National Review is reporting that Dino Rossi has conceded, and Murray was declared the winner. A real squeaker of an election, but I thought this comment at NRO pretty much captured it:
Rossi never gave the electorate a compelling reason to vote for him rather than Murray. He didn’t embrace the tea party, he didn’t exude energy and passion. He went negative throughout the campaign, and his attack ads complained about Murray’s attacks. Moreover, the Democrats just had to polish off their third edition of the how-to-defeat-Dino manual, which took about five minutes. There were even stories about how it was going to be such a sacrifice for the comfortable Rossi family to go to DC. I wanted someone who was chomping at the bit and foaming at the mouth to get to DC to knock some heads, not somebody who says, “sigh, well I really need to do this for the sake of the country, I guess, but I’d rather stay home.” The only county in Washington State that matters for statewide office is King County. If you can’t get in the high 40s in King County, don’t run, period. We have to find a Republican who is willing to go into that lion’s den and change some minds.
That sounds about right to me, though I can’t say I know Washington that well. It’s always seemed to me to be a bit like Pennsylvania, only with King County being a good bit more dominant in state politics than Philadelphia County. One things for sure, you have a squeaker of a loss once, I’m open to the idea of running a candidate again. Lose twice that way you’re probably not viable. The GOP in Washington State would seem to need to rethink its strategy. I think the GOP needs to rethink its strategy for every blue state.
My idea would be to run sane libertarians in blue states, people who are fiscally responsible but socially liberal. But will the GOP listen? Probably not.
I heard Rossi speak in person. I almost posted, but decided not be at all negative, that it was like he was reading a script but without any energy and not getting the timing quite right. For example, he would ask a rhetorical question then give the answer without even a hint of a pause.
I liked nearly everything he said but he wasn’t really firing people up. I don’t like a lot of emotion in a politician (if you want emotion in a politician look to Hitler as an example) but I know that is generally going to be required to win.
As soon as Rossi flew back least and sucked up to Michael Steele for the GOP endorsement, Murray (D-Imwit) should have just declared victory.
I’m not sure how it is in Washington but in California, fiscal conservative/social liberals usually run as Democrats.
That is the problem with libertarians. If you’re ‘sane’ enough to be elected, you’re too sane to actually fight for change.
I commented on Rossi’s numerous issues before, but let me recap:
1) Three time political loser now.
2) No substantive positions on 2A rights and reforms apart from a generic ‘supports your rights’ pablum. Given some wacky gun laws in WA you think he would at least have an opinion on something, but neither he nor his representatives could articulate them. I wonder why he even bothered to send folks to the Puyallup gun show.
3) Extreme social positions like teaching creationism in science class which go down like a lead balloon in tech & science heavy liberal Washington. It might appeal to folks in Spokane, but they are outnumbered 20 to 1.
4) Real estate speculator – not exactly the most popular occupation right now.
Surely his political career is finally dead with a stake through the heart and the earth salted behind him? If the GOP revives him again…don’t get me started.
What’s really annoying is that there is a good streak of libertarian/conservative folks in Seattle that I find it impossible to believe the GOP couldn’t find a better alternative to Rossi over at Microsoft or Boeing.
In close elections, Washington Democrats are sure to find bags of ballots late at night somewhere. Works in CT too.