Search Results for: Reichert

First-term Republican Rep. Dave Reichert refused to be interviewed by MSNBC.com for their piece highlighting the tight race for WA’s 8th Congressional District. But state Senator Pam Roach (R-19th Century) was not so shy in going on the record to criticize Democratic challenger Darcy Burner:

“I got her mailer, with the photo of her and her son,” said Republican Pam Roach, a 16-year veteran of the state senate and a Reichert supporter, whose legislative district overlaps part of the southern portion of the congressional district. “My reaction was: “If you’re elected, when are you going to spend time with your child?’ She has one baby; will she have two or three more?” People in the district, Roach said, demand full-time representation.

“My reaction was “why don’t you just take care of your child and grow up a bit and then think about running for office?'”

Yeah, um… because having a political career is exactly the type of maternal neglect that could lead your child to grow up to be a drug dealer or something.

The spectacle of Pam Roach offering anybody child rearing tips is ironic enough, but I wonder if Roach has offered the same sage, Victorian advice to incumbent Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris in WA’s 5th Congressional District?

After all, if Roach is implying that women of childbearing age shouldn’t server in Congress, it is the recently married, fundamentalist Christian, anti-birth-control, 35-year-old McMorris who is way more likely to be popping out babies over the next few sessions. On the other hand, demographic trends strongly suggest that the pro-choice, feminist Burner, with a single child after 13 years of marriage, is exactly the type of woman who tends to stop at one.

So I guess we should be expecting Roach to announce her endorsement of Peter Goldmark any day now, right?

Normally, I listen to the podcast before writing up these summaries, because… well… I was drinking at the time it was recorded and I want to make sure that I remember events accurately. But apparently, that’s just not the Mike?™ McGavick Way of doing things. So I’ll just write this post to the best of my recollection, and apologize in advance if I’m contradicted by the actual audio recording.

I’m pretty damn sure that joining me in an our sober discussion of the issues were Will, Mollie, Lynn, Nick, Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly and TV’s Soleil Moon Frye. At least I think. Topics of discussion may have included Mike?™ McGavick’s alcohol-hazed recollection of his DUI, Mike?™ McGavick’s money-crazed connection to VECO Corp. and their Corrupt Bastards Club of Alaska legislators, Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark spreading like wildfire through WA’s 5th Congressional District, and I think — though I’m not sure, ’cause I don’t really remember anything after I strapped the headset on — I think we talked at length about how Rep. Dave Reichert’s extensive use of steroids have swollen his testicles to the size of small grapefruit. But maybe not.

The show is 51:51, and is available here as a 38.9 MB MP3. Please visit PodcastingLiberally.com for complete archives and RSS feeds.

[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Confab creators Gavin and Richard for producing the show.]

From an article in yesterday’s NY Times about Karl Rove’s waning influence in the Republican Party, a tidbit that hints at what we should brace for here in our Washington over the next couple months:

They have determined that control of Congress is likely to be settled in as few as six states and have decided to focus most of the party’s resources there, said Republican officials who did not want to be identified discussing internal deliberations. Those states will likely include Connecticut, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington, though officials said the battle lines could shift in coming weeks.

If state Republicans seem blase about the tough races facing first term incumbent Representatives Dave Reichert and Cathy McMorris, and overly confident about their traction-less Senate nominee Mike?™ McGavick, that’s because they assume the RNC’s huge cash advantage will easily overwhelm and smother the electorate’s nascent unrest and distrust. And normally, that might be true.

But even though Democrats will be heavily outspent on both House races, and possibly even the Senate, there is a point of diminishing returns beyond which a blitz of advertising just becomes so much white noise. At least 3 to 4 million dollars will be spent on behalf of 8th CD challenger Darcy Burner, more than enough to get her name and message before voters, and if Peter Goldmark can meet his million dollar fundraising target while drawing in a modest amount of independent expenditures, that could be all he needs to catch fire in the less media saturated 5th CD. And as for the enigmatic Mike?™ McGavick, no amount of money is going to win him a Senate seat unless he manages to persuade voters exactly why they need to turn Sen. Maria Cantwell out… and exactly what legislative agenda he intends to pursue in her stead.

