Former Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart will challenge Rick Larsen for the Second Congressional District seat. His official announcement is 7 p.m., March 28th at Buzz Inn at Harvey Field in Snohomish.
You may recall that Bart aborted a run for County Executive last year. This disappointed many Republicans, and many -- including myself -- were a bit angry about it. I probably still am. But I think Bart will make a fine candidate for Congress.
SCOTUS strikes down lower court ruling, affirms "Top Two" primary in Washington State.
Sorry for this somewhat off-topic comment.
Posted by: ewaggin on March 18, 2008 12:43 PMSorry. That's just the facts. If he can't get his ducks in line for County Exec, he's not going to do it for Congress.
Posted by: cliff on March 18, 2008 02:58 PMBut, I kind of liked the old military guy who ran last time. Name familiarity nailed him. Larsen is beatable and this will be a good time to put up someone good.
I just don't know if Bart is the right guy and who will get behind him after the executive fiasco. If you recall, the Rs put up a clown to run against Reardon.
Posted by: swatter on March 18, 2008 03:17 PMMore precisely, a professional marketer of entertainment and information products and services.
Not to mention a 15 year Microsoft veteran, with extensive management experience at multiple multi-national companies; published author with Microsoft Press; Ecommerce entrepreneur with a global customer base; seminar/event producer; and professional copywriter and web development/ software consultant.
All that and yes balloon doggies too ... :-)
It's March and the Sheriff has plenty of time and talent to take on Rep. Larsen. All the Rs need to do is stop sniping at one another and instead start working together towards their common interests and values.
Would that I could simply wave a wand to make that happen.
--Jack
Posted by: Jack Turk on March 18, 2008 03:38 PMBut no, Jack Turk is not a clown. He didn't have name recognition, and even those who knew his name didn't know much about him, but he would have made an excellent county executive. And I am not just saying that because he is watching. That said, yes, we were in a bad situation for the county exec race, and Bart deserves much of the blame for that. But in politics, you can't spend too much time looking at yesterday.
Posted by: pudge on March 18, 2008 03:47 PMPerhaps, but I think he WAS a good candidate for county executive. And polls showed he probably would have won if he stayed in the race.
Posted by: pudge on March 18, 2008 03:59 PMI thought it was a good schtick, but he never chose to move past it and use the clown part to further his candidacy.
Jack Turk, you played up the clown and you allowed the press to portray you as one. Nothing will change that fact. Your web page had this silly magic game and it didn't have a whole lot of why you should have been executive.
What was there was good, but not enough. I also realize the party didn't put a whole lot of effort into helping you either. To win, it takes money and you didn't try to get money.
You got my vote but you didn't get my support, if you know what that means. I always try to pick a horse and spend time on their campaign. I didn't last time.
Posted by: swatter on March 18, 2008 04:28 PMAnother fine R candidate would be John L. McKay. (Fired U.S. Attorney)
Governor, Senate, whatever.
Folks like these 2 are the only thing standing between totally devastating losses and the margin.
Posted by: Jim on March 18, 2008 04:36 PMFalse.
and let the press portray him as a clown.
"Bad" press is better than no press, which is what he WOULD have gotten.
I am not going to say the campaign was run particularly well, but then, he had NO money. At all. Some say, well, he shouldn't have run. I am glad he did.
Posted by: pudge on March 18, 2008 04:37 PMOkay, you got me. He's not a clown; just a magician. And he could have got good press if he knew how to use his schtick.
Posted by: swatter on March 19, 2008 01:01 PMNope. A very complete memory.
He said he wasn't taking donations to his campaign; it wasn't that he couldn't get any, just that he didn't want any. Ergo, that is why he had no money.
Yes. And? I am just saying he had no money. Further, I think most of the reason he didn't ask for money is because he knew he wouldn't get much, so he didn't want to spend time, and goodwill, on fundraising.
And yes, I think he could have campaigned better. Same with Roulstone. Same with many candidates. Your first time you always make a lot of mistakes. Especially when you have no money! :-)
Posted by: pudge on March 19, 2008 01:35 PMNo. It had nothing significant to do with Bill Cooper's or Jack Turk's race.
and if you read the press in south Snohomish County last October and November you know that a very good, highly regarded, and capable candidate got unjustifiably skewered with that position
Yes. It happens. It wasn't fair, but that's life. It is not fair that she was linked to a position she did not hold. It is also not fair that anyone CARES about the position, since NO ONE can make air service happen at Paine Field, and NO ONE can prevent it either. Federal law governs it: if a commercial air service provider wants to come to Paine, no one can stop them. And if they don't, no one can make them.
It is one of the most controversial non-issues I've ever seen in my life.
So what's the deal, do they want to take positions on highly controversial issues that will sink their candidate every tine, or do they want to elect Republicans?
Shrug. The Party exists to further the ideals of that party. Different people have different views. Sometimes this ends up hurting candidates. What is the alternative? Ignoring the views of the members of the party just to win elections? That will destroy the party by making it not worth supporting in the first place. It's a balance, it is not perfect, and sometimes bad things happen.
FWIW, I was on the county executive board when the decision was made to support air service at Paine Field. I was unable to be there for the full discussion and vote, however, so I can't comment much on the specifics of how it came about.
Rick Bart will do okay against Rick Larsen, but can he win it? Probably not
Oh, he absolutely can. Whether he will remains to be seen.
So inspite of the fact that the Snohomish County GOP will probably work against him
I see nothing that you based this supposed "fact" on. One example does not make a trend.
Posted by: pudge on March 19, 2008 03:19 PM