Rough start: Liz Pike announces for the 18.

Liz Pike has become the first announced candidate in the 18th to run for Ed Orcutt's soon-to-be vacant seat.

Other names I've heard are Dale Smith, Brandon Vick and Doug Quinn.

This is going to be a difficult race for any of these names; each has issues they have to deal with to be successful in their quest.  Each needs to surround themselves with people who have actually won before.  Each, save Quinn, have to overcome poor political outcomes in the past.

Each will have to raise a bundle.  Each should understand this isn't a Prada district.  Each needs to know that Mainstreamer support in the 18th is political suicide.  Each need to understand that less verbiage is, in fact, more.

The person who understands all that, works themselves into a state of exhaustion every day, and who can explain how they are somehow the preferred political choice for a district when they've been rejected... overwhelmingly... in the recent past, has a serious shot at winning.

But the baggage is a problem:

Pike will run in the 18th District
Redistricting likely to make incumbent Orcutt ineligible


By Stevie Mathieu
Columbian staff writer

Monday, January 23, 2012

Former Camas city councilwoman Liz Pike announced Monday that she will run for state representative in the 18th District.

Pike was motivated to run as a Republican because “our state government needs to reform and we need to start being more efficient,” she said by phone Monday. “What I’m willing to do is dig in and make tough choices to prioritize how Washington does business.”

Pike, who has owned Pike Advertising Agency since 1995, is the political affairs director for the Building Industry Association of Clark County. She unsuccessfully ran against incumbent Camas Mayor Paul Dennis in 2007. Dennis won re-election with three times as many votes as Pike received.

...

During her race for mayor of Camas, Pike said the city was run by entrenched bureaucrats who skirted the law in the solicitation of bids, handling of animal control and housing issues. She asserted that Dennis got an unfair break on a traffic ticket, and that Dennis and the police chief ran a police department that was lax on enforcement.

Dennis delivered information to rebut her charges. He drew the support of the police, firefighters, city workers, members of the city council and even the Camas school board, among others.

More:

In the past, I have hammered Pike.  But to her credit, she has contacted me directly to discuss my concerns and past political issues.

She is the only candidate in 6 years to directly address the concerns I have expressed in this blog.

Wasn't easy for her to do, and she did it. 

Time will tell how this all plays out.  But this is no place for a King County Republican.  Anyone campaigning like one is likely to become road kill.