Washington 2020: The Calm Before the Drizzle

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So, can this just turn into our general Washington discussion thread?

Aye. We have enough Washingtonians around to warrant one.

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Randy Dorn was just endorsed by the Washington Democrats for Superintendent. Color me a little surprised.

Perhaps a little amusingly, I was talking to the closest thing that the Washington Democrats have to a party elder the other day and he said that Booth Gardner was seriously considering running for Superintendent.

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Beating McKenna will be tough, but Lautenberg is a smart campaigner and will do what's necessary to win. That's going to be the closest statewide race this year.

Burner will win this time around. They've learned from last time, and the extra help from Obama should be enough to push her over.

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In a not so shocking move, Jim McIntire was just endorsed for State Treasurer at the Democratic Convention.

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Idiots.

The Washington State Democratic Party is lucky that the only other state party more retarded than them happens to be the Washington State Republican Party.

Oh, and Lautenburg will lose.

That's the spirit!

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The Washington Democratic Party can probably best be described IMO as a herd of cats. The vast majority of the party activists are cats. They may have good intentions, but they lack long term vision or understanding. They're also just sort of weird and don't fully how things work in the world.

Then there's a group that herds them. They understand what is necessary to win, how it is to be done, and do the grunt work necessary to pull of victories. They also feel like they are constantly surrounded by idiots that they must humor.

Unfortunately, the cats are so numerous they sometimes win out.

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Bah...I liked the Korean dude a lot more.  Looks like I'm voting for Martin.

McIntire isn't on the ballot yet! I'm still voting for Sohn in the primary.

Yea, Sohn could still make it. The voters of Washington have a long and wonderful record of telling the state parties to f**ck off.

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Apparently Sohn wasn't even at the convention. He probably knew what was up.

Sohn is leading in fundraising though, so he's still got a shot (Mark Dayton anyone?)

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Fun in the 46th District!



PolitickerWA:

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Rodney Tom wouldn't've been polling any better...

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Rodney Tom wouldn't've been polling any better...

Yeah right. An old school Republican, who, after seeing his party taken over by religious fascists, switched parties to the one that best fit him in the 21st century. Sounds a lot like the 8th congressional district to me.

Ah yes, we all know how well Medina realtors who drive Mercedes connect to folks in Eastern Pierce County. Tom's name recognition also would've taken work, and he would've lost some women to Reichert.

And the only reason Tom became a Democrat is that he wanted to be a Senator.

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Here's something a little curious. In the Insurance Commissioner race, the Spokane County Republican Party Chair filed... but as "States No Party Preference". I have no idea who the hell the Republican that's running is, but Fackler may make it to the general if he gets the word out.

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Darcy Burner's house was completely destroyed in a fire this morning.

Fortunately the entire family, including the puppy, made it out OK.

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Most campaigns try to avoid photos like this. But not Dino!


This thread has been very quiet, which is quite upsetting. Updates coming soon include:

- An engaged couple running against each other for State Legislature
- The Commissioner of Public Lands fondles an employees breast... and none of the papers cover it
- A top recruit of the House Republicans who thinks that global warming "may be a good thing... I like a warmer climate"
- Much, much more!

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There are also several districts with both Democrats and Republicans who have filed that only members of one party are likely to make it to the general (the 8th, 14th, 20th, 35th and 36th all come to mind).

For it to happen in the Treasurer's race it would require a perfect storm of Democratic loyalists sticking to McIntire, Independent Democrats and Independents moving towards Sohn, and also very low Republican turnout. That actually sounds kind of like what's happening, but the chances are still very low. I'm a little more hopeful than Alcon though.

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Allan's endorsed by Murphy...I see him getting more cross-over mostly by virtue of that.  Not that Republicans probably pay much attention to that race.

Yea, Martin putting that in his voters pamphlet (which is where the vast majority of voters will make their decision) was a smart move. The only real way is if Democratic base and Independents split just right and, again, if there's really low Republican turnout.

And you're aware of the "interesting" situation involving the two running against Flannigan, right?

I also didn't know you were on a first name basis with the Republican nominee for State Treasurer

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Oops, haha.  I have no idea where that came from.  Martin.

