First Governor Gregoire and now Rick Larsen have endorsed Suzan DelBene. I’m not sure how much endorsements matter, but these are good ones to have. Her campaign also has raised the most money.
So it seems like the establishment support is coalescing around her. I don’t know if there’s anything other than money that makes her more establishment than Ruderman etc. She’s a fine candidate, and was willing to take on Reichert in a year that was going to be tough for Democrats. If Democrats want to give her another shot, that’s cool. But Ruderman stepped aside in 1998 to clear the field for Jay Inslee, and then actually won an election for legislature.
The main thing seems to be that she can (and has shown she’s willing to) self finance. If she needs the money, the Democrats won’t have to bail her out when Karl Rove spends literally infinity corporate dollars in the district.
DelBene deals in the art of the possible — she just doesn’t know much about what’s possible — except finding a way to get big business involved in it.
“…in a year that was going to be tough for Democrats.”
Yes, I think it will be a tough year for the Dems, but Obama will get re-elected in November. The Dems should put more effort into the House and Senate contests than in the race for prez since Obama will win without much effort.
Money IS going to be important in this race. Now that re-districting has re-juggled the House districts in Washington, everything is up for grabs again – except for the “safe” Republican districts. Name recognition among voters who didn’t pay much attention to other districts previoiusly will be important this year.
Even Reichart will finally get to go to Washington without begging for funding from his national party (perhaps for the first time)!
@3 – McDermott and Smith are safer than ever too. All incumbents were protected in redistricting. That’s the way these things work.
The more I find out about Ruderman the more I like her. If I lived in the district it would be hard to choose between her and Darcy.
I’m not a huge fan of DelBene so far, everything I’ve seen of her makes her out to be the sort of “moderate” who is afraid of their own shadow.