The important thing to take away from this tidbit is that Republicans intend to focus their resources on Washington state because they know their candidates here are vulnerable… they know that both Burner and Goldmark have a good shot at winning, and the RNC intends to crush their chances under a truckload of cash.

But don’t despair, because in this year, in this political climate and with these candidates, WA Dems don’t have to outspend their opponents to win, they just have to keep it relatively close. A challengers dollar simply buys more than that of an incumbent, thus the biggest thing you can do to contribute to Democratic chances to retake the House is to help our candidates get their message out by giving as much as you can afford to Burner and Goldmark.

The Republicans are willing to invest all they can in these races. Shouldn’t you?

KING-5 TV just released the first head-to-head poll in WA’s 8th Congressional District race between Republican incumbent Rep. Dave Reichert and Democratic challenger Darcy Burner… and I’m guessing both sides are going to claim they’re thrilled with the results.

According to the poll of 609 registered voters conducted by SurveyUSA, Reichert leads Burner 54% to 41% with only 6% undecided.

So if Reichert is leading by an apparently comfortable 13 point margin, why did one longtime Democratic politico ecstatically email me that these numbers are “freakin’ fantastic”…?

I’m guessing the biggest reason for Democrats to get excited is that Burner’s 41 percent is damn impressive considering she entered this race with zero name recognition, and has only just begun to make her first tentative forays into paid media. The poll was conducted 8/22 – 8/23, only a week after Burner made her first, small TV buy; her first direct mail piece is only just now reaching voters.

Much of Reichert’s lead can surely be attributed to a huge advantage in name ID — which must register a stratospheric ninety-something percent for the former sheriff and self-proclaimed Green River Killer catcher. It is also an advantage that is surely exaggerated by the fact that the poll did not screen for “likely voters”; this screen won’t come until after the primary.

Burner supporters can also be buoyed by the crosstabs, which show only 35% support for President Bush, significantly lower than SurveyUSA’s national average. Those who approve of President Bush’s job performance choose Reichert by an overwelming 93% to 4% margin. Those who disapprove choose Burner 66% to 27%.

The task for Burner seems clear. She needs to improve her name ID while persuading voters to identify Reichert with President Bush’s failed policies. Given the time and the resources, both can be achieved, and fortunately for Burner she has plenty of both.

Of course this is only a single poll, and not necessarily one of the most reliable. As I’ve previously pointed out, many respectable news agencies like CNN and the Associated Press won’t even report on robo-polls like SurveyUSA’s. (Let’s face it, nobody really believes that only 6 percent of voters are undecided at this point in the race. Many undecided voters simply hang up on robo-polls.) The fact is, KING-5 contracts with SurveyUSA because it’s cheap.

That said, one thing seems pretty obvious: considering the dynamics of the race and the unique political climate this year, 41 percent in August absolutely puts Burner within striking distance for November. Reichert supporters can take solace in the 13 point margin if they want, but I’m guessing their internal numbers aren’t nearly as comforting, and I guarantee the race will narrow as voters learn more about the candidates.

We’re off to the races.

Both Darcy Burner and Peter Goldmark have shared details of their internal polls (here and here,) yet their opponents, Dave Reichert and Cathy McMorris have remained silent.

Hmm. I wonder why?

Via Swing State Project, Amy Walter of Cook Political Report explains:

Publicly released polls taken in individual districts also tell a pretty ugly story for the incumbent party in Congress. Since the beginning of this year, we have seen 38 polls released by Democrats, or Democratic-related groups, while we have seen just five public polls released by Republicans or Republican-related groups. And, when you look at the individual polls, it is easy to understand why Democrats are much more willing to disclose their numbers.

Democrats have released polling taken in 27 districts held by a Republican. Of those, 22 incumbents were under 50 percent of the vote against their Democratic opponent and 10 incumbents were either behind or within the margin of error. Republicans have only released three polls in Republican held seats – two of which showed the Republican under 50 percent (one was Rep. Bob Ney who announced this week that he was not running for re-election).

