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Thursday, January 26, 2012

2012 / Election First Take from the First 1st Congressional District Candidate Forum

Posted by Goldy on Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 11:20 PM

First Congressional District voters don't know how lucky they are. No really, they don't.

Tonight, five of the six declared Democrats (plus one intrepid Republican) showed up at Seattle City Hall for a Metropolitan Democratic Club candidate forum, and I'm guessing most 1st CD Dems would have been pretty pleased with the choices before them. That is, if there were any 1st CD Dems in the audience. Of course, no part of Seattle is in the new 1st CD, but the roomful of 7th and 9th CD Dems came away pretty impressed with field, which included Democrats Darcy Burner, Suzan DelBene, Roger Goodman, Darshan Rauniyar, and Laura Ruderman, plus Republican James Watkins.

I'll follow up with a more detailed report tomorrow after I've gotten some sleep and met a more pressing deadline, but apart from the fact that all of the candidates should be pleased with their performances tonight, I want to make one quick observation about the apparent early dynamics of this race.

If DelBene, due to her centrist tendencies and personal wealth is the favorite in the race, you wouldn't know it by the way that Goodman and Ruderman seemed to use their closing statements to draw a contrast between themselves and Burner. Both focused on their experience in government, and both emphasized their ability to work across the aisle and across partisan lines. Even DelBene warned against the sort of "hyper-partisanship" for which Burner is sometimes criticized.

Perhaps they've seen polling data that I haven't, or perhaps I'm reading something into it that wasn't there, but it sure looked like the other Dems were positioning themselves against Burner.

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Comments (12) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Um, remember how all the republicans in the presidential primary were competing to be the "anti-Mitt?" it's like that.

Posted by Bleach on January 26, 2012 at 11:31 PM

While the first was a solid D with Inslee, I used to think it was cute how Burner kept trying and losing in her previous attempts at office. Now I'm being punished for that smugness by her running in my district. I can only hope she doesn't make it out of the primary otherwise the Republicans are going to have a field day. I'm sure she's very nice but she cannot/does not win elections.

Agree that the venue was weird. Would be nice if they would hold one of these somewhere within the district. I'd consider going if one was on this side of the bridge.

Posted by PA Native on January 26, 2012 at 11:57 PM

You can't see straight.

Posted by With goo goo eyes, you're too smitten. on January 27, 2012 at 5:24 AM

"Working across the aisle" is the most damaging tactical mistake that Democrats are still enthralled with. It is no longer a thing in the real world and they need to stop acting like it is.

Posted by codswallower on January 27, 2012 at 7:15 AM

Haven't we seen enough "work across the aisle"?

Posted by Shoeshine_Boy on January 27, 2012 at 7:28 AM

@ 4, 5, if WA-1 is a swing district, the middle of the road types who'll decide the election won't want to hear "Fuck the GOP" as a campaign slogan.

Politics isn't about being straight with voters, it's about telling them what they want to hear.

Posted by Matt from Denver on January 27, 2012 at 7:35 AM

Ugh. I'm pretty sure that "swing voters" is code for "dumbasses who aren't paying attention and don't realize that Republicans are trying to subvert our very system of government."

Posted by TVDinner

on January 27, 2012 at 7:56 AM

@ 7, maybe so, but they're a large part of the electorate. People can be a bit more pragmatic about that, particularly if they want WA-1 to remain Democratic.

Posted by Matt from Denver on January 27, 2012 at 8:32 AM

Danger ahead. We have a strange Top Two primary now in this state, so it's entirely possible that such a large field will divide up the Democratic vote and put the two Republican candidates on the November ballot.

Time for party leadership to knock heads, now, before filing week begins on May 14.

Posted by Citizen R on January 27, 2012 at 9:16 AM

Goldy owns stock of Apple.

Posted by Progressive Goldy benefits from the grim Chinese workplace. on January 27, 2012 at 9:21 AM

Fuck off Goldy.

Posted by pioneer on January 27, 2012 at 11:17 AM