On Wisconsin…

…as in "regarding."

Any election day that Democratic challengers defeat a third of the Republican incumbents on the ballot is a good one. Any movement that can recruit candidates, organize a petition drive, conduct campaigns and achieve that outcome in a few short months is a successful one.

Spin it any way you want. I'm gonna celebrate.

If you're hereabouts...

...and you're waiting for election returns from Wisconsin, you can fill some of the time filling out and returning that primary ballot your county sent you, or bugging your friends and relations to follow the good example you've already set.

I know it's not very exciting in some jurisdictions - here in Shoreline we've got an uncontested judicial candidate and a levy renewal. That levy renewal, though, which will continue the good work the Veterans and Human Services Levy has been doing not only for vets but in helping to maintain the never more threatened, never more needed human services infrastructure in King County communities.

It's not very exciting, but lives will benefit from your support.

Chart of the day.

Via Meteor Blades...

A few questions occur. How many of those folks have been following the debt ceiling debate or care at all who 'won' it? How many of them are represented by Republicans in Congress? How many of them voted in 2010? How many more voted in 2008? How do we get 'em to the polls in 2012?

We need some answers in pretty short order.

Things got busy…

…at Records & Elections after I checked in Friday morning. By the close of filing, City Councilmember Chris Eggen had picked up a challenger, making all three races two-way contests. Meanwhile, the school board races filled up, with two of the three seats there being contested.

Since these are all non-partisan races and there are only two candidates per contest, they'll all move straight to the November ballot. That means it may take awhile for the campaigns to gear up and for the issues they're emphasizing to emerge, but it could get spirited in Upper Left's home town..

Like déjà vu all over again.

While I was basking in the glow of the suddenly departed great yellow orb, the deck chairs were being arranged for upcoming elections. It seems like everybody wants to be the Comeback Kid.

Down Olympia way, Denny Heck is gearing up to run in whichever Congressional district reapportionment puts him in. It's likely to be more favorable to him than the old 4th proved to be last time around, but if it's particularly more attractive to a Democratic candidate, there might be more than a couple of contenders.

When last seen, Laura Ruderman gave up her legislative seat for a statewide run for Secretary of State. She was one of the most credible candidates Democrats have put on the ballot for that office in recent years, but couldn't break the stranglehold Republicans seem to have established there. Now, if Jay Inslee gives up the seat for the Governor's race, she'll take a run at the 1st Congressional District. Living on the border of the 1st and 7th, I'm susceptible to redistricting and that may be the contest to determine my own personal future Congressman.

Of course, I'm perfectly happy with Jim McDermott as my Congressman, would just as soon see Jay stay put and build clout and, after the debacle of the Gregoire years, wouldn't mind if they'd just shutter the Governor's office for a few terms, but I suspect Laura's more likely to get her wish than I am to get mine. Just let me keep Jim, OK?

Locally, former Councilmember Janet Way is seeking to return to the Shoreline City Council. An advocate for both environmental and historic restoration and preservation in our community, Janet's also a friend and fellow blogger. She's a Democratic Party activist, too, and should find some institutional support from that direction (Our city government is officially non-partisan, but, like our big southern neighbor, uni-partisan's likely a better description.) The seat she's seeking this time is currently held by Doris McConnell, but the field's never defined till filing is closed. This could be one of the more interesting contests in our city's relatively short but spirited election history.

Meanwhile, it's filing week for a variety of local offices, which usually provides a few spills and thrills for political junkies. I'm off in search of news...

Yep.

Atrios...

The people in charge have the knowledge, power, and ability to fix things. They have chosen not to.

True enough, and yet we, or so we're told, have chosen them.

Go figure.

From the "Stuff I learned on the internet" file.

Until Alan Abramowitz said it on the internet, I didn't know that...

...straight-ticket voting is much more prevalent now than it was 30 or 40 years ago.

…but I'm happy to hear it. It's been my policy for, well, for about 40 years. Glad folks are catching on and catching up.

It's simple.

It's not easy, but it's simple. Brad DeLong...

If we simply stopped electing Republicans--if we simply elected presidents who would choose policies designed by the technocrats of the Clinton and Obama administrations and elected senators and representatives who voted for them--we would be absolutely fine.

We know what to do. We've done it before.

