The intent of both of these two so-called REFORMS led by mostly Republicans was to decrease the power of Democrats in the state. HA HA, great to see the super-majorities emerge this year in both houses of the state legislature.
But, we do have to acknowledge that this blood-letting between Democrats in the general election is pretty mind boggling. The one I watched more closely (from afar) was the Berman-Sherman one in the San Fernando Valley where I used to live.
Washington State also has a TOP TWO system, and I'm just getting acclimated to the politics here. In my new district, CD6, ONE Democrat ran in the primary-- Derek Kilmer.
For those of you who haven't checked him out, derekkilmer.com (some of the last photos there are mine). Also on facebook. Opposing Kilmer in the primary was a set of 5 Republicans and 1 Indy (in this state, btw, voters do not register by party--creating an interesting problem):
Congressional District 6 - U.S. RepresentativeCounty Results & Map
Candidate Vote Vote %
Jesse Young(Prefers Republican Party)
18,075 11.17%
Eric G. Arentz Jr.(Prefers Independent Party)
4,101 2.53%
Derek Kilmer(Prefers Democratic Party)
86,436 53.41%
Bill Driscoll(Prefers Republican Party)
29,602 18.29%
David (Ike) Eichner(Prefers Republican Party)
7,966 4.92%
Stephan Andrew Brodhead(Prefers Republican Party)
1,387 0.86%
Doug Cloud(Prefers Republican Party)
14,267 8.82%
Kilmer advanced into the general with Republican Bill Driscoll as an opponent. With a very strong ground game campaign, Kilmer EASILY won the election by over 16 points...they are STILL counting the votes, so it could be more.
His opponent, an heir to the Weyerhauser fortune, dumped a MILLION of his own money into his campaign and presented himself as a not-so-bad Republican, even avoiding the pitfalls of the abortion question by being pro-choice.
I've never been too keen on the CDP/LACDP picking their favorite candidate as the progressives too often end up on the short side of that stick, but it may be the preferable way to go considering the Redistricting+Top Two which DEFINITELY puts Dems on a collision course. And, btw, cost a FORTUNE in that Sherman/Berman clash.
On Baca, the blue dog. I know the party considers them to be better than Republicans. But, REALLY? When you need them most, you can't count on them to not crony up with the lobbyists and Republicans and tip the vote the wrong way. In my new state (WA), I found one of our blue dogs cozying up to Bill Driscoll on one of his negative mailers against my candidate, Derek Kilmer. How bad was that!