There were more than a few miffed members of the press Wednesday evening after being lured to Dave Reichert’s campaign headquarters by a media advisory promising a “major announcement,” only to find delusional fringe challenger Jim Vaughn at the podium, offering his enthusiastic endorsement.
“He’s earned my respect,” Vaughn (drunk on the power that comes from capturing a whopping 3% of the vote) said of the “yes man for George Bush” he previously accused of not having passed “one piece of legislation.”
Um… a “major” announcement…? Yeah, well, I guess so, that is, if Reichert was referring to Vaughn’s former army rank, but as far as announcements go, this one wasn’t all that. But then I guess that’s just an indication of how incredibly close Reichert expects this race to be, that he’s now aggressively wooing the crackpot vote.
“I really did want to knock Dave out,” [Vaughn] said. But that was a strategy rather than a disagreement with Reichert’s positions, he said. He figured if he beat Reichert in the primary, he would earn conservative Democratic and Republican votes and easily beat Burner.
Yeah… sure you would, Jim. Here, have some gum.
Still, every vote counts, so perhaps Reichert is onto a winning strategy that might soon be adopted by other nervous contenders, suddenly transforming the dregs of the ballot into the toast of the power elite. Familiar names like Stan Lippman, Will Baker and David Blomstrom could find themselves courted by top-two finalists eager to win over the tens of votes each almost-also-ran commands, a loyal political base earned from years of running hopeless campaigns without ever smelling of poop. (Well, maybe Will.)
Indeed, at this very moment I wouldn’t be surprised if Linda Averill is busy negotiating a workers paradise in exchange for her prized endorsement, while Goodspaceguy Nelson has all but secured federal earmarks to fund the colonization of orbital space. And then there’s Mike the Mover, the Boss Tweed of perennial crackpottery, who in the context of this closely divided electorate not only has the political muscle to get you to the other Washington, but the truck as well.
Think about it… if the gubernatorial race is anywhere near as close as it was in 2004, Javier Lopez could be the deciding factor, his endorsement bringing with it the small yet highly sought after “I had sex with my high school teacher, and I’m proud of it” vote.
So kudos to Reichert for running such a groundbreaking campaign: first his pioneering use of web videos, and now his successful outreach to Jim Vaughn, a grassroots champion who by the end of July had nearly come within $1,980,000 of the $1.98 million Darcy Burner has raised thus far. I’m sure the press is sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for Reichert’s next “major announcement.”
Over 840 thousand voters threw the lever for Will Baker in 2004.
http://tinyurl.com/4uwj34
C’mon Republicans some of you who voted for him in 2004 can surely support Will Baker for Governor in 2008!!!
Let’s see the love for the “International Man of Diplomacy”!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....of07m.html
Still looking for that pony, eh Goldy?
Even with expensive TV ad buys and glossy print mailers, Darcy couldn’t muster enough primary votes to top Reichert’s total. (Not that it matters – she had more primary votes in ’06 and STILL lost the general during the biggest Dem landslide in decades.
So keep raising netroot dollars Darcy, and then drain those coffers. It will never buy you the experience or respect needed to win this race. Nor will your out-of-district netroot contributors be eligible to vote for you.
Go Reichert.
Hey, Goldie, this just in…..Paris Hilton is endorsing Jim Vaughn’s support of Dave. I hear a video will be coming out soon….
Are you saying Pope is a delusional fringe candidate as well…? Say it ain’t so.
Or are you miffed that the 3 percent of Vaughn voters might actually follow his lead ? Did they vote for Vaughn because they think he is better than Burner ? Did they vote for him because Burner is just running against Bush (claiming Reichert is Bush Lite) instead of actually having some ideas of her own ?
But thinking of it…I think I agree with your characterization of Pope…good job.
dutch @4,
I’m fond of Richard, but yeah, of course, he’s a fringe candidate. Though to his credit he’s received a helluva lot more votes than Vaughn.
The three percent of voters who voted for Vaughn didn’t vote for Reichert, that’s all I know for sure. And they voted for somebody who claimed to be a Democrat. Vaughn is no Hillary Clinton, and it’s crazy to think that he somehow controls a voting block. His endorsement means nothing.
