Washington 2020: The Calm Before the Drizzle

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Some one has this in their sig;



How dreadfully, awfully 1950's can you get... I mean... urgh...

Torie has it in his signature.

I don't get what's 1950s about it. Is it the name "Dino" in handwriting? Maybe because he's sitting at a diner counter...? Other than that, I don't see it.

Al is just one of many that fears the power of Dino. 

I think it's the Mr. Rogers haircut.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Nowhere else in the world, outside of the state itself, are people so obsessed with Washington politics.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Burner has conceded, apparently. Maybe she should try the state legislature next time.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

I posted a link to your presidential spreadsheet over at SSP; they seem to like it.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

State legislators can also hold a local office in Washington? I didn't think that kind of double-dipping was allowed outside of New Jersey.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Gee, I can't believe I'm on top of the Krist Novoselic story before you guys. He's dropped out:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/former_nirvana_bassist_now_for.html

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Woohoo! This was a nice surprise. I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE Nickels.

Good riddance you worthless sack of crap.

What did he do, outlaw strip clubs or ban emo concerts?

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Why has Brad Owen been the Lt. Governor for so long?

[JohnnyLongtorso]

So Washington has another waste of a Lt. Gov. office like Minnesota. There's a small movement in the Minn. legislature to abolish the Lt. Gov. option and let the Sec of State be next in succession but for some reason no one seems to want to get behind it. This is despite the current Lt. Gov. being basically the most unpopular political figure in state besides Michele Bachmann possibly (in a nutshell she was also Sec of Transportation due to Lt. Gov. being a nothing job, and became the scapegoat for the bridge collapse. The Senate thus refused to reapprove her as Sec of Transportation.)

How many states have a Lt. Governor with any duties? The only ones I can think of are Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah, where the Lt. Governor basically does the job of the Secretary of State.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Wow, that's funny, I was just thinking McKenna would probably be one of the few Republican AGs that wouldn't jump on that bandwagon, since he wants to be Governor.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Dem field in WA-03 is down to three:

http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/mar/25/independent-rodriguez-salazar-withdraws-from-3rd-d/

So I take it with the top-two primary system, there's a lot of pressure to keep the number of legitimate party candidates down to two now (so there's the guarantee that at least one of them will move on to the general)?

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Heck seems to have outraised the entire field combined. Some of it's self-funding, but that's still pretty impressive.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Heck seems to have outraised the entire field combined. Some of it's self-funding, but that's still pretty impressive.

With the entire Washington State Democratic establishment behind him I'd be kind of surprised if he hadn't raised that kind of money.

I visited their campaign offices a while ago and they were humming, with everything geared towards fund raising. Has he released 1st quarter fund raising numbers yet?

FEC says Heck raised $204k, loaned himself $150k, and has $532k on hand.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Rep. Chris Hurst (D-31st District) is going to run for re-election with the party label "Independent Democrat" and says others may do the same.

Hopefully he and any others who do this will also be "independent" of any financial support from the party committees.

Didn't the state Democratic party cause a stink in 2008 because candidates were listing themselves as under the "Democrat Party"?

[JohnnyLongtorso]

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/smartpolitics/2010/04/still_thinking_about_running_f.php

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The exception, of course, is the last-minute Frank Lautenberg switch.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

It sure didn't seem like his campaign was going anywhere, so I doubt it would have created either situation.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

The WA-07 poll is especially hilarious. Apparently Republicans are on par with Democrats there now, and despite the fact that no Republican filed, McDermott is only at 24%.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Fundraising in WA-03

Heck: $280k raised + $100k of his own, $800k+ CoH
Herrera: $180k raised, $200k CoH
Castillo: $75k raised, unknown CoH

DelBene raised $378k and has a little more than $1 million CoH. No word on Reichert as far as I've heard.

The Senate numbers are all over the news if one is curious about those.

How in the heck (pun very intended) is Herrera supposed to have a chance against Heck in November? He's outraised her like 3-1 so far.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Clint Didier wants the death panels to decide if grandma can live or not!

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Running against earmarks in a state that depends heavily on federal money (hello, Boeing) seems like a bad idea to me.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Jamie Pedersen is adorable. Pocket gay.

I just saw the names of his kids. Yikes.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Here are the final House totals by party, so you're not (as) confused:

WA-01 - 55.85 D, 39.31 R, 4.25 I
WA-02 - 52.54 D, 47.46 R
WA-03 - 53.62 R, 42.57 D, 3.82 I
WA-04 - 65.27 R, 22.52 D, 6.96 "Tea", 3.03 C, 2.22 I
WA-05 - 62.53 R, 31.2 D, 6.26 C
WA-06 - 56.63 D, 43.37 R
WA-07 - 90.02 D, 9.98 I
WA-08 - 58.19 R, 39.55 D, 2.25 I
WA-09 - 51.24 D, 45.42 R, 3.34 G

[JohnnyLongtorso]

I said a long time ago that Dino attacking Murray's earmarks was a stupid move for a state that depended on them.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

The 31st District isn't allowed to elect people to the State Legislature anymore.

http://www.seattlepi.com/opinion/427127_AWFULCHOICE.html

[JohnnyLongtorso]

The SOS is predicting turnout of 66%, or about 2.4 million voters. Highest midterm participation since 1970, apparently.