PAC fueled with labor and crypto $$ hits Culp hard

Plus Democratic PAC money goes after Young in the 26th

Welcome to a special Monday edition of the Observer. We’ll expect to publish more frequently in the next couple of weeks as political money flies around ahead of the August primary.

Longtime readers will recall that one of the Observer’s earliest and most popular pieces was on the long grift that was Loren Culp’s 2020 run for governor. Well, now Culp’s “running” for another office, ostensibly trying to take out Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse in central Washington’s 4th District. And a large national political action committee is coming after Culp using that Observer story as ammunition.

Here’s the mailer element of the campaign:

That’s the handiwork of Defending Main Street, which bills itself as a “highly effective SuperPAC that defends key incumbent Republican seats and identifies new candidates who are ready to work across the aisle to get things done.” Newhouse is somewhat in need of defending this year because of his vote to impeach Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. That fired up the Trump-loving voters of his district and drew in Culp and a couple of other challengers from the right.