Sound Politics: A Recurrent Theme

August 17, 2008

A Recurrent Theme

Chris Mulick over at the Tri-City Herald has spent some time examining the status of state legislative races with the "top two" primary system upon us.

One conclusion will sound rather familiar to readers of posts here and here:

Reports filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission last week indicated that as of Monday the House Democratic Campaign Committee, which carried over $580,000 from the last election cycle, had almost $270,000 on hand to House Republicans' $43,000.
[snip]

That disparity figures to grow larger in the days following Tuesday's primary, when incumbent legislators on the ballot -- especially those who are uncontested or who are facing only marginal challenges -- will dump tens of thousands of leftover primary dollars into their caucus coffers.

[snip]

House Democrats' soft money committee, the Harry Truman Fund, also has out-raised its House Republican counterpart. It had $263,000 on hand through Monday compared with the Reagan Fund's $66,000.

The fundraising disparity is considerably smaller in the Senate...

This state of affairs has got to be improved upon if leading House Republican candidates are to avoid getting badly outspent in November, no matter how successful their individual campaign fundraising might be.

Also, getting Mulick over to a paper on the west side might not be a bad thing either.

Posted by Eric Earling at August 17, 2008 09:05 AM | Email This

Comments

1. Be Eric's above as it may, don't overlook the fact that over here on the sunny side quite a few (R) legislative candidates are either running UNOPPOSED in the Primary, or if opposed no (D) even bothered to file to run against them.

Just here in Okanogan County:
NOBODY, (D) or other, filed against ANY of the 7th and 12th District (R)s running for re-election (Parlette, Armstrong, Condotta, and Kretz).
Of the 5 candidates for the 7th District Pos. 1 open slot, all 5 are listed as (R) or (GOP).

Other examples of (R)s running unopposed:

(R) Sen. Schoesler in the 9th.
Both (R) Reps in the 13th.
(R) Senate candidate in the 14th.
(R) Sen. Hewitt in the 16th.

In noting the above I do not mean to minimize the problem Eric pointed out; it IS a problem. Just saying that in the above 10 cases the legislative campaign committee contribution disparity is irrelevant.

Posted by: Methow Ken on August 17, 2008 11:18 AM

2. Hey again, Ken.

The 7th got a lot more interesting with Shelly Short's husband Mitch getting called up on 1st degree theft charges:

http://spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_breakingnews_pf.asp?ID=16183

The numbers on Tuesday will be telling; this certainly has the potential to hurt. If Shelly does make it through to the General she'll be a wounded candidate, which really opens the door wide for Madsen, Davenport, or White.

Posted by: Ryan on August 17, 2008 11:47 AM

3. But Eric... I was sure that by now, given all your political genius, know how and fund raising skills and your vast (that is, essentially non-existent) political resume', you, being the greatest political mind in the northwestern United States, would have single-handedly solved these issues and fixed the problem yourself! What's the hold up?

In short, as you've proven, any mouth can whine about problems. Where the rubber meets the road is coming up with viable solutions. Merely sniveling "This state of affairs has got to be improved" accomplishes absolutely nothing. And, as always, your fronting for someone else has yet to provide any way out of this difficulty, and your incessant whining does nothing to address the issue... other than providing ammunition to the opposition.

So, come up with a plan. Otherwise, stop helping out the democrats.

Posted by: Hinton on August 17, 2008 01:20 PM