Posted by Kyung Song

WASHINGTON -- Snohomish County Councilman John Koster today officially entered the race for the 2nd Congressional district seat, setting up a rematch with Rep. Rick Larsen.

Koster, a former Republican state legislator, is a dairy farmer who ran for the same seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000. Larsen, D-Lake Stevens, won that election and became a freshman congressman.

Koster is positioning himself as an ideological opposite of Larsen, whom Koster criticized for supporting the federal bailout of financial and auto industries and stimulus spending in response to the recession. Koster also opposes the current health-care reform bills, contending that "Congress is on a course to destroy the finest health-care system in the world."

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EVERETT, WASHINGTON - January, 13, 2010 - Responding to hundreds of e-mails, phone calls and a "draft Koster for Congress" petition drive, Snohomish County Councilman John Koster announced today that he will launch a campaign for the United States House of Representatives in Washington's 2nd Congressional District.

Elected to a third Council term last November by a wide margin, the Koster run for Congress will offer voters a clear ideological choice between Koster's steady conservative political approach to that of the "progressive" socialist agenda of the incumbent, Rick Larsen.

Larsen, who appears consistently in the upper tier of congressional big spenders, has been heavily criticized in the 2nd Congressional district the past year for supporting the Obama administration's multi-billion dollar bailouts and economic "stimulus" packages. He is seen as vulnerable by the National Republican Congressional Committee for his "anti-jobs big government agenda".

"Rick Larsen offers Washingtonians a failed socialist ideology that punishes prosperity and produces mediocrity - it has failed millions of people every time it has been tried - government cannot spend us into prosperity", said Koster.

"Larsen continues to promote and fund a bigger and more intrusive government marked by a continuing loss of freedoms and more control as the federal government micro-manages our lives and confiscates our personal wealth", Koster continued. "A look at his voting record reveals a puppet of the Pelosi-Reid Congress that is spending our hard earned dollars to fund anti-American disasters like ACORN"

"And now, Congress is on a course to destroy the finest health care system in the world. They are asking us to believe that it will be more efficient and cost less. The last survey I saw showed that 63% of Americans are against government run health care. What has the federal government done so well that we want to give them our health care?"

"With John Koster as your congressman, you will get smaller, less intrusive government, and more freedom. You will get a government that takes far less from the people, because it recognizes that wealth is created in the private sector, and belongs to you."