Washington '12: Getting Stoned at our Gay Weddings

[Meeker]

All the Dems are endorsing him just because he has a D by his name. They have no idea who he is.

I was at the 27th LD meeting and they blanket endorsed the entire slate of unopposed Democrats running for statewide office, including Osgood. No debate. People just have no idea who he is and automatically support him.

The people running the local Democratic parties frequently have no idea what the hell they're doing.

[HardRCafé]

They did make an exception on that, endorsing "anyone but Brad Owen."  Apparently he uses all of his time spent not being Governor to "tour the state with his crappy-ass rock band and crusade against pot."

I wonder if I could become the only one to donate to both Rossi and Owen.

[HardRCafé]

Owen and his staff also conferred with Gov. Christine Gregoire and her staff on a proclamation proclaiming March 10, 2008 as “The Ventures Day” in Washington state.

"I urge all citizens to gather their 45s, 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs and iPods and play The Ventures music on this special observance,” the governor’s proclamation states.

[Meeker]

Owen and his staff also conferred with Gov. Christine Gregoire and her staff on a proclamation proclaiming March 10, 2008 as “The Ventures Day” in Washington state.

"I urge all citizens to gather their 45s, 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs and iPods and play The Ventures music on this special observance,” the governor’s proclamation states.

Yea, that's pretty typical Owen.

[Meeker]

Turnout in King County isn't going well. Not good news for the Governor.

[bgwah]

I just want to puke every time I see an ad for the scumbag. He really is disgusting.

[CultureKing]

I just want to puke every time I see an ad for the scumbag. He really is disgusting.

Agreed, there is just something not right about Rossi...

Turnout in King County isn't going well. Not good news for the Governor.

Turnout is down here in Thurston as well but after phone banking for about 6 hours and going door-to-door today I am finding that people just prefer to wait until a little bit closer to election day (most of them had sent their ballots out either yesterday or even today).

[CultureKing]

So, anyone want to give a prediction of how Cheryl Crist will do against Brian Baird in the primary? She is running as an anti-war democrat against Baird (remember Baird recently came out for the war, after opposing it from the start, the only congressman or even elected official I know to have done so).

My guess (based on absolutely nothing):
Baird: 55%
Delevar: 22%
Crist: 12%
Webb: 11%

Watch as this prediction becomes a laughing stock in only four days time. By the way I know nothing about the republicans, except that they will easily lose to Baird.

[Meeker]

Turnout in King County isn't going well. Not good news for the Governor.

Turnout is down here in Thurston as well but after phone banking for about 6 hours and going door-to-door today I am finding that people just prefer to wait until a little bit closer to election day (most of them had sent their ballots out either yesterday or even today).

Most do vote later, but turnout is lower right now compared to this time in previous years.

[Grad Students are the Worst]

Pierce County turnout stands currently at 20%.  Returns are down 18% (not percentage points) from 2004, which is pretty sad-ish, considering that more people are vote-by-mail now.  That is, uselessly, up 2% from 2006.

King County is doing even worse, at 17%.  Pierce County typically has the state's lowest turnout.  This probably says more about KingCo having awful turnout than Pierce doing well.

Turnout elsewhere seems wildly variant:  27% in Benton, 19% in Clark, 37% (!) in Pacific, 17% in Snohomish, 24% in Spokane and 27% in Yakima.

Chelan County gives too much information (file), none of it what I wanted, but apparently only about 1-in-200 voters so far forgot to sign their ballots.

[Meeker]

Some of the smaller counties, like Pacific, have such a small population that you can't really read too much into their turnout percentages, it's just sort of a year-by-year randomness.

King is the really worry though. This just confirms what those within the party have known for months though, which is that the Gregoire and coordinated campaigns are completely incompetent.

[CultureKing]

predicted turnout is 46%. I have a feeling that we will end up still being up from 2004 because of the popularity of the top-two primary. Just give people time.

[Meeker]

The current trend line is right below 2006 turnout (39%). I'm pretty sure Sam Reed was full of crap. We'll see

[bgwah]

Some of the smaller counties, like Pacific, have such a small population that you can't really read too much into their turnout percentages, it's just sort of a year-by-year randomness.

King is the really worry though. This just confirms what those within the party have known for months though, which is that the Gregoire and coordinated campaigns are completely incompetent.

Why does it matter? It's just the primary. Would a warning to the Gregoire campaign that they need to do a better job really be a bad thing?

