On election night, Dow Constantine’s people were just thrilled to see him break away from the rest of the Democratic pack and break the 20-percent mark. So they must be absolutely ecstatic to see him closing the gap with Republican Susan Hutchison as the late arriving ballots are tallied.
What started as a 37-22 margin on election night has now shrunk to a mere 33-27 Hutchison lead with about 90-percent of the expected turnout tallied. Not too shabby considering Hutchison was the only Republican and only woman, while Constantine had to compete with three other Dems.
Dow Constantine, Washington sounds good to me!
I think the Hutchinson campaign may be an opportunity to drive a spike into the reprican crazy movement.
When Goldy first starting dissing her, SJ was skeptical. I can imagine a competent Republican, even one who is pro-“life” and believes in the free market.
As afr as I can tell, SH is not a nutcase. Despite her membership in the DI, from what I have heard Hutchinson is not a believer in the nutty ideas of a 6,000 year old, Jesus created the Earth with Dinosaurs as pets and women as riblets.
But, she is incompetent is that special Republican way. SH has no idea whatsoever about what she would do if she were elected. She is blatantly as reliant on magical imprecations of cost cutting, free enterise as some pre-Gorby Communist bureaucrat running East Germany was on his ideology.
I do not think King County will elect a simplistic ideologue of either party.
The good news is that the brown shorts demonstrators have back fired. KC is a rational place and Hutchinson can not win without distancing herself from the gun totin Palinista radicals.
BUT … there is an opportunity here to also trap Reagan Dunn and Reichert . If Constantine does a good job of campaigning, Hutchinson will drag the brand down with her!
Susan Hutchison should concede! And bow out gracefully. Now!
Hutch is trailing cigarette smoke by 10 points. Maybe the GOPers would make a better showing if they ran Joe Camel next time.
SJ @1
Two minors points.
Hutchison was a member of the board of directors for the Discovery Institute. That’s a taint that does not wash off.
Next chance you get, ask a conservative (or libertarian) to define “free market”. It’s a fun exercise.
See, the “free market” doesn’t exist. At least not in any economic textbook I’ve seen. Like most of the conservative worldview, it’s just make believe.
If you are counting Hutchison out, you are making a big mistake. I think she is counting on smug progressives not to take her seriously much like Dino Rossi caught Gregoire offf guard in 2004.
Remember that Dow is running as a member of the “status Quo” in many people’s eyes, not the best place to be in these times.
Hay jason
We agree on this. The DI is a bad thing, but she has also served on good things .. eg the Seattle Symphony. I can easily imagine someone sympathetic to the DI who would be a superb county exec but she is obviously not that person.
Rather, it seems to me that she represents a real opportuniyt for progrssives to hang the albatross of Palin, Beck, et al. arounf the Republican brand.
Here are some questions I would ask her:
1. Where do you stand on censoring books in the KC library?
2. Where do you stand on spending money to enforce MJ laws?
3. Do you think Justice Sotomayor’s experiences as a Latina add to her ability to be a good judge and if so would you support similar candidates here?
4. How does concern for global warming effect county policies on stream control, traffic?
5. Should County employees be required to say “Merry Christmas?”
Right now, the big 4 Dems have 62% of the vote. That bodes well for Dow. The Dow campaign will absolutely not get complacent, but I’m afraid the rank & file Dem’s might, which could give SH an opening.
@1) I doubt SH can drag down Reichert & Dunn. Especially Dunn. Reichert might drag himself down, however.
If Reichert would get out of the way and let Dunn run for Congress, Dunn would be an instant sensation and rising star on the national scene (assuming he could get past DelBene).
Perhaps the best thing Reichert, who has been famously ineffective, could do for the Republicans is just go away.
Ask her if both candidates if they are birthers.
I like using the same criteria for both candidates.
What, exactly, would you cut?
Do you know what the fuck you are talking about?
Questions like that.
SH is smart enough to just not answer questions that arguably are outside the arena of county government.
