The Washington Post (which of course is an expert on the “other” Washington), proclaims the Evergreen State’s senate race as a toss up.  This assumes that both Patty Murray and Dino Rossi survive the new “Top Two” primary and advance to battle in November.  Assuming they do both advance, polls seem to show them as very close among likely voter preference.  While the likeliest scenario is that the two most recognizable names in the race do advance, in this Tea Party year, anything is possible on the Republican side.  While it is easy to discount Paul Akers and Clint Didier, the strong anti-incumbent, and anti-establishment passion among conservative voters could really hurt Rossi. Dino Rossi, among the Republicans, is the establishment figure, despite never having won a state-wide race (or at least making his one win stick…).  Add to that the fact that Rossi is an economic conservative, with a more liberal take on the abortion issue, and Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Clint Didier, and we have an interesting mixture that could bite Rossi. 

If Rossi does manage to join Murray in the rarified air of the “Top Two,” he faces the challenge of energizing the conservative voters who currently back Didier, and/or worship Sarah Palin.  If Rossi cannot corral the Republican Party’s usually reliable Eastern Washington base, he will be in serious trouble.  His best shot is to run against President Obama, not against Murray.  Tuesday night will be interesting…

Breaking his silence after days of baiting from Democrats, Senate candidate Dino Rossi on Wednesday staked his stance on the financial regulatory bill pending before Congress.

Turns out that like Democratic incumbent Sen. Patty Murray, Republican Rossi says he’s on the side of Main Street, not Wall Street.

But unlike Murray, Rossi believes the way to show allegiance to the little guy is to vote against the Financial Regulatory Reform Conference Report instead of for it.

Rossi depicted Murray’s planned vote…http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012359132_financialreform15m.html

In a speech on May 21, 2010, Republican Dino Rossi
spoke of policy and politics, but came just short of
saying he will challenge incumbent Democratic Senator
Patty Murray, who is up for re-election this November.
Speculation has centered around Rossi, who has valuable
state-wide name recognition and respect among
conservative voters after two failed, but close,
campaigns against Washington Governor Christine
Gregoire. Other Republicans have softly criticized
Rossi, saying he must make up his mind soon, since many
funding and endorsement decisions stakeholders are
awaiting news as to whether or not Rossi is indeed in the
race. Already declared Republican candidates include
businessman Paul Akers, ex-NFL football player Clint
Didier and state Sen. Don Benton.

Rossi
at Senate Starting Gate: Will He?–by Joel Connely,
Seattle P-I, May 21, 2010

Candidates for Washington State Senate 2010:

Senator Patty Murray is the incumbent, and the only Democrat running at this time.

The incumbent, Senator Patty Murray (D) Campaign website

Several Republicans are running for Murray’s Senate Seat. They include:

Former State Senator Don Benton (R)-Campaign website, BentonForSenate@Twitter, Don Benton on Facebook, Don Benton on YouTube

Paul Akers (R)-Campaign website, Akersforsenate@Twitter, Paul Akers on Facebook, Paul Akers on YouTube

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008351683_weblocal04.html

Quotes to help unify the nation on the eve of Barack Obama's historic election victory.

"I didn't vote for him, but he's my president, and I hope he does a good job."--John Wayne, following Richard Nixon's defeat by Senator John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election.

"Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children…

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!…

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true."–The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement

From CNN:

November 4, 2008

McCain aides see 'no path to victory'

Posted: 7:23 PM PT

From CNN Correspondent Dana Bash

(CNN) — Two senior aides to John McCain see "no path to victory," given the night's results so far.

The two advisors, who were crunching numbers for the Republican contender, were responding to a question from CNN's Dana Bash, who has been covering the McCain campaign.

The aides asked not to named because the campaign is not commenting on internal discussions.

Three states that went Republican in 2004 have gone for Democrat Barack Obama, according to CNN projections — Iowa, New Mexico and Ohio.

In the American Political
System, the true winner of the Presidential Race
is not determined by simply adding up the vote
totals from each of the 50 states plus the
District of Columbia. No, each state and D.C.
hold its own presidential election and the
winner of each of those separate elections (all
held on the same day of course, the first
Tuesday following the first Monday in November
of a Presidential Election year), takes all of
what are called "Electoral Votes" in each state
and district. Main and Nebraska do it
differently where a portion of the electoral
votes goes to the presidential candidate who
wins each congressional district. Nationwide, a
candidate needs to win a total, from among the
states, of at least 270 electoral votes in order
to win the election to be the next President of
the United States.

