Jane Hague is handily beating Richard Pope; downing the challenger like whiskey shots at closing time. Even with news of the incumbent's run-in with the law harped on ad nauseam in the press and online, the results should hardly be surprising. Expecting Pope to win any election is sort of like rooting for the Washington Generals or hoping that Messala will beat Ben-Hur in a chariot race. Come on, it's bound to happen. He's due!
As of this writing, Hague has 56 percent of the vote, trouncing Pope's 41 percent. Of note in 2006, Pope received 43.68 percent in his District Court race.
With the stellar quality of both candidates I was expecting a higher write-in vote total: the numbers are 701 or just 2.65 percent. It will be curious to see the final vote tallies to see how many people left that portion of the ballot blank.
In a way I am somewhat sad that Pope lost. Again. You can tell the tears are flowing...
What was completely mishandled in his campaign, and should have been emphasized, is the pure entertainment value the electorate would have been treated to watching Larry Gossett, Dow Constantine, et al, deal with Pope's shenanigans during a meeting.
Having Pope on the County Council would have been like driving past a fiery crash on I-5 involving a semi-truck full of live chickens and two vans of circus midgets. The results would be tragic but oddly entertaining. As the rest of the state can attest, King County deserves four years of Richard Pope.
This was a race that makes me glad that I am not registered to vote in KC District 6. Were it not for Hague's dalliance with Demon Rum, no one would have given a dingo's kidney about the race or its results. To top things off the actions of Team Donkey these past couple months have made the race more bizarre than even your typical Pope-at-the-Polls-Performance.
First off; why would any self respecting Democrat even vote for the guy? Everyone knows Pope is not a Republican. But we're supposed to believe the Democrat Party's tent is big enough to include somebody who sues Costco over whether a five gallon bucket of survival rations will last a person one month or three? Kind of sad what the Party of Truman has fallen to.
The reason, of course, was that Democrats and journalists, who should have known better, were hitting the political crack-pipe. If Pope were elected, so the reasoning went, his anticipated antics in office would lead to a recall, thus paving the way for a more acceptable Democrat to be appointed. Instead of just running an acceptable write-in candidate in the general election - with an easily spelled name - who would have won in a three-way race.
If I were a Democratic foot soldier I would be wroth with the county party's candidate recruitment efforts and demanding heads to roll. It is inexcusable to be outmaneuvered not once but twice in the primary selection process by a dumpster diving attorney. The Democrats couldn't even find a sacrificial candidate - party activist, PCO, KC Young Democrat, etc - to put their name on the primary ballot. They couldn't mobilize an effective a write-in campaign. And the party didn't mount a legal campaign afterwards.
As vulnerable as Hague was - and yes she was beatable even before news of her DUI mysteriously leaked out - it is inexplicable why the Democrats didn't make more of an effort to win an election which would have literally given them total control of the county council (6-3 instead of 5-4) for a decade.
The Republicans have now been given a respite where they can focus on figuring out a way to unseat Bob Ferguson in District 1.
TB: I was considering using "bus" instead of "van" but I digressed because it would have been too insensitive...
Don Ward
All of the Progressive arguments rest on emotion and class incitement. As soon as the voters look at the meat of their ideas and see the fiscal irresponsibility, the racism, the socialism, etc. they are obviously going to reject such far left thinking.
Posted by: Jeff B. on November 7, 2007 09:13 AMPope get a hint, you just can't win!
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on November 7, 2007 09:20 AMI think you meant Democrat. Is this another "copy-editing" error? Do you ever read this stuff before you post?
Funny Fred. Nope. I meant Republican. Pope is yours if you want him. And no, I try not to read the wretched stuff I write thus allowing intellectual giants such as yourself opportunities to point out my numerous literary and factual flaws...
DW
Posted by: Fred on November 7, 2007 09:50 AMHinton, you are teetotaler? Ever have too much to drink? Ever? Otherwise, ....
Posted by: swatter on November 7, 2007 10:05 AMYes, Hague got caught drinking, but it just takes a few minutes of listening to Pope to realize he's gotta be smoking crack.
