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Five years and more than 10 months remain in the Senate term to which Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., was reelected in November, but Murray is already using the depredations of Donald Trump to ask for  campaign dollars.

“This is not my America,” said a mailing that reached addresses on Murray’s donor list this week.

Its bottom line:  Give. 

“Dear Patty:  I’m ready to join you in the fight for an America that believes in and stands for all of us,” says the donor card.  “To help you wage this battle, I am enclosing a new contribution of . . .”  Boxes give a range of $20 to $100, with a blank space for something larger.

No explanation is given of how a Murray contribution will help in the fight.  The Senator says simply:  “If, like me, you’re prepared to fight with ALL your might, then I hope you’ll take a moment to make a new contribution to my campaign.  Because I am not backing down.”

Murray is not alone.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has a “Join the Movement . . . Sign on to oppose Trump’s ban” Facebook page. The page, by Inslee’s political committee, invites names and email addresses — fodder for Inslee’s continuous email fundraising blasts.

Inslee has just begun his second term, but has used the state’s lawsuit against the Trump travel ban to cut a national figure.

The Governor’s Facebook appeal carries ominous, Darth Vader-like forebodings, acclaiming the state’s federal court victories, then saying:  “But the fight is far from over. Trump is sure to strike back — stand up and join us to fight back now.”

With such phrases as “Fight Back!”, politicians’ fundraising blasts usually sound the same, largely because they are a creation of the same consultants.

Murray, a trenchant opponent of several Trump Cabinet picks, is also pledging to “fight back” against” any Supreme Court nominee who refuses to uphold “rights to marriage equality, reproductive choice and free speech.”

The winter of Trump Administration discontent has proven to be a fundraising bonanza for such groups as the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood.  Planned Parenthood is even getting $250,0000 from the Harriet Cheney Cowles Foundation, named for the Spokane family that owns the conservative Spokesman Review.

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