Ask her about “raising taxes” at the symphony. When the symphony was facing a budget shortfall, she didn’t cut the budget, she got out her Rolodex and went begging for more money. Now, THAT’S leadership.
Quincy: Agree: Susan Hutchison should get out of the race and “bow out gracefully.”
But, when was the last time Susan Hutchison bowed out of ANYTHING GRACEFULLY?
Susan’s exit from KIRO and her lawsuit, was not a bow to grace either :).
SJ @6
Those are some pretty random questions. I’m not currently a candidate, but since you asked nicely, I’ll try to answer.
1. Where do you stand on censoring books in the KC library?
Is there a specific issue or event you’re referring to? Because I currently have no complaints against KCLs.
In general, censorship is bad. But I wouldn’t want my tax dollars buying porn or anything written by haters like Michelle Malkin. When it comes to violent rhetoric and hate speech, it really tests my commitment to free speech.
Perhaps that’s where judgment comes in. I can imagine there’s explicit censoring, where certain titles are banned, and implicit censoring, where selective purchasing conveniently omits distasteful or inappropriate content.
2. Where do you stand on spending money to enforce MJ laws?
Does “MJ” mean marijuana? If so, the Drug War is a complete failure and a cancer on our society. Portugal legalized marijuana to great benefit. In general, I am a member of the Dutch “least harm” school of thought. In the case of marijuana, legalizing it is the least bad solution.
3. Do you think Justice Sotomayor’s experiences as a Latina add to her ability to be a good judge and if so would you support similar candidates here?
Sotomayor appears hypercompetent. From my readings (mostly Glenn Greenwald), her jurisprudence is probably more conservative than my own. But she’s not a troglodyte and I think our Supreme Court would benefit from having its average IQ raised.
In general, the courts of our land should reflect the citizens of our land. If blacks and latinos minorities are 10% (each) of our society, than 10% of the judges should be black and 10% should be latino. (The local distribution should reflect local conditions.)
4. How does concern for global warming effect county policies on stream control, traffic?
In brief, to save our salmon runs, we’ll have to actively manage the water and habitat.
We’ve already lost the snow pack in the Cascades. So water is no longer stored in the hills to be released gradually. We’ll have to build reservoirs and cisterns to control flooding and protect habitat.
We’ll have more forest fires. Trees are required to shade habitat. So we’ll probably need to actively plant more drought tolerant, fire resistent species. (As well as replace the evergreens destroyed by the pine beetle.)
As fish stocks continue to plummet, we’ll probably have to enforce a moratorium on fishing, to allow the stocks to recover.
I don’t know what can be done about the acidification of the ocean. If it gets too bad, our oceans won’t be able to support most life, making all of our other efforts moot. Scientists have proposed industrial scale solutions, like adding tons and tons of iron powder, which seem radical but may prove necessary.
I believe traffic will take care of itself. Miles traveled will continue to decline. We’ll see a transition to renewable fuels, perhaps 50%, hopefully sooner than later.
5. Should County employees be required to say “Merry Christmas?”
This was not my suggestion. I lobbied very hard for the official winter greeting used by county employees to be “Peace Be With You”.
Cheers, Jason
12 Those county fucks got you brainwashed. Merry Christmas. How the FUCK could anyone be against MERRY CHRISTMAS! FUCKING ASSHOLES!
13 m
Well, mark, a long, long time ago, there was this man named Jesus. A bunch of religious fanatics used the circumstances of his death and a fictional account of magical happenings associated with it to start one of the largest religious cults on the planet. “Christmas” is the chronologically erroneous and fictionalized celebration of the birth of the man who is this cult’s obsession.
But the United States is a diverse society in which we cheerfully tolerate and mix with the adherents of a great many religious cults, and also with some people who do not associate with religious cults at all.
In order that this remains a cordial society, we will refrain from favoring one cult over another in our public, governmental functions.
See? It wasn’t that hard.