Washington state megathread

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Word on the street is that the Chairman of the Pierce County Republican Party is about to become Deputy Auditor.

gag

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Voting has begun in the King County Elections Director race. If you're a person of faith, prayers for a non-Pam Roach outcome would be appreciated.

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Summary of Sam Reed's top-two reform:

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Sounds good to me.

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I'm pretty sure she'll win, but then again I thought Dale Washam would get something like 10% of the vote down here. Non-partisan races in this state can get a little weird.

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I'd be surprised if Brown runs... she's Queen of the Senate for the foreseeable future.

Two bits:

Larry Phillips (D) has announced his intention to run for King County Executive this fall (or should Sims take an Administration job sometime soon as is rumored). It's not 100% clear whether or not Phillips will stay in the race should Sims run again, but considering their less than warm past relationship I would be surprised if Phillips dropped out.

Also, turnout for the Director of Elections race is at 10.6% thus far. I have no idea what equivalent turnout is for any other election as King County doesn't post that, but there you have it.

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http://your.kingcounty.gov/elections/abstats/

I knew it was low, but is it lower than one would suspect for a special election in the early part of an off-year?

And major LOL @ Roachie. The King County GOP is refusing to phonebank for her (they're just all excited about David Irons and his 18%!)

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I envision it going down something like this:

Huff: 40%
Irons: 25%
Assorted crazies: 20%
Roach: 15%

I might be overestimating crazy potential...

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Did Toby Nixon endorse Kempf? My opinion of him would drop rather significantly if so.

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Turnout is going to be <30% at this rate...

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I was just toying around with the elections archives on Sam Reed's website and noticed something odd. Chris Hurst (D), the current member from the 31st District, Position 2, was elected to the Legislature in 2006. Prior to that he had been elected to the Legislature in 1998 and 2000, each time receiving about 55% of the vote. He also narrowly lost a race in 1996 to the man he beat in 1998.

Then in 2002, Jan Shabro (R) (past County Councilmember and current County Auditor) ran for his seat. She was unopposed in both the primary and the general.

So not only did Shabro win an open seat without any challengers, the Republicans picked-up an open seat without any Democratic challengers. Does anybody remember anything about the circumstances here? It just seems so incredibly bizarre.

[Meeker]

News Tribune, October 2002:

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So we just sucked really hard. How pathetic.

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Eh, you could be right. My understanding of the Pierce County Democratic Party at that time though is that it probably wasn't big enough for internal struggles... it was pretty terrible. I really wouldn't be surprised if we couldn't find someone willing to cough up the $400 filing fee.

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It's the same boundaries it has right now - were you just referring to the power base being more in King County?

The other weird thing is that the Tribune always went to Berendt for quotes in other articles about the race - never Jean Brooks (who was Pierce County Chair at the time) nor whomever was running the KC Dems at the time. Not only is it weird that the Tribune would think to go to the state party chair for a quote (they'd always go to Lawver these days), but stranger is that the State Party actually cared about a State Legislative race. These days they basically pretend as if they don't exist. Maybe it was a bigger priority back then because of the closeness of the balance of power.

But way before my time as well. Lots of different ways to speculate.

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It's official: Sims is leaving.

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Sanity prevails. Turnout was pathetically terrible though.

Fall City will probably have a parks district (59.3%)

Definitely the highlight of my evening.

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This is easily the most interesting thing to happen this evening:

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No dice: http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics/2009/02/04/smith_isn_t_getting_obama_job_so_the_gam

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Turnout up to a wonderful 22%. I never would've thought it could go this low with Vote-by-Mail. Anyways, I think the initial abstract is going to be posted on Friday.

There's a bill being heard in the House State Government Committee tomorrow that requires ballots to be received by 8 PM on Election Day. I suspect it's going to pass.

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I take that back about the absentee ballot bill - the County Auditor's Association came out against it today. Basically it's just Sam Reed and a few House Democrats in favor.

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Yea, they basically just want to be able to count quicker. It would be nice but I don't particularly see a reason why it's necessary (especially when the trade-off is limiting even slightly the amount of people involved in the process).

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Yea, they basically just want to be able to count quicker. It would be nice but I don't particularly see a reason why it's necessary (especially when the trade-off is limiting even slightly the amount of people involved in the process).

Would I be a total prick if I pointed out that a lot of the affected ballots (percentage-wise) would be military, and proportionately more Republican in general?

I'm sure that's not the only thing going on, but the Democrats should drop dumb crap like this.  It's bad for p.r.

Well Sam Reed was the one who originally proposed it, so I think the Democrats have a pretty good counter if they're accused of something like that.

They also warmly received the Internet voting bill today, something which would bring more military voters than before. Only Osgood and his crowd opposed that.

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I learned today that there's a State Representative from East Wenatchee who is a fervent Ron Paul supporter.

A little frightening that those types actually hold public office...

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That's a little... odd.

While there's very little in terms of elections going on till August (although I for one am closely watching the Vashon Island School Levy. Will they build a new track? Find out March 10th!), the Legislature is amusing enough until April. After that we're in real trouble.

The King County Executive race may be interesting. Maybe.

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State Rep. Ross Hunter, a smart and ambitious SOB, may enter the race as well. He'd be a major force as well.

As for the Republicans... I don't really know. There are certain people who would be good to get (Toby Nixon, Lambert or Dunn come to mind). I'd be rather surprised if Rossi was interested at all. It may go to Irons by default (if he wants it).

Then again, Pam Roach has been looking for a county job for decades....

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The Walla Walla sweet onion was selected after fourth graders came and lobbied the State Legislature for it. The potato lobby killed it at first but then came around. It's a precious story of young kids learning about the legislative process and special interests coming around and supporting something contrary to their interests for the good of the state.

So why you hating, f*ggot?