Taking the 8th District in 2008: Part I
This is the first post of a multi-part series focusing on winning the 8th Congressional District in 2008.
The 2006 midterms aren't far behind us, but already the talk about the 2008 cycle has reached an intensity America really hasn't seen before, especially in the presidential race - readers have probably noticed traditional media outlets are talking nonstop about the campaign and the candidates.
2008 may be a presidential election year, but obviously there will be congressional elections as usual - the entire House and approximately a third of the Senate will be up for election. Here in Washington State, one district that was highly competitive in 2006 will undoubtedly be a top battleground in the next cycle - the 8th. (As we get closer to November 2008, this will probably also become true of the 5th as well).
The 8th Congressional District, geographically centered in between the state's other districts, encapsulates most of the eastern suburban communities across Lake Washington from Seattle - Bellevue, Renton, Newcastle, Sammamish, Issaquah, southern Redmond, Mercer Island - as well as much of south King County. The district also stretches into Pierce County and includes Mount Rainier.
It is a suburban, rural district that has been trending Democratic for years. It has recently supported many Democrats in federal races, including Al Gore, Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, and John Kerry.
It will likely be carried by the Democratic nominee for President in 2008 - and hopefully, the Democratic challenger to Republican Dave Reichert, who just barely escaped defeat in 2006. (We assume Reichert will run again, though there are rumors he would rather run for something else).
The other elected offices on the ballot that will be district-wide include the gubernatorial race and the races for all of the other executive positions (such as Secretary of State and Attorney General).
Within the 8th there are many legislative districts, including the 45th, the 48th, the 41st, the 11th, the 47th, the 31st, the 5th, and the 2nd.
Each of these LDs will have at least two offices on the ballot in 2008, as the entire state House will be up for election. Additionally, some districts (like the 5th LD) will have a state Senate race.
Democrats running in LDs partially or wholly within the 8th Congressional District in 2006 had great success. For example, Eric Oemig, Rodney Tom, Roger Goodman, Claudia Kauffman, and Deb Eddy, all of whom were challengers or vying for open seats, won their races decisively. The Democratic nominee in the 8th would benefit greatly from strong challenges to Republican incumbents in the remaining LDs that didn't turn all blue in the 2006 midterms.
Since it is only early 2007, no candidates have formally declared yet, though several Democrats are thinking about it. These include Tony Ventrella, a 710 KIRO radio host, Representative Ross Hunter, and Darcy Burner, the 2006 nominee.
A few Democrats influential within the county party have started a "draft Ross Hunter" website, which is mostly filled with basic biographical information. There was speculation that Hunter would run in 2006 but he ultimately decided not to for a number of reasons - one of them being his health.
Early in the last election cycle, back in the summer of 2005 when other activists and bloggers said they'd wait and see who emerged as the leading candidate for the nomination, we made it plainly clear that we were going to support Darcy Burner because we were confident she would put in the hard work it would take to mount a strong challenge to Dave Reichert.
And we weren't disappointed.
Darcy didn't win but she came extremely close, and has definitely proven that she is a strong candidate. Should she choose to run again in 2008 (and we hope she does) she will enjoy our full and unequivocal support again - and we believe that will also be true of the broader netroots community.
Darcy can take heart that many Democrats holding office in the region have come back from past losses to win.
For example - Washington's Jay Inslee, Maria Cantwell, and Brian Baird. In Montana, Brian Schweitzer. Next door to the Pacific Northwest, down in California, Jerry McNerney. And there are many other examples across the country.
The old adage "if at first you don't succeed...try, try again" is definitely applicable in politics. When Permanent Defense (now a division of NPI) was first launched, our number one mission was to defeat Initiative 776. We didn't manage to do that. We narrowly lost. But we didn't quit. We reaffirmed our resolve and we've won most of the campaigns we've fought since.
Beating back the right wing, as Markos observed last autumn, is a marathon, not a sprint. Why start over when you can build on past successes? Darcy is a proven fundraiser, she's a hard worker, she can recruit volunteers, she has netroots support. We know Darcy and she knows us. Voters know her. She came closer than any Democrat ever has to winning a district that is slowly turning blue.
Ross Hunter and Tony Ventrella have every right to seek the nomination, but they have not run campaigns for Congress before. They have thus have not proven themselves to be formidable challengers. But we know Darcy has, and that's why she is the ideal choice for Democrats in 2008.
Darcy would certainly benefit from the name ID she successfully established in 2006, and she would also benefit from higher Democratic turnout owing to a presidential election year. The district could still be competitive if she doesn't run, but she is uniquely qualified to capitalize on Reichert's vulnerabilities and make him wish he had stayed King County sheriff.