We have to decide to do it again. That's the hard part. First of all…

From the "Credit where it's due" file.

Every once in a while, even a Republican gets something right...

Voters should face a deadline of 8 p.m. on Election Day to get their ballots in to county election officials, Secretary of State Sam Reed said Friday, as he submitted a set of reforms to the Legislature.

It's not really his idea, of course. It's the way things are already done, for instance, in Oregon. It's a good one just same, though, and Reed's backing should help make it happen.

Infused as I am…

…with the generosity of the festive holiday spirit, I've actually got something nice to say, probably the last thing, about the Governor's budget proposal (in fairness, she hasn't got many nice things to say about it, either. Hard times.). Here's a cut I heartily endorse...

Gov. Chris Gregoire's proposed two-year budget released Wednesday contains a wide swath of deep budget cuts, including one that fans of elections won't care for: dumping the 2012 presidential primary.

Dropping the presidential primary would save $10 million, according to Gregoire's office.

It's exactly fans of elections, in fact, that should be applauding the elimination of the beauty pageant primary. What could be more harmful to the institution of elections than a state-sponsored sham?

Though Republicans have assigned a portion of their national convention delegates on the basis of the primary, Democrats have shunned it completely. So long as there's no mechanism for maintaining party integrity in the process of selecting delegates to the party convention, we're compelled by our national rules to do so.

The presidential primary is the product of our state's so-called "mainstream" Republicans, exemplified best, perhaps, by the Republican Secretaries of State that have used their office to promote this boondoggle. After the Robertson revolution overran their caucuses in 1988 (what you thought right wing insurrection was something new?), they've lived in fear of their base, and the primary is a way to dilute the core of radicalism that the GOP is built on. The same gang is behind the nonsensical "non-partisanship" of our state primary and the King County elections, and the anti-democratic top two primary system, which shuts out third party challenges by statute.

Republicans like the primary election because they hate democracy. Twisted bastards.

Cut it, Chris!

From the "Just the facts…" file.

In 2008, we lost an average of 317,250 private sector jobs per month. In 2010, we have gained an average of 95,888 private sector jobs per month. That's a difference of nearly five million jobs between Bush's last year in office and President Obama's second year.

In FY2009, which began on September 1, 2008 and represents the Bush Administration's final budget, the budget deficit was $1.416 trillion. In FY2010, the first budget of the Obama Administration, the budget deficit was $1.291 trillion, a decline of $125 billion. Yes, that means President Obama has cut the deficit -- there's a long way to go, but we're in better shape now than we were under Bush and the GOP,

On Bush's final day in office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 closed at 7,949, 1,440, and 805, respectively. Today, as of 10:15AM Pacific, they are at 11,108, 2,512, and 1,183. That means since President Obama took office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have increased 40%, 74%, and 47%, respectively.

Elections have consequences.

Hat tip to Jed Lewison, who has source links and more.

Something to think about…

…if you're wondering whether elections matter. Todd S. Purdum in Vanity Fair...

...it’s an interesting thought experiment to imagine what the first two years of a McCain-Palin partnership in the White House might have produced. There would probably have been no stimulus bill, and the country’s economic condition would be no better (and probably worse). General Motors and Chrysler would have been allowed to go bankrupt rather than helped to emerge into a state of healthiness, as they may well be doing. There would have been no significant new regulation of the financial industry. The Bush tax cuts for those Americans with the highest incomes—something McCain had opposed before reversing himself—would have been extended. There would have been only modest health-insurance reform, at best—McCain’s proposals were Republican boilerplate and meant for use in the campaign, never a serious program. Perhaps there would have been greater progress on immigration, though McCain had already abandoned that issue, and it’s easier to imagine his taking the more nativist stance he has since adopted. There would be no Supreme Court justices Kagan and Sotomayor, but there would likely be two more conservative justices, and the days of Roe v. Wade would be numbered. There would be no troop drawdown in Iraq. The United States might well have bombed or blockaded Iran in response to that country’s flawed election last year, or in response to its nuclear program. There would have been serial feuds between aides to the president and vice president, but the fact that Vice President Palin had an independent power base, far larger and more enthusiastic than McCain’s own, would have limited what President McCain could do about it. The “Ground Zero mosque” dispute would probably have arisen anyway, and McCain might have been hard put to do anything but side with the opponents. The Palin-family soap opera would now be daily fodder for the national press rather than mainly the tabloids. Like Obama, President McCain would probably have been asked to give the commencement address at Arizona State University. Unlike Obama, he would probably have been awarded an honorary degree.

