With bal­lots hav­ing been mailed out to Wash­ing­ton’s more than three and a half mil­lion reg­is­tered vot­ers this past week, today and tomor­row are the first of many GOTV (get out the vote) week­ends for this year’s can­di­dates and campaigns.

Few races in the state are more fierce­ly con­test­ed than the show­down in the 30th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict between Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Car­ol Gre­go­ry and her Repub­li­can oppo­nent, Teri Hick­el. Gre­go­ry is try­ing to defend the seat posthu­mous­ly won by Roger Free­man in last year’s midterm elections.

The Repub­li­cans bad­ly want the seat, because they feel it would give them momen­tum going into next year’s leg­isla­tive elec­tions, not to men­tion reduce the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic major­i­ty to a wafer-thin one vote margin.

Democ­rats are equal­ly deter­mined to keep it. That’s why they orga­nized a big get out the vote cam­paign ral­ly this morn­ing at Gre­go­ry cam­paign head­quar­ters, head­lined by Wash­ing­ton Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee, State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joe Fitzgib­bon, and King Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Dave Upthegrove.

Inslee, who was him­self vic­to­ri­ous in a tough cam­paign against Rob McKen­na three years ago, spoke enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly and pas­sion­ate­ly about the impor­tance of retain­ing Car­ol in the House. A tran­script of his remarks follows.

Good morn­ing! Good morn­ing! This is a great morn­ing. I just came here to say I believe in three things. I believe three things are going to hap­pen today. One, the Huskies are going to beat the Ducks. Two, the Cougars are going to beat the Beavers. And [three], we are going to beat on those doors and get the votes we need so Car­ol can come back to the Wash­ing­ton State Legislature.

And I believe… I believe we’re gonna do that because we got a great team here. You look at… this is a great look­ing team. We got Jonathan Knapp, who, [with the] Seat­tle teach­ers, struck a blow for edu­ca­tion­al lib­er­ty big time this year. Con­grat­u­la­tions to the Seat­tle teachers!

This was… And that’s an impor­tant point, ’cause Car­ol’s a teacher, and I don’t think this is some­thing we ough­ta [have] left unsaid at these doors today. Look at what these Seat­tle teach­ers did.

They — edu­ca­tors, thank you very much, I’m learn­ing — these edu­ca­tors, this year in Seat­tle, cre­at­ed a whole new con­tract where we can get equi­ty teams to reduce the dis­par­i­ty in discipline.

They came up with a new rule that kids can get, you know, recess, so they can be phys­i­cal­ly active. This is what edu­ca­tors can do when we put ’em in lead­er­ship posi­tions. And that’s why we’ve got to make sure peo­ple — every­body knows in Fed­er­al Way — that we’ve got an edu­ca­tor that can serve in the Legislature.

Now, look, when you want a quar­ter­back, you get Rus­sell Wil­son. When you want a leg­is­la­tor who under­stands how to be an edu­ca­tor, you get Car­ol Gre­go­ry. Now that’s a pret­ty good deal.

I looked today at the mot­to of Fed­er­al Way… How many peo­ple know what the mot­to of Fed­er­al Way is, okay? The mot­to of Fed­er­al Way is that, it’s all with­in reach. And I think that is true in what we’re doing today. Hav­ing a new min­i­mum wage that’s ade­quate to end income inequal­i­ty is with­in reach with Car­ol Gre­go­ry, okay. Hav­ing sick leave, so that you don’t have to make a choice [between] tak­ing care of your­self or going to work is with­in reach. Hav­ing pay equi­ty is with­in reach. All of this is with­in reach when we get Car­ol Gre­go­ry back.

And I’m just so pleased… I think she’s the per­fect per­son in the per­fect place at the per­fect moment for the State of Washington.

So I don’t want to talk too long. We want to get out there on those doors. And the one thing I’ll just leave with you is, you’re going to say [to your­self] some­time today, you’re going to be a lit­tle tired, your feet are going to be a lit­tle sore, you’re going to look up at that hill, and there’ll be a house, up in this… about two hun­dred feet up a long dri­ve­way, and there’ll be some mean look­ing dogs there… and it’ll be maybe the last door… and you’ve got [a choice to make, and you go], Eh, should I go home and put my feet up, or knock on that last door?

We’ve got to knock on that last door today for Carol.

And… when we do that… I know how impor­tant this is, because I’ve knocked on 25,000 doors myself. So when you get to the last door, I will be with you in spir­it at least, and I’ll know we will do what good Democ­rats do: Ear­ly to bed, ear­ly to rise, work like hell, and orga­nize.

Let’s go win this seat! Thanks a lot, guys.

Fol­low­ing the ral­ly, dozens upon dozens of door­belling groups head­ed out to can­vass for Car­ol in the neigh­bor­hoods of Fed­er­al Way and beyond, armed with clip­boards and walk lists. Among them were sev­er­al of Car­ol’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic col­leagues in the House, cheer­ful­ly donat­ing their time to Car­ol’s campaign.

Gre­go­ry and her cam­paign staff, sport­ing t‑shirts with the tagline No Non­sense, are doing their best to run a tight ship. The cam­paign’s head­quar­ters is sur­pris­ing­ly tidy despite being a hub of activ­i­ty. Cam­paign man­ag­er Hope Bix­by says that keep­ing the office well-orga­nized keeps the cam­paign well-organized.

Gre­go­ry says she is grat­i­fied to have the sup­port of the Fed­er­al Way Mir­ror, the 30th Leg­isla­tive Dis­tric­t’s home­town paper, which endorsed her just as bal­lots arrived in vot­ers’ mail­box­es on Thurs­day. Bal­lots must be returned by Novem­ber 3rd at 8 PM; the first results will be released short­ly thereafter.