Attempt to explain why 17th district Democrats were so stupid

The Columbian tried to, yesterday. Ex-Vancouver City Councilman Jack Burkman conceded to Pat Campbell with current totals giving Campbell a 52.5%-47.5% lead, yet with that concession went all hopes of Democrats knocking off Rep. Jim Dunn, an anemic campaigner and easy target. The article does a nice job of outlining all the advantages Burkman had, including a juicy internal campaign poll where Undecided was beating Campbell by a margin of 38-13. My guess for what happened here is a combination of Campbell name recognition from his losing campaigns the two previous years and Dunn-backers voting for the easier opponent in the Democratic primary (this only happens in the blanket primary, right Dwight Pelz?). The fact is, with the primary power being held more strongly than ever by the parties, this election was damn boring for the vast majority of us in the state, and if one side has nothing competitive in their party it makes far more sense to vote in the other primary where something competitive is happening.

Here's the deal, 17th Democrats. Give up this go around and concentrate on protecting Deb Wallace, then run Burkman against your almost-as-worthless-as-Jim-Dunn senator, Don Benton. Don't turn your back on a candidate with such good potential, I'm still convinced he would have beaten Dunn had he won the primary.