Stuart to GOP: swing right
5:40pm Friday, November 7, 2008
Michael Andersen, staff writer

"Reinvent Republicanism!" says Ross Douthat.

"Purge the idolators!" says Rush Limbaugh.

"What, us worry?" says Clark County's own Ryan Hart.

Here's a guy with some unexpected advice for the GOP: Democratic Commissioner Steve Stuart.

"Honestly, I think they need to rediscover their conservatism," Stuart said Wednesday.

The county commissioner, whose girlfriend Heather Melton managed Democrat Peter Goldmark's upset victory in the public lands commissioner race, was headed back from an event with Goldmark up north, listening to Air America in the car, as he often does.

And thinking about what the Republican Party needs.

"I actually share a lot of their beliefs, their conservative beliefs of economics and keeping government out of the way of people," Stuart said. "But what we have had with the neoconservatives is … bigger government. We've had more intrusion, we've had bigger deficits and all of these things that are not conservative values."

After all, Stuart, 37, came of age under Ronald Reagan.

"Where they have been most successful is when they have been able to speak to people about individual and government freedom," he said. "There's a reason there were Reagan Democrats."

michael.andersen@columbian.com

» Comment

Three things undervotes taught me about democracy
5:36pm Friday, November 7, 2008
Michael Andersen, staff writer

Enough about voting: what didnt we vote for?

Here's a ranked list of the decisions Clark County voters avoided ("undervoted") Tuesday, based on Thursday's totals.

- Bergeson/Dorn for superintendent of public instruction (18.5 percent didn't vote)
- Chandler/Gotts for state rep in the 15th District (10.4 percent)
- Kreidler/Adams for insurance commissioner (10.1 percent)
- Newhouse/Berman for the other state rep in the 15th District (9.8 percent)
- Moeller/Bomar for state rep in the 49th District (9.8 percent)

(…skip a few…)

- Baird/Delavar for U.S. rep (4.8 percent didn't vote)
- I-1029 on elder-care certification (4.7 percent)
- I-1000 on assisted suicide (2.9 percent)
- Gregoire/Rossi for governor (2.7 percent)
- Obama/McCain/etc. for president (0.35 percent)

What's to learn?

1) Party labels are all the information many voters have. The state's top schools position is both obscure and nonpartisan, and 1 in 5 voters avoided it. (Maybe that's why the guy who's probably won, Randy Dorn, wants his office to be appointed instead of elected.) Here in the 'Couv, Mike Bomar ran against Jim Moeller as a free-market independent, which probably discouraged Republican voters who weren't sure if Bomar would be their guy.

2) When a legislative district runs all the way from Yakima to Washougal, people outside Washougal start feeling alienated. Especially when one of them claims that his nickname is "Jobs."

3) When substantive information actually appears on ballots (as with initiatives), people vote.

michael.andersen@columbian.com

» Comment

Last night: pro-D, not anti-R?
11:28am Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Michael Andersen, staff writer

Late on Tuesday, I described last night's results as a rejection of the GOP. That's the way the national press has spun the national results, based on the overwhelming shift in party ID.

I'm reconsidering.

In Washington, Democrats are the party in power. Even Gregoire's critics would admit she's passed a ton of legislation: all-day kindergarten, universal health care for lower middle class kids, emission limits. Clark County not only swung into her column (for now, at least); it sent her more help in the legislature and it took the liberal side of all three ballot measures.

(And if you don't believe assisted suicide is a partisan issue, look at its county-by-county performance.)

From DC, local voters asked for something different. From Olympia, they asked for something more.

At least that's my morning hypothesis. In Wednesday's paper, I'll ask a bunch of actual experts what they think. If you've got thoughts, send 'em.

michael.andersen@columbian.com

» Comment

Republican wreckage
11:31pm Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Michael Andersen, staff writer

Okay, here's your promised analysis: It was a bad, bad, bad night for the Republican Party in Clark County.

Four bright-ish spots: Benton seems likely to eke out a win on late returns, and there's a distant chance Mielke could crawl back from the brink. The rookie Herrera totally squashed Duplessie and Boldt has yet to lose any race he's ever run.

I hear the party might be having a rough time elsewhere, too.

It's late.

More tomorrow.

michael.andersen@columbian.com

» Comment

Five local questions for tonight's results
12:01am Wednesday, November 5, 2008

As I write, the networks just called it for Barack Obama.

In case you're just turning your attention to making sense of all those other races, let's think about the interesting questions left for Clark County ballots.

1) Will Clark County go blue in the presidential race, as it did in '88, '92 and '96?

2) Which way will Clark County's margin for governor go from 2004, when Dino Rossi won 52.8 to 44.7, with 2.5 percent Libertarian? (In 2000, even as the county went solid Bush, former Democratic Gov. Gary Locke creamed John Carlson 54.2 to 43.3.)

3) Will the suburban 17th legislative district, which includes east Vancouver, Brush Prairie, the Padden Parkway area and WSUV, get bluer or redder? It's already got a split legislative delegation, and windy-road, drive-till-you-qualify subdivisions like these are tomorrow's political battlegrounds. Key indicators: Obama v. McCain, Gregoire v. Rossi and Democrat Tim Probst v. Republican Joseph James for state house. (In 2004, Bush beat Kerry 53.6 to 45.2 and Rossi beat Gregoire 54.7 to 42.8.) Whichever party is on the upswing here has a rosy future in the state of Washington.

4) Will Clark County have a slow-growth Democratic majority on its board of commissioners, centered on Pam Brokaw and Steve Stuart? Or a fast-growth Republican one, centered on Marc Boldt and Tom Mielke?

5) Will Obama's coattails help semi-long-shot Democrats like David Carrier for state senate or Jeanne Harris for county commissioner?

In less than an hour, we should know.

michael.andersen@columbian.com

» Comment