Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

WA-03: Looks like Denny Heck is in

Full Disclosure: I am a supporter and volunteer for Senator Craig Pridemore's campaign to succeed Brian Baird as U.S. Representative.

Two weeks ago we reported that the dennyheckforcongress.com domain had been purchased by Christopher Hedrick, an associate of Denny Heck. At the time, entering the domain into your web browser brought you to one of those typical parked domain screens, like the one you can currently find at dennyheck.com.

Today, dennyheckforcongress.com has a simple message for those awaiting a campaign: "Coming soon." And Beltway insider website Hotline On Call notes that Denny Heck is expected to make his intentions known this week (though Heck himself has violated his own self-imposed deadlines for announcing his intentions at least once already).

So you can likely add another Democrat to the already crowded field (with House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt also reportedly considering the race) of candidates of both parties to replace retiring Congressman Brian Baird.

UPDATE: For supporters of Craig Pridemore and Deb Wallace, their campaign websites are operational (in the sense of being able to contribute to the campaigns). I expect the websites will evolve over the weeks and months ahead.

Comments:

Blogger Russ said...

So Brian Baird wants to devote more time to his family and not seek reelection. Putting aside for the moment that this would be the very first time Mr. Baird put his (this or any of his past) family before his own self interest, the opening presents a wonderful opportunity for the district to elect someone who is truly about representing the public interest- and not about his/her own reelection or protecting the club. Clearly this is NOT a job for Denny Heck!

I do wholly believe that we must transcend the partisan- motivated bickering that often masquerades as policy making in D.C. I also believe that the all too frequent negativity that surrounds public debates is corrosive and destructive. I know that I have been a perpetrator of this very practice.

While I am against the war in Afghanistan I am willing to still give President Obama some benefit of the doubt because I believe he is a fundamentally good and smart person who does in fact have, what he believes is the best interest of the U.S. (and the rest of the world) in mind. Who we have representing us makes all the difference in the world.

We know the kind of people who don’t serve us well: insiders who can’t see beyond the small world of, well, people just like them, in the club; scared and fearful people who protect the status quo because it has served them just fine; those who contribute to the drive-by style of public policy making by appearing to involve the public but instead relying exclusively on the insiders (often who created some problem in the first place). Denny Heck has a long career of being exactly this kind of person. See this letter sent to him as Co-Chair of the WA. Learns committee (letter - having troubles attaching, will add seperately)

Sure, Denny Heck has contributed to the well being of this community in some ways. His contributions to the Education Foundation alone have been generous and meaningful. It’s simply not enough, when one performs some charitable acts but at the same time practices the politics of yesteryear and works against creative, progressive people because they are seen as a threat to the very system which we all know has not served us very well. We can, and simply must expect more from our representatives.

We see what happens when we elect people who are not truly democratic (see Kingsbury), of questionable ethical character (see O’Sullivan), guided by something other-worldly (see Smith) or actually downright dangerous (see Bush). We can’t spend too much time and energy up front making sure that we hold the highest standards and assure that they are met when we elect our representatives. Denny Heck is not at all the kind of person we need. In fact he couldn’t be more like those already there.

I am not associated with any current or likely candidates. I am also not a candidate myself. I am however a citizen with a great (no greater, but no less than anyone else) interest in who represents us. Russ Lehman

January 7, 2010 8:25 PM  

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