The King County Democrats have just issued a brief press release, disavowing themselves of HA regular Richard Pope.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 2007
The King County Democrats would like to go on record opposing the candidacy of a former Republican PCO who filed as a Democrat in the King County Council District 6 race. He is not a Democrat and we will not embrace him as such. In fact, he denied the Democratic Party the right to do a party file during the week of June 11 – 15, 2007 and we had a candidate ready to file.
We do have a write-in candidate for King County Council District 6 – BRAD LARSSEN, 45th LD Democrats Vice Chair and an elected Democratic PCO in KIR 45-2923. Brad is a committed, dedicated Democrat and will launch a write-in campaign early next week.
BRAD LARSSEN, DEMOCRAT
For King County Council District 6Susan C. Sheary
KCDCC Chair
A little advice to Susie. You may not consider Richard a Democrat, but for the moment at least, Richard does. So that means you better be awfully careful with your PDC filings this season.
As for the race itself, all I’ll commit to at the moment is to support whoever ultimately wins the Democratic nomination.
Maybe I’m missing something here, but if they wanted Brad Larssen to run as a Democratic candidate, wouldn’t it have been prudent for him to file by last Friday’s deadline?
“In fact, he denied the Democratic Party the right to do a party file during the week of June 11 – 15, 2007 and we had a candidate ready to file.”
Just how in the hell did he “deny” them the right to file a canidate? Did Pope steal all the forms? Take up all the parking spaces? Bribe the staff? Come on now, this is the guy who is sueing Costco for a emergency kit and discrimination against SDA. This is the same guy who’s divorce proceedings are going on 10years…KCDCC is really a bright and shining fixture in Seattle Politics…
Richard, you are one Powerful sucker…….And Susie, I think you guys over there in Party Central better get your shit together. If Richard beat you to it, I can’t imagine what the GOP will do to your party during a real campaign.
I think the GOP has infiltrated Pope’s mind and body, and morphed him into a democrat……This is truly funny….
One more thing Suzie, you might want to freshen up on your Mind Reading Skills. Pope’s name will be on the ballot with a D beside it, unlike your write in canidate.
At best tangential to the topic of the post, but I thought Goldy would get a kick out of this:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/.....to-resign/
It’s “leadership” of this sort, if anything, that gives Puddy legitimate cause to refer to Democrats as “moonbats”.
Truly, what the hell are these people smoking?
Oh my. Such confusion. Richard Pope lives in America. He can change parties weekly if he so chooses. The rub is that he loses credibility every single time he flip flops whether it is on a single issue or his choice of political affiliation.
It is up to the voter to know this. To know who you are voting for.
Sometimes I am of the mind that he does this solely to amuse himself. He is a great entertainer and, according to those who know, he possesses a great legal mind and research skills.
What the hell are these people smoking?
…and can we buy some?
Did a bit of researching. The deadline to file ended on June 8th.
Maybe the KCDCC felt so cock sure that no one would file, they waited for the “special” 3-day filing period that ended yesterday (14th) to annouce their “Candidate”. But that special file is only for those offices that didn’t have any takers by the first deadline of June 8th.
Sooooooooooo, I would expect that someone was using a calendar from 1863, or they don’t know shit from shinola when it comes to candidate filings…… I bet the latter.
Richard Pope rocks!
Permission to board, GRANTED!!
If the Democratic Party missed the filing deadline, they are idiots. Anyone with any political interactions in the county government knew the filing schedule, and most of us were checking (at home, of course)to keep track of filings.
Sorry guys, you blew this one.
Probably trying to be tricky and make Hague think she didn’t have an opponent. Which is not a bad idea, but you still gotta file on the last day, not hope no one else files. You would think with our bevie of local crazies they would know better. Good luck with that write in campaign. those ALWAYS work.
Or you could vote for somebody who’s endorsed by a recently deceased hero.
If I knew how King County Council District 6 was going to play out, I’d move down there and run as an independent for the Ego Party. Or the EFF Party. And win.
Well, one thing is for damn sure, Richard doesn’t want to be stuck with the label of Republican, and it is also for damn sure that the Republicans wouldn’t want him.