The 2006 midterms aren't far behind us, but already the talk about the 2008 cycle has reached an intensity America really hasn't seen before, especially in the presidential race - readers have probably noticed traditional media outlets are talking nonstop about the campaign and the candidates.
2008 may be a presidential election year, but obviously there will be congressional elections as usual - the entire House and approximately a third of the Senate will be up for election. Here in Washington State, one district that was highly competitive in 2006 will undoubtedly be a top battleground in the next cycle - the 8th. (As we get closer to November 2008, this will probably also become true of the 5th as well).
The 8th Congressional District, geographically centered in between the state's other districts, encapsulates most of the eastern suburban communities across Lake Washington from Seattle - Bellevue, Renton, Newcastle, Sammamish, Issaquah, southern Redmond, Mercer Island - as well as much of south King County. The district also stretches into Pierce County and includes Mount Rainier.
It is a suburban, rural district that has been trending Democratic for years. It has recently supported many Democrats in federal races, including Al Gore, Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, and John Kerry.
It will likely be carried by the Democratic nominee for President in 2008 - and hopefully, the Democratic challenger to Republican Dave Reichert, who just barely escaped defeat in 2006. (We assume Reichert will run again, though there are rumors he would rather run for something else).
The other elected offices on the ballot that will be district-wide include the gubernatorial race and the races for all of the other executive positions (such as Secretary of State and Attorney General).
Within the 8th there are many legislative districts, including the 45th, the 48th, the 41st, the 11th, the 47th, the 31st, the 5th, and the 2nd.
Each of these LDs will have at least two offices on the ballot in 2008, as the entire state House will be up for election. Additionally, some districts (like the 5th LD) will have a state Senate race.
Democrats running in LDs partially or wholly within the 8th Congressional District in 2006 had great success. For example, Eric Oemig, Rodney Tom, Roger Goodman, Claudia Kauffman, and Deb Eddy, all of whom were challengers or vying for open seats, won their races decisively. The Democratic nominee in the 8th would benefit greatly from strong challenges to Republican incumbents in the remaining LDs that didn't turn all blue in the 2006 midterms.
Since it is only early 2007, no candidates have formally declared yet, though several Democrats are thinking about it. These include Tony Ventrella, a 710 KIRO radio host, Representative Ross Hunter, and Darcy Burner, the 2006 nominee.
A few Democrats influential within the county party have started a "draft Ross Hunter" website, which is mostly filled with basic biographical information. There was speculation that Hunter would run in 2006 but he ultimately decided not to for a number of reasons - one of them being his health.
Early in the last election cycle, back in the summer of 2005 when other activists and bloggers said they'd wait and see who emerged as the leading candidate for the nomination, we made it plainly clear that we were going to support Darcy Burner because we were confident she would put in the hard work it would take to mount a strong challenge to Dave Reichert.
And we weren't disappointed.
Darcy didn't win but she came extremely close, and has definitely proven that she is a strong candidate. Should she choose to run again in 2008 (and we hope she does) she will enjoy our full and unequivocal support again - and we believe that will also be true of the broader netroots community.
Darcy can take heart that many Democrats holding office in the region have come back from past losses to win.
For example - Washington's Jay Inslee, Maria Cantwell, and Brian Baird. In Montana, Brian Schweitzer. Next door to the Pacific Northwest, down in California, Jerry McNerney. And there are many other examples across the country.
The old adage "if at first you don't succeed...try, try again" is definitely applicable in politics. When Permanent Defense (now a division of NPI) was first launched, our number one mission was to defeat Initiative 776. We didn't manage to do that. We narrowly lost. But we didn't quit. We reaffirmed our resolve and we've won most of the campaigns we've fought since.
Beating back the right wing, as Markos observed last autumn, is a marathon, not a sprint. Why start over when you can build on past successes? Darcy is a proven fundraiser, she's a hard worker, she can recruit volunteers, she has netroots support. We know Darcy and she knows us. Voters know her. She came closer than any Democrat ever has to winning a district that is slowly turning blue.
Ross Hunter and Tony Ventrella have every right to seek the nomination, but they have not run campaigns for Congress before. They have thus have not proven themselves to be formidable challengers. But we know Darcy has, and that's why she is the ideal choice for Democrats in 2008.
Darcy would certainly benefit from the name ID she successfully established in 2006, and she would also benefit from higher Democratic turnout owing to a presidential election year. The district could still be competitive if she doesn't run, but she is uniquely qualified to capitalize on Reichert's vulnerabilities and make him wish he had stayed King County sheriff.
