Midterms marvel: Seattle Times endorses a Democratic-only slate in marquee races

With vot­ing in Wash­ing­ton’s August Top Two elec­tion now begin­ning, the state’s largest dai­ly news­pa­per has pub­lished the remain­der of its endorse­ments in this cycle’s major races. In what may come as a pleas­ant sur­prise to the major­i­ty of its read­ers, The Seat­tle Times is rec­om­mend­ing a Demo­c­ra­t­ic-only slate of can­di­dates in each of the mar­quee con­tests that’s on the 2022 ballot.

For Unit­ed States Sen­ate, the Times is back­ing Pat­ty Mur­ray. For Unit­ed States House, in the 8th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, the Times has embraced Kim Schri­er’s bid for a third term. And for Sec­re­tary of State, the Times is call­ing on vot­ers to retain Steve Hobbs to fin­ish the term begun by Repub­li­can Kim Wyman.

“Vot­ers should enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly return Mur­ray to the Sen­ate,” the board said. “As her stature has grown, she is able to wield influ­ence for Wash­ing­ton not seen since the days of the late Sens. Hen­ry M. Jack­son and War­ren Magnuson.”

“If elec­tions are a job review,” the board added, “Mur­ray can be well-judged by what she has deliv­ered to the state, and the val­ues and expe­ri­ence she brings to the nation­al debate. Wash­ing­to­ni­ans should reelect Murray.”

Of Hobbs, the board said: “In his months in the office, Hobbs has proved adept at address­ing its wide range of needs. His agen­da includes a statewide text-mes­sage sys­tem to alert vot­ers of reject­ed bal­lots, con­struct­ing a long-planned state library and archives build­ing in Tumwa­ter, and mak­ing the office’s cor­po­ra­tions divi­sion more acces­si­ble for busi­ness­es across the state with new satel­lite offices.”

“He has earned faith he will see these plans through.”

“Hobbs’ ster­ling cre­den­tials, demon­strat­ed inde­pen­dence, con­stituent-focused ser­vice and proven abil­i­ties makes him the best choice for Sec­re­tary of State,” the board con­clud­ed after men­tion­ing Pierce Coun­ty Audi­tor Julie Ander­son­’s can­di­da­cy. (Ander­son is chal­leng­ing Hobbs as an independent.)

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kim Schri­er also received a glow­ing review.

“Schri­er should con­tin­ue to rep­re­sent the 8th Dis­trict. In this dif­fi­cult year for Democ­rats, her focus on con­stituent ser­vices and find­ing prac­ti­cal solu­tions are need­ed here, but espe­cial­ly so in the oth­er Wash­ing­ton as well.”

In the final para­graphs of the Schri­er rec­om­men­da­tion, the board laud­ably rec­og­nized its his­to­ry of back­ing Repub­li­cans like Dino Rossi and Rob McKen­na for high office and explained why they aren’t doing that this year.

“Repub­li­can con­trol of the House would like­ly embold­en the worst instincts of the cur­rent GOP lead­er­ship,” the board not­ed. “Expect con­gres­sion­al hear­ings on Hunter Biden, the exit from Afghanistan, alleged elec­tion fraud and a host of oth­er issues that don’t make the life of a sin­gle Amer­i­can any bet­ter. Expect leg­is­la­tion to ban abor­tion across the nation, state pro­tec­tions be damned.”

“This edi­to­r­i­al board has a record of endors­ing Repub­li­can can­di­dates, and has done so in sev­er­al state leg­isla­tive races this year,” the edi­to­r­i­al went on to say. “But the lan­guage and pri­or­i­ties of nation­al GOP lead­ers prompt an imper­a­tive this Novem­ber: Keep Democ­rats in charge of Congress.”

“Vote for Kim Schrier.”

The Times has also endorsed Schri­er’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic col­leagues Prami­la Jaya­pal, Mar­i­lyn Strick­land, Adam Smith, and Derek Kilmer. Endorse­ments of Suzan Del­Bene and Rick Larsen have not yet been pub­lished but could be forthcoming.

In pre­vi­ous midterm cycles, as the board freely admit­ted, the Seat­tle Times Com­pa­ny has tried to get vot­ers to elect Repub­li­cans. In 2006, for exam­ple, the board backed Mike McGav­ick, Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers, and Dave Reichert over Maria Cantwell, Peter Gold­mark, and Dar­cy Burn­er. It rec­om­mend­ed that Dino Rossi and Rob McKen­na be elect­ed gov­er­nor in 2008 and 2012.

And, four years ago, dur­ing the mid­dle of the Trump error, the Times went with Rossi again, pass­ing over Schri­er dur­ing her first cam­paign for Con­gress.

“While Schri­er wants to fight, Rossi promis­es not to,” the Times inex­plic­a­bly wrote four years ago. “He wants to go to D.C. and put his bud­get exper­tise to use. Giv­en his two past statewide elec­tions and nation­al rep­u­ta­tion in GOP cir­cles, there’s a bet­ter chance he will advance more quick­ly onto com­mit­tees and posi­tions where he can make a dif­fer­ence than Schri­er would if elected.”

Giv­en the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty’s prospects in the 2018 midterms, it was actu­al­ly Schri­er who was best sit­u­at­ed to advance more quick­ly onto com­mit­tees and posi­tions where a dif­fer­ence could be made. Not Rossi.

It’s only because vot­ers ignored the Times’ 2018 advice and sent Schri­er to Con­gress that she was able to start deliv­er­ing the rep­re­sen­ta­tion for the dis­trict that the board is now so hap­py with. Pleased with her record as a first ter­mer, the Times endorsed her in the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion over Repub­li­can Jesse Jensen, who is one of three Repub­li­cans chal­leng­ing her now.

In endors­ing Schri­er for a third term, the board wrote: “Schri­er deserves reelec­tion for rep­re­sent­ing her dis­trict well, putting polit­i­cal par­ti­san­ship aside and help­ing peo­ple nav­i­gate fed­er­al bureaucracies.”

Most of the Times’ leg­isla­tive endorse­ments thus far have also been for Democ­rats, includ­ing in the 30th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict, where Repub­li­cans are hop­ing to pick up seats. The Times did endorse a Repub­li­can in one of the con­tests in the bat­tle­ground 47th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict — Car­men Goers — but has oth­er­wise most­ly rec­om­mend­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic candidates.

Seat­tle Times own­er Frank Blethen, a vocal oppo­nent of the estate tax, is said in past years to have insist­ed on endors­ing Repub­li­can can­di­dates for impor­tant statewide and fed­er­al offices. So far this year, that has­n’t hap­pened, sug­gest­ing that per­haps Blethen is now more con­cerned about the sur­vival of Amer­i­can democ­ra­cy and the future of the free press than tax cuts — as he should be.