HeraldNet: Dark clouds, silver linings



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The Petri Dish

August 19, 2008

Dark clouds, silver linings

Posted at 12:01 am by Jerry Cornfield

I found a few tidbits in Tuesday’s vote totals worth noting before nodding off.

Republican Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland is in trouble. He had a paper thin lead on Democrat Peter Goldmark and could wind up trailing once all the King County votes are in for this primary.

Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna picked up a lot of crossover votes as he led by an unexpectedly large amount on Democrat John Ladenburg.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson has got a lot of work to do as 60 percent of the voters chose someone other than her. The good news is her chief foe, Randy Dorn, did worse than one might expect from a former lawmaker and leader of a statewide union. In fact 70 percent chose someone other than him. Come November, some will want to write in “none of the above.”

Republican Mike Hope has a thin ray of hope in the 44th District. In his third run for a state legislative seat, he got 47 percent against appointed incumbent Democratic Rep. Liz Loomis. Prevailing wisdom says most of those showing up in November will be Democrats and he’ll need to get a chunk of them to win.

Democrat Fred Walser swept all five votes in the Whatcom County portion of the 39th District. That’s the good news. Incumbent state Sen. Val Stevens, R-Arlington, pulled in 56.4 percent overall which is pretty good considering she’s been targeted by the Democrats for defeat this year.

If you saw something spectacular, drop me a line.

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Walser is in big trouble
Yeah, everything is finally coming to a head for Fred Walser. The latest post on www.fred-walser.com shows the evidence against him, with links to the original documents backing up each claim.

http://www.fred-walser.com/2008/08/evidence-against-fred-walser.html

And more is coming, that shows that he has a long history of these problems, that -- in the oft-repeated words of his own supervisors at the Washington State Patrol -- "Fred's self-discipline, integrity and conduct are in doubt."

No kidding.
pudge | Aug 20, 2008 8:14 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal

why so few votes for Walser?
Here is a fascinating tidbit to analyze.

Val Stevens traditionally has the toughest competition of the three legislators in the 39th, so she ends up garnering the fewest votes in each election.

But she is polling 1.5 points higher than Rep. Pearson as of election night.

Why?

One has to believe it is because of the backlash against the Democrats' choice of Fred Walser as their candidate.

A mail piece sent out by the Washington State Republican Party is a good example of what is in store for Walser unless he backs out of the race...which he doesn't seem likely to do since getting criminally convicted and sentenced didn't seem to phase him.

I'll try to scan the mail piece and post a link to it later.
Chad Minnick | Aug 20, 2008 3:12 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal

Let's have it all...
Yes, Fred Walser swept Val Stevens in Whatcom County...but even more interesting is the fact that Senator Stevens has taken 60% of the votes from heavily democrat King County, which is 9 times the number of votes she lost in Whatcom County!
Jeff Thorp | Aug 20, 2008 2:38 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal

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