GOP wants to contest Seattle
When I first saw this article's headline in my P-I automail this morning, I was hoping this to be a sign that the King County GOP was being smart about running candidates tailor-made for their districts, something I've oft pointed out as a requirement to the GOP having any hopes of rebuilding their party in the suburbs. Now, I'd certainly like to see them try to contest seats in Seattle at all levels of government, but upon reading statements by King County GOP Chair Michael Young in the article it sounds like more of the same strategy -- running the same old social conservatives in liberal districts with the misguided hope of the electorate behaving differently than in every other recent election. If they would nominate liberal Republicans in Seattle, someone similar ideologically to Fred Jarrett or even a Rob Rosencrantzish libertarian-leaning Democrat, it might not be completely out of the question to compete there. If they would open their ballot line to moderately-liberal candidates like the GOP does in New York City, then something could happen for the better.
Labels: Republican Party, Seattle elections
posted by TMW @ 5:51 AM
4 Comments:
I heartily concur. Democrats have been really good at recruiting candidates who are more than just palpable to voters: they are near perfect matches.
How do they go about accomplishing this seemingly herculean task? Easy. They talk to local business and community leaders, and find candidates in sync with those communities.
You can't run a Prosser/Pullman conservative in Seattle; but you can run an independently-minded R. Sometimes it means picking a non-traditional candidate, someone with environmental or social service sensibilities, but also with a fiscal common sense.
Let the search begin!
Yes, indeed. Even when the Republicans won in Seattle, it was with guys like Dan Evans and Joel Pritchard. These days even guys like that would have a hard time winning there at first, but the GOP has to prove they're serious about contesting now-hostile areas if they are to have any successes.
Come on, the Republicans nominate someone like Fred Jarrett? There's no way. He's obviously a RINO and for some sort of nostalgic reason he thinks Republicans could go back to the old days. There's no way that he's a real Republican; moderates like him have no place in that party. He should simply recognize that the parties have moved, the Republicans are dominated by the Tom DeLays and George Bushes of the nation, and he should identify with the one party that has substantially all of his positions, the Democratic party.
Nonsense. In moderately-liberal states like this, the Republican Party needs to tow a more centrist line if it wants to have any shot at power. Running Bush conservatives because they are "real Republicans" will result in, oh, say, having less than 40% representation in the state legislature.
Besides, people dwell too much on his stances on social issues. Jarrett and comparable "RINOs" typically vote most often in-line with other Republicans on economics, as annual AWB ratings show.
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