WATKINS TO CHAIR KOSTER'S KING COUNTY EFFORTS    

January 30, 2012 - John Koster today expressed his gratitude to his two Republican primary opponents for their service to our country and their selfless decision to forgo their campaigns for Congress.   

"Greg Anders and James Watkins are great American patriots", said Koster. "Both of these men made a difficult, but honorable, decision to pull out of the race for the 1st Congressional district. I am grateful to them because now we will not have a protracted, expensive primary campaign. Republicans, Independents and conservative Democrats in the 1st district can unite behind my candidacy." 

Anders from Bellingham and Watkins from Redmond both decided late last week not to challenge Koster for the Republican nomination for the 1st Congressional district. Both were formidable candidates with experience, knowledge, and a correct vision for our nation. Watkins has agreed to serve as Koster's King County Chairman.

"With the primary field now cleared, I will focus on my positive message of more innovation, more jobs, less taxes and less government interference", said Koster, a Snohomish County Councilman.  

Koster, who declared his candidacy last summer, has already received donations from more than 800 people, and has built a formidable volunteer list.   

"I am humbled by the support from so many, and I intend to work harder than anyone to win the election in November", said Koster.

Six Democrats are still in the race for the 1st district. The Democrat primary will likely be divisive. Political observers believe the Democrats in the race will move as far left as possible in their anti-jobs, anti- business rhetoric.

"I look forward to hearing the Democrat candidates explain why, in the face of high energy prices and high unemployment, the Obama administration is shutting down the Keystone XL project and with it, tens of thousands of family wage jobs", said Koster.

"I look forward to hearing the Democrats defend the leader of their party for imposing an enormously expensive and unpopular government run healthcare plan on all Americans, while saddling us and our posterity with unconscionable deficits and debt".

The privately funded project would create thousands of blue-collar, family wage jobs   

January 20, 2012 - In the wake of President Obama's decision on Wednesday rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline project, John Koster blasted President Obama and the Democratic Party for "abandoning blue collar voters from coast to coast". 

The Keystone pipeline project is a 1,700-mile expansion of an existing energy pipeline from Canada to the United States. The privately funded project would create thousands of blue-collar, family wage jobs in the U.S. and bring energy security to our nation. 

Koster, who is running for Congress in the newly drawn 1^st Congressional District said "the so-called 'progressives' who now control the Democratic Party have made a cold, calculated decision to abandon working class voters to appease their base, which is made up in large part by radical environmental activists, who apparently do not care about jobs and families."

"As Americans from coast to coast struggle to make ends meet and find work, I'm enormously frustrated and extremely disappointed in President Obama's rejection of the Keystone pipeline. And where is the strategy for American energy independence? We find ourselves at the mercy of the Arab oil cartel, struggling to keep gasoline prices under $4 a gallon, and this President rejects the Keystone Pipeline?"  

"If the voters in Washington's 1^st Congressional District want to know what another four years of Obama and the Democrats will look like, they need only look back at the first three. As the working class son of a working class father and mother, I will never abandon the working class," promised Koster. "Blue-collar men and women, union and non-union, built our country and they deserve our support, not the bait and switch political con they are getting from Obama and today's Democratic Party."  

As reported in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said President Obama's action "demonstrates a lack of seriousness about bringing down unemployment, restoring economic growth and achieving energy independence." Newt Gingrich called the decision "a stunningly stupid thing to do."

Numerous community leaders, elected officials and organizations endorse John Koster for Congress 

Arlington, WA - January 13, 2012 - With the dust barely settled after the announcement of the newly drawn congressional district lines, John Koster is already picking up key endorsements. Koster, a Snohomish County Councilman and former dairy farmer, is running for Congress in 1^st Congressional District.

Bob Eberle, a Port Commissioner and past Chairman of the Skagit County Republicans, is heading up Koster's Skagit County efforts. Eberle said he is convinced that John Koster will make a great Congressman. 

"He is tried and proven", said Eberle. "He has been consistent. Koster's experience with the Snohomish County Council shows that he is a highly effective legislator, and can work well with both Democrats and Republicans, while maintaining his principles. John Koster is clearly the man we need to represent us in the US Congress from Wash District #1."

Numerous community leaders, elected officials and organizations - as well as the son of former President Ronald Reagan are on a list of endorsements released today by the Koster campaign.

Michael Reagan, who gave the keynote speech at a Koster event in December, said that he eagerly endorsed John Koster "because our country needs leaders like John, a former dairy farmer, who will stand up for working families."

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Newly drawn 1^st Congressional District is an ideal fit for the conservative Snohomish County Councilman

December 28, 2011 - Arlington, WA - The proposal released Wednesday by the Washington State Redistricting Committee has dramatically reshaped districts on the western side of the state.

"I have seen the proposed congressional maps and it appears that I will now be running for the U.S. Congress in Washington's newly configured Congressional District One", said John Koster.

 The 1^st CD, which has been vacated by Congressman Jay Inslee, who is running for Governor, now stretches into the rural northwest parts of the state from east King County to the Canadian border.

 Rumors have abounded for months that the two Democrats on the Redistricting committee would make it their top priority to ensure there would be no Koster/Larsen rematch in Congressional District 2.

Koster, however, is looking optimistically at his chances of winning in the new 1^st CD, which appears to be an ideal fit. With Koster's residence now located midway between the new north and south boundaries of the 1^st, the rural character and more conservative leaning constituency of the new district should provide Koster, a former dairy farmer, a natural support base.

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