I hear the guy wanted to make him self sound a little more manly and maybe attract some pro-military vote so he came up with a tough sounding nickname - "NinCom."
Everyone agreed it fits. (Think about it.)
It is very clear that that beating up on Richard Pope is so popular at Sound that reality need play no part and that the practice is, in no small measure, the result of Sound Politics' strange defacto alliance with the Republican Left. Come on, guys, just because they favor abortion and gay rights doesn't mean they're libertarians. Pope has been a thorn in the side of GOP liberals, like Hague, for more than a decade, but has, I think, proven he is superior to the King County Republican Party in the area where he is most attacked:
Viability.
Pope has, on numerous occasions, racked up more than 40% of the vote in relatively major races and done so without spending any money. Contrast his numbers, in King County, with those of Mike McGavick, for instance. Then look at the spending!
The King County Republican Party, by contrast, is currently losing close to 70% of the its races and, seemingly as a direct result, has named itself "THE WINNING TEAM." The Young/Sotelo administration is now offering the problem as the solution: "We need to run liberals."
But Steve Beren is right and Young/Sotelo is wrong. We need to stand on principle, collect supporters because they believe in Republican ideas, and begin the long process of changing minds. We can't do that when our leaders agree, in principle, with the Democrat Party.
There are two reasons this race was a fool's mission for Pope and why, had I had anything to do with his race, I would have tried to persuade him to abandon it.
1. The Democrat Base has no reason to support Pope since Hague is, philosophically, a Democrat and they are not inclined to move the Council to the right.
2. The Democrat Leadership has no reason to support Pope since they agreed, in the back-room deals of 2005, to leave this seat in [liberal] Republican hands (in return for, among other things, getting a similar hands-off agreement for marxist Larry Gossett).
That Pope could break the 40% barrier, even while being opposed by both Major Parties and spending almost nothing, proves that his political savvy is the antithesis of the image constructed for him, here, by left-wing Republicans like Young and scatological dufflepuds like "Ben Franklin."
Pope has run many times, it is true, sometimes at the direct request of the GOP that now vilifies him, but he has never been supported. Never.
There are only a few candidates that come to the game with the ability to overcome that lack of support by their own Party's hierarchy and actually win an office. Bob Williams, Reed Davis and Linda Smith all proved that you can be charismatic, brilliant and hard-working and still, ultimately, fail working against the interest of the Republican Liberal Hierarchy.
In order to win in Washington State a conservative needs to be one of two things:
1. someone who has spent years courting the Party's far left leadership as Dino has done, OR 2. be independently famous with access to non-Party money like Ronald Reagan or Susan Hutchison.
Pope has now proved that you can't beat a Republican In Name Only by just becoming a Democrat In Name Only.
Posted by: Doug Parris on November 7, 2007 10:25 AM
What's wrong with you? Does it really make feel
better to say crap like that? Please stop talking
about Susan Hutchison in such a derogatory way.
You have no idea what kind of a relationship I
have with Susan. The fact is Susan is the older sister
I never had. She has given me sound advice on
many things.Unlike a lot of people I don't ask
her to do anything. I'm a phone call away if she
ever needs help with anything and she knows that.
What's unfortunate is there people like yourself
who because of her name have taken her for granted and taken advantage of her for far to long. I for one will not ever do that. In my
opinion Susan deserves better then that.
You are right this story is about the pope/hague
race. I am sorry for what has transpired but
I couldn't let what was said about Susan go
unchallenged.
I trust it was Griswoldian in its scurrility.
Eventually it might provide enough material for a vanity publication the KCGOP could use to to stoke the fires at one of their conservative candidate literature-burning parties.
Posted by: Doug Parris on November 7, 2007 04:13 PM" 2. The Democrat Leadership has no reason to support Pope since they agreed, in the back-room deals of 2005, to leave this seat in [liberal] Republican hands (in return for, among other things, getting a similar hands-off agreement for marxist Larry Gossett). "
Of interest, the person responsible for the 'gentlemen's agreement' between the liberal leadership of the King County Republican and Democrat Parties, the " hands-off agreement " that traded away republican candidates and voters rights to a fair and open election in return for control of Eastside districts by the liberal Republican Party leadership, was, it is my understanding ( I was not at the meeting and am relying on a first-hand account relayed to me. ), Skip Rowley of the Eastside Rowley Properties.