And with Burner on the air early, pumping up her positives and name ID unopposed, it’s awfully unlikely Reichert’s gonna find a more flattering poll than the one he commissioned in July — and quietly sat on.

Who is Dave Reichert really representing?

The Seattle Times editorial board excoriates the Bush administration today for its warrantless eavesdropping program, and congratulates a federal judge for ruling it illegal and unconstitutional.

Congress has been utterly useless in holding the administration accountable for key parts of its national-security policy and its handling of the war in Iraq. In the face of an outright abandonment of oversight of the chief executive, the task has fallen to the judicial branch.

Of course, I agree.

But it raises a question. I’ve been willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that the Times endorses both Mike McGavick and Dave Reichert in November’s general election — if only to cater to its publisher’s fetish for repealing the estate death Blethen Tax. And yet the editorial board acknowledges that we are in the midst of “a fundamental struggle over the rule of law and checks and balances.”

Hmm.

I am curious to see whether the Times lives up to its own oversight obligations, or instead chooses the narrow economic interests of its owners over the welfare of the nation by endorsing candidates who would sustain a Republican majority that has willfully abdicated Congress’ role as a coequal branch of government?

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is conducting an online poll to select three favorite candidates to receive special campaign support:

• A fundraising email from Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi or DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel to our list;
• A phone bank run out of the Democratic National Headquarters for their campaign;
• The feature spot on our Web site to get their message out, with a link to their campaign contribution page;
• An online chat with the DCCC community to exchange ideas on the campaign and the future of our country.

We all know that the battle to defeat Rep. Dave Reichert is going to be damn close; well this is the kind of extra support that could put challenger Darcy Burner over top. So I strongly urge you to cast your vote for the DCCC’s “Candidate for Change” today… and cast it for Burner. It’s also a chance to prove again how strong our local netroots are.

(And while you’re at it, why not write in Peter Goldmark? I did.)

The contest ends August 23rd, so vote now, and please pass this along as widely as possible.

I’m miffed. Rep. Dave Reichert was too scared busy to come on my KIRO radio show Sunday night, but had no problem finding the time to spend an hour on KUOW with host Steve Scher Monday morning.

Whatever. The more the public hears directly from Reichert the better Darcy Burner’s chances look in November.

You can listen to KUOW’s podcast here, or read thoughtful analysis from local bloggers Darryl, Michael and Dan. Then talk amongst yourselves.

Sure it might be tempting to sit outdoors tonight, enjoying our beautiful summer weather, but are you nuts? You could be hit by one of those meteors! So come inside, turn up the radio and tune in to “The David Goldstein Show tonight on Newsradio 710-KIRO, from 7PM to 10PM.

7PM: Within hours of the revelation that British police had foiled a terrorist plot to blow up 10 airplanes over the Atlantic, Republicans were busy exploiting fear for political gain. Again. I invited Rep. Dave Reichert to join me to talk about our government’s appropriate response to terrorism, but apparently he’s afraid to come on my show. So Democratic challenger Darcy Burner will join me instead to talk about what we’re doing right and wrong in our so-called “War on Terror.”

8PM: Hey… wouldn’t it be great to get a free, zero-interest, $1.275 million mortgage? That’s what SAFECO gave former CEO Mike McGavick to entice him to move back to Seattle. And yet, rather than paying back SAFECO shareholders for their largesse, McGavick just lent his Senate campaign a cool $2 million. Washington State Democratic Chair Dwight Pelz will be joining me, and you can be sure I’ll be pumping him for a few choice soundbites. And if you are a SAFECO shareholder, employee (current or ex) or policyholder, please call in and give me your take on whether Mike!™ earned his exclamation mark, let alone his fortune.

