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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

You Know Things Aren’t Going Well for the GOP When…

posted by on August 29 at 13:13 PM

Democrats are crowing about the news out of Eastern Washington.

Specifically, Democrats east of the Cascades are cheering over the GOP primary results in the 14th legislative district (parts of Yakima County).

It’s not that the Democrats are fans of conservative Republican Curtis King, who beat longtime Republican Senator Jim Clements. It’s that Clements got a loud and early endorsement from supposed GOP superstar Dino Rossi. Rossi also appeared in Clements’s TV ads.

As Yakima County’s D blog, The Other Side - Online asks: “Is Rossi losing his touch in Eastern Washington?”

Maybe.

Check out Gov. Christine Gregoire’s July polling numbers in Eastern Washington and check out the bad press Dino Rossi is getting in Eastern Washington over his suspect non-profit.

I hardly think Gregoire can count on piling up the endorsements and votes in Eastern Washington, but given her slim victory in 2004, peeling away support for her main rival can’t hurt.

RSS icon Comments

1

I forget the other side of the Cascades is there politically etc....

Even being from there -yikes-. Still so easy to be "trapped" gloriously inside of the Seattle bubble.

Posted by Lake | August 29, 2007 1:35 PM
2

@1 and what a pretty bubble it is.

Posted by brappy | August 29, 2007 1:55 PM
3

As someone who grew up on the "Other Side" the R's haven't always had a lock on the politics of the eastern side of the state. It wasn't until the early-80s and the rise of the Christian Coalition and Ronald Reagan along with the ageing of the New Deal era, die-hard Dems that EWa fell solidly into the Republican camp. I have always felt that a platform that embraced economic populism (a la John Edwards)and emphasized a more libertarian stance on social issues would go a long, long way to helping Dems regain a foothold east of the Cascades. The state Democratic party should stop relying soley on the large urban centers to eek out 51/49 majorities, and start working to cultivate voters in Eastern Washington. There really is a receptive audience out there (maybe not a majority, but enough to build a solid progressive voting bloc).

Posted by chris | August 29, 2007 2:04 PM
4

Who's this Dino whatshisname?

Is he some closeted perv or CEO who took his shareholder's money to finance his campaign or something?

Posted by Will in Seattle | August 29, 2007 2:04 PM
5

I think it's likely eastern Washington will be a bit more blue than it has in the past--especially as more and more standard-Seattle-liberal mid-income families are priced out of the Puget Sound area.

We moved over to Spokane in 2004. Some friends of ours moved over here a month ago. I wondered before we moved if we'd be overwhelmed with the 'red state-ness' of the area; we haven't been. What we have found: enough like-minded people, affordable housing, comparatively no traffic hassles and easy to find locally, sustainably grown food.

Posted by elanath | August 29, 2007 2:13 PM
6

@2...absolutely. *glee*

Posted by Lake | August 29, 2007 2:24 PM

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