The Donkey Strikes Back

Interesting if not bizarre things are happening in the state of partisan politics in Washington state. Washington voters have always cherished independence and the fact that they have been a swing vote, most voters in this state have been of the mentality that they vote for the man, not for the party. The Politicians in this state at one time reflected that, Governor Dan Evans ,a Republican, was perceived as a Liberal. The politics of the late Governor Dixie Lee Ray, who succeeded Dan and labled herself as a Democrat, were truly to his right. Much of this was made possible by the "Blanket Primary". Voters in Washington state unlike most other states did not have to register by party or have to vote a party line in the primary. Still the top vote getter in each party would be on the ballot in the general election.
Under this system each party had no control over the candidates that ran on their ticket which pissed them off of course . Through a series of lawsuits they adopted (The donkey and Elephant hung together on this one) what they thought was a compromise, no party registration for voters but they could only vote for candidates in one party during a state primary.
Voters greeted this with all the enthusiasm of 6th graders having their recess taken away! A resolution was on the ballot in the very first year this new system was established and aided by the near unanimous endorsement by print media and Secretary Of State, Sam Reed, (A Republican who I figure Democrats owe dearly for his fairness in our razor thin Gubernatorial election), adopted the new Louisiana-type Primary. Now the top 2 candidates advance even if they are of the same party. Both parties have responded by saying "screw this" and by adopting their own nominating processes. In this odd year, all the county offices including Executive are up for grabs.

Anyway if you are still with me after that long build up, I attended the First ever Washington State Democratic nominating convention last night. We met at the believe Community College Gym, which is right on the way home from work. All of the Democratic faithful were there, and it was obvious that hard work and planning had gone into it. Still I could not escape the air of confusion as voters seemed to wonder what their role would be. To top things off, new redistricting put two sitting County Council members against each other and they were asked to obey a small group of voters to abandon their seat. A county council position pays nearly 6 figures, so if the losing candidate gives this process the finger, I would understand. Nonetheless, I learned about my district and that we had a very high Democratic vote in my precinct (giving more weigh to my vote as Precinct Committee Officer). We also learned that we did have a candidate from our district. A fine man named Roger Larson
My feeling about the whole thing is that our purpose needs to be defined maybe by passing legislation to allow and to bind the results. My feeling is that Washington voters have totally lost their patience with both major Political parties (which of course is better than unilateral frustration with us) and that this battle will wage for a long time to come.