The Leg, then…

There are still a few races where the top two primary may create single party ballots for the general, but while combing yesterday's new results to find them I realized that whatever the number may be, it will be dwarfed by the number of single party ballots created by the failure to field Democrats in 21 of the 98 State House races. That number includes seven districts where no Democratic legislative candidate appears on local ballots.

That's seven districts where there's no local candidate making door to door outreach, registering voters, generating turnout. No local Democratic face at candidates forums and editorial boards. No Democratic campaigns for young people just learning about our electoral system to get involved with. No nothing.

Republicans filed candidates in all but 9 seats, leaving only the 36th LD without a Republican on legislative ballots.

It's one more fail for the Democratic Caucus leadership in Olympia, and it hurts all of our campaign and party building efforts.

Locally, the three Democratic candidates nominated by the local Party organization will appear on the November ballot. Representative Maralyn Chase is running for the open State Senate seat, with former Shoreline Councilmember and Mayor Cindy Ryu running for the seat Maralyn is leaving behind. Each outpolled both a Democratic and Republican challenger. The leading vote-getter in the local primary is Representative Ruth Kagi, who is polling over 56% against two candidates in her bid for re-election.

With about 60% of primary voters choosing a Democrat, and given the historical character of the 32nd District, our local ticket looks to be pretty safe in November. There will be a Republican challenger in each race in November, too, though, and the Republicans are out there working.

We have a good ticket. These candidates deserve your support. They have mine.

And we all have work to do.