Who knows, we may have another Adam Smith Centrist in our midst. And if this party could survive the hi-jinks of the likes of Alva Long, I’m sure we’ll survive this as well.
Give ’em hell, Popemeister!
I’LL be donating the maximum amount of money allowed by law to Pope’s real Democratic challenger and I’ll also be posting a website that has a collection of all of Pope’s crazy batshit postings here at HA. Also, I’ll be hiring a group of UW Political Science students to carefully, with incredible detail, go over every document Pope signs related to this campaign. If he so much as forgets to dot an (i) or cross a (t) I will personally pay for legal action to bring him to justice. This punk needs a leash. I’ll make certain he gets one.
re 14: So what.
#14
You sound like Suzie Q of the KCDCC. Why didn’t you run, I mean with a name like yours, your a shoe in….
On the other hand, there will be certain persons of a particular religion who will think they are electing the Pope…..
Either way, why didn’t the dem’s support a REAL democrat.
I wish richard all the best. If nothing else, but to piss you off.
If Suzie is the best our party has, we’re in deep shit.
Why can’t Richard change from Republican to Democrat? That’s what we want, isn’t it? We don’t really want people to change from Democrat to Republican like that turncoat Peter von Reichbauer did, do we?! Give Richard some credit for being smart enough to know when to leave a bankrupt enterprise. Now if only some of our chairs and vice-chairs were smart enough to file their candidates before the deadline ….
Got a bunch of virtual carrots for ya Roger.
ENJOY!.
Bye the bye, what does Great Mother Rabbit Spirit have to say about Seattle Parks’ Rabbit Fiasco?
If Richard Pope doesn’t win(and I hope he does), I hope he runs for Vice Governor. Or is in Jr. Governor. Lt. Governor?
Or Port Comissioner.
@19 The Mother Rabbit Spirit says the hell with work, take the day off, go to the park, and count how many bunnies you see. Another fucking failure of fascism.
Wait a minute. Does this mean that Brad is a candidate in the Democratic Primary for this race? If so, there’s a chance we can come up with a bunch of rose bushes from this pile of manure…
@22 A good question. Personally, I would think that he is stuck with just the General.
SuzeeCreamCheese appears to have done a good job of blowing off some toes on this job. . . . .
Chad:
No, my understanding (folks are welcome to correct me if I’m wrong) is that Mr. Larssen did not file the required paperwork on time, so he will not be on the ballot.
Apparently, having been so negligent as to miss the filing deadline (or so arrogant as to believe that they could ignore it with impugnity) the leadership of the King County Democrats is now blaming Mr. Pope for their error.
Fortunately (for Ms. Sheary) I’m a Pierce County resident, so I don’t get to help choose the leadership for KCDCC. If I were, then I’d have to actively campaign against her and anyone else with that “rules don’t apply to us” attitude.
Instead, I’ll just send a few bucks to Mr. Pope’s campaign.
It is sad that Mr. Larssen will not be a viable candidate due to the incompetence or arrogance of KCDCC leadership, as what little I know about him is all to the good. He would have made a fine candidate.
Having been so negligent, the KCDCC leadership now seems perfectly willing to cede the election to Ms. Hague, and would rather have her win than allow their members to see just how poorly Ms. Sheary is fulfilling her responsibilities.
John, Brad Larrsen will be on the General Election Ballot as a write-in. I believe he can claim a party affiliation as a write-in. However, write-ins have an uphill struggle, and if the party wants Larrsen to win, they will have to dedicate additional resources to his campaign, resources probably better spent elsewhere.
Re: 23 –> 25
Think what you want about Suzie. Just get your facts right. Because this is a partisan election, the candidates will be on the primary ballot, and Brad is filing the paperwork to become a write-in candidate for the Primary. Sure, that means his name won’t be on the ballot, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t win. What it’s going to take is organization on the East Side.
Lost cause, John? Sure, if you believe it so. We’ll make our own reality over there based on the efforts that we put forward, not just our hopes and dreams from behind a keyboard. 302 precincts, 90 PCO’s. Bellevue, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Finn Hill.
