you can fill in the blank. In April I posted a request for information re: running for WA05 & received a rather remarkable response all around. Thought it might be time for an up-date; I've been too freakin' busy trying to finish my house over there and sell the one in Seattle to do more than lurk and toss in the occasional comment. Pray follow me o'er the flip
For the record, I remain not entirely sold on the idea: my first concern is ensuring that there's a Democrat in the race. As it happens, the race could be wide open, from what I hear, and potentially a good pick-up opportunity for the Dems: the incumbent, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers has recently given birth, tragically, to a child with Downs syndrome. The word on the street is that her constituency, always tending toward "Kuche, Kinder, Kirke" (sp? I don't do German so much anymore), is unlikely to support any woman who would abandon an ailing child to serve in DC. Who might emerge as her replacement is, at present, anyone's guess, but a Republican apparatus that needed to recruit a relative mediocrity like her in the first place might be, at this point, showing some ankle above its trousers.
On the Dem side, I've heard precisely no noise about anyone running: Peter Goldmark is running this year for State Commissioner of Public Lands, so he's presumably out, and nobody that I've been able to contact has a clue who might emerge. In my quest for info, I've recently done some back and forth with Darcy Burner, who met me for a cuppa yesterday and, apparently having found me more or less tolerable, vouchsafed a boatload of coordinates for folks who might be expected to help me with my decision and, all else remaining equal, the race itself. Today, I heard from Goldmark, himself, a surprisingly warm e-mail considering my status as an ungnome, indicating that he'd be happy to meet with me early next month, over on my new home turf (Okanogan County).
All that by way of preamble, my goal here is to ask more questions. A quick intro: I'm a fairly vanilla progressive, in most respects, with background in academia (mostly history and econ) and business (telecom, largely in the US and former USSR). I don't consider myself a great candidate because I'm vaguely misanthropic and a lousy salesman. For the record, Darcy pegged my signature issue, a fairly obvious one to anyone who saw another of my diaries, last year: I have chronic leukemia and am kept happily viable by a pill that theoretically costs about $100 per day; I get my pills at a ridiculously low cost because I'm married to a former federal employee, and I'm gradually being eaten up by guilt (well, sort of) because most folks with this disease can't afford to stay alive. So health care it is. As it happens, I'm even more concerned about what the Republicans have been doing to "my" Constitution, but I don't pretend to be excessively well-informed on that subject.
But to the questions, more of which will presumably flower from discussion, if any.
- Is there a good way to start collecting money for this race before official announcement? Not for me, but for whoever eventually runs? I'm happy to cough up the $1700 filing fee if that's the way things go(spouse is less tickled), but I'm by no means well enough heeled to use my own money on this lark. I've seen dollars on ActBlue that seem to be for the race, but I am clueless as to how one might go about encouraging people to cough up for Candidate X, or how to point them at a suitably secure repository before there's an official candidate.
- Is there anyone out there with experience in campaigns, who would be interested in volunteering/working on mine (or my replacement's)? Darcy named off a mess of consultants and fund-raisers, but this is likely to be a shoestring operation, at least for a while, and signing up a real pro immediately could torpedo the budget in a hell of a hurry. Obviously, it would make sense for "applicants" to be from WA, at least, and maybe from over my side of the Cascades.
- General suggestions, tips, observations are beyond welcome: they don't make them more inexperienced than I am at this game.
Thanks