I went. I saw. I took pictures.

On the outside, this state’s brand new John McCain outpost looks very much like a low-slung Bellevue office park:

Which it is. And on the inside, it looks very much like the campaign office for eastside Republican Congressman Dave Reichert:

Which it also is. (The space is being shared by the Reichert and McCain campaigns.)

A white board reminds that McCain is opening up shop in Washington State with only a relatively short time left before the election:

Barack Obama, by contrast, has been here since the beginning of the year. He had a contested Democratic caucus to deal with here in February, of course, while McCain basically had the nomination sewn up by that time, but still, the Obama campaign’s earlier arrival can only be an advantage.

Here’s Rick Gorka, the Western Region Communications Director for the McCain campaign.

He covers Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii as part of a McCain strategy that has the country divided up into regions, with regional directors being given a certain amount of autonomy from the mothership. (But not too much autonomy now that there’s a new McCain campaign manager in town.)

I asked Gorka what he thinks of McCain’s chances in Washington State.

I think McCain’s chances in Washington State are excellent. He has an independent record, works on bipartisan solutions, puts those types of solutions and solving America’s problems before party politics, and I think that resonates well with Washingtonians.

Really? Do you know of any polls that show McCain leading in this state?

Not that I know of. It’s obviously very early in the race… But I really think that when we get the message out, that Senator McCain’s history, and his past, and his experience, and leadership on these issues are really going to carry the day here.

So you really think Washington will be a red state come November?

I really hope so. We’re going to work very hard. We have a great team in place. There’s a lot of energy and a lot of volunteers that want to get involved.

Michelle Obama is going to be in Seattle on Thursday. When’s the next time McCain is going to be here?

That I don’t know… I just don’t want get anybody’s hopes up, but we’re going to compete very heavily here in Washington State.

So what’s the next step?

We’re going to be opening offices state-wide… We’re going to have seven I believe. We’re even opening an office in Tacoma. The last time there was an office [for a Republican Presidential candidate] in Tacoma, Washington was a red state. The next step is a lot of phone banking, voter registration, voter ID, door-to-door—you know, things that the Republican Party does really well.

Looking at the electoral math, does McCain even need Washington State to win the election?

I think when we win Washington, it creates an incredible amount of problems for Senator Obama. He can’t afford to lose any states like Washington or Oregon, where we expect to compete very well.