As expected, state Sen. Michael Baumgartner (R-6, Spokane) announced his candidacy for US Senate this morning. He's running for Democratic US Sen. Maria Cantwell's seat.

Baumgartner, 35, is  a Harvard grad and former economic consultant in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In this morning's Fizz , we reported that during his 2010 election for state senate Baumgartner signed the Spokane County GOP party pledge, which includes some off-the-charts conservative tenets: Privatize Social Security; abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; eliminate the Department of Education; withdraw from the UN; return to the gold standard; ending no-fault divorce.[pullquote]"I had some reservations ... there was an understanding that I didn't support everything on the pledge."—Michael Baumgartner[/pullquote]

Baumgartner tells PubliCola that while he signed the pledge, "I made it clear that I had some reservations," and that "there was an understanding that I didn't support everything on the pledge. The Republican Party of Spokane is a big vibrant party and this is the place for people to express their ideas."

He adds: "I signed a pledge supporting Republican principles of freedom and liberty and upholding the constitution." (The Spokesman-Review questioned Baumgartner about signing the pledge back during the 2010 campaign .)

Specifically, Baumgartner told PubliCola he doesn't think the US should leave the UN or withdraw from the WTO; he doesn't want to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; he doesn't want to shut down the Department of Education; and he doesn't support ending no-fault divorce in Washington State.

I asked him about some of the others. For example: Does he believe, as the pledge states, that global warming was not "induced by man"? Baumgartner told me "the evidence is mixed, but it doesn't matter what you believe, it's what you want to do about it." He says, "I like to be science based," and says he supports a global approach that prioritizes reining in carbon emissions in China and India.

Baumgartner provided the Democrats in Olympia with a key vote last session on the TransAlta bill, phasing out coal at the Centralia power plant.

He said he disagrees with Cantwell's support of cap and trade. (I corrected him: Cantwell proposed an alternative to Obama's cap and trade known as "cap and dividend" which would make carbon emitters pay and funnel the money to consumers to offset increased rates.)

As for criminalizing abortion, Baumgartner says "I'm pro-life" and he thinks it's "best to deal with social issues at the state level ... voters should decide." He says Washington voters have "spoken clearly" in support of a women's right to choose and "politicians here need to take that into account."

And what about the Spokane GOP position that pharmacists should be allowed to refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception? "There's a big enough market," he says, that "someone shouldn't have to sell something they morally object to."

Baumgartner said he believes in "holistic reform on entitlements" and dismissed the phrase "privatize Social Security" as "a political term," saying only that people needed "more options and more control."

Here's Baumgartner's video announcement, in which he says he supports a balanced budget amendment. Big fact check on his statement, though: In playing the frugal anti-war card— "American needs to reward their [troops'] sacrifice by quickly and responsibly ending these wars"—Baumgartner, who still advises in Iraq and Afghanstan, accuses Cantwell of "writing blank checks for wars with no accountability."

While Cantwell did support President Bush's invasion of Iraq, she was on the dissident side of a 2010 vote against President Obama's open-ended strategy, demanding a timeline for withdrawal.

Cantwell, who defeated longtime GOP senator Slade Gorton in 2000, has $2.2 million cash on hand according to the Federal Elections Commission.