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…

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

Washington now has, thanks to voter initiatives, a so-called Top-Two Primary, in which the top two vote-getters in the primary, regardless of party affiliation, move on to the general election in November.  This means that if there are four candidates in a primary election, for example, two Democrats, one Republican, and one Libertarian, and the two Democrats end up with more votes than the other two candidates, the general election ballot will only feature the two Democrats, leaving the Republican and the Libertarian out of the race.

On August 4, the Seattle Times ran an article detailing the plight of the Libertarian Party and one of its candidates, Ruth Bennett in the primary campaign this year.  It seems that Bennett and her party finds it unfair that the voters did an end-around to negate the assault on voter rights that Bennett’s Libertarian Party was a party to.  The Libertarian Party chair and Bennett said in the Times:

Libertarian Party officials, and others from the Green Party and the Progressive Party, say the new top-two primary system essentially has eliminated their chances of getting to the general election and discouraged many potential candidates from running.

"Everyone who was so eager to take that extra step [and run for office] had the opinion that we had been removed from that equation," said Scott Lindsley, chair of the Washington State Libertarian Party.

Because only two candidates from each primary race will go on to the general election, most third-party candidates will be shut out by Republican and Democratic candidates. With the old system, third-party candidates usually faced little competition from members of their own party in the primary before going on to the general election.

Ruth Bennett, running as a Libertarian for state representative in the 37th Legislative District, says she will be on the general-election ballot only because she’s in a two-person race with a Democratic incumbent.

"The challenge for minor parties is always to be relevant, and I-872 has made them irrelevant," Bennett said, referring to Initiative 872, which voters approved in 2004 to create the top-two primary system.

The Republicans and the Democrats are also complaining about Initiative 872.

Well, that is just two bad for these political parties.  They are now reaping what they sowed.  They took away the right of the people to vote in a truly democratic manner, and now they complain and whine about the alternative chosen by those self-same voters.  There is a movement in King County to make all county elected positions non-partisan.  Hopefully, this effort will succeed, and another voter initiative will drive the authoritarian political parties out the door.  The parties started this battle, and now the voters need to finish it.  The voters need to make every state office, from the governor to the legislature, legally and publicly non-partisan.

The fact that this is an election year, and both Shawn Bunney and Calvin Goings are running for the Pierce County Executive position, obviously plays a role in this vote, despite protestations from the Republicans that their "no" vote was on a procedural matter, and not related to the content of the proclamation.  Democrats on the council expressed shock at the vote, with some citing election year politics.

Calvin Goings, though, in a quote from the Tacoma News Tribune said, "This should be a wake-up call to all progressive Pierce County residents. There is still a bastion of intolerance in Pierce County.”  In other words, he is not saying that Shawn Bunney and company voted against this gay rights proclamation out of some strategy to gain conservative votes in November, but because they are bigoted against gays.

This is a serious charge, and if Goings is going to play the bigot card in his race against Shawn Bunney, then he should be prepared to show more evidence than this one vote. Politically, Bunney and his supporters cannot let this charge just sit out there.  If he does not respond, he risks being labeled.

The race for Pierce County Executive just got more interesting.  Stay tuned…

Councilman Calvin Goings (D)

Councilman Shawn Bunney (R)

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/408995.html

As of Sunday 2/10, 5:45 PM

Statewide Results 2008 Precinct Caucuses:

Number of Precincts Reporting =93.3 %

McCain =25.4 %

Huckabee =23.8 %

Paul =20.7 %

Romney (suspended campaign)=16.7 %

Other 1.0 %

Uncommitted 12.3 %

Source: Washington State Republican Party: Caucus Results

About half of the Republican delegates will be allocated through the caucus system. The rest are to be determined through the Feb. 19 primary election.

McCain had 3,468 votes for 26%

Huckabee had 3,226 votes for 24%

Ron Paul had 2,799 votes for 21%

**As of Sunday evening, Feb. 10, Huckabee is disputing the results of the Washington Republican Caucuses, claiming that the party, led by Luke Esser, called the race for McCain too soon. Legal action may follow.