The same Skip Rowley of Rowley Properties that David Goldstein gave himself a wedgie over Mr. Rowley's donation of $75,000 to the Washington State Republican Party. $75,000 that, according to Goldie, was earmarked for the Satterberg campaign.
Since it appears to not be another back-room deal between liberal Republicans and Democrats, I wonder what personal attention Skip Rowley and the liberal leadership of the King County Republican Party are expecting to get in return from Mr. Satterberg in his position as King County Prosecuting Attorney.
Or inattention.
Posted by: Brian Thomas on November 8, 2007 08:51 AMDoug, for all your ideas- what have you actually accomplished for your cause? The KCGOP is (according to you) as 'liberal as ever' and everyone thinks you suck
Phil, learn how to type like an adult- oh, and Susan doesn't even acknowlegde you in normal Republican circles... what ever happened to your jihad for her Governor's run?
Brian, you can keep running in deep blue Seattle as many times as you want- you will lose everytime, and the KCGOP would be foolish for giving a dime to such an angry pent-up man.
Ruth, nice perm.
and Pope... hope this race cures you of future runs. Now you see what happens when you play with the big boys who actually fight back against your dirty tactics (16 points HAHAHAHAHA!)
Posted by: Ben Franklin on November 8, 2007 11:49 AM What good comes from saying these things?
All your really doing is just showing everyone
else how petty you can be. So you go from
saying that Susan told you I gave her the creeps
to saying you thought what I wrote about her
was creepy to Susan doesn't acknowledge you
in normal republican circles.What exactly are
normal republican circles anyway? If by that
you mean the state and county parties. Why
would she talk about me? I am not a party
leader. I would venture to say most of those
people don't even know who I am. Compared to
the people your talking about I have nothing
and I'm no one.
I don't understand this incessant need you
seem to have about bringing Susan's name
into everyone of these posts.Please leave
her out of this. She has nothing to do with
any of it.
Posted by: Phil Spackman on November 8, 2007 01:29 PM
Phil:
" I don't understand this incessant need you seem to have about bringing Susan's name into everyone of these posts. "
'Ben Franklin' has an " incessant need " to bring Susan Hutchison's name into every one of his posts because he is obsessed with her and is jealous of you. He looks at you and your relationship with Susan Hutchison and he is jealous. He just can't understand how you could be friends with someone like Susan Hutchison and he isn't. He just doesn't understand how you can not only be happily married but also be friends with a woman like Susan Hutchison when he is not only not married but his 'relationships' with women only take place late at night, in his bedroom, over the internet.
Ben Franklin thinks that just isn't fair.
Ben Franklin can't attack Susan Hutchison, because it is Susan Hutchison that he has a need to impress and he can't attack your relationship with Susan Hutchison because to do so would also be an attack on her as she shares that friendship so he attacks the friendship by trying to put you down, trying to pull her towards him while pushing you away. Ben Franklin thinks that by putting you down Susan Hutchison will exam her friendship with you, that she will see that she should not be a friend of yours and she will coming running to Ben Franklin's open arms to express her thanks for him opening her eyes.
In my opinion, Ben Franklin is psychotic. Just be thankful that the internet exists for people like him as it (hopefully) keeps him safely tucked away in a dark corner with one hand on his mouse.
Don't let Ben Franklin get to you, he is rattling his own emotional cage in his need for personal attention. And don't feed him. Let Michael Young, Lori Sotelo and Ann Adams feed his delusions. That is what Liberals do best, feed delusions.
And what is ' normal republican circles' to Young, Sotelo, Adams and their 'circle' of sycophants is 'normal' only in relationship to them, is 'republican' only in relationship to the Republican National Committee and is nothing more than a ideological circle jerk.
Posted by: Brian Thomas on November 9, 2007 08:52 AMkeep moving! nothing to see here! just another party of Liberals running over a conservative. keep moving! keep moving!
Posted by: Brian Thomas on November 11, 2007 05:58 AM