For me the most hilarious thing, revealed by a quick look over at the red part of the voter's guide, is that the uncontested republican candidate who will run against the winner of the dems primary is, if I'm not mistaken, a UW math major with a sweet candidate photo and a platform emphasizing the importance of education and the environment.

$5 says that before 4:30 Will in Seattle will post here saying blah blah, toyed with Pure and Sherman, but voted for my Dick last week....

blah, blah. sorry, was just going to say We're Number One!

Did you notice only the 43rd and 36th got any GOP candidates in the voter's guide for house races? And they're both UW students.

What kind of "revelation" is that by the P-I?

There's SIX candidates instead of two. Of course there's going to be more money involved...

Wrong, WiS.

All three Dems in the 36th are completely unopposed. There's a token Republican for each of the positions in the 43rd.

Both GOP House candidates in the 43rd have the same campaign address (1916 Pike Place, #12567) and the same campaign treasurer (Mark Griswold, Frank Chopp's 2004 sacrificial lamb). Both are doing mini-reporting to the PDC, meaning that they will raise no more than $3500 apiece.

Were I cynical, I'd suspect that Hugh and "Chopper" might be UW polisci students picking up some independent-study credits.

The same thing occurred to me. PoliSci students are like that.

and i meant opposed by Reds.

maybe it was the 32nd. I think I already recycled the voter's guide.

there he goes again-- will in seattle is commenting on his own comments. will the madness never stop?

...and the money raised corresponds to the work done and the support each candidate has - according to some poll results I have seen from last week -

Street 15.8 %
Pedersen 15%
Kelly 7%
Sherman 5%
Dodson 4%
Pure 3%

which makes sense - Street is the only candidate running with real experience gained from working sucessfully on issues in the state legislature and he has experience working on, and can speak from a place of experience on, campaign finance reform, environmental issues, transportation, juvinille justice reform, and education. As a former judge he can work with real credibility on issues of drug policy reform. Whoever wins this race has some big shoes to fill, and with the cultural war going on I want to back someone I know will be effective and taken seriously on a variety of isues. All the candidates seem to have good values, but all but Street seem to be focused on one issue, while Street has first hand working experience with many.

The way the polling breaks down it seems like a vote for anyone but Street or Pederson is going to be a wasted vote. And definitely between Street and Pederson, Street is the better choice.

In hindsight it might have been better move to sit out the primary and mount a "write-in" campaign for the general. The others will be spent and labled at that point.

Ah, the old "some poll results I have seen" ruse - it always pops up in the final week of a campaign. Whose poll, Dave? When was it taken and who paid for it? Or did you just pick some numbers from thin air to try to prop up your boy Street?

It is actually one of the other candidates polls. Paid for by them, showing how bad they are doing. Not sure if Street has done any polling, but now that you bring it up I'll check to see.

Honestly, it doesn't look like I need to prop Street up, between all the endorsements he has received - from a ton of environmental groups including current and former chairs of the Transportation Choices Coalition, six former presidents of the Washington Environmental Council, Washington Conservation Voters, the Cascade Land Conservancy, six current and former school board members, a slew of politicial leaders like Richard Conlin, Larry Gosset, Booth Gardner, Ron Sims, and a bunch of youth services and education folks including Vera board members like Thomas Goldstein and myself - and from the polling, it looks like he is doing fine.

whatever, word on the street is that your poll must be of retired people. wouldn't bet on that being the case when the final vote totals are announced.

Disregard the poll all you want. Street is a good guy - has a great connection to youth via all the work he has done with them over many years, not to mention his son who's Fraggle Rock breakdance crew has been out there working for him. I am sure those evil 'retired people' will vote for Jim because they appreciate his years of experience on the issues we all care about, but I think he'll get votes across all age ranges because of the work he's done on issues important to youth, especially his work on the environment, transportation, the arts, and juvinille justice reform. If you are ageist, then Jim certainly isn't your guy, but if you want to vote for someone who has worked with youth and passed youth related legislation through the state legislature, then Jim is the only candidate to vote for.

Jim Street touts his credentials and his endorsements but if you look on his website, most of his endorsements he squeezes eveything he can out of them i.e. name recognition, etc. For someone who has been involved in politics for so long, I'm surprised the endorsement he has is from the P.I.

He is not endorsed by the Washington Conservation Voters, like he wants you to believe. On his website:

"Endorsements are individual and do not indicate endorsements by organizations"

"David Bricklin, Past President, Washington Environmental Council, Past Chair, Washington Conservation Voters"

--

Don't vote for this guy. He's part of the 'Old Boys Network.'

Jim Street? Whodat?

He's so last century. And not even the last decade of that century.

