The American Prospect raises the existential question for Dino Rossi and his closest advisors:
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair John Cornyn has a had a pretty tough year recruiting and protecting his candidates. They just keep running into trouble — from Charlie Crist fleeing the Republican Party in Florida and Bob Bennett’s primary loss in Utah to John McCain’s Arizona primary challenge and the Kentucky Rand Paul insurgency overwhelming the GOP’s chosen standard-bearer. So if you’re a Republican considering a run for Senate and Cornyn says, “I told him we will do whatever it takes to help him and that’s a fact,” do you take that to the bank?
That’s the question facing perennial Washington state GOP candidate Dino Rossi, who is mulling over a challenge to sitting Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.
And I’d wager the answer is “no.”
At the risk of stating the obvious, there are really only two possibilities here: either Rossi has already made his decision, or he hasn’t. If he’s made his decision, then he’s decided not to run, because there’s absolutely nothing to gain from delaying his campaign any further, while there’s not much to lose from keeping his name in the headlines. And if he’s still undecided, I’m guessing a large part of the process has to do with working out the logistics of raising enough money to be competitive.
Rossi raised about $11.6 million during his 2008 gubernatorial bid, and even assuming he could match that total in roughly half the time — averaging about $70,000 a day between now and the election — that would still leave him well short of Sen. Murray’s likely total… maybe by as much as $5 million. And that’s assuming he can take Cornyn’s promise to the bank.
So thanks, American Prospect, for raising that very important question. But as for the rest of piece, well, you really ought to do your research:
While Murray isn’t particularly vulnerable, in a tough anti-incumbent year and with a candidate like Rossi, who has come within 133 votes of winning the state’s gubenatorial seat, Republicans might have an opportunity to exploit.
Of course, that 133 vote margin was way back in 2004; Rossi lost by 194,614 votes in a 2008 rematch, after voters had the opportunity to get to know the two candidates better. Maybe you just confused “2004” with “2008” — after all, they both have “200” in them — but I’d argue that the more recent election is the more relevant one.
Except the Tea Party candidate will stay in the race no matter what happens in the primary. So will a self-funding millionaire conservative candidate. That doesn’t spell an easy chance for Rossi.
Yeah, um, except we have a top-two primary here in Washington state, so nobody will be on the November ballot other than the top-two vote getters. So while I love that whole Tea-Party-and-self-funded-millionaire-candidates-as-obstacles meme, and would absolutely love to run with it… well… if wishes were horses, and all that.
Moreover, Democrats are already doing everything they can to make Rossi the next Dan Coates — Coates, the former Indiana senator returning to run for Evan Bayh’s open seat, hit early troubles by slighting his old state and with his work as a Washington lobbyist. Thus far, they’ve been hitting him for not paying $20,000 in back taxes and his connections to a shady bank.
I’m confused by that last sentence. Does “him” refer to Rossi or Coates? Or both? (Factually, it does apply to Rossi, but that’s not so clear from your vague use of the objective personal pronoun.)
Rossi has had two heartbreakingly close statewide elections in the last two cycles.
“Two heartbreakingly close” elections? Really?
Surely 2004’s 133-vote margin was a heartbreaker (no doubt Rossi still believes he actually won), but the 194,614-vote, 6.5% margin in 2008… not so much. That’s about the same percentage of the national vote by which Barack Obama beat John McCain, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody describe that race as close, heartbreakingly or otherwise.
So yeah, while I agree with the American Prospect that Rossi should question whether Cornyn can help him all that much in a U.S. Senate bid, Rossi first has to answer the question of whether he can actually help himself. And based on his 2008 performance, the evidence isn’t all that convincing.
I stopped reading Prospect years ago. Just tediously wonky, pretentious writing, and just plain stupid stuff like you’ve pointed out in your post.
I used to get a bundle of magazines every month (including several weeklies). Now, the ONLY magazine I subscribe to is Harpers. The index alone is worth the very reasonable subscription price of $18 / year (and less if you buy two or more years at a time).
Young Mr. Fernholz is clearly one denizen of The Other Washington who has nary a clue about how things work in this Washington.
since the “other Washington” was there first, and since this one unimaginatively just copied the name, isn’t this one the “other Washington”?
Usually if you read a news article around the world and it says “WASHINGTON — Today” whatever, it refers to that one, not this one.
Or are we on a special “lost” island here, with a unique meaning of “other Washington” which doesn’t translate anywhere else?
@3
The “other Washington” started as a tourism marketing campaign about a billion years ago. Everyone around here has called DC the other Washington ever since.
A Rossi post a day keeps the Democrats away…
So far it looks like the score of a M’s vs Yankees game circa 1988:
Rossi 17
Murray 2
Question: will goldy have a coronary if Dino actually declares he is a candidate?
