Bush's campaign office in Spokane burglarized, vandalized
Monday, October 11, 2004 - Page updated at 07:57 P.M
By David Postman
Seattle Times chief political reporter
Offices that house President Bush's re-election campaign in Spokane were broken into and vandalized last night, the latest in a string of crimes at Republican offices across the country.
Workers arriving this morning found a hole smashed through the wall from an adjacent, vacant office. Bush campaign officials say a small amount of petty cash is missing and a computer and television had been moved and left near the hole.
"They must have gotten spooked because they ultimately left the computer and TV," said Bill Hyslop, the campaign's chairman for the Fifth Congressional District.
The computer and the TV had recently arrived in Spokane and the computer was loaded with information from the Republican get-out-the vote program.
Spokane police responded this morning and took the computer's monitor and the TV, Hyslop said.
"We obviously have no idea who did this and are not going to cast aspersions," said Hyslop, who served as U.S. attorney in Spokane under President George H.W. Bush.
In Bellevue last week, computers that stored the Republican get-out-the-vote database were stolen in a burglary at the Republican headquarters there. Bush campaign officials believe the break-ins are part of a broader attack on the president's re-election offices around the country, including a burglary in Canton, Ohio, last night, gun shots fired in West Virginia, Florida and Tennessee and union protestors storming offices in three Florida cities and Minneapolis.
There are no suspects in the burglaries or shootings and no injuries were reported.
Because the protests at campaign offices that were stormed were part of organized union demonstrations, Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot wrote a letter today to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney asking him to call off any future protests.
"In addition to the injuries, property damage and disruption associated with these acts, these events have created a threatening and intimidating atmosphere abhorrent to our democratic process," Racicot wrote.
The Spokane building leased by the state Republican party and serves as the area office for party operations as well as the campaign for the President and other Republican candidates.
Hyslop said that a security guard checked the building at about 6 a.m. today and did not report any disturbance.
But when construction crews working on the adjacent office arrived within 30 minutes later, they noticed the back door of the adjacent office had been pried open from an alleyway.
They also discovered that a hole appeared to have been kicked through the drywall separating the vacant space from the Bush offices. The computer and TV were found near the hole.
