I’ve been reading my offical voter’s pamphlet which is a great resource. Big hat tip to everyone involved and to the State of Washington for making vote-by-mail so easy and effective.
We have 18 choices in the Senate primary. I’ve read about them all. I’ve gone to all their websites if provided. And it is a sorry set of choices in front of us. How is it that we have such lame choices?
We first have a bunch of non-serious choices. These candidates haven’t bothered to create websites, they have hotmail.com and yahoo.com and gmail.com addresses, there is often no way to give them money, and they have fringe or even nutty views.
- Henry Clay Dennison. Socialist Worker’s Party. Some great working class background, and wants to stand up for the common man. But then he veers off into support for Cuba’s socialist revolution, which I doubt is a big issue for most Washington voters, and he declares that he wants a “revolutionary government of workers and farmers”. I’m feeling Cultural Revolution vibes here.
- Mohammad Hassan Said. Democrat. A yahoo.com email address so he couldn’t be bothered to try very hard. Oh and his medical license was suspended and apparently “a member of LGBT” was involved.
- Dan Phan Doan. Independent. No website. No stand on issues. Feels like some friends entered his name to surprise him.
- Dr. Pano Churchill. Democrat. He’s the elected leader of the environmental parliament and the independent Lincoln Party! He says some nice things in his campaign statement. His website is a deep mishmash of stuff, I am sure there is something that would terrify me in here.
- Sam Cusmir. Democrat. No history of office. His website doesn’t work.
- Jon Butler. Independent. He points you to his facebook page which is filled with pretty random and suspect links. And he has a hotmail email address.
- Bryan Solstin. Democrat. A Bitcoin enthusiast! “Central Bank Digital Coin is slave money. Dystopian”
- Martin D. Hash. Independent. “the only-ever simultaneously licensed doctor, lawyer, accountant & Professional Engineer in the world.”
- Thor Amundson. Independent “Professional Experience: Watching C-Span for 30 years”. No website.
- Charlie (Chuck) Jackson. Independent. His campaign website is a long screed at insanityrules.org.
We have two Republicans who don’t seem to be Trumpy but who basically have no chance.
- Bill Hirt. Republican. Website solely focused on stopping mass transit expansion and on climate change denial. I am not sure he understands what Senators do.
- John Guenther. Republican. No history of office, refuses all donations. I admire his spirit but this isn’t serious.
We have three Trumpy Republican candidates with various degrees of Trumpiness. All unelectable in this state. I can live with some conservative positions but the embrace of the Trump camp and the election integrity nonsense is unacceptable.
- Leon Lawson, Trump Republican Party, an entity that doesn’t exist? Big MAGA energy on his website.
- Dave Saulibio. JFK Republican Party? An entity that doesn’t exist. A big fan of giving teachers guns and hardening schools. Admires Trump.
- Tiffany Smiley, Republican. Endorsed by a bunch of people in the Trumpublican circles, happy about the RoeVWade decision, some blather about election integrity.
Two Democrats or Independents who seem to have their hearts mostly in the right place but have no experience, little organization, and some policy flaws:
- Naz Paul. Independent. No history of office. An attempt at a good campaign website tho a little silent on some of the most fractious issues of the day like abortion, hard to know what she really stands for.
- Ravin Pierre. Democrat. A history of service, strong educational background, he seems to have his heart in the right place, tho he is a little out of control on his language sometime. And has some pretty radical positions on church taxation, crypto.
And finally Patty Murray, the incumbent Democrat. I am disappointed in how invisible our incumbent Senators have been over the last 6 years. We have faced incredible challenges and I see no leadership from them.
It is a pretty disappointing slate. I’m left with little choice but to support the largely invisible and ineffective incumbent.