Whats that saying? Obsession is just another form of flattery?
And what has murray done? brought $100 million to the state – eh, I guess thats cool, if we had elected a pimp to congress.
and the beat goes on….
Dre is gonna go have a nice afternoon of Saturday golf..hoping for something in the low 80’s…..
another @3,
It’s all a matter of context, now isn’t it? Here in Washington state, the “other Washington” is the other Washington. But over in D.C., the “other Washington” is naturally Washington state.
@4
you’re saying the DC tourism bureau called DC the Other Washington?
Um…don’t think so. If it’s the Wash State tourism bureau this indicates this here is the other Washington, not that one over there.
BTW your second statement suggests the answer to my last question is “yes.”
Dreg @5,
$100 million? Yeah… maybe in any given month. Sen. Murray helped secure $813 million for the University Link light rail alone.
@7
It was a campaign by Washington State to get people to come to “the other Washington.” We flipped the meaning around after the fact.
@5, 8
And at the end of the day, securing money to build what we can’t afford to build on our own is why we send people to DC.
@10…give the debt at which DC operates(which WILL bury us all), I’m not so sure we can afford even that..
but anyways…..
if all we are doing is electing people to get money from DC, then we have our priorities really messed up in this country. Can we be any more shortsighted? Given the debt we have, I guess not.
you all have fun…
@11,
If you are worried about debt why would you even think about voting for a Republican? 2001-2007 and look what they did. The country is in debt to above our eyeballs. And nothing but a useless war to show for it.
@11
The debit scares me too. I’m not saying there’s no need for limits and balance.
Drool @5:
Thankfully, Goldy blows away the “conventional wisdom” with the facts, every day, day after day.
It’s what’s necessary when superficial journalism repeats outrageous lies and misinformation (like yours, as a matter of fact), every day, day after day.
Thanks again, Goldy.
@12….when it comes to irresponsible spending, do you really think there is a difference between the parties? hell no.
it is complete folly(and partisan) to place the blame solely on either party – they are both corrupt and care about nothing more than staying in power – which for them requires massive spending to buy off voters and companies.
crooks and snake oil salesmen…all of them.
@11:
It’s always worth pointing this out: Shrubya just continued the Republican heritage of debt and deficits.
Fact: Republicans increase debt and deficits, Democrats decrease them.
Shown graphically, with details, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N.....tial_terms
And expressed as a percent of GDP by President since Roosevelt here:
http://zfacts.com/p/318.html
@16
Yup!
@16…that would be great, but presidents dont make the budget – congress does.
While Nero Rossi fiddles, Clit Diddler has campaign signs up in Sno. County.
The Repubs are appealing to Dino’s ego. And because Dino has a massive ego (in addition to being a sore loser), I suspect that the appeal will ultimately work. Rossi will dither and then run at the last minute. He will lose, but he will come away with a lot of cash in his pocket. So it will be a win-win for everybody (except Clit and his fellows).
@19
The college Republicans picked Didier as their guy in a straw poll a while back. Considering that he’s less crazy than Ellen Craswell, (not by much) nobody seems to be lining up behind Benton, and Rossi isn’t in the race Didier might just make it on the ballot in the fall. Didier would probably do about as well as against Murray as Craswell did against Locke.
So should we start a pool on Murray’s margin of victory?
@21
Normally I’d say we need a candidate first, but this time put me down for $10, Murray takes it by 12%.
Didler offers what, besides a massive ego? I have to believe that if he is the Rs’ nominee, he will just get the puppy-barbecuer vote and those who can simply never pull the lever for a D. Patty wins by 62-38.
@23
Happy clichés about Saint Ronnie, let’s be the part of “hell no,” and let’s get tough on the Mexicans.
@6.
Um, NSDT (?).
BTW you mean “in the other Washington and in the rest of the world” methinks.
@9:
Aha, I didn’t realize “the other washington” contained those multiple layers of irony discernible to locals only.
How very “other washingto” of you.
;-)
Goldy,
the common wisdom of “Prefers” that you fail to appreciate is that the 2008 margin of victory resulted from some nebulous and vaguely defined pure bullshit statistical peculiarity that they pull out of their asses only when pinned down, which when it comes to the legacy media is almost never.
Sun spots.
Felon voters.
Acorn.
Obama effect.
Angry soccer moms.
Killer bees.
Whatever.
Surely you understand that the default political affiliation of every Real American® voter is “generally conservative”, according to the corporations who own the legacy media. And therefore whenever a Dirty Fucking Hippie wins an election by a substantial margin it means something “weird” took place.
Didn’t you get the memo?
Why, all it would have taken for Dino to win in each of the elections that he’s lost is a faint shift in the wind, blowing a few hundred thousand ballots into the mail like autumn leaves.
