Last night I stumbled across Larry Ishmael’s YouTube announcement and campaign website for his bid for the open WA-01 congressional seat. Here is a little more information.
Larry was the Republican who challenged Rep. Jay Inslee (D) for WA-01 in 2006 and 2008. He lost both elections 32% to 68%. Should he seriously pursue the seat this year, his Republican competition* will likely be James Watkins, Inslee’s challenger in 2010, and John Koster, who ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02) in 2004 and 2010.
From Larry’s blog we learn:
I really am enjoying this year in South Africa. […] My singular focus has been the dissertation, but I also have to remember that there is an election year coming up and I need to be positioned for that now. So, I spent Monday working on my “unofficial announcement” that I will be running for the 1st Congressional seat again in 2012. I ran in 2006 and 2008, but took 2010 0ff to concentrate on my Ph.D. work. Now, as my dissertation work is starting to shape up nicely, I hope to be Dr. Ishmael by the time the election rolls around next year.
After pondering potential opponents, Larry clarifies his campaign announcement:
Now that I have informally announced, I can run my Congressional Exploratory Campaign until I have raised the limit for “testing the waters,” and then I will officially declare and register with the FEC. There is much work to assemble a team between now and then, and that means I need to start that process right now even though I’m still in South Africa.
On the issues, Larry sounds like a typical “shrink government” Republican, but with a big emphasis on environmental sustainability—sort of like Dave Reichert (R-WA-08) but probably smarter and without all the “I’ve stared down the business end of a gun,” sheriffy bullshit.
Even so, from his Twitter feed we learn he is a anthropogenic climate change denier&:
@Fun2BTan @ishmael1stcdwa Just so you know, I have scientific evidence of the fact that global warming is not man made.
— Larry W. Ishmael (@ishmael1stCDWA) December 1, 2011
And, predictably, he is anti-cap and trade:
Thank God that the Senate stopped Cap and Trade. The House is a bunch of sheep!
— Larry W. Ishmael (@ishmael1stCDWA) July 25, 2009
The good news for Larry is that, unlike 2006 when he lived in WA-08, his current residence is in WA-01. In fact, Larry’s condo is near the center of Redmond, a short walk from my own residence.
One other thing I noticed on his issues page:
As a member of the Creek Indian tribe, Larry respects the wisdom of his Native American fore-fathers…
I look forward to having Larry in the race. I mean, if we are going to have more than one Republican going into the top two primary, we might as well have lots of Republicans. And if the voters force a Republican on me as my next Representative, at least we should have someone who will add diversity to Congress and provide a congressional voice for Washington’s Native American community.
So welcome to the race Larry!
* In the comment thread Larry points out he is running as an independent this time.
& In the comment thread Larry clarifies his beliefs.
Thanks for the comments. I have lived in the 1st CD since August 2006 by the way. However, there are some critical pieces of information you are lacking:
1) I believe in global warming, but as an economist I know why the man-made segment of society has targeted CO2. Part of my dissertation deals with that very issue and it is proven that they used CO2 as a single unit of measurement and translate all 11 or 12 greenhouse gases into CO2 (methane is translated as 1 ton equals 25 tonnes of CO2, and 1 ton of SO2 is translated as 23 tonnes of CO2). These two gases alone severely enhance the amount of CO2 (generally man made gas) so it makes it look like man is the cause.
2. I am not running as a Republican, I am running as an independent because I am disgusted with both parties (who, after all, are two sides of the same coin when they get to DC)
3. I will be filing later this coming week.
Thanks for the mention!
Larry
Larry,
Thanks for the clarifications. I’ve updated the post to point to your comment.
My apologies for assuming you were running as a Republican. I guess I made that assumption because you only mentioned other Republican opponents in your blog post.
Best wishes to you in finishing your dissertation!
Okay, so if Larry gets on the ballot as an independent candidate, then the question is which party candidate will he take he most votes away from?
Larry I also studied economics, but I just have a BA. I’m also part Creek or so they tell me, but I had red hair until I started losing it, the hair that is. We will always be dependent on some products from other countries including oil. Treating other nations with a little dignity and respect will go a long way. Japan, So. Korea and a bunch of other nations are not nearly as panicked about oil as we are. I mean as our political class is.
BTW been a long time since I worked in the oil business but I think we need platinum to refine oil and we are almost 100% dependent on other nations for that little element.
Hope you enjoy the campaign.