.
While anyone has been an improvement over Chris Vance and his disastrous "Suburban (read: Bellevue Mafia) Crescent" strategy, the question for the State GOP still boils down to one of basic competence.
For example, in this cycle, the question needs to be asked: did we GOTV as well as the dems?
I dunno. Is John Koster a member of Congress? In the past, we've always been able to count on a rightward move on late votes. For example, Tom Mielke made up an almost 3,000 vote election night disadvantage to win the county commissioner slot in 08. (Yes, the state GOP was down here. They did a great job of running the ballot chase as well)
Election night, when I saw the close races, I counted on the legendary right break to come through and shove us over the top.
In some local races, that actually happened. County Clerk-Elect Scott Weber ended Election Night down, and it was extremely close for Assessor-Elect Peter VanNortwick. Subsequently, both broke away from their opponents. But in this cycle's county commission race, Al Svehaug ended the night down at something like 47.6%
That's right in the wheel house of Mielke's count. The numbers clearly showed that Svehaug should have caught "Easy Money" Stuart. And the votes DID break right... just not nearly as hard or as far as they did in the Mielke race.
By close of business on E+1, I knew the wave had trickled to a puddle.
Races where we were close fizzled. And this was at the tail end of a vaunted tsunami.
So, what happened?
The state GOP seemed to be a microcosm of the Clark County GOP.
The local failure to get someone to run against Steve "Unmarked Bills" Stuart in late 2009 is part of the reason he continues in office today. But another part is the failure of the ground game to get the hard right break.
Had the GOP in this state been wildly successful... had the negotiated a deal between Rossi and Didier... had they not committed all of their resources to getting another Rossi loss set up by playing in the primary, had they not taken the Didier camp for granted like Chris Vance did, had they made sure we had the best possible ground game... had they worked as hard to get Koster elected as they did Rossi (for all the good that did us) then we would be having a different discussion.
But this is the second abysmal cycle in a row... and this one, particularly, should have been anything BUT abysmal.
If we had changed from a dark blue state to even a purple state, let along Red... then there's little doubt Esser and Company would be taking all the credit. As it is... given the outcomes... the time has come for them to take all the blame.
We all know the definition for insanity. Is their some reason we insist on continuing to practice it?
The WSRP regime should replaced top to bottom. And quickly. I don't know if Wilbur is the one to do it, but I'm leaning that way until anyone better comes along.
The same, of course, can be said for the efforts of the local party.
Members of the Executive Board violated, if nothing else, protocol by endorsing in the primary, and then working hard for their candidates to the expense of others also in the primary.
I have not forgotten that Ryan Hart violated the WSRP bylaws by endorsing Ridgefield Barbie in the primary... early... or that Anna Miller attacked those disagreeing with her positions on the candidates, including me.
I have no problem with anyone endorsing anyone. But I have a major problem with those on the Executive Board endorsing candidates in the primary.
For that there is no excuse nor justification.
I look forward to reorg.
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