Washington State Caucus Results (Democrat)

All of the Democrat’s Washington delegates were allocated through the caucus system. The primary election on Feb. 19 is essentially meaningless for Democrats in terms of delagate allocation.

Obama had 21,696 votes for 68%, which gives him 25 pledged delegates

Clinton had 9,992 votes for 31%, which gives her 12 pledged delegates

WAshington’s Precinct caucuses begin at 1 p.m on Saturday Feb. 9.

State Democratic Chairman Dwight Pelz urged people to call the party headquarters at 206-583-0664 for last-minute assistance finding caucus sites

The state Republican Party is also taking calls from people needing help finding their caucus. That number is 206-575-2900.

Democrats:

At Stake: 27 total delegates:
22 decided in the Jan. 8 primary, 5 "superdelegates"

Candidates in the January 8,
2008 New Hampshire Primary:

Senator
   Hillary Clinton--102, 486
   votes=39%–The winner—Number of Delegates from New
   Hampshire: 9
   
   

Senator
   Barack Obama–95, 263
   votes=37%–A very close second–Number of Delegates from
   New Hampshire: 9

   
   

Former Senator John
   Edwards–44,283=17%– A distant third place finish. He
   may do well in parts of the South, especially in South Carolina,
   and in strong union states, but at this point, his best hope is to
   end up with enough pledged delegates in the Democratic Convention
   to be a king or queen maker in the event Clinton and Obama finish
   in a virtual dead heat by summer-time.–Number of
   Delegates from New Hampshire: 4

   
   

Governor Bill Richardson–11,943
   votes=5%–Number of Delegates from New Hampshire:
   0

   
   

Representative
   Dennis Kucinich–3,538
   votes=1%–Number of Delegates from New Hampshire:
   0

   
   

 

Next Up: South Carolina Democratic Primary on
Jan. 26

Republicans:

At Stake: 12 total delegates:
All 12 decided in the Jan. 8 primary

Candidates in the January 8,
2008 New Hampshire Primary:

 
   
   

John McCain–81,005 votes=37%–The
   Winner–Number of Delegates from New Hampshire:
   7

   
   

Mitt Romney–69,132 votes=11%–Even
   though he took second place, as in Iowa, he was expected to do
   better in New Hampshire, which is literally in his neck of the
   woods, as Romney is a former governor of Massachusetts.–Number
   of Delegates from New Hampshire: 4

   
   

Mike Huckabee–24, 364 votes=9%–New
   Hampshire prides itself on ignoring the Iowa results, and the
   Evangelical base in N.H. is not comparable to that found in Iowa.
   Upcoming Southern States (The Bible Belt), may be good to
   Huckabee, perhaps at the expense of Romney.–Number of
   Delegates from New Hampshire: 1

   
   

Rudy
   Giuliani–18, 763 votes=9%–Did not
   run in New Hampshire. Giuliani is waiting for the Southern
   Primaries, where he has put most of his time, energy, resources,
   and his political future.–Number of Delegates from New
   Hampshire: 0

   
   

Ron Paul–16,655 votes=8%–Paul is still
   hanging in there, representing the true Libertarian and anti-Iraq
   War wing of the Republican Party.–Number of Delegates from New
   Hampshire: 0

   
   

Fred Thompson–2,628 votes=1%–Thompson
   did not look good in the last debate. This may be the beginning of
   the end for his latest co-starring role.–Number of Delegates
   from New Hampshire: 0

   
   

 

Next Up: South Carolina Republican Primary on
Jan. 19

Democrats:

Candidates in the January 3,
2008 Iowa Caucuses:

Senator
   Barack Obama–38%–The
   winner
   
   

Former Senator John Edwards–29%–Still
   alive as the campaign heads for New Hampshire

   
   

Senator
   Hillary Clinton–29%–Huge defeat for
   Hillary as she entered Iowa the clear front-runner, and is now in
   3rd place. She can still pick it up in New Hampshire and hopes the
   Clinton magic can transform her into a new "Comeback Kid," like
   another Clinton did sixteen years ago.

