The inevitable happens: fringe leftist Craig Pridemore is out.

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The following was posted on the ubiquitous Horse's Ass:

Pridemore to withdraw from WA-03 congressional race
by Goldy, 06/01/2010, 11:55 AM

According to sources close to the campaign, Democratic state Sen. Craig Pridemore will announce today that he is withdrawing from the race to replace Rep. Brain Baird in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, leaving fellow Democrat Denny Heck with a sure path to the November ballot.

With a slew of establishment endorsements and a $250,000 infusion of his own money, Heck became the early Democratic favorite, an advantage Pridemore, a strong, populist-minded campaigner, simply wasn’t able to overcome, especially as he continued to be locked up in an endless, special legislative session. Pridemore had intended to run an energetic, grassroots primary campaign, a strategy that depended on strong support from labor organizations like the Washington State Labor Council and the Washington Education Association. And while he recently secured the endorsement of the former, word leaked over the weekend that the WEA would be endorsing Heck, largely based on his fundraising lead and frontrunner status. (I don’t think teachers have a bigger champion in the Senate than Pridemore.)

Pridemore’s withdrawal is of course a blow to progressives like me who saw him as the better choice of the two Dems. Whether it’s a blow to Republicans, who wouldn’t have minded a Democratic cat fight in the primary, remains to be seen. In this anti-incumbency year, my gut told me that the more populist Pridemore had the better shot in November than the more establishment Heck.

But here’s hoping the Democratic establishment proves me wrong.

The delusion of the left never ceases to amuse:

With a slew of establishment endorsements and a $250,000 infusion of his own money, Heck became the early Democratic favorite, an advantage Pridemore, a strong, populist-minded campaigner, simply wasn’t able to overcome, especially as he continued to be locked up in an endless, special legislative session.

It really sucks to find out how unpopular and out of anything approaching the mainstream your politics are, as Pridemore has so brilliantly done. Using session is a pathetic excuse, given that dozens of state representatives around the country have managed to get past their "endless special legislative sessions" to campaign.

Even Ridgefield Barbie managed to pull it off, though it was a combination of McMorris arranging for her cash and her decision to ditch us and leave the floor for hours at a time to fundraise during session that made the difference.

But here's a clue for the clueless left: Your message sucks. The people don't want to hear it. And that's why Pridemore's campaign was an abysmal failure.

Blaming it on session is just pathetic. A competent campaign with a solid message would have found a way to make it happen.

Pridemore could not. The end. Stop making excuses for him.

Fellow fringe-left nutters will, of course, go into mourning but the democrat brand is so screwed up and in such horrific shape that no democrat stands much of a chance to win in the 3rd this time around anyway, let along an uber fringe-leftist nutter like Pridemore.

As I have been pointing out, his exit was inevitable to any political pragmatist.

Hopefully, he'll get the message and just continue to represent the Soviet Socialist Republic of Vancouver.

The irony in all of this is Pridemore's statement:

A factor in his decision, he said, was that he learned over the weekend that the Washington Education Association will endorse Heck. “That was a critical part of our base,” he said.

It was the WEA ditching of then Sen. Don Carlson, a Republican retired teacher who had carried the WEA's water like Gunga Din to endorse Pridemore because he was a democrat and if the democrats won, they would take control of the Senate; that likely got Pridemore elected (it was a very close election) and now, they've bailed on Pridemore because even they realize that a fringer can't win in the 03.

Pridemore has discovered the joys of union loyalty... a hard-learned lesson to be sure. But it's a lesson most not cemented to the left already knew.
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