Recommendations - Eve of the Storm

I wasn’t planning on making a list of recommendations for tomorrow’s primary, in part because some of the readership here is non-local and this sort of thing may be a bit tedious to them. (Also, with the winds, power is an iffy thing in the South Puget Sound area right now, and this is a second draft after losing the first one). People seeking full recommendations should check out the PI, the Times, and the Weekly(a fave), but most of all the well-considered thoughts of Mrs. Monkey King, Shelly in Seattle.

In particular, I would recommend you check these guys out for the Judgeships that are coming up for State Supreme Court and Superior Court. These races do not get a lot of attention, and have lower vote totals as a result, but are key for the future of the state. A very good (but not exclusive) tool for this is the ratings from the King County Bar Association. Its a peer review. Note that if a candidate gets 50% or more in the race, he or she gets the position without having to go to the general election – otherwise the top two contenders face off in the general. If it sounds like something the political parties hate and swear would never work, well, it is something they hate and something that works pretty well.

A recommendation I will make, however, is for Deborah Senn for State’s Attorney General. If one is known by the quality of one’s enemies, then Ms. Senn has a whopper as an opponent. The mysterious Voters Education Committee, which has been running a vicious smear campaign against the former State Insurance Commissioner, has been forced to reveal its singular donor. And the mysterious force attacking Ms. Senn is . . .

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In the 60s movie, The President’s Analyst, Lee Marvin gets involved in a conspiracy by a secret, ruthless organization, TPC, who is revealed to be . . . The Phone Company. So I had a similar moment when confronted with the fact that the supposedly sedate, pro-business, Republican-but-not-scary-Republican chamber went after Senn so viciously, hoping to throttle her campaign in the cradle, out of apparent fear of a candidate that would not toe the economic bottom line from the start. For this reason if no other, I want to see her go on, and pass along this information and recommendation.

For the same reasons, I have cooled my jets slightly against Christine Gregoire. In her case, a buncha developers went after her, hoping to turn “Angry-at-the-New-Voting System” votes into “Angry-at-Gregoire”. Again, sleazy behavior from people who are supposed to be already powerful enough not to need it. Mind you, I still support and recommend Ron Sims (who I’ve seen in two debates, and has impressed me even though he reminds me of Drew Carey – both Gregoire and GOP candidate Dino “Not Scary! Really!” Ross have kept pretty much to the party boilerplate. Yet Gregoire has been similarly proven under fire, and I have to admire that.

OK, One more. For the 8th in Democrats, I’m going for Heidi Behrens-Benedict. I was impressed by her at the party caucuses, and I’m going with my heart here. She came close to unseating Dunn twice, and seems to have been abandoned by her party at a time when a good shot finally appeared.

No recommendations on the GOP side (what, like you’d take one, knowing who it came from?). I do believe if Reichert gets the nod for the 8th District, he will likely win, but if another candidate makes it, the GOP may lose the district. Dino Rossi continues to not look scary (until you, like, listen to what he's saying).

More later,