Washington state megathread

[RI]

The WA GOP foolishly endorsed Joe Kent yesterday. Congrats to MGP.

[RI]

D1:  Lisa Herbold is not running again, she was part of the progressive bloc on the council but will likely be replaced by a moderate.  The three candidates who've raised the most money are:
Rob Saka, who has really ambiguous positions on everything and refuses to leave his "middle ground", may also secretly be Bruce Harrell's personal recruit in the race.
Preston Anderson, whom The Stranger absolutely hates in their classic super-immature fashion, so probably a moderate?
Stephen Brown, founder of Eltana Bagels, also fairly moderate.

Rob Saka made it through with 24% but the primary winner was Maren Costa, who got 33%.  Maren is a pretty generic progressive urbanist.  Phil Tavel, a more conservative candidate who was Herbold's opponent in 2019, got 20%, so the big question is where his supporters will go.  If Saka skews more moderate he probably picks them up and gets to 44%.  I'd say that's more likely than Costa getting them, so I'd label Saka the favorite despite his lower numbers.

All of Costa and Saka's primary opponents issued a joint endorsement of Costa.

[RI]

[RI]

Bad news for MacArthur:

Still, when asked whether they were more likely to support a progressive or centrist candidate, 49% of all respondents said they want a progressive versus 37% who want to vote for a centrist and 14% who had no opinion.

[RI]

JHB is running for Commissioner of Public Lands. Crowded field so far: 5 D's and 2 R's now.

[RI]

https://twitter.com/nwprogressive/status/1720854531091878204

[RI]

Derek Kilmer announces he won't run for re-election in WA-06. Rumor is that Hilary Franz may drop out of the Governor's race to run for his seat.

[RI]

RI, turns out your opponent in the election was another atlas user (who has like a dozen posts, but I found out just now)

won't say who in case they want to remain anonymous, but I think that's a first.

Yes, he and I have talked about it IRL. We'll be making a post on it in the coming days.

[RI]

Lots of drama at the GOP state convention. The candidate vetting committee disqualified Semi Bird from being endorsed due to "not being forthcoming" about his criminal history. Reichert then withdrew from consideration as well.

Now, the delegates have overruled the vetting committee by floor vote and have declared Bird eligible again.

EDIT: The WAGOP endorsed Bird over Reichert for Governor and Pederson over JHB for Lands Comm.

[RI]

A myriad of moronic endorsements out of the Republican convention. Choosing the not-so-secretly racist Kuehl Pederson over JHB was just the tip of the iceberg. Republicans torpedoed the one OSPI candidate who could've won, Chad Magendanz, who has now dropped out entirely, in favor of anti-mask anti-CRT crusader David Olson, punting an important (nonpartisan!) position that could've been won.

For SoS, there weren't any great candidates, but the convention took down the only candidate with elected experience for... this guy, a man with zero relevant experience at all, but likes to talk about "election integrity" a whole lot. Again, his endorsement meant the other candidates dropped out of the race entirely.

Once again, the GOP went to war with Dan Newhouse, choosing Trump-endorsed NASCAR driver Jerrod Sessler instead by acclamation.

And in the 5th CD, the convention passed over both Rep. Jacquelyn Maycumber (who would be great) and Michael Baumgartner, who would be decent, for Trump admin official Brian Dansel from tiny Ferry County (home of Loren Culp). While he's not the worst, there are clearly candidates superior to him in the race better able to live up to Cathy McMorris Rodger's mantle.

[RI]

WA Dems are requiring a $1 million "buy-in" paid to the party from any gubernatorial candidate who wants to be endorsed or advertised by the party.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24612100-2024-coordinated-campaign-prospectus-sen-mullet

[RI]

Probably pretty good. I'm more interested in the CGT reversal vote myself.

I agree. The long-term care tax is definitely going to lose, the cap-and-trade system is more likely than not going to be repealed, and the capital gains tax is a toss-up which I'd handicap slightly more likely than not to be kept.

[RI]

Former Bothell City Councilmember (defeated in 2023) James McNeal was arrested for homicide after being found with a dead 20-year-old girl in a house in Seattle.

[RI]

Tiffany Smiley is primarying Dan Newhouse

[RI]

Apparently Mark Mullet is considering dropping down from the Governor's race to the Insurance Commissioner's race depending on the outcome of their current poll. Filing deadline is Friday.

[RI]

A humorous but also potentially impactful wrinkle thrown into the Governor's race: three different Democrats filed to run by the name Bob Ferguson. It's unclear if there will be any way to identify who is who using only the ballot.

[RI]

Thankfully the Lynnwood Times found this WAC "According to WAC 434-215-060: Whenever, in the judgment of the filing officer, two or more candidates have filed for the same office whose names are so similar as to be confusing to voters, he or she shall differentiate between the candidates by the inclusion of additional information in connection with the name as it appears on the ballot. Such differentiation may be made by the inclusion of the candidate's occupation, status as incumbent or challenger, or by any other means which, in the judgment of the filing officer, fairly and impartially distinguishes the candidates. The filing officer may solicit suggestions and input from the candidates involved in order to resolve the situation."

I just saw that tweet as well. I'm curious which one Hobbs goes for. I'd think middle initial would be most fair to the other candidates, although I have no idea what the other two have for initials. Putting something like "AG Bob Ferguson" or "Attorney General Bob Ferguson" would seem to be tipping the scales a bit, but maybe "Bob Ferguson, Attorney" might work.