   
   

Governor Bill Richardson–2%

   
   

Senator Joseph Biden–1%

   
   

Uncommitted–Less than 1%

   
   

Senator Christopher Dodd–Less than
   1%

   
   

Former Senator Mike Gravel–Less than
   1%

   
   

Representative
   Dennis Kucinich–Less than
   1%

   
   

 

   
   

 

Republicans:

Candidates in the January 3,
2008 Iowa Caucuses:

 
   
   

Mike Huckabee–34%–The winner. Helped by
   the Evangelical turnout, and by Chuck Norris standing over his
   shoulder.

   
   

Mitt Romney–25%–Even though he took second
   place, he far outspent Huckabee, and losing by nine percentage
   points represents a big fall. May do better in New
   Hampshire.

   
   

Fred Thompson–13%–Not bad considering he
   entered the race late.

   
   

John McCain–13%–Not a bad considering he did
   not really run in Iowa and devoted his resources to New Hampshire.
   Must win next week in the Granite State to survive.

   
   

Ron Paul–10%–May do well in
   libertarian-minded New Hampshire.

   
   

Rudy
   Giuliani–4%–Did not run in Iowa.
   Competing in Iowa and then losing badly would have hurt him more
   than not competing

   
   

Duncan Hunter–1%–Irrelevant before, much more
   irrelevant now.

   
   

Tom Tancredo–Dropped out of the race on
   October 28, 2007. He endorsed Mitt Romney

   
   

 

Whether or not Craig is really gay or not is probably not provable beyond a shadow of a doubt, but it is clear that he did plead guilty to a public disturbance charge in Minnesota for allegedly seeking gay sex from an undercover police officer in an airport men’s room. Both nationally and in the Pacific Northwest, the Republican Party has suffered from several gay sex scandals recently.

Florida Republican Mark Foley resigned in 2006 after questionable communications with Congressional pages. Though he denied any illegal actions, (and none of his actions were proven illegal), Foley admitted he was gay and resigned from Congress.

In Washington, conservative Republican Jim West lost his Mayoral position in Spokane after a recall election in 2006. This recall followed his outing by the Spokesman-Review and details of how West offered internships to young men in exchange for sexual favors. Allegations also arose over possible sexual abuse of minor from his time as an elected Sheriff in the 1970s.

In 2007, conservative Republican State Representative from the 18th District, Richard Curtis, resigned after an incident where he admitted having sex with a man he met at a Spokane adult bookstore.

In each of these incidents, plus the ongoing Craig issue, the leadership of the Republican Party, whether at the state or federal levels, essentially casts the alleged sexual offender out to the wolves when gay sex is the basis of the scandal in question. Even Trent Lott, whose only public sin was to speak perhaps too honestly in public about how he truly would like America to look like, feels that the Republican Party is too quick to cast out its own to avoid the embarrassment of prolonged scandals.

So, what does all of this mean? To GOP officeholders, it means that you better not screw up in public, or your party leaders will offer to open the exit door for you. For the voting public, this means that the Republican Party is very skittish about any attempt to broaden the coverage of its "Big Tent," (which by the way is a term used by former Vice-Presidential candidate Jack Kemp, who himself was subtly smeared with claims of a non-hetero sex scandal–never proven) to try to pull away some of the diverse groups that make up the chaotic Democratic coalition. There are plenty of gays, blacks, Jews, Hispanics, and other groups who firmly believe in the GOP’s core values–fiscal conservatism, strong law-and-order, pro-life, gun rights, and strong national defense–who are otherwise turned off by the party’s straight, white, Evangelical, native-born appearance and attitude.

To become the true majority party, the GOP must learn to include a majority of voters, gay, straight, or otherwise.