Musings on the 47th Senate race

I'm not quite grasping what all is going on in the 47th legislative district Senate race. It is being vacated by Sen. Stephen Johnson [R-Kent] as a result of his Supreme Court run, yet the GOP seems to have only been able to find an apparent unknown who is having trouble raising money, while the Democrats have a two-way primary that either can feasibly win. Claudia Kauffman, a Native American small business owner from Kent jumped in the race first and has a big cash lead, while Ed Crawford, a former cop in the Kent PD who lives in Auburn is picking up a crapload of endorsements from big-name Democrats and won the 47th party's endorsement. In spite of this, Crawford is behind in money and has a big debt on top of that. Money is, in my opinion, usually the biggest indicator of who will win a contested primary, but Crawford seems to have every other factor going in his favour.

Aside from this, I think either one of them will win the general election at this time. If that does happen, this is a huge recruiting failure for the GOP, who once ruled the district with an iron fist. One would think they could at least coax Phil Fortunato into running another narrowly-losing campaign rather than run a nobody who is apparently going to get creamed. I read speculation somewhere that Jamie Durkan may run here, and while I haven't heard anything concrete, that seems to be the only way the GOP could still retain this.