February 16, 2012 - Greg Anders, a career fighter pilot and candidate for Congress who suspended his campaign in late January, formally announced his strong support and endorsement for John Koster at a breakfast event in Lynden on Saturday.

Both Koster and Anders expressed disappointment that the redistricting process had placed them in a situation where they would have to run against each other in a Republican primary. 

Anders, a Whatcom County resident and son of Apollo 8 Astronaut William Anders, challenged conservatives to "pull together" and support the Koster campaign with their time and treasure. Anders then presented a personal check to Koster to help "fight the money that is going to come out of the Democrat's liberal machine".

Speaking from his heart to the enthusiastic crowd, Anders said "John, I hope you get to plant that conservative flag on Capitol Hill for us".

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Koster is the lone Republican in the race for Washington's newly drawn 1^st Congressional District. With the departures of Anders and James Watkins, Koster will no longer have to face a protracted and expensive primary campaign battle against fellow Republicans.

"I am humbled by the support and endorsement I have received from a high caliber individual like Greg Anders. My campaign will not be outworked and we intend to plant that conservative flag in Washington D.C. that Greg spoke of today. Republicans, Independents and conservative Democrats in the 1st district can unite behind my candidacy."

To learn more about John Koster's campaign for the U.S. Congress, please visit the campaign website at KosterForCongress.com

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."