Today I filled out my primary ballot. Since I live in Washington, this is done via a mail-in ballot. All elections in Washington state are done this way. Not only is it way more convenient, it allows you to actually spend time with the ballot. You can go through it with the state provided voters’ pamphlet.
It’s kind of weird to me that, first of all, voters’ pamphlet aren’t available in all states. Apparently only sixteen or so states are legally required to create one. It gives space for all candidates and initiative sponsors (and opponents) to state their positions. It’s really quite helpful.
I’m also surprised at how relatively uncommon mail-in ballots are nationally. In Washington state, you could individually sign up to receive all ballots in the mail starting in 1991. Washington state moved to all mail-in ballots in 2011. I haven’t stepped into a polling place for decades. In all that time, I think that I might have missed one off year initiative ballot or something like that.
Given that, I’m amazed at the number of hoops that people in other states have to go through. In many states, you need a ‘valid’ excuse (and living in a pandemic does not count). It appears that really the only valid excuse is hospitalization in many states. Considering the fact that it seems that low voter participation is a much larger problem in US elections than the microscopically minuscule examples of voter fraud, this seems problematic.
But I digress.
Washington state has a relatively few number of state wide elective offices. This year neither of the senate offices are up for election. That leaves about nine state wide offices.
One of the state wide offices is Insurance Commissioner. There is only one Republican candidate running against the Democratic incumbent.
His statement reads (in part):
I am an autistic savant who has extensive knowledge and the many of the abilities of the President Reagan and President Jefferson Presidencies that I will incorporate into running the OIC externally like the Reagan Administration and internally (within WA) as the Jefferson Administration (sic)…I would fill the roles of Ronald, Nancy and Nixon, and Mr Kriedler would be assigned the role of Carter and Mr Welti would be Gerald Ford.
…I have found 168 Honorable Insurance Agents all of whom are more qualified than myself to each serve in 1 hour increments as Internal Insurance Commissioners of Washington state.
Another of the statewide positions is Commissioner of Public Lands. There are three Republican candidates running against the incumbent Democrat.
For one of the Republican candidates, his Community Service states, in its entirety, “I’ve never been in jail”. His statement reads (in part):
I like environment protection. I don’t like fires…President Trump says we need to rake our forests to clean up debris that exacerbates fires and that’s where I intend to start.
Well, all righty then. Primaries brings out at least one kooky candidate. Let’s take a look at another guy. His statement says (in part):
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. If elected, I will direct an independent, state funded study of the effects of 5G cell-phone towers upon living things. My research indicates that this radiation is killing trees, birds, honey bees, human life.
I will stop chemtrails in Washington state. I am against Bio-mass for electricity. I am against the use of wind power…I am against the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, eugenics, Satan, New World Order.
I get it, Insurance Commissioner and Commissioner of Public Lands are not exactly springboards to national office, but is that really the best that you could get?
This is a symptom of a larger problem in Washington state. The Republican party simply cannot compete at a statewide level. A Republican hasn’t been elected governor of the state since 1981. They’ve lost the last nine elections. Considering the current set of candidates in 2020, it looks like the streak is going to extend to ten.
And honestly, with really only one notable (and honestly, electorally suspicious) exception, none of the elections have really even been that close.
The problem is that the Republican base is located primarily East of the mountains. They certainly have a stronghold there, but it is, especially compared to the metropolitan Puget Sound, sparsely populated. Over half of the state’s population is in the three counties that comprise metropolitan Puget Sound.
The center of this is Seattle. Like most urban centers, it has become overwhelmingly Democratic. In fact, to give the general election some meaning, the mayoral position was changed to be nonpartisan since the Democratic candidate always won. Even so, it’s not exactly a mystery what the party affiliation of a candidate is. The last Republican candidate to win a Seattle mayoral election was 1964.
From this much stronger stronghold, the Democratic party dominates statewide. Both US senators are Democrats and neither have been particularly challenged the last couple of election cycles. The last Republican senator was elected in 1994. Seven of the ten US representatives are Democrats. Two of the three Republicans are in Eastern Washington districts.
Here’s the thing. I’m a pretty progressive guy, so on the one hand this should make me happy, but really, I’m a supporter of the two party (at least) system. If the Republicans insist on running candidates that have no chance of winning, then, in the long run, it hurts both parties.
It obviously hurts the Republicans since they have such limited chance to effect the Washington state agenda. I also thinks it hurts the Democrats. It makes them lazy, complacent, and unimaginative. After all, am I going to vote for the guy that wants to be the Nancy Reagan of the Insurance Commissioner office? I’m captive to the party.
All hope is lost for the 2020 election. In a state like Washington, running on the same ticket as Donald Trump is a death sentence.
I can only hope that in the aftermath of 2020 that the Republican party will strive to figure out a way to crack the nut of trying to make inroads into the metropolitan Puget Sound electorate.
I don’t like having only one option.
dorkenstein 