The Moderate Washingtonian

Outlook on politics and elections in the state of Washington from an overall centrist viewpoint. My views tend to be libertarian in nature, but at the same time are largely nonpartisan.

20 July 2006

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.

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