More Fun With the Spokane County GOP Platform

I've written before about the internecine strife within the Spokane County GOP, but today's article in the Spokesman Review really puts it into focus. The issue is the same as it's been for a year now--demanding fealty to the party platform makes for some uncomfortable moments later on when you're asked about no-fault divorce and making it harder for schools to pass levies. From the article:

Earlier this month, Democratic state Sen. Chris Marr highlighted his opponent’s promise to support the county Republican platform. He said it’s proof that Republican Michael Baumgartner is “out of touch with his constituency.”

GOP officials responded that candidates, including Baumgartner, who pledged to support the platform weren’t necessarily saying they backed its nearly 120 policy statements.

“We know that no candidate is going to agree 100 percent with what’s in the platform,” county GOP Chairwoman Cindy Zapotocky said. “We require the candidates to read it and consider it.”

That sounds nice enough, Ma'am, but it's also very hard to reconcile that with this, also from the Spokane GOP website:

If they fail to stand up for conservative principles, MAKE THEM WALK THE PLANK! If they indicate they are conservative, then vote against conservative principles MAKE THEM WALK THE PLANK! If they are members of the Republican Party, make them follow the planks of the platform, or MAKE THEM WALK THE PLANK!

The 6th is a swing district. There are a lot of voters there who could have that one piece of information filter through that sways them, and when the Spokane GOP serves up 120 short knives for their candidates to defend it's not going to be a surprise when some of them go down with a thousand cuts.

Read more here, if any.

When the Math is Too Cute By Half

One of the most fun faces to watch statewide is going to be the contest for State Senate in the 6th Legislative District (suburban Spokane); by the time November is done, I expect this to be one of the most expensive and negative races we've ever seen.

Michael Baumgartner, the challenger, put out this email yesterday taking shots at Chris Marr:

My opponent has tried to blame his poor primary results on low Democratic turnout. But the numbers on the ground don’t bear this out. There were 9,658 Republican presidential primary voters and 9,288 Democrat presidential primary voters who turned out last week. This breaks down to a 1.95% advantage for a Republican candidate in the 6th District. My lead in the primary is 6.6% so among independents, I earned 55.4% of the vote compared to my opponent’s 44.6%.

What this particular bit of prestidigitation asks you to accept is that the presidential primaries in 2008 meant anything. For a quick review, Horse's Ass fisks a Joni Balter column from that week. Remember, the Republicans used the caucuses--not the primaries--to allocate their delegates; there was a bit of a kerfuffle about the state being called for McCain when Huckabee was still in the running. This was also the pick-a-party primary, one of the dumber ideas to come down the pipe.

In short--I don't know why Baumgartner would want to fall back on that particular bit of data. It's meaningless. This feels like a factoid an intern came up with to justify their time.

That knife cuts both ways, though. From Chris Marr's website:

Outspent, and viciously attacked… and STILL the top Democratic performer in the 6th!

Absolutely true, but not at all meaningful. In the two House races in the 6th, one was unopposed (Rep. Kevin Parker), and the other featured a hotly-contested Republican contest between Shelly O'Quinn and John Ahern with a rather blah Democrat (John Driscoll) taking what was left of the vote. Were I Marr I'd be making sure everyone knows that there were 26,000+ votes cast in the House race for Republicans, but only 21,200 for the Republican senate candidate, Baumgartner. If the partisans were really turning out, why wouldn't they have turned out in the Senate race as well?

It's going to be a slobberknocker.

Read more here, if any.