Reader HW3 sends in this report on the races in Washington:
I live in the newly expanded 1st Congressional District, a formerly safe progressive district, where Rep. Jay Inslee served for years. It now reaches from the Microsoft suburbs and gobbled up the second district to the Canadian border. There’s quite the field running for this seat, but my favorite is Darcy Burner who ran against the conservative Dave Reichert in the 8th District before (gerrymandering) redistricting.
Additionally, Norm Dicks (D) of the 6th District is retiring and the candidates are scrambling to file.
In the Governor race is Jay Inslee, who quit his congressional seat to campaign full-time and Washington’s current Attorney General and good Koch minion Rob McKenna, who’s claim to fame is putting blue Washington State on the federal suit against the health insurance law.
It’s going to be an interesting summer.
This is Darcy Burner’s third run at Congress.
Also, too: In the comments on yesterday’s race thread, JasonF gave a good overview of the IL-10 primary. For those of you wondering, Schneider won last night.
Baud
I recall Darcy from my days at kos, where she was one of their favorites. Seems like a great person, but she did lose twice. If she gets the nod in the primary, I hope the new district is more amenable to electing her in the general.
Hal
There’s probably a truck load of politicians who ran multiple times before winning, but losing twice in a row does not portend well for her chances.
cmorenc
@Hal:
There was some hack perennial candidate down in Illinois who lost a couple of tries running for Congress and a ran unsuccessfully for Senate too. He was noted for being even more long-winded a speaker than Newt Gingrich. Think the guy’s name was Lincoln; never amounted to much but a hack corporate lawyer. BTW: he did eventually win a single term in the US House.
amused
The Repub John Koster must have big backers, though. He’s got huge billboards every 5 miles along the highway all the way to the border, plus on every stretch of side road in between. I didn’t even know Darcy was running. Mckenna’s popping up in ads everywhere I go on the computer. Hopefully, the money’s wasted, but you never can tell here in WA.
lol
Burner got killed in east Pierce county both times which cost her the race both times – none of Pierce is in this new district. It’s sort of an amalgam of some parts of the old 8th that she won handily both times before (northern Eastside burbs) and the rural parts of the old 2nd which were the toughest parts for Larsen (D) to hold.
So different district, different challenges.
MikeJ
Laura Ruderman from the 45th LD has $187,000 cash on hand to run for WA-1, which is $100k more than Darcy. I like Darcy, but Ruderman looks acceptable and perhaps more skilled at politics.
She represented a very swingy district in the lege, and at the same time she has an endorsement for a former NARAL director on her web site.
Steve Hobbs from the 44th also looks like a serious candidate, but I’d lean towards Ruderman right now.
moe99
Inslee is going to lose. Washington voters like to split their votes and most see McKenna as a middle of the road Republican despite his lawsuit against the HCA which I deplore as the worst sort of political whoring (he’s a smarter attorney than that). But he’s always in the news with big Consumer Protection lawsuits and settlements and Inslee is nowhere to be found doing good works of any kind. He’s off the radar in WA and I don’t think he’ll be able to make up his deficit by November.
Mr Stagger Lee
I live Norm Dicks’ district, even though it is positive Dem site. I think it may go to a Republican, after all Dicks was Military Industrial Complex guy and the district is home to JBLM which is Ft.Lewis and McChord AFB as well as Puget Sound Naval Station, plus Bangor Sub Base. And there are many retired militay here. As long as the wingnut doesn’t touch military retiree benefits, GOP guy wins. As for the Democrat, Daily Kos Readers Need Not Apply, you better be Pro military or adios muchacho.
merl
I won’t be voting for McKenna
MikeJ
@Mr Stagger Lee: JBLM is in the 6th? I would have sworn it was in the 8th.
JGabriel
@Hal:
Both races were pretty close, and Darcy is in a heavily redrawn district this year. I wouldn’t count her out yet. I’m rooting for her.
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JGabriel
@Mr Stagger Lee:
Kos is ex-military, and most DKos readers, as well as most Democrats, are pro-military. I take exception to the cliche that progressives and Democrats are anti-military. We’re just not pro-war unless absolutely necessary, as war tends to lead to death and disabilities in our soldiers, which we’d like to spare them to the utmost extent possible.
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HW3
To make matters more interesting, Washington is doing the first top two primary this August…
http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/osos/en/Pages/Top2PrimaryFAQ.aspx
Slownomad
McKenna could easily win, unfortunately. And Inslee, so far, has run a truly lackluster campaign. I see him popping up at pancake breakfasts and small parades all over Western Washington, but that’s about it. And he releases small statements about big news that happens and no one picks up on it. His campaign, so far, has been horrible, frankly. And that sucks because McKenna sucks. I don’t feel good about Inslee’s chances at all.
I’m in the new 1st District and Darcy Burner is not the only Dem running. There’s also Suzan Del Bene who also ran for Reichert’s seat in the 8th after Darcy’s 2 tries. Suzan came a bit closer than Darcy. I’m pretty familiar with both of them owing to their and my Microsoft ties. I’ll be supporting Suzan Del Bene in the primaries anyway. I think she has a much better chance here than Darcy. I think her netroots celebrity will actually work against her in this district. It is now, supposedly, one of the most perfectly balanced districts in the nation. Bright blue down in my section and bright red further up towards the Canadian border. It’ll be interesting.
Greg
I’m in Washington’s 7th (Yay Ballard!), which continues to be a safe Dem seat for Jim McDermott. Not a whole lot to report here.
Like some of the other Washingtonians have mentioned, I’m worried about Inslee. Our governor races tend to be extremely close, and McKenna has a lot more visibility right now.
dollared
@Slownomad: I’m a big Suzan del Bene fan – will fund raise for her, etc. Too bad that there are three good candidates -but Laura Ruderman will keep her seat, and Darcy Burner, well, she can keep trying.
Slownomad
@dollared: Yay! I was wondering if I were the only Suzan Del Bene fan. I’ve seen some comments against her over at Daily Kos that made her sound like some kind of stealth Republican. I don’t see that at all. Her positions aren’t all that different from Darcy’s. I think it’s just the “darling of the Netroots” thing, which, in my opinion, isn’t worth a warm bucket of spit outside of the Netroots. She just doesn’t feel to me like someone who’s more interested in the 1st District than she is in moving to Washington, DC. I think Suzan is more dedicated to the district. And, yeah, there are a bunch of good to decent Dems in the running for the seat. Koster has a lot of support in the Northern part of the district, though, and his signs are already up all over my neighborhood. Koster makes McKenna look like a RINO, and I don’t believe McKenna is any kind of RINO.
Lol
Not going to lie: Ruderman’s a psycho. She abrasive in person, abusive to staff and there’s a gold mine of oppo material from her state leg days.