Seems like Democrats need to help Barbara rather than worry about a sure thing for Patty Murray.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Embattled Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer remains in a virtual tie with Republican challenger Tom Campbell.
I hope Rossi runs. We can then look forward to finding additional information about his supporters from Snohomish County or BIAW Central.
@16, et al.: George Will, the whitest man in American who sometimes pretends he’s hep to baseball, sometimes writes a column that’s sharp as a shiv. Too bad his sharp columns stick it to Republicans.
Excerpts from Will in the stinking corpse of “News”week, 17 October 2005:
And then Will talked about The Hammer, twinkle-toes Tom DeLay, saying that the GOP had cut all nonessential spending out of their budget.
Then Will mentioned Abramoff and the doubling of lobbyists in The Other Washington during the first 4 years of Bush the Younger.
All part of the K-Street plan for buying a permanent Republican majority.
Someday Puddy, Dre, and the rest of us trolls better face facts. Our team tried to throw the game and we got thrown. Cynner’s Tea Party, for all its faults, is at least trying to tell the belated truth about the years when our Republican Party became a runaway train and ran off the rails.
Camille Paglia used to say that we could count on the Republican Party for mature managerial competence. While Goldycrats could always be counted on to go crazy from gagging on bong hits of other people’s money, dull sober old Republicans would come along from time to time to clean up the mess. To remind people of things they should have learned in kindergarten: life’s a bitch, life has limits, good things are scarce, lunch isn’t free.
As hard as it is to have Naomi Klein tell us that Uncle Miltie Friedman is dead or to have Greenspan find “a flaw” in the sane Republican system of efficient markets (that’s Greenspan with Ayn Rand), it’s harder to read George Will’s tough-love truths from 2005 and to know he was telling the truth.
@29….I am on no “team”. I think the republicans are just as crooked and self serving as the democrats – neither gives a shit about you, me, or the country.
assumption/categorization fail.
@31: As usual, you’re full of shit.
“They’re all corrupt…” is an outrageous wingnut lie.
There are very few honorable Rs in office these days. The R party is corrupt, racist, and a wholly owned subsidiary of corporations and big business. The Rs that remain after 06/08 are largely cornpone fascist shills for the corporate elite that funds them.
The Ds definitely have some bad apples and I don’t always agree with them, but I can easily name many eminently honorable Ds — including our two Senators (Cantwell and Murray), Reps Inslee, Smith, Dicks; Oregon’s Senators (Wyden and Merkley), and Rep Blumanauer, etc., etc.
When you repeat this lie, you’re definitely playing for the R team — whether you care to admit it or not.
@32….very typical screed from a party partisan lemming….keep drinking their kool-aid, robot.
people like you are the problem..
Apologies 2 Dre for the assumption/categorization fail. Of course you’re not on the team. Bet you’re not even a doctor.
Here’s an instant replay for zotz the nuc. He seems to show up just often enough and just in time to get his pointy little head pushed a little farther into his stinky little dirt road. Today’s lesson is about Republican’s being a wholly owned subsidiary of big ugly corporations. Not possible that there’s room in the subsidiary room when it’s already filled with the other wholly owned party …
Ever wonder how curropt politicians get their money? After all, not everyone is as stupid as the guy up in Alaska who thought that nobody would notice that an Alaska firm with big government contracts was remodling his house.
A couple of examples of the more imaginative schemes:
In Germany (around 1933), the Nazi party buys up the patent of a reflecter which attaches to the pedal of bicyicles. Then the party, enacts a law requiring, as a safety measure, that all bicycles in Germany have reflectors with standards matched only by the Nazi patent. The German Nazi party grows immensely wealthy. Later they extort huge political contributions from German industrial giants as the price for receiving contracts for German re-armamant.
In the early 2000’s, as part of the K-Street Project, the state of Texas decided that it needed a lobbying office in Washington D.C. to protect it’s interests. A few people pointed out that the Texas Congressional delegation was supposed to fill that role, but they were ignored by the Republican majority in the Texas legislature. Once an office was established at Texas taxpayer’s expense in D.C., it decided it needed a lobbyist to protect it’s interests. So it hired a lobbyists, which then dispursed a few hundred thousand dollars of Texas taxpayer’s money in campaign contributions to U.S. Congressmen – mostly from the Texas delegation. So Texas taxpayer money was going, with a slight diversion, into making sure that incumbent Republican Congressmen from Texas were re-elected to Congress. Need I mention that DeLay and Abramaof (sp?) were involved?
http://www.unitedstatespolitic.....-they.html
President Barack Obama failed for a fifth time to push Democratic choices to victory, a troubling sign for the White House. Despite the White House support, Sen. Blanche Lincoln was forced into a runoff with union-backed Lt.