But, yeah, that's fun to follow.  Honestly the guy seems a little nutso, although I don't know him.  You probably might

The guy's statement in the Voters' Guide was written solely to draw as many Republican votes away as possible. They figured he could do it by sounding as conservative as possible, but he just sort of came off sounding crazy. I would've gone about it in a different way, but whatever. He's perfectly sane (and liberal) in real life.

Smeall didn't even show up to the 27th LD endorsements meeting. She works at a Summer Camp on the Key Penninsula and thus has very little time to actually campaign (probably why she wasn't at the LD meeting as well). She's basically clueless.

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I actually assumed he was crazy because of the letter he sent to Dale Woodard. 

So, the guy isn't actually a McCain supporter?  Now I'm really confused.

Yea, I don't quite understand why they were trying to knock Woodard out of the race. It seems like having him would split the Republican base and make it easier for Smeall to advance to the general.

But no, he's not a McCain supporter. He's listed as a Likely Democrat in our database.

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I actually assumed he was crazy because of the letter he sent to Dale Woodard. 

So, the guy isn't actually a McCain supporter?  Now I'm really confused.

Yea, I don't quite understand why they were trying to knock Woodard out of the race. It seems like having him would split the Republican base and make it easier for Smeall to advance to the general.

But no, he's not a McCain supporter. He's listed as a Likely Democrat in our database.

Yeah, he voted D in the primary (hence the Likely D designation - it's the only thing causing that), but all of his ballot statements go on about "McCain, Rossi, Wiley for a better future!"  He totally has me confused.

Unless he went to the caucus and really wanted to vote in the advisory primary (and legally), it don't make much sense to me.

He's only pretending to be a Republican so he can sap votes from Woodard, thus causing Smeall to make it November with Flannigan. It's all a ploy.

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I got my ballot today.

Who're you voting for SPI?

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I got my ballot guide today (and voter registration card -- again?  whatever).  I realized that the only race I genuinely care about is having Sohn beat McIntire.  Otherwise, this is all just advisory crap.  I'm thinking I just may vote for my favorite kook in all of the other races.

If WA-27 was competitive, I'd vote Woodard...but it's not, and D vs. D would just be so funny.  Maybe I should vote Smeall just for the hilarious remote chance?  Who's with me?!

Definitely vote for Smeall. I just talked to her today and she's very excited. She's also the only non-crazy sounding candidate in the TNT's questionnaire.

I think I mentioned this before, but I grow more confident that Sohn will win everyday. McIntire's people are going bezerk, and McIntire himself is getting pretty pissed off.

Make sure to vote in SPI though, that's a very important contest. And the Judicial races will be decided in the primary.

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Bergeson isn't as evil as some (including Otherphil) make her out to be. She's made some mistakes and we've got quite a few problems still to solve, but everything Dorn is saying he wants to change is basically already being worked on by Bergeson's office.

The local candidate for State Senate is a public school teacher and knows more about our school system than anyone I've ever met. She says that on a 1-10 scale of awfulness Bergeson is a 9.5 and Dorn is an 8. She wanted Semler until he dropped out.

I passively favor Dorn, and would suggest voting for him if only to keep Bergeson under 50% and thus send them both to the general where you would then have more time to think.

Sohn has signs up all over the state, and he's been getting some surprising support from within the party that I wouldn't have expected even a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty sure my LD is going to endorse him this Thursday. I also learned the other day that the reason he didn't attend the State Convention was because a family member was sick, so the anger at him from within the party from "blowing them off" is really quite unfounded.

Fairhurst is wonderful and absolutely deserves re-election. Johnson isn't wonderful but he's better than the other two.

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Another random suggestion to Alcon: Vote for Richmond. He's been working hardest of all the candidates and deserves to be in the general.

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Goldmark is outstanding. I had a chance to talk with him at a Conservation Voters meeting, and I've never meet anyone who knows more about land conservation and development. Besides, Sutherland is an idiot who knows nothing about our environment, is in bed with the timber companies, and fondles his employees breasts.

If you're looking for a crazy to vote for in the SPI race, pick Hansler. I met him at the 27th LD meeting (which shows he's actually trying unlike the others) and he gave me a copy of his book "Purls of Wisdom". It's about 70 two page essays about his views on things, including how AIDS can be spread like influenza and how there are two types of X genes - the talking gene and the shopping gene - which explains why girls are the way they are.

He's a winner.

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Bergeson scored the endorsement of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. Major coup.