Yep, they matter.

What you do for the next three weeks matters, too. We dodged a bullet in '08, but they're sending artillery with air support this time, but we can still win this battle on the ground. Get out there and get out the vote.

What Goldy said...

Those who advocate for nonpartisan elections claim they are trying to remove partisanship from politics, when in fact all they’re really doing is removing valuable information from the voting public.

He says more here.

From the "Since you asked…" file.

Niki Reading at The Capitol Record wonders...

Should Supreme Court races be publicly funded?

Since you asked, absolutely, if Justices have to be elected at all. The funding question's easy. The election question I'm not so sure about.

Hard to imagine the voters voting to take away their right to vote, though, so we're probably stuck with the elections.

So, sure, public funding. Absolutely.

Good question…

…from Scott Nance.

If, through intentional inaction on the Left, Democrats across the board go down to defeat, just who really would be punished?

Me. Probably you. Certainly not the banksters and bigots.

Another reason…

…that the right way in Afghanistan is out. From Fixer…

The British called them "Colonial Governors". We call him "Karzai".

Oh yeah, there was an election yesterday.

Well, sort of. Because of the county's shift to an all-mail ballot, wasn't so much 'election day' as 'postal deadline day.' As a result, we not only lack clear outcomes in a number of races, we don't know how many people have voted or where the votes that have been counted come from, so a couple of key data points that traditional post-election analysis is based on are missing.

Although ballots continue to arrive and only about half of the predicted 33% turnout has been counted, there are some safe projection. Congratulations are due to Dow Constantine, who's been given the opportunity to defeat stealth Republican Susan Hutchinson in the race for King County Executive. Although Hutchinson has tried to exploit the new non-partisan character of county elections by denying her ideological roots, she's left a substantial paper trail in the form of checks written exclusively on behalf of Republican candidates. I've known Dow for years and had the chance to work with him and watch him work quite a bit during my days as a state and county committeeman and district chair. He built his base in West Seattle the old fashioned way, with hard work and shoe leather, and that work ethic, and his strong record as a reform-minded public servant should serve him well going forward.

I don't live in Seattle, but the big city makes waves we feel out here in the hinterlands, so I've followed the race for mayor of Seattle with some interest. Unfortunately, I can't say much about it today. There are three clear front runners with less than a point and a half separating them. The incumbent, Greg Nickels, is running third by about 400 votes, but that could change with this afternoon's count. Even if he makes up the gap, though, about 75% of the votes counted were cast by people looking for a new mayor. Third terms are hard to come by.

Here in Shoreline only one city council race drew the three candidates required to trigger a primary. Incumbent Janet Way is 134 votes short of the second place finish she needs to advance to the general. Of course, my ballot, mailed Monday, hasn't been counted, and I voted for Janet. Will Hall and Patty Hale are both attractive candidates, for different reasons, it was my appreciation of Janet's work as a grassroots Democratic activist, before and since her election to the council, that tipped the balance for me. We'll have to see if the missing half of the projected votes tip the balance for her.

The Seattle bag fee initiative failed. (Chemical industry) Money talks. Not much news there.

So stuff happened, and some stuff is still happening. Just the same, an all-mail, non-partisan election seems as emotionally incomplete as it is statistically inconclusive. Andrew's right...

"Nonpartisan" elections and our ridiculous statewide "top two" primary have succeeded in reducing voter choice and removing information about candidates from our ballots. These changes are not good for democracy, and ultimately, to protect the public interest, they need to be repealed.

We should toss the all-mail ballot while we're at it. I miss my polling place.

And the beat goes on…

Yes, yes, click!

Hat tip to jnfr, again.

You say you want a revolution…

Tehran today…

By all means, click it!

Hat tip to jnfr.

From the "Elections have consequences" file.

Oliver Willis…

Off the top of my head I can think of 69 million reasons why John McCain doesn’t get a rewrite of the stimulus bill.

Of course, one'll do.

He lost.