Washington state: White House Wants No Messy Primary

[Frodo]

since former Congressman Rick White seems to be the most formidable candidate in the list provided in this article (absent Dino Rossi and Jennifer Dunn), how do you all think he will do against Sen. Maria Cantwell?

White House weighing in on strongest Cantwell rival

By Alicia Mundy
Seattle Times Washngton bureau

The White House has a message for would-be Republican challengers to Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell: No messy primary.

The White House has made Cantwell among their top targets in the 2006 midterm elections, and has told some candidates it wants to avoid an expensive intraparty battle.

That means that there likely will be no Republican primary in Washington state for the three men who are considering running against Cantwell — former U.S. Rep. Rick White, state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance and Mike McGavick, the chairman and CEO of Safeco.

However, there will be a primary of sorts — in Washington, D.C. And it's already begun.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002244026_rickwhite17m.html

[AuH2O]

Rick White is no joke. The other two I'm not too impressed with.

It should be competitive if White gets the nod, which is all you can ask.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

Has Rossi ever said he's not running?  I haven't heard anything from him suggest he would, but I don't really know why he wouldn't, especially seeing as how long he's been willing to press this vote fraud issue.  Unless he just doesn't want to move to DC.

[Keystone Phil]

Has Rossi ever said he's not running?  I haven't heard anything from him suggest he would, but I don't really know why he wouldn't, especially seeing as how long he's been willing to press this vote fraud issue.  Unless he just doesn't want to move to DC.

He said he wouldn't run but I think he'll change his mind.

[bgwah]

Rick White-eh...He did lose re-election. But Cantwell shouldn't pull a Gregoire and take her re-election for granted!
Chris Vance-oooh, I can see Cantwell breaking 60% now...
Mike McGavick-Umm...Don't even know anything about the guy!

VANCE! VANCE! VANCE!

[Alcon]

I like Cantwell, and she is rather pro-free trade, too. She's very good for Washington state and very much fits into its politics.

She's also not a Gregoire-like pushover. If Rossi runs against her, she'll out him for the total non-moderate that he is.

Nothing says "Democrats carry eastern Washington counties" like Chris Vance.

There is one single thing that says everything that needs to be said about Vance's electability: this year, Adam Smith won 63-35 against a guy who posted, four months after the election, a rambling rant that starts with the sentence "Why must Adam steal Pedro's money?" and only goes downhill from there.

[bgwah]

I like Cantwell, and she is rather pro-free trade, too. She's very good for Washington state and very much fits into its politics.

She's also not a Gregoire-like pushover. If Rossi runs against her, she'll out him for the total non-moderate that he is.

Nothing says "Democrats carry eastern Washington counties" like Chris Vance.

There is one single thing that says everything that needs to be said about Vance's electability: this year, Adam Smith won 63-35 against a guy who posted, four months after the election, a rambling rant that starts with the sentence "Why must Adam steal Pedro's money?" and only goes downhill from there.

LOL! He doesn't come close to Carol Cassady! She makes McDermott look like a moderate, understanding, reasonable man. bahahahahha.

On her campaign site, she said city votes shouldn't be worth as much as rural votes, and she ran for congress in ing Seattle, and went on a Cantwell-Gregoire "the democrats are evil" rant. However, her site is gone now. Web archive have pre-election stuff, but you miss her rant.

http://web.archive.org/web/20041101005306/http://www.cassadyforcongress.com/

[jimrtex]

since former Congressman Rick White seems to be the most formidable candidate in the list provided in this article (absent Dino Rossi and Jennifer Dunn), how do you all think he will do against Sen. Maria Cantwell?

White House weighing in on strongest Cantwell rival

By Alicia Mundy
Seattle Times Washngton bureau

The White House has a message for would-be Republican challengers to Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell: No messy primary.

In November, Washington adopted a Louisiana-style election with a twist.  Candidates from all parties can run on the primary ballot, with the top two regardless of party advancing to the general election, even if the leading candidate had a majority.

In a case a race against Cantwell, the primary would end up being a race to see which Republican finishes second.  Since it is quite unlikely that Cantwell would be pushed to 3rd, Republican contenders would be battling each other to move on with perhaps as little as 25% of the vote.  With the general election so close (Washington has a very late primary), it might be difficult to get supporters of the losing candidate(s) to back the Republican winner.

Pre-selecting a candidate puts the Republican candidate on an equal footing with Cantwell.  A victory over Cantwell in the primary could energize supporters.

It would be interesting to see how a legal challenge of the new primary system will turn out.  Washington previously (since the 1920s) used a so-called blanket primary, where voters were given a single primary ballot, and could vote in either party's ballot on a race by race basis.  California adopted a similar system, which was then challenged in court.  The US Supreme Court ruled that the California system was unconstitutional as a violation of the right of party members to freely associate with like-minded individuals, including the ability to exclude interlopers.  Eventually, this ruling was applied to Washington.

California and Washington had argued that the party primaries were simply the first stage of a two step process by which the electorate chooses its officers.  The plaintiffs successfully argued that even though the primaries are mandated by the state, that they were nonetheless part of the process by which parties formulated their policies and presented them to the voters.  Several of the SC justices noted that the Louisiana system might pass muster because the parties were not selecting their candidate in the primary.

In a previous case, the Louisiana system was successfully challenged on the basis that federal elections were not being held on the November election date mandated by Congress, since the candidate was usually chosen in the primary election.  After the legislature did not respond, the federal district court imposed the current calendar, where the primary for federal elections is held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and a run-off is held later (as happened in 2 congressional races in 2004).  The Louisiana legislature then went ahead and  formally adopted the new calendar.  I believe that Louisiana still uses the old calendar for state and local contests.

Washington possibly may not be subkect to such a challenge since the primary always will select two candidates (unless there is no opposition), even if the leading candidate receives a majority.  If the parties are successful in limiting competition, Washington might had a rather odd system by which most elections are essentially 2-way races that are re-run after two months.

[bgwah]

If Washington had that sytem in 1996, we would've had two Democrats running against eachother! (for governor)

Hopefully Democrats will get out and vote on primary day to make sure she is on the top two. It seems possibile they will figure "Cantwell wins so theres no point in voting in the primary" and end up having a Republican win! *gasp*

[bgwah]

Alcon do you have the results for WA-9 for president?

[Alcon]

Alcon do you have the results for WA-9 for president?

Approximately 53-46.

I forgot to finish my story about the "Why must Adam take Pedro's money?" guy.

He did only one point worse than Chris Vance.

[bgwah]

Alcon do you have the results for WA-9 for president?

Approximately 53-46.

I forgot to finish my story about the "Why must Adam take Pedro's money?" guy.

He did only one point worse than Chris Vance.

Hah! That's the same as the state. How convenient.

So, if a district similar to the entire state only gave him 35%, then he can expect a similar number for congress. Although I WOULD add probably about 5% just because.

I say in a Cantwell-Vance match up, it would go about 60-40.