Can we do it? If we make the choice to do it instead of just bitching at fate. And the groundwork that we build for this campaign will serve us well in 2008, as long as we don’t decide to let it flounder after the ’07 election.
Chad
Best of luck to you. No, it isn’t a lost cause, but a much more difficult one because party leadership seriously dropped the ball.
Mr. Pope may be a recent switch from the Republicans, and is certainly one of our more conservative members, but he did manage to file on time. He can be reasoned with and he seems pretty honest and diligent. You could do much worse.
Because party leadership in KC couldn’t manage to get their act together, their preferred candidate won’t be on the ballot. This could be due to either arrogance or incompetence, take your pick.
Now they’re going to run an anti-Pope campaign, trying to make sure he can’t win, while also pressing forward with a write in campaign that is (at best) a very difficult way of getting anyone elected. Ms. Hague isn’t exactly “Low-Tax” Looper, after all.
And blaming Mr. Pope for their mistake shows that the folks in leadership positions over there could use a couple of courses in ethics and accountability.
They’re your county’s leadership team, but their actions are an embarrassment to all of us.
Chad, I gotta agree with John Barelli on this one. And, I happen to be a registered Democrat in King County. . .and I will remember.
Good luck to you and Suzee stitchin’ them toes back on. . . .
Seems like an innocent enough mistake to me for the Dems not to have foreseen that Pope would run as a Democrat. I mean, who’d have seen that coming?
No one is pointing out the fact that Pope made what was a pretty out-of-the-blue move at the very last minute, filing right before filing closed. Hmmm, could that be because he figured that the only way he could ge elected was to do it in a sneaky fashion? Since he’s repeatedly been unsuccessful as a Republican, could it be that he figured the only way he could get elected was to try to fool people who might not be aware that he has been, not just a Republican but a Republican operative for many years? He knows a lot of people will just vote their party, assuming that the candidate is, at the very least, a true member of that party.
What he did is a dirty trick, pure and simple. If he wanted to change parties in an honorable fashion, he should have notified the Dems and, I don’t know, perhaps worked with the party he now pretends to be a part of.
Well, Justdrivingby, the comments made by many here have little to do with the actions of Mr. Pope and more to do with the incompetence or arrogance of the KCDCC.
There was a filing deadline. It was published in advance. Mr. Larssen did not meet it, Mr. Pope did. Nothing dishonest there, and perhaps even commendable for Mr. Pope, as otherwise there was no reason to believe that Ms. Hague would not run unopposed.
Was there some plan to wait until after the filing deadline and use the rule allowing the KCDCC to choose a candidate is no one else files? Perhaps, but if so, then it was a very poorly considered plan.
The appearance is that KCDCC was perfectly happy to let Ms. Hague run unopposed, but were embarrassed by Mr. Pope. Since Mr. Pope is not the choice of KCDCC leadership, they have convinced Mr. Larssen to act as a spoiler, preferring to have a mediocre Republican to having a Democrat not of their choosing.
Our party leadership here in Washington has become more than a bit arrogant in their power. I will leave it to others to decide whether KCDCC is more or less arrogant than our state party leadership.
But Democrats throughout the political spectrum have voiced the position that we are not entirely happy with the folks currently calling the shots in our party.
And it is our party.
justdrivingby says:
Seems like an innocent enough mistake to me for the Dems not to have foreseen that Pope would run as a Democrat.”
So if Mickey Mouse had filed instead of Pope, the KCDCC would have just sat back and watched it play out? Your choice of words as in “innocent mistake” truly is laughable. Is the KCDCC so tight that everyone knows ALL, and be damned if an outsider files for office?
If your attitude is an example of the KCDCC and it’s following, You couldn’t pay me to be associated with it’s membership.
Moonbat!s of King County – Cuming to a theatre near you this November!
Artfart@4: This action REINFORCES the notion you all are MOONBAT!S
John Barelli: You made one modifyable point and critical one point.