[Meeker]

Some of the smaller counties, like Pacific, have such a small population that you can't really read too much into their turnout percentages, it's just sort of a year-by-year randomness.

King is the really worry though. This just confirms what those within the party have known for months though, which is that the Gregoire and coordinated campaigns are completely incompetent.

Why does it matter? It's just the primary. Would a warning to the Gregoire campaign that they need to do a better job really be a bad thing?

It gets the Republicans excited and helps Rossi bring in out-of-state money (and makes in-state donors focus on the race more).

On the other hand, you're certainly right, it would give the Gregoire campaign (and a lot of the lazy party activists) a needed wake-up call that we can't just waltz to victory.

So positives and negatives.

[bgwah]

It gets the Republicans excited and helps Rossi bring in out-of-state money (and makes in-state donors focus on the race more).

Maybe. Seems like the closeness from 2004 (not to mention the high name-recognition he already has from it) would already help Rossi out a lot in those areas--so much that I'm not sure there's much room for improvement. But I don't know...

Too bad this silly mail-voting will make it take forever (relatively speaking of course) to get results.

[Meeker]

It gets the Republicans excited and helps Rossi bring in out-of-state money (and makes in-state donors focus on the race more).

Maybe. Seems like the closeness from 2004 (not to mention the high name-recognition he already has from it) would already help Rossi out a lot in those areas--so much that I'm not sure there's much room for improvement. But I don't know...

You're probably right to some extent, but as we saw in 2004 every little bit can make a big difference.

[HardRCafé]

I'm pretty sure Sam Reed was full of crap.

Heresy!  Sam Reed is full of only golden caramel and delicious milk chocolate.

[ottermax]

It's too bad this has been taken over by partisans.

I just talked to one of the leaders of the state Democratic Party and the arguments they offer are just full of holes and completely nonsensical. The main argument is that we should be like the rest of the other states in the country and be "normal." The top-two primary according to the Democratic Party of WA will hurt third parties and lower voter turnout. How can this be true if voters chose to have a top-two primary? It really isn't confusing, but the parties make us think that it is. And this is an exciting chance for third parties to actually become part of the system. Take advantage of it Greens, Libertarians, and Constitutionalists! You guys actually have a chance now!

[Fmr. Emperor PiT]

It's too bad this has been taken over by partisans.

I just talked to one of the leaders of the state Democratic Party and the arguments they offer are just full of holes and completely nonsensical. The main argument is that we should be like the rest of the other states in the country and be "normal." The top-two primary according to the Democratic Party of WA will hurt third parties and lower voter turnout. How can this be true if voters chose to have a top-two primary? It really isn't confusing, but the parties make us think that it is. And this is an exciting chance for third parties to actually become part of the system. Take advantage of it Greens, Libertarians, and Constitutionalists! You guys actually have a chance now!

     They can get 15% now! Nevertheless, I like this system. Be nice if we adopted this in California. Then we could have competitive elections in the Bay Area.

[Meeker]

How can this be true if voters chose to have a top-two primary?

Because voters are capable of making a decision that will decrease turnout? What you're saying isn't logical.

And this is an exciting chance for third parties to actually become part of the system. Take advantage of it Greens, Libertarians, and Constitutionalists! You guys actually have a chance now!

No, it excludes them nearly completely. A third party will never be on the November ballot for a statewide election until we get rid of this horrid system.

[Ogre Mage]

The Top 2 Primary isn't perfect, but I resented the hell out of the "Pick A Party" primary.  If we go back to that system I will stop voting in the primary (except judicial races).  I really wish we could go back to the old blanket primary which unfortunately was declared unconstitutional.

[CultureKing]

The Top 2 Primary isn't perfect, but I resented the hell out of the "Pick A Party" primary.  If we go back to that system I will stop voting in the primary (except judicial races).  I really wish we could go back to the old blanket primary which unfortunately was declared unconstitutional.

Agreed, the blanket primary was best. But really I don't mind this primary system very much... its kind of like a dry run through for the races in November and in some cases when a party is split between a number of candidates it opens up the possibility for third parties.

[Meeker]

in some cases when a party is split between a number of candidates it opens up the possibility for third parties.

But excludes them 99% of the time...

[bgwah]

So, how do you guys think Sam Reed will do in the general? I'm feeling fairly certain he'll hit 60%. 70% wouldn't really be out of the question, either.