spoiler," Aaron Dixon insisted Thursday as the one-time Seattle Black Panther leader announced his anti-war Green Party candidacy opposing Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell.

At a news conference at an assisted-living center in the Central Area, the black community activist made clear that his campaign is built around the Iraq war and the one-term senator's votes supporting it as well as her votes for the Patriot Act and a few other Republican military and security initiatives.

"If she was against the war, then I would be a spoiler, stealing her anti-war votes," Dixon told a roomful of supporters and news media. "If both the Republican challenger (businessman Mike McGavick) and Cantwell are in support of this war, then they are competing amongst themselves for the voters who are pro-war. I am the anti-war vote."

History, however, suggests Dixon isn't likely to become anything more than a spoiler who, in a close general election, could peel enough left-leaning votes away from the Democratic senator to jeopardize her re-election.

more