I promised to do better…

…by the local legislative ticket, so I'd better get to it while there's time. All three Democrats on 32nd LD ballots have active Republican opposition, and I've been cautioned against over-confidence. Still, the average Democratic vote in the primary was 60%, and there were factors that tended to skew the turnout in that election rightward. I don't anticipate any surprises in the general, but that's based on expecting everyone to do what needs to be done between now and election day. Confidence is not a rationale for inactivity.

All that being said, I expect my next State Senator to be Maralyn Chase, now a State Representative. Full disclosure - Maralyn's been a personal friend and political ally for a couple decades now. That's not to say that we've agreed on each detail of every issue or election, but at the end of the day, you can count on Maralyn's vote for the rights of working people, protection of the environment and main street economic opportunity. When she's ahead of her colleagues, she can be impatient in the effort to bring them along, and when she's set a course toward a goal she can be aggressively straightforward in her pursuit. While some of her detractors (and a few of her supporters, I suppose) will point to those characteristics as a sign that Maralyn can be hard to work with, those of us who know her well recognize them as a reflection of her strong dedication to the social and economic justice she's devoted a lifetime to pursuing and the kind of core integrity that we so often claim to want from our public officials, though we less often reward it when it's displayed.

Reward Maralyn with the Senate seat.

Next up, the Representative races in the 32nd.