9PM: Incumbent US Senators never lose primaries. That is, until the netroots-fueled campaign of Ned Lamont defeated 3-term incumbent Joe Lieberman Tuesday in Connecticut. Does this election signal the ascendancy of the blogosphere? The decline of the Democratic Party? Or simply the fact that a majority of Connecticut voters are sick and tired of Joe being used as a tool to prop up the Bush administration’s failed policies at home and abroad? Will from Pike Place Politics will join me in the studio take your calls and give you his opinion.

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

Last week I wrote about the sleazy push-poll Rep. Dave Reichert had in the field against challenger Darcy Burner, now confirmed by at least a half dozen recipients. So it was interesting to learn that state GOP chair Diane Tebelius is now accusing Democrats of push-polling:

This week marked additional lows for negative campaign tactics with the use of “push-polling” tactics in the 26th district race on the Kitsap Peninsula. […] The Lantz campaign is out to mislead voters with push polling surveys that target Beckie Krantz and malign her character. It is a devious tactic, but also shows that the Lantz campaign is pushing the panic button.

No doubt, push-polling is a devious tactic, but what Tebelius fails to add is, um… any corroborating evidence whatsoever.

This isn’t the first squawk I’ve heard from state Republicans about low-down, Democratic push-polls, mostly just warnings to constituents to beware of their inevitability. Which to the son of a Freudian psychoanalyst suggests a diagnosis of political projection, either conscious or unconscious. In layman’s terms I’m guessing we might be seeing an “I’m rubber, you’re glue” maneuver — an attempt by Republicans to immunize themselves against a backlash by accusing Democrats of conducting the very same, sleazy, low-down tactics that GOP candidates already have in the works.

UPDATE:
FYI, I’ve received a number of emails from experienced political operatives who absolutely agree: the R’s are planning to go real nasty this election and they’re just trying to set up the D’s so that the press will ignore it as tit for tat.

The one real advantage that Rep. Dave Reichert has in his tough reelection battle against Democratic challenger Darcy Burner, is name recognition.

Well… that’s about to end.

Burner hits the airwaves today with her first TV ad, a sixty-second spot designed to introduce the candidate to voters. That Burner can afford to go live so early in the campaign is a testament to her hard work and the enthusiastic support she has generated. It is also an indication of just how tough this race will be for both candidates.

Of course, one of the risks of spending money this early is that it could potentially leave her short of resources during the crucial few weeks before election, but there is one sure fire means of avoiding this calamity: give Burner more money now.

For Burner to win she needs to stay on the air from now until November, getting both her name and her message out in front of voters. And all this costs money.

So if you really care about the 8th Congressional District and the state of Washington, and about the future direction of our nation… if really want to address corruption in Congress and provide real oversight of the most authoritarian White House in recent memory, the most important contribution you can make right now is financial. Give Burner the money she needs to defeat Reichert and take back the House of Representatives for all of us.

And if, like me, you have more spare time than money, Burner can always use more volunteers.

Oh no! Mike!™ McGavick has become a victim of negative politics! Heaven forfend!

According to the Seattle P-I’s Joel Connelly:

Vilification of McGavick, the most talented Senate candidate recruited by Republicans in 2006, stands as a model for the bipartisan tactics of debasement infecting American politics.

I like and respect Joel, and often agree with his analysis, but this time… not so much.

First of all, I don’t believe that by contemporary standards Mike!™ has been all that vilified. (Yet.) We’ve called him a “lobbyist” — he was one. We’ve ridiculed him for prevaricating on several controversial issues — and he has. We’ve characterized the $28.3 million golden parachute he negotiated after announcing his resignation from SAFECO as “obscene” — I think many shareholders, policyholders and laid-off employees would agree that it is.

What we haven’t done is accused him of killing one of his best friends, or of being a coward and a traitor who hates America. We haven’t morphed him into a terrorist or accused him of caring more about sex offenders than about innocent children. We haven’t publicly debated the unusual shape of his penis.

What we haven’t done is lied. And we haven’t delved into his divorce or other areas of his personal life… not that it should necessarily be off limits. So I don’t quite understand Joel’s characterization of a handful of snarky press releases and a shareholder lawsuit as a “mean, low-down attack.” These are political attacks… which is exactly what you expect to see against a guy running for political office.

