Local Politics: State Reps (47th)

So having dispatched the big Primary races for US Senate and Representative, we slip down to the local, local stuff. In my case, its the Fightin' 47th Legislative District, which is delivering both Representatives to the State House and the State Senator as well. Let's do the easy ones first, with the State Reps - two positions, two candidates from each party, no waiting.

Both the 1st and 2nd Position for State Representative are held by the Democrat incumbents - Geoff Simpson and Pat Sullivan. Long-term readers of this journal know them from previous races, and not a lot has happened to change my stand on them as good, solid, competent individuals. And their writeups in the Voter's Pamphlet are pretty straightforward - both get to run on being fiscally responsible (The state is currently running at a surplus), tough on crime, and both pro-strong economy and pro-education.

The Republican writeups are also short and sweet. Donna Watts is a former Boeing employee who advocates fiscal responsibility, pro-strong economy and pro-eductaion. Andrew Frantz is veteran of Iraq (First Iraq, I think, though neither his bio or his web site is particularly clear on the matter) and a small business owner (nature of business also unclear), and is pro-education, fiscal responsibility, and pre-clean environment. Pretty straightforward welcome-to-the-campaign-trail stuff (and pretty close to what the incumbents are saying). Where I see the difference is head-nods to property rights and property taxes, which are usually a hot-button issue in this part of the state.

All in all, very traditional (not that that's a bad thing at this stage), and pretty much a setup for folks who are alone on their Primary tickets. Nothing major, but worth noting in passing.

More later,