Yesterday was a beautiful day in Western Washington to bang the doors for Democrats, especially for
Maria Cantwell and
Darcy Burner. But if that wasn't enough, I wanted to help some of our Legislative candidates and three incumbent state Supreme Court Justices, too. I knew just the place to do it.
The 31st Legislative District, which lies in Southeastern King and Eastern Pierce Counties, is mostly in the 8th Congressional District and partly in the 9th.
This District is represented in Olympia by three Republicans, State Senator Pam Roach, a thoroughly obnoxious gun-toting, bible-thumping wingnut who, incongruous as it might seem, holds her seat partly by having the most union-friendly voting record in the GOP caucus. The House seats are held by Pam's son, Dan Roach, and an old church lady named Jan Shabro.
Dan Roach and Shabro are, by any legislative standard of accomplishment, a couple of bottom feeders. Yet they both ran unopposed in 2004. Not this time.
Pam Roach is undergoing a fierce challenge from Auburn attorney Yvonne Ward, who came very close to unseating Roach in 2002. Karen Willard is challenging Dan Roach, and former Democratic State Representative Chris Hurst is returning to political life with his challenge to Shabro.
Why mention the Legislative candidates first in a diary about Darcy Burner? It's because all politics is local, because it's a remarkable story about Democratic resurgence in a rural region that Democrats apparently had written off, and because if anything, the "coattails" well might be upticket here, rather than downticket.
Ward, Hurst, and Willard all have deep roots in their communities, and all just ooze personal style. Darcy Burner, who has personal style to burn, is less well known in this District, which I knew from having done Voter ID phone banking into the 31st.
The Burner campaign, with help from Adam Smith's and Jim McDermott's campaigns, had been recruiting volunteers to canvass, phone bank, or do office work for Darcy as part of the DCCC's "volunteer challenge," which was yesterday.
The House campaign that generates the largest number of volunteers is to get unspecified campaign services from the DCCC, said to be considerable.
Well, Darcy's campaign says she got 209 total volunteers. If there's a campaign that got more, I want to hear about it.
I went out with the Coordinated Campaign, after making sure that I got counted as a Darcy Burner Volunteer. We canvassed in Enumclaw, one of the last true farming towns in King County, home of the King County Fair.
Our list was largely unidentified voters, or "sporadic Democrats." It was clear that not a lot was known about these voters. The phone banking we had done had gotten a lot of "no answers." Phone banking is no substitute for banging the doors. I love to bang the doors.
We read the script and tossed it. I don't know who writes those damn scripts anyway. They're wordy and stilted. We banged the door and told the voter: "Hi, we're from the Democratic Party and we're asking people about the uipcoming election. Do you think you'll be supporting Senator Cantwell for re-election? How about Darcy Burner, running for Congress? Yvonne Ward? Chris Hurst? Karen Willard?
Results were mixed, but generally favorable. People are tired of the war, though everyone is emphatic about support for the troops. We found strong support for Cantwell, and nobody mentioned her vote for the war.
People are sick of Bush, period, and when we mentioned that their 8th district Republican Congressman, Dave Reichert, was a reliable vote for Bush, there was not a lot of favorable feedback about Reichert.
But people need to learn more about Darcy. We expected this with a first-time candidate. I was quick to tell voters who had expressed support for Cantwell: "If you like Maria, you'll really like Darcy. They're very much alike."
We found almost universal dislike for the Roaches, far more than I had expected, especially in Enumclaw, which is not considered the most Democratic part of the District. A lot of it appeared to be personal, and not necessarily ideological or programmatic.
We found quite a few strong Democrats, including one woman who was so enthusiastic that we asked her if she had considered being a PCO. She replied that she had been recruited to do just that already, and that she would probably become appointed after the elections.
Then there was the guy who pulled out his election mailing from (I'm not making this up) Focus on the Family. He said he wasn't voting for any "pro-choice baby killers," but that Chris Hurst was a straight shooter and he's backing him all the way. Go figure.
My favorite contact, though, was the guy with a big NRA sticker on his door. He hadn't made up his mind on any of the candidates yet, but he said to me "as you can see from this sticker, I intend to vote my guns."
I was ready. I told him: "I'll leave you with one thought, brother. There is no bigger threat to our Second Amendment rights in this country today than George Bush and the Patriot Act. If they decide you're a terrorist, they'll come for your guns and they'll come for your ass. No lawyer, no trial, no charges. Are you ready for that?"
I wasn;t ready for his answer, but it was the one I had been hoping for. He said: "Yep, they have destroyed our civil rights." I made a note to follow this guy up. The woman who is to be the PCO is his neighbor. I filled her in. All politics is local.