The The Electoral College, as
the whole group of Electors nationwide is
called, is made up of 538 members from the 50
states and the District of Columbia. When
citizens vote for the presidential candidate of
their choice, in reality they are really voting
for a person called an "Elector" who is chosen
by the candidates' campaign organizations to
represent their candidate. For example, in
Washington State, which has a total of eleven
Electors, there are eleven people representing
the Republican candidate, John McCain, and
another eleven representing the Democratic
candidate, Barack Obama. If a majority (or even
a plurality-but that's another story) of the
state's voters choose Obama, then all eleven of
Obama's chosen representatives become that
state's official Electors. So, what happens
then? On the first Monday following the second
Wednesday in December, the Electors meet in each
state (not as a national group, but as
individual state groups), and formally cast the
"real" votes for President and Vice-President.
The official Elector's votes are then sent to
the House of Representatives where the President
of the Senate (usually the incumbent
Vice-President), officially reads the results
and declares the winner.

The rules governing the
Electoral College are found in the United States
Constitution in Article 2, Section 1, and in the
12th Amendment. Electors meet on the first
Monday following the second Wednesday in
December , which, in 2008, is December 15. These
dates are set by law in the US Code, at 3 USC
7.

To anyone observing the "WASL Wars" of the past decade however, the poll results are not that surprising. Terry Bergeson has been the standard-bearer of education reform and the WASL exam as a graduation requirement (despite the fact that the WASL was not originally intended to prevent kids from graduating). Many parental and other education advocacy groups, including the powerful and well-funded WEA teacher's union, are in opposition to the WASL and to Terry Bergeson. This is also all the more striking, since Bergeson is a former WEA president!

In addition to opposing Bergeson on WASL issues, Dorn also advocates for greater resources and respect for Career and Technical Education (CTE), which many folks from an earlier era may know as Vocation Education. Many of Bergeson's foes dislike the fact that CTE funding and other resources have faded under her administation in favor of more "college-oriented" academic programs, which the WASL mose definitely favors.

This campaign may be Bergeson's swan song, and all those against the WASL and in favor of more powerful CTE programs are crossing their fingers and voting against Bergeson. Dorn picked the right year to run for OSPI. I wonder what Semler is thinking now…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The University of Illinois at Chicago said Friday it is releasing records of Barack Obama’s service to a nonprofit organization linked to former 1960s radical William Ayers.

Supporters of John McCain have been trying to exploit the tie between Obama and Ayers, with a McCain fundraiser donating nearly $2.9 million for an independent ad focusing on Ayers. Ayers’ Weatherman group took credit for bombings that included nonfatal blasts at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol four decades ago.

The records of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an organization that Obama chaired and that Ayers co-founded, will be made available to the public Tuesday, UIC said in a statement.

On Monday, National Review magazine posted an online article saying the university had initially declared that the records were open to inspection but that the university subsequently reversed its position.

On Tuesday, the university said that there had been a misunderstanding about the status of the collection.

The unidentified donor of the records notified the university about the absence of a signed ownership agreement last week.

The donor’s only concerns regarding the collection are due to personal information that could include names, confidential salary information and even Social Security numbers, a university spokesman said at the time.

In its latest statement, the institution said that it now has legal authority to allow public access to the material.

In the 1990s, Ayers was instrumental in starting the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which was awarded nearly $50 million by a foundation to help reform Chicago schools. Ayers is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Obama and Ayers have other ties.

Ayers held a meet-the-candidate event at his home for Obama when Obama first ran for office in the mid-1990s. Ayers and Obama live in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

Ayers and Obama served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community groups to help the poor. Obama left the board in December 2002.

The new ad sponsored by American Issues Project says that Obama and Ayers served together "on a left-wing board. Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it? Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?"

According to documents filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission, the ad is being financed by Harold Simmons, a billionaire financier from Texas, who is listed as one of 235 fundraisers who raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for McCain’s presidential campaign.

Simmons also was one of the top contributors to Swift Boat Veterans and POWS for Truth, the group that aired ads questioning 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry’s service in Vietnam. Democrats have blamed those ads for helping George W. Bush defeat Kerry.

Simmons donated $3 million to the Swift Boat group.

One of the board members at American Issues Project, Ed Failor Jr., was a paid consultant for McCain’s campaign in Iowa last year.

In April, Obama said he "deplored" Ayers’ actions in the 1960s and that "by the time I met him, he is a professor of education at the University of Illinois. We served on a board together that had Republicans, bankers, lawyers, focused on education."

Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.