My second point of contention with Joel is the notion that in discussing the “debasement” of American politics he could possible talk about my blog in the same breath as he talks about the tactics of the US Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the past half-decade (yes, hundreds of millions) running smear campaigns in local elections. In 2004 they spent $1.5 million torpedoing Deborah Senn’s run for Attorney General, and just this past week they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV ads thanking Dave Reichert for a bill that passed before he was elected to Congress.

Meanwhile, I’m just some local blogger with a couple thousand readers who can barely pay my own bills. Sure, when it comes to influencing politics I get more bang for my buck, but let’s keep this in perspective: I don’t have any bucks. If I manage to have more of an impact than the folks over on the right-wing blog, well that’s an accomplishment of which I’m pretty damn proud. But don’t lump me in with Karl Rove or the US Chamber. Even if I aspired to embrace the dark side I don’t have the resources or the opportunity to even begin to make the impact these Republican sleaze masters achieve with a simple wave of their hands.

My only contribution to the shareholder lawsuit was a brief post that helped hook up the attorney with the plaintiff, and hell… Craig’s List probably would have gotten a larger response. It was no different from a similar query over on (u)SP (other than the fact that I didn’t attempt to sneakily hide my tracks by deleting the original text,) and hardly a poisonous, Rovian tactic of political debasement.

Finally, I have to take issue with Joel for calling me out in his closing paragraphs:

On the horsesass.org Web site, which helped spawn the lawsuit, founder David Goldstein held forth last Thursday: “McGavick’s midlife conversion to ‘civility’ is a joke to anyone who remembers the vicious campaign he ran on behalf of Slade Gorton.”

Not true, Goldie, and you didn’t even live here then.

No Joel, I didn’t live in the state back then, and even if I did I wouldn’t pretend to have the impressive institutional memory you possess. But you know me well enough to know that I am curious and inquisitive about my adopted state’s political history, and I’ve heard enough stories and read enough newspaper accounts to convince me that Mike!™ was no angel.

Civility isn’t a campaign theme. It’s an excuse. A shield. A feeble attempt to ward off all criticism or unfavorable analysis or probing questions as poisonous political debasement, all the while freeing his own surrogates to attack at will. But on this point I’m more than happy to agree to disagree.

See, I can forgive Joel for conflating unflattering facts and snark with character assassination. I can forgive Joel for lumping me in with some of the evil masters of the Republican attack machine. I can even forgive Joel for publicly accusing me of being wrong about Mike!™’s reputation as a political operative.

But there’s one final transgression for which I’m not quite sure I can ever forgive Joel.

It’s spelled “Goldy” with a “y.”

“Goldie” with an “ie” is the feminine spelling, and as a nom de guerre for an evil, political muckraker like me, that would just plain look silly.

I’ve spent a lot of time hyping up the Burner/Reichert race in the WA’s 8th Congressional District, which is steadily sliding towards the toss-up category as the election approaches. But as it turns out, Dave Reichert isn’t our only Republican incumbent who should be looking over his shoulders.

Over in the 5th CD (the Eastern half of Eastern WA) Rep. Cathy McMorris is proving to be a lot more vulnerable than her friends in the local media seem ready to admit. Indeed, the latest round of internal polling conducted by Lake Research Partners suggests that this is a winnable seat for Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark… given the financial resources to communicate his message.

Here are the survey’s main conclusions:

• In the initial ballot, incumbent McMorris receives less than a majority of the vote against Goldmark despite a vast name recognition advantage. After both candidates get their messages out, Goldmark pulls into a virtual tie with McMorris
  

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In my absence there has been some speculation over my role in the shareholder lawsuit challenging former Safeco CEO Mike McGavick’s golden parachute. I suppose I should have clarified things the day the story broke, but my dog and daughter and I have been chasing birds in Long Beach the past couple days, mostly out of cell phone range, and entirely without Internet access but for brief morning visits to a local WiFi hotspot. (Long Beach Coffee has great java by the way… but rather spotty Internet service.)