Let's start at the top - US Senator and House of Representatives. Like the rest of the country, we get two Senators, and one is up for re-election. Our neck of the woods for the US House is District 9, a narrow district straddling Lake Washington with bits of Seattle and Bellevue, and running south to Federal Way.
Senator: Maria Cantwell has been our junior senator for 24 years now, and is still chugging away. She's one of the engines behind the CHIPS act that kept semiconductor jobs here in the US. Yeah, wonky stuff, but still effective. The other candidates on the list make it a point of pride to not have held a previously elected office, and run the gamut from the well-meaning to the regular also-rans to the ones desiring a soapbox (which is cool, since the bulk of them are underfunded, such that the Voters' Guide is the only place they can reach out). Her likely opposition is Dr. Raul Garcia who is ... not horrible in Republican terms. But yeah, Maria Cantwell for Senator.
US Representative: Adam Smith has been serving in Washington for longer than Ms. Cantwell, and has experience and incumbency on his side. Usually he emerges from these primaries with a conservative talk-show host challenging from the right and cruises to re-election. But this time, there is a viable and more liberal candidate available in Melissa Chaudry, who wowed the Stranger board with her depth and width of knowledge and proposals, and even got good marks from the Seattle Times. Downside? She's light in elected experience. Smith, though, was one of the ones pushing for Biden step aside because of his age, a bold stance for someone approaching 60. So for the Primary, check out Melissa Chaudry.
More later,
