Washington 2020: The Calm Before the Drizzle

[MAPZZ]

Unfortunately, The Stranger continues to have an absurd amount of sway in Seattle.  They probably have the most power-relative-to-quality ratio of any publication in the United States.

They have a firm grip on 95% of the 18-35 population here as well as all the aging socialists, potheads and creative types.  Your only alternative is the Seattle Times, which requires you to take life seriously, or a ragtag collection of right-leaning outlets that nobody really takes seriously except for the small Republican pockets in Magnolia and Madison.

And what they do with that grip is simply endorse the most extreme candidate in every race and let a bunch of stoners who never went to J-school write Buzzfeed-style endorsement blurbs.  It's incredibly immature but that's how politics is done in this city.

The Stranger is a rag for 25-50 something urban libs, but goddamn do you just bleed mad boomer energy. Take the stick out of your ass and play fetch with it.

[MAPZZ]

On topic: I'm filling out my ballot right now and I'm very tempted to throw a strategic vote to either Tim Eyman or Loren Culp to make for the biggest blue wave possible.

[MAPZZ]

The Stranger is very cringeworthy and condescending, but saying that it sways 95% of young people here is an absurd exaggeration. Pretty much no one in my social group thinks it’s a quality news source. And let’s not heap praise on the Seattle Times, either.

Anyway, my anecdotal take is that Culp is the most likely to make it to the top two. I’ve seen pretty much exclusively signs for him in the more Republican areas I’ve passed through, with maybe a sign or two for Fortunato, and nothing for Eyman. It doesn’t make much difference, since Inslee is safe, though.

You've seen Fortunato signs? Where? I've seen Culp signs everywhere and Freed signs in more urban areas where Culp has less appeal, and a handfull of Garcia and Eyman signs, but nothing else.

[MAPZZ]

Surprised at Inslee's big numbers in Island, Skagit, and Clallam counties and his relatively weak numbers in Pierce.

[MAPZZ]

For the Washington posters, who are you hoping to win, Liias or Heck?

Heck has stated that in the event Inslee is appointed to the Biden cabinet and the Lt. Gov steps in, he will act as a seat-filler and not run for re-election. Liiaas has good policy positions, but IMO he's not a very good politician and would probably be a very meh governor, possibly even risking a loss to some future Republican candidate.

So I think I'm going to vote Heck. He'll be a fine and competent governor for a few years, and then we'll have an open seat primary. Possibly one where candidates I can actually get excited for (Like Public Lands commissioner Hillary Franz or AG Bob Ferguson) are on the ballot.

[MAPZZ]

There's absolutely no way this will end well, and I see pretty much nobody on either side of the Democrat-leftist divide really caring about it except for the very local politicians with no power to actually enact anything.

It's all part of this grand scheme to try to get people to commute by bike, I'm sure. Of course, nobody realizes that Magnolia is surrounded by incredibly steep hills on every side and nobody is going to want their commute home to end with a strenuous workout.

FWIW, I live in Capitol Hill and I care about you guys.  I love walking around Magnolia and looking at all the beautiful houses and old trees and big flowery gardens.  Are y'all still dealing with a rat infestation or did you get that worked out?

As far as I know, it's been fixed. We never really had that many rats in our area and I was kind of surprised to see those headlines at the time. The main pest on my block has always been ants. Also, I had no idea you lived in core Sawantist territory. Kind of explains some of your political views, I suppose.

My political views have been consistent for years.  I have a special vitriol for Sawant because she and her acolytes directly affect my life in so many ways.  Local politics is always much more impactful.  Trump isn't setting up junkie encampments in Miller Park.

The idea that political movements I identify with and the votes they cast make your day-to-day life worse and have made you the red-in-the-face angry NIMBY WASP you are today, fills me with so much glee.

[MAPZZ]

I think I discovered the culprit. At 53%, this year’s primary turnout is far and away the highest ever. It looks like everyone participated at a higher rate, with Rs benefiting.
It was 41% in 2018 and 35% in 2016. If you take 2016’s GE turnout of 78.8% and apply it to the current number of registered voters, you get 3.6 million votes. So we can expect roughly another 1.2 million votes to manifest in the 2020 GE.

It seems that would especially hurt in places like southwest WA where lots of Republican voters are young, uneducated, and not particularly likely to show up for midterms whereas a lot of Democrats there are old retired union-types that are dying out but still vote consistently in midterms.