Still Hanging in there? or Gropping for life?

The past few nights have bee a crazy ride watching as the country makes its open feeling known to those who had voted for the Health care, and Washington state is no different, Rick Larsen has fallen to the way side defeated by John Koster, and struggling to maintain her Lead Patty Murray desperately counts her votes, like a miser fearing the return of the rural votes for Rossi. With over one hounded thousand vote estimated still to be count out of King County; which has been heavily in the Murray bucket, the long view doesn’t look good, but there is hope. Spokane County has a few as well many other more conservative counties. It remains to be seen is another Rossi vs. the Tribal dollars which paid for the recount during his run for governor  a few years back, or are we going to see a solid uncontested victor? One thing is for certain in Washington nothing is ever strait forward especially, when Rossi is on the ticket.

Liam Nedredd

the wire

as the elections are drawing to a close and the last few ballots are turned in tomorrow, the polls show Rossi with a two percent lead to murray (49-47). of course, there are always going to be small mistakes in counting at this point, before the official release of who's winning or who won, so just because rossi is ahead now, doesn't mean he will be at the end of this election period. If rossi were to win in this november election, he would boot murray out of an office she's sat in since 1993, when she became the first woman senator of washington state. what a sore spot for murray.

Rossi must be a little worried about all this hubbub called last minute voters, because this past halloween weekend, he spent his time campaigning and working harder than Murray seems to be. He was in eastern washington, rallying his voters, he's sent out countless fliers encouraging people to vote in his favor. Some people might find it ironic, however, that he's claimed murray's television ads are malicious, cruel and place him only in a bad light, but then he turns around and does the same thing back. But that's not really anything new, just something that has continued throughout the elections.

Murray on the other hand must be relying heavily on the fact she's served since 1993 for Washington's senator position because she hasn't done anything notable as of late. She continues to endorse a reform of Wall Street, Veteran affairs and of course education and tax cuts, and she's campaigning hard. It seems that her most valiant efforts came when her political big wigs came to town to provide support for her.

So please, go mail your ballot, let your voice be heard. Vote. And keep your eyes out for another update, post-election.

Dino is Taking the Lead

Dino is on the clime today Rasmussen Reports that in a state wide telephone survey of likely voters in the state of Washington Dino is in the lead with 48% of the vote while Patty Murray sit at 47%. This may not seem that big of a leap but given the closeness of the race and the date to Election Day we can’t help but wonder is this trend going to climb? Have the people of Washington State decided that Dino is their guy?   It not hard to see why this is starting to shape up the way it is, given the nature of the two campaigns. Dino has been trekking all throughout the state, stopping at every small town tucked into every corner spreading his message of a smaller more accountable government to those who have little or no interests in the social interests of the big city Olympia types; whom they see as out of touch.  He instead focuses on the issues that appeal to the voters in those regions; jobs unemployment. And what has Patty Murray done? She has thrown gatherings and thrown fundraisers, but has not gotten outside of her comfort zone or her “Constituency” the people of Seattle and the surrounding area. They say in the State of Washington if you “win Seattle you win the state”,  well it is looking like that old line is on the way out and the to win the state, you need to win the state.

Liam Nedredd

Rossi Strikes Back!

dino rossi has been known for his campaigning, and he finally pulled through with a successful rally just yesterday in silverdale. his main points of the rally; cut government spending, create new jobs and help to repeal the federal health care legislation. He criticized murray for what he believes is "wasteful spending," something that many washingtonians know has gotten out of hand. The most moving statement in his speech, one that should tug at the heartstrings of many supporters and non-supporters alike was when he stated, "this crop of politicians in charge is borrowing to consume and is handing the bill over to our kids. This is the moral issue of this campaign, because what they’re doing is morally reprehensible.” Of course parents don't want their children to have the burden of high taxes and an even higher state deficit. Rossi also brought up a strong and valid point. Murray's voting record isn't exactly the greatest, voting indirectly to cut jobs in our state, votes for the bank bailout, the economic stimulus and the health care reform. He also called her ads "over the top." Some might argue that his are no worse than hers, but of course he's not going to admit to it, or even point it out.

Murray on the other hand is not going down without a fight. My favorite headline of the week goes to CNN.com, with their accurate description of Murray as "Senator in tennis shoes running for her political life." You can read the entire article here. In this article, she states "People are hurting. Their house is underwater. They've lost their financial future. They've lost their pension. They're insecure about where the country is going. I understand that." She's admitting that the republicans aren't the only reason for the economic crisis still plaguing our state as well as our country, democrats are partially responsible and she's full aware that something needs to change. She maintains showing her deep concern for the issues that our state is dealing with, but will she change anything when she gets in office? Rossi of course disagrees and he continues to point out all of the flawed choices Murray has made. But can he only point out flaws and say he would never do something like that? Maybe that's why the polls keep murray in the lead with no more than two percent? Stay posted for updates on the race and find out who took out the half a million dollar television campaign ad. 

