Federal races this year seem to be generally a function of Iraq, President Bush, etc., with a few exceptions depending on individual candidates. That being said, state legislative races are some kind of painful this year.
Brad Benson is gone from the State Senate. As likely is Dave Schmidt, and perhaps Luke Esser as well, unless he gets a massive push from poll voters and later absentees.
The tea leaves were already talking about largely new leadership for Republicans in the US House. The state GOP may need to do likewise. I'll probably disagree with typical critics of the state party as to who those replacements might be, but the scope of the beating at the Legislative level is well beyond what is occurring federally; at least from this analysts eyes.
In the meantime, stronger Democratic majorities will be meeting in Olympia come January. I think I'm moving to Idaho...Boise sure seems nice.
UPDATE: I forgot Toby Nixon's race to keep the 45th LD Senate seat in Republican hands. It's gone too.
Break out the broom. Republican leaders of all sorts are going to be under tremendous pressure to clear out. The question will be who wins the post-election debate within the party. The Republican equivalent to the netroots, or the sane. And no, I don't mean Mainstreamers either. The right formula probably lies somewhere between the Reagain Wing and the Mainstream Republicans, with a heavy emphasis on conservative solutions to kitchen table issues like education, taxes, health care, transporation, etc.
UPDATE II: Reader alert - the crack about moving to Boise is a joke. Mostly. My wife and I really like Boise (I'm there a lot for work); urban life without the liberal dominance, and a great place to raise a family. But, I wouldn't move there just because of election results. Only if I got a great job and my family was ready for it. Alec Baldwin I ain't.
Posted by Eric Earling at November 08, 2006 12:01 AM | Email ThisDon't move to Idaho Eric. You can change the GOP, and make it a modern party, from within.
Posted by: thor on November 7, 2006 11:20 PMLet this be a lesson for any tax raising RINOS out there. If you want to whore it up with Democrats and drunkenly raise taxes, there will be hell to pay.
Posted by: pbj on November 8, 2006 12:02 AMIt's going to be an interesting session next January-April. Budget year, too.
Posted by: Joe Waldron on November 8, 2006 06:34 AMRinos were knocked out not because they were Rinos but because of national blowback and whinning from PBJ types.
Kitsap County D mafia don anointed a 25 year old unemployed collge graduate as D Kitsap County Commissioner. Josh Brown, now employed overseeing 1300 employees, beat a USN veteran and experience executive. Why? Because the Rep candidate was a Rino, NO. Because in this climate even a ham sandwhich could have been elected in Kitsap. Stop with the Rino purge mania. R voters were in deep REM trance not voting and independents sat out the vote.
Posted by: A Bainbridge critic on November 8, 2006 07:11 AMCritic, you are full of it. When the Republicans start raising taxes as fast as Democrats, they are no longer Republicans. We call those people Democrats. It is a fraud for someone like Woods to run as a Republican and then turn around and stab her constituents in the back with new gas taxes. Remember how they told us the Viaduct would fall down if we didn't pass the gas tax? What have they done with the gas tax money to fix the viaduct? Nothing.
When RINOS such as yourself no longer have sway in the Republican party is when we will start winning again. Beverly lost her base. Let this be a lesson.
Posted by: pbj on November 8, 2006 09:36 AMBev Woods loss was especially sweet to me and I say this as a glass crawling conservative voter. Woods has been AWOL with the Kitsap Republican Party Central Committee since the Kitsap PCO's took her to the "Woodshed" in October '05 over the gas tax and her opposition to I-912.
Don't forget about her latest effort to shut down performance audits of the WSDOT. She needed to be brought home.
She showed up at the victory celebration last night expecting to gloat over her victory without party help, what a bittersweet moment for me when she saw the first results!
There's a silver linning in the storm cloud that showered over the nation last night. It will be different in '08, and that you can take to the bank.
Posted by: Kitsap Voter on November 8, 2006 10:19 AMAnd what is Kitsap Voter's glib explanation for that pretenter Josh "unemployed" Brown overwhelming election to Commissioner. Was Mr. Hamilton in fact another Rino? What was Hamilton's sin? Republicans need to get some reality therapy and an idea what competition is.
Posted by: A Bainbridge critic on November 8, 2006 11:10 AMYou can speculate all you want about what uber-do Rolfes will do, she's a lightweight and won't be around long enough to do much damage. Woods has a history and it isn't pretty and is precisely why she lost. Drop the doobie, fool.
Hamilton ran a fine race on paper, financed well, had a solid plan. However, Hamilton lost early when he allowed his critics to define him and he thought, erroneously as we now know, not to fight back.
Instead he "took the high road" and allowed silly would be bumpkin Port Orchard king makers to hastily and in a sloppy fashon to answer his critics. It made him look bad to the independent voter he needed.
Hamilton also did nothing positive to control his foes exploitation of his personality short comings during the entire campaign. He could have taken a cue from Ronald Reagan, instead he acted like Bob Dole.
Posted by: Kitsap Voter on November 8, 2006 12:22 PMThe only one I see whining is you. I am happy :)
Posted by: pbj on November 8, 2006 01:43 PMYou sound like me ... what happened? Welcome aboard.
At any rate it is nice to see your change of tune.