U.S. Senate candidate Smiley stopped in La Conner Saturday

In a U.S. Senate race being touted as surprisingly close as election day approached, surging GOP candidate Tiffany Smiley made La Conner one of her final weekend campaign stops Saturday morning.

The 39 year-old veterans' advocate and former triage nurse was greeted by an enthusiastic standing room only crowd at the La Conner Civic Garden Club during a 30-minute appearance, part of her statewide "There's a New Mom in Town" bus tour.

Smiley, who was introduced by Republican Second Congressional District challenger Dan Matthews, appeared buoyed by the large, supportive 8:30 a.m. turnout.

"I started this campaign by getting out and talking to people," she said, "and I'm ending it by getting out and talking to people."

Smiley drew repeated applause by addressing themes she has raised on the stump and in debates with five-term incumbent Patty Murray, one of the more senior members of the U.S. Senate and a leader in the chamber's Democratic Party caucus.

Smiley was critical of Murray's legislative record.

"We can't afford six more years of Sen. Murray phoning it in," said Smiley.

"I was 11 when she was first elected," Smiley added. "She has been in the senate for 30 years and only nine bills with her name on it have crossed the line."

Murray, who famously launched her senate career as "a mom in tennis shoes" in 1992, has countered by highlighting her role in the passage of infrastructure legislation and the Inflation Reduction Act.

Smiley questioned the latter bill's effectiveness in combating rising costs and noted its provision that calls for expansion and modernization of the Internal Revenue Service. She said the act allows the IRS to add 87,000 new personnel to its ranks.

"That's 87,000 IRS agents that can come after small businesses and any of you," Smiley said, adding that persons making as little as $25,000 annually are "more likely" to be audited.

"If her legislation is working," asked Smiley, "why are these bills not working?"

Proponents of the inflation reduction legislation, citing a U.S. Treasury Department report, note not all new IRS hires will be agents. Many will work in customer service and information technology or replace an estimated 50,000 IRS workers expected to retire within five years. Increased tax enforcement, they add, will focus on high-income earners and corporate entities.

The bill, according to Murray, will lower prescription drug costs for nearly 1.5 million people in Washington state.

Of Murray, Smiley said "tax and spend is the name of her game." She also called out Murray for alleged inaction related to the fentanyl crisis plaguing communities across the nation.

"This is a crisis that's killing our kids," said Smiley. "We have to save our kids. That's what's on the ballot in Washington state."

Smiley called for national energy independence, bolstering law enforcement and improving public education.

"We need to make sure the money follows our children," she said.

Smiley shared her experience caring for her husband after he was severely wounded while serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq. She said she refused to sign documents consenting to his discharge while he was undergoing trauma care at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She said she didn't want her husband's recovery to be compromised and fought to prevent him from becoming a mere number in the Veterans Affairs system. Smiley said she was successful in her perseverance.

"I was given a zero per cent chance of taking on the Army for my husband," she said, "so I like my odds with Washington state."

While often passionate in her remarks, Smiley did lighten the tone prior to closing and re-boarding her bus for a trip down I-5 to Marysville.

"People come up to me a lot at these forums," she said, "and once there was a man who told me he's a Republican but that this is the first election where his wife won't cancel out his vote."

La Conner resident Lynn Moore, an independent, said she could relate.

"That," she chuckled, from the back of the room, "sounds a lot like Bud and me."