The headline is totally unfair to R. Pope. Yes, he’s a fringe candidate, but he’s a really nice guy and one of us.
re 2: “Go Reichert.” Yes. Do something besides primp and tattle on bus drivers.
re 4: 19 million Iraqis now live in a country that is free of the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. 5 million Iraqis are political refugees in surrounding countries, one million Iraqis are dead, 5,000 American soldiers are dead, and 35,000 are wounded and/or maimed for life.
The Iraqi government is reneging on the oil deals with American companies (not that we would have benefitted from them, anyway) and giving them to the CHINESE COMMIES (WalMart’s ‘Production Associates’) instead.
Bush is about to announce a TIMETABLE for bugging out every troop by 2011, beating our own soulful ‘Neville Chamberlain’ by 3 years.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh!! The sweet smell of Republican VICTORY.
not
Maybe the whole venture failed because of Democratic failure to festoon their vehicles with magnetic yellow ribbons.
Best column in a long time.
Klingon @ 7
And Darcy has done WHAT, exactly?
Klingon @ 8
WHAT venture failed? Oh…. wait…..maybe you’re unhappy because our brave troops will be brought home with US/Iraq agreement and without guidance from Darcy’s Responsible term paper To End the War?
Let the numbers speak for themselves
Darcy Burner
Amount spent as of June 30, 2008: $3,944,611.00
Number of votes received: 52,462
Cost per vote against amount spent: $75.19
Campaign start date: June 20, 2005
Number of months since campaign start: 39
Number of votes per month: 1345
Dave Reichert
Amount spent as of June 30, 2008: $804,960
Number of votes received: 56,983
Cost per vote against amount spent: $14.12
Campaign start date: Nov. 2006
Number of months since campaign start: 21.5
Number of votes per month: 2,650
Jim Vaughn
Amount spent as of June 30, 2008: $2,219
Number of votes received: 4,041
Cost per vote against amount spent: $0.52
Campaign start date: 20 May 2008
Number of months since campaign start: 3
Number of votes per month: 1,347
Money buys many things in politics, but apparently not votes in WA-08. Thanks for the stats, JV for DR.
Look, I called Jim Vaughn an ASSHOLE on this blog, right after his stab-in-the-back traitorous endorsement of Dave Reichert:
9. Richard Pope spews:
WHAT AN ASSHOLE!
A conservative Democrat who came in a distant third in Tuesday’s primary in the 8th Congressional District announced Wednesday that he’s endorsing incumbent Republican Rep. Dave Reichert.
ETC ETC ETC
08/21/2008 at 6:19 am
In fact, I called Jim Vaughn an ASSHOLE twice in a row, because Goldy’s spam filter held my first comment hostage for a while.
Jim @11,
Richard Pope kicks your ass in the dollar per vote ratio, so don’t get so high and mighty.
It’s one thing to run a joke campaign. I’ve done that myself. But it’s another to run a joke campaign and not know it.
Jim Vaughn @ 11
Did you remember to vote for yourself in the primary election? You don’t exactly have the most involved voting record. You registered to vote on September 27, 2004. You voted in November 2004, completely skipped all the elections in 2005, voted in the general election in 2006 (but not the primary), and voted in the general election in 2007 (but not the primary). Oh, and you signed for a Democratic ballot in the 2008 presidential primary — evidently so that you could pretend to be a “Democrat”.
Your recently married wife, Sally Daugherty, interestingly enough has the exact same voting history as you. She registered on the exact same day as you, voted in the exact same elections as you, and missed the exact same elections as you.
I see your house in Orting is in her name, not in yours. That isn’t such a big issue, but she bought the house on November 1, 2002. Why did it take you folks nearly two years to register to vote after moving to Pierce County?
Goldy @ 14
How you can even compare me with that asshole loser? I have run for partisan office five times, and received the nomination of the party that I filed under four of those times. The one time I ran for partisan office, and was not nominated for the general election, the primary was so close that King County elections had to do a mandatory recount.
I have also run for non-partisan office six times. In two of those elections, I finished in the “top two”, and qualified for the general election. In three other races, I finished in third place. And in the other race, I finished fourth out of nine candidates, and still had over 12% of the vote (compared with Jim Vaughn’s pathetic 3.43% and well over 10-to-1 drubbing by the second place candidate).