-Nick LeBlanc

 

 

Smear. Not like the bagel.

Blog post

As the race continues for the only available seat in Washington for senator, both candidates are proving very resilient. In the beginning, both Murray and Rossi were fighting with ad campaigns, political smearing and of course, the classic he said she said scenario. Now that there has been a break in the debates, one can see that neither side really made progress in the aspect of gaining support. The race was and has been very close, leaving either party with no more than a four percent lead. Murray currently holds the lead with forty nine percent, leaving Rossi with forty six. 

Patty murray proves the most resilient, seeming, to recover faster and with more gumption than rossi has since the debates (which left a lot in question). Her meeting with Obama at the university of washington campus in seattle shows that the democratic party is fighting hard to keep the upper hand in congress. Murray definitely knows how to rally her supporters. She is expected to campaign today with first lady, michelle Obama. The details will definitely be in the next post.

Dino Rossi on the other hand is leaving many voters with little to work with. Sure, he might meet with a few of them here and there, but has he been campaigning to the extent that murray has? No, not in the slightest, the standings can prove that. He recently gained the support of The Council of Metropolitan Police and Sheriffs. Other than that, his only political campaign tactic is smear, smear, smear. 

However, in an interesting turn of events, news released that a candidate (no name...yet) has taken out a 5000000 dollar television campaign ad. We'll have to wait and see who it was.

Nick Leblanc. 

hello, mr. president

 
it has been a very long week for senator candidates, patty murray and dino rossi. most recently in the news would be previous president, bill clinton, campaigning in our state for the democratic candidate, patty murray. she also welcomed the presence of current president, barack obama. obama's presence in all of the tight electoral races has drastically helped the position of all democratic candidates and is proving to help in their favor. the reason obama has been helping democratic candidates campaign is to ensure that the dems continue to keep the majority in congress.

rossi, on the other hand, is continuing on his low road, taking as many jabs at murray as possible. but come on, he's going to have to do better than a few commercials. while murray is off campaigning her life away, rossi is meeting one on one with voters, answering questions on his policies, etc. and providing some reassurance he is the man for the job. it obviously isn't helping much, letting murray pull into the lead at 49 percent to rossi's 46.8. the only thing at this point that might be hurting murray is that she has not spent the one on one time that rossi has with her voters. she's not really showing loyalty to the people who have continued to reelect her since 1992. we'll see in the near future whether or not this factor will play into the candidates' standings.

the battle begins

as the debates rage on between the democratic and republican candidates of washington state, dino rossi and patty murray, it becomes more clear for many voters on which candidate they want to lead our state in washington d.c. two debates have already taken place, and some would argue that the score is one to one, leaving things all tied up. but not for long.

on thursday, the first debate was held in spokane, and patty murray showed confidence, eloquence and determination. all of her points were clear, concise and the viewers could tell that she knows what she wants. her most important point that she brought up several times throughout the night was that she's a "mom in tennis shoes," a saying that she's stuck with since she first ran for office in 1992, and an image that she hopes to bring back to help her in reelection. dino rossi on the other hand, argued that she was "not the 'mom' anymore but an insider who says one thing in this state and does another in washington, d.c." (the everett herald). thursday proved to be a success for murray, who managed to gain her title of a mother back and, in many peoples' eyes, "avoid[ed] coming off as a d.c. power broker hell-benton an agenda and insensitive to frustration it has caused among the populace" (the everett herald). 

the second debate that took place on sunday in seattle, allowed rossi to recover from his poor performance in the previous debate. on thursday, i felt bad for murray since rossi really wasn't giving her anything to reply to. she kept saying "i don't hear an answer." although, it was fun watching himself get frustrated. by the time sunday came around, rossi seemed to channel this anger into his responses and was able to get past his stammers. he managed to present himself as a viable option to the senator position, just barely.

the most recent news about the elections is that bill clinton is to campaign for murray at paine field, today, monday the eighteenth. she also has the president and vice president coming to help her cause later in the week. the polls are the fairly equal, with rossi leading at 47% and murray close behind at 46%. both candidates are fighting dirty with ad campaigns, and all of them are very powerful. i believe that's why the race is so close at this point in time.

-nick leblanc