Meinert, Street hasn't been endorsed by a single environmental organization. Not one. In fact, it looks like the only organization of any shape that is supporting him is some bike group, according to his fliers.

you're correct. Sorry, I put that incorrectly. I should have said 16 environmental leaders, listed below. Thanks for catching my mistake. By the way, that is 16 more than Jamie Pederson, Stephanie Pure, Lynn Dodson and Dick Kelly combined. Sherman also has a good (and more) amount of environmental endorsements to be fair.

here's Jim's endorsements

Paul Brainerd, Pres., Environmental Foundation
Alan Durning, President, Environmental Research and Advocacy Organization
Dennis Hayes, Pres., Environmental Foundation
Dennis McLerran, Administrator, Air Quality Issues
Mary McCumber, Past E.D., Puget Sound Regional Council
Aaron Ostrom, Exec.Dir., State Growth Management Research and Advocacy Organization
Maryanne Tagney-Jones, Regional Leader for Cascades protection
David Bricklin, Past President, Washington Environmental Council, Past Chair, Washington Conservation Voters
Pete Lagerwey, Bicycle Policy Planner and Advocate
Mickey Gendler, Former Chair, Transportation Choices Coalition
Peter Hurley, Past E.D., Transportation Choices Coalition
Peter Goldman, Attorney, Public Interest Forest Protection Law Firm
Rod Brown, Attorney, Pro-Environmental Law Group
Tim Croll, Administrator, Solid Waste & Recycling
Barbara Culp, Exec. Dir., Bicycle Advocacy Organization
David Asher, Board Chair, Transportation Alternatives Advocacy Organization

I think Dick Kelley had 10 environmental endorsers the day he announced - and I'm sure that Bill Sherman has the actual Endorsements from both WCV and Sierra Club - I think I'm up to 20 mailers just for him.

Meinert,
Regarding that poll you saw--Those numbers seem to add up to only about 50%. What's up with the other 50%?

I assume this must be the phone robo-poll that hit us last week. We guessed it was from Pedersen, and looking at his financial filings that seems to be the case. Who was the target sample? There's no reason to think this was a random sample of the whole district.

As for Street--how come the guy who claimed to be 'Mr. Neighborhood' on the City Council, and now is posing as the environmentalist, got one of his first maximum contributions in this campaign from downtown developer Martin Selig? Talk about your old boy's network...

the others 50% are undecided, no surprise for a primary. As I'm sure you know, and unfortunately, many people don't realize that only one Dem wins the primary, and that person is pretty much sure to win the general. People in the 43rd should be paying attention now, the primary is basically the general in the 43rd.

Not sure how you can say Jim pretends to be an environmentalist. That's pretty silly. Street and Sherman are the obvious choices for people concerned about the environment in this race. Kudos to both of them on that. If I wasn't backing Street in this race I would probably be backing Sherman. But on a broad slate of issues, I think Street has the convincing edge. Just my personal opinion. Bottom line, I want the most progressive, most effective person to win this seat. I just think that person is Jim Street.

The pole I mentioned isn't Jamie's. And Will, according to Washblog Kelly has no endorsements from environmental groups, and a quick look at his website seems to confirm this.

interesting little tidbit for those undecided on this race - from right wing jerk-off Stefan Sharkansky over at SoundPolitics.com on Jamie Pedersen -

"A cynical conservative who wanted to stymie the Democrats by promoting the candidate who was least likely to be effective at advancing the liberal agenda might vote for Pedersen."

In other words, Meinert, Kelley has exactly as many environmental group endorsements as does Stret (second E intentionally omitted, in honor of your own consistent misspelling).

Unlike Jim, Dick Kelley doesn't pad his endorsement list with all those extraneous -- and, at times, misleading -- organizational affiliations. But you can bet your bottom dollar that there are some people in the "environmental community" among Kelley's supporters.

Hey, how come Street doesn't identify his maxed-out backer Martin Selig as the principal backer, to the tune of over $800,000, of Initiative 920 (the anti-estate tax initiative)?

If Kelley has environmental endorsements it might do him well to list them. Not sure what the reason would be to hold back on highlighting one of the most important issues of our lifetime. Again, Street and Sherman are the ones talking about the environment in a meaningful way. And both have real credentials and experience in that area. Street just has more in other areas, so overall is the better candidate.

Wouldn't it be nice if liberals in the 43rd spent some of that wasted money on candidates in close races against Republicans? I say "wasted" because from a statewide perspective, it doesn't matter who wins this; they all hold virtually identical positions on everything.

Hm. Interesting if that poll wasn't Pedersen's. Either it was some amateur, unpaid-for poll (of questionable value?) or else some candidate isn't properly reporting expenditures. A search of the PDC database, which should include all expenditures through Sept. 11, looking for the word 'poll' only comes up with Pedersen's. But then a number of these candidates have been a little loose in following the PDC reporting rules.

as a young voter who is politically active in the 43rd, i heard that street's sons were loading up a truck at night time, full of other candidate's yard signs.

this thuggish behavior should be expected from the creepy old dude.

that is just complete bullshit. Street is far from a creepy old dude. And since when is the 43rd ageist? Street is a middle-aged man with deep experience and knowledge. Sen. Robert Byrd is an old dude, and when he was the most vocal US senator speaking the truth about the US invasion of Iraq, I didn't hear anyone slamming him for being old and irrelevant (except the haters on the right). And when Jim Street is the only candidate in the race talking about juvinille criminal justice reform and issues of race, I don't see him as a 'creepy old dude', I see him as a ballsy progressive political leader with great ideas, and someone who can make those ideas happen, proven by his recent and past sucesses.

In almost hindsight, this race represents a failure of the state Democratic Party. The funds poured into the 43rd could have better spent supporting progressive candidates in swing districts or building the new Vera Project venue. The Town Hall debate brought out the worst in the campaign trial – smart, decent Dems sniping at one another -- too much talent too little grazing space.

If we are going to have these inane party-only primaries then Dwight Pelz should have thinned the field (Democratic Idol with celebrity guests).

Regardless of who wins tomorrow (or next week) this race is a prime of example of non-participatory democracy.