Unbelievable. Just got my mail-in ballot for WA's August primary

[EarnestPutz]

I've never seen anything like this ballot. There are 29 candidates
running for the nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held
by Maria Cantwell. There are 13 Republicans, 5 Democrats (including
Cantwell), 5 Independent Party, and candidates from the Libertarian,
FDFR, Human Rights, StandUpAmerica, Freedom Socialist and Green
Parties. Running against Cathy McMorris-Rogers for the U.S. House
Seat are two other Republicans, a Democrat and someone from
the Trump Populist Party. This is not normal in Eastern Washington's
5th Congressional district, even though Washington has held on to
some form of our open primaries through the years.

[maxsolomon]

1. Crackpots and Charlatans

It will all be for naught; the General will be R v. D.

[EarnestPutz]

2. Usually there are 3 or 4 nut jobs....

... my point is that today's goofy political climate
has brought them out in much bigger numbers.

[Vinca]

3. Cheer up. During presidential elections the name "Vermin Supreme" appears on NH ballots.

[LisaM]

4. It's absolutely ridiculous. There's no way anyone can be informed on 29 candidates.

With all the sniping that people take at the party system, the parties used to be what you depended on to do all this vetting.

These so-called "jungle primaries" are very, very bad for the electorate, IMO.

[Retrograde]

8. How I deal with California's jungle primaries

CA sends a voters' guide to each household with registered voters. First, I check it for a candidate's statement: if they can't be bothered to write one, I can't be bothered to vote for them. That cuts out about a third. Then I eliminated the Republicans and Libertarians. Then I read the candidate statements and eliminate the obvious nutjobs. This usually leave 3 or 4 candidates or so for further research.

[LisaM]

10. Well, I do that, too. But it's still onerous.

And it also makes it easy for some unqualified people to slip through. I just don't like it.

[yewberry]

5. I see GoodSpaceGuy is running again.

Here's the ballotpedia page for the perennial candidate: https://ballotpedia.org/GoodSpaceGuy

[RhodeIslandOne]

12. There's clearly nothing Good about him

[PearliePoo2]

6. My sister lives near Fairchild AFB. She says McMorris is running tons of ads.

She’s spending a lot of money. (“Liberal Lisa” blah blah) Does she have reasons to be worried? What about the farmers and ranchers? Are they being hurt or are they pissed about the trump tariffs and blaming him yet? Maybe these ignorant assholes won’t bother to vote this November!

[grantcart]

15. I spent 6 weeks in Spokane and Eastern Washington in December and was shocked

at the lack of support for McMorris-Rodgers

I couldn't find a single person, Democrat or Republican that thought she would win.

1) Farmers and Ranchers. In reality their aren't that many. Entire population of Lincoln County is only 5,000. I talked to one Republican who is a former non partisan office holder there who said that he has never voted for a Democrat but is voting for Brown and if the Democrats don't win by a landslide the Republic is lost.

2) Lisa Brown The Dems have a dream candidate. She was Chancellor of WSU and brought a teaching hospital to Spokane, the first major development in Spokane since its Worlds Fair in 74.

I heard nothing but great things about her from Republicans and Democrats.

Poll in April had it a statistical tie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Brown_(Washington_politician)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Brown_(Washington_politician)

Yet another poll of Eastern Washington voters shows a tight race between U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Lisa Brown.

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling firm based in North Carolina, released results Thursday of polls in 12 Congressional districts where Democrats believe they could make inroads in the upcoming midterm elections. McMorris Rodgers won 48 percent of the poll’s respondents in a matchup with Democratic challenger Brown, the choice of 45 percent of respondents.

The fact that the Republicans are having to spend big money to keep the seat in Spokane is one of the biggest indicators of how great the wave is. If the Dems take this one we could take 70 seats.

Spokane is a big supporter of McCain Defense Republican wing of the party and they have to be cringing with the Trump betrayal.

There is also evidence that her opposition to the ACA is going to hurt her.

In any case we have a brilliant candidate with a Ph'd who won the state senate seat with 60% and 75% of the vote.

McMorris Rodgers isn't toast but she is being roasted very well.

(I knew McMorris Rodgers father in law and sister in law quite well 50 years ago, they were very nice people)

[PearliePoo2]

16. What a great post! You did a lot of work here. I learned a lot by going to your links. Thank you!

Lisa Brown has quite the creds! I found her web page and I have it in my "Favorites" now so I can follow her.

It sure will be interesting to see more recent polling when it comes out!

I also learned that the 5th District is much bigger than I thought. It spans from the Canadian border to the Idaho border and south to the Oregon border. It's the second largest District in the State and is comprised of ten Counties!

Spokane County voted 49% Trump to 41% Clinton. Washington State as a whole voted 54% Clinton to 38% Trump.
Gotta LOVE that 'Cascade Curtain'!

Man, does 70 seats sound good! I can barely wait to see Adam Schiff take over as House Intel Chairman! I'll be popping champagne corks! Seriously!

Proud to say that my County (San Juan) voted 66.57% Clinton to 24.95 Trump with a 88.25 turnout! Yeah baby...

Once again, thanks for your very informative post!

[samnsara]

7. That's the same thing hubby said when he opened his the other day...

….a ton of candidates!

[cilla4progress]

11. Same exact thing

here!

Country full of imbeciles. Wish I didn’t care.

[TeamPooka]

9. Simple. Vote Cantwell.

[RhodeIslandOne]

13. That fucking crook Rocky DeFuente is running??

He’s running in five other states too! Fuck him!

[grantcart]

14. You had me at just got me at "just got my mail in ballot for WA primary

Every state should be doing this

[EarnestPutz]

17. I've always been proud of my state's primary process.

We had open primaries and neighborhood caucuses for party candidates
for years until both major parties wanted more control over who their
candidates would be. Protracted court battle. Our populist roots held fast.
Today all of the candidates that I mentioned are not identified on the ballot
as "Democrat" or "Republican", for example, but as "Prefers Democratic Party"
or "Prefers Republican Party". This was a sop that they threw to the parties,
a kind of deniability.