“incompetence or arrogance of the KCDCC” should read incompetence AND arrogance of the KCDCC
“But Democrats throughout the political spectrum have voiced the position that we are not entirely happy with the folks currently calling the shots in our party.” – Especially the likes of Stupidman who think you are a jerk and not a rabid enough NEW Progressive Democrat Party man like chairwoman Susan C. Sheary KCDCC Chair!:
Hi, Puddybud. Sorry that I haven’t been around more. It’s been a busy week.
Presuming you to be Republican, you don’t have much room to talk. If there are any outfits that could make the KCDCC look good by comparison, they would have to be the state and local Republican party leadership.
We have a few folks screaming “DINO” from the sidelines at anyone that does not toe the New Progressive mark in everything, but that’s as far as it usually goes.
Republicans have been rather effective in alienating and disenfranchising anyone that doesn’t toe the Neo-Con mark. They may not like Democrats much, but they have a special hatred for folks like the Mainstream Republicans.
Well, WOW, all I can say in response to your (lack of) logic (not to mention your lack of reading comprehension skills) is “WOW.” All I said was that it seemed silly to expect that the Dems could have predicted that Pope would run as a Dem. You’re either stupid or disingenuous to claim otherwise. Furthermore, if you think that either party runs candidates in every race, I’d say you should wipe that brown stuff out of your hair. If the Democratic party wasn’t going after a seat held by a popular Republican, that’s hardly news. When Pope then took last-minute advantage of the situation (you can admire all day long how clever that may be; but honorable it is not) it’s perfectly understandable why they would feel compelled to take immediate action. Considering that there are a number of voters who pay more attention to the party than the individual running, I’d say it’s reasonable of the Dems to run as far away from him as they could. So, they really had no choice at that point but to run a real Democrat. And, again, because he chose to make his move right before the filing deadline, their only way to run a candidate was to put them in as a write-in.
If you don’t like the party heads, it seems like there are plenty of legitimate criticisms to be made. However, to hold them responsible for not having predicted the actions of a historically Republican gadfly is just silly. (Unless, again, you can explain why it should have been obvious to the Dems that Pope would slide in under the wire as a Democrat in that race).
justdrivingby said:
Last time I checked, Ms. Hague is a Republican in a somewhat Democratic district.
Who said anything about clever?
The last day to file came up. Ms. Hague was unopposed by any candidate from the Democratic party. No candidate had been proposed.
Yes, there is a provision in the rules that allows the party a late nomination window if nobody files, but so what? The party leadership either chose to wait beyond the normal filing date or didn’t have a candidate.
My suspicion is that they didn’t have a candidate that actually wanted the job, and they were willing to just let Ms. Hague run unopposed.
Then the unthinkable happened and a Democrat not chosen by the party leadership stepped up and filed, whereupon the party leadership went into screaming fits, as having a loyal party-hack Republican is far preferable to our party leaders than having a Democrat that doesn’t toe anyone’s party line.
I’m sure Mr. Larssen is a good candidate for the office, but did anyone seriously propose him as a candidate before Mr. Pope filed? In the first part of your post, you seemed to imply that we were planning on just letting her run unopposed. The party has said that they had been planning to run Mr. Larssen all along, but because Mr. Pope filed, they lost their chance.
The leadership teams in both parties make noises about how the other party is terrible, horrible and will destroy the country, but what seems to bother them far more than the other party is anyone in their own party willing to think for themselves.
Oh, and justdrivingby:
Your comments:
and
implies that our party leadership is deliberately lying to us when they said:
and I suspect that you are correct.
John Barelli: Nice deflection, but somehow there was a thread on King County Republicans.
This thread is on King County Moonbat!s.
Puddybud
Read the posts again. Simply because they are critical of a political organization does not mean that they were aimed at Republicans. Actually reading the posts would have made that obvious.
I am not only capable of being critical of Democrats, but I actually hold my party to a higher standard of conduct than I ever expect your party to achieve.
Richard now has my respect, if not my direct support. No, I won’t be building his website, but if he’s going to be running as a Democrat, I’m going to expect a certain level of progressivism from the site that he does build.
Lo and behold…
http://www.seattlewebcrafters......rpope1.pdf
I’m impressed. He hit the framing right, as well as the answers. He’s been paying attention, and it may pay off. Good luck to him. I think it’s all up to the grassroots now.