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In an amazing moment of clarity, supporters of the Green Party have now realized that political races can be a choice between the lesser of two evils. Welcome to consciousness, folks. If Nader's New Raiders would pull their faces out of the bong, say, every year or so, they'd realize that normal people are faced with these types of ominous choices annually. Should we ditch the poorly written initiative or "send Olympia a message" by voting for it? Do we really need a monorail? Gary Locke or John Carlson for governor? Face it, representative democracy involves picking a single person out of thousands to work hard, vote on legislation, and snag the odd overseas junket. Certain people who you'd like to see in office never run (Mother Teresa, Tom Cruise, your grandma). Other people who you would just as soon not have in office insist on coming back for more (Slade Gorton, Slobodan Milosevic, Brad Owen). It's democracy, stupid.
PRESIDENT
Hmmm. Now who should we support for president: the Senator's son or the President's son?
Isn't it great to live in America, where any heir to a political dynasty can get voted into the top job? Still, we think Al Gore is the definite prize of this political season's two favorite sons.
We'll acknowledge that Gore is no Bernie Sanders. His moderate liberalism (or liberal moderatism) tends to be of the New Democrat, Reinventing Government variety. Plus, he's boring, and his wife tried to censor rock 'n' roll records a decade or so back.
But Gore has battled to balance the budget and preserve environmental legislation against the Republican legislative ax. He's worked to keep the federal money flowing for programs in the areas of education, housing, and medical care for seniors.
It's a little petty to whine about Gore's early votes as a US representative, when he was struggling between the urge to push his liberal ideas and his sense of duty to represent the residents of his Tennessee district. What's more, his opponent, George Bush, is a rich kid who never got a job without his father's intervention until he was elected governor of Texas (and even then, we suspect the old man was somehow involved). Vote Gore.
US SENATOR
It's hard to imagine a more dramatic political turnaround than the one achieved by former US Representative Maria Cantwell. Bounced from her 1st District seat during the Republican "Contract on America" revolution of 1994, Cantwell fled to the private sector, took a job with Seattle's RealNetworks, and became a multimillionaire in time to self-fund a run against US Senator Slade Gorton. The incumbent should be worried. Cantwell is smart, determined, attractive, well-spoken, and . . . did we mention the part about her being a multimillionaire? She's also got mucho legislative experience from her days in the Washington State Legislature and brings real private sector (and high-tech industry) credentials into her race against career politician Gorton.
Seattle voters are crowing. Slippery Slade has long ensured his political survival by exploiting tensions between Washington's largest city and the rest of the state. He's now trying to mislead voters about Cantwell's stand on a controversial proposal to remove four dams on the Snake River (like Gorton, Cantwell opposes it). It's poetic justice that Gorton, who slipped into office by spotlighting the age of 75-year-old opponent Senator Warren Magnuson in 1980, must now desperately downplay his own age (72)—not to mention his increasingly right-wing voting record. Let's put the youngster in office. Vote Cantwell.
1st District
Watch out for the flying fur and the molten mud as Jay "Pit Bull" Inslee fights with Dan "Rabid Possum" McDonald. This is the kind of vicious contest usually reserved for New Yorkers' pleasure. Oddly, when you get past all the electoral blood sport, it comes down to a choice between a moderate, wonky, slave-to-the-high-tech-industry Democrat Jay Inslee and a moderate, wonky, slave-to-all-industry Republican Dan McDonald. Inslee wins the nod because he's better on the environment, tax fairness, guns, abortion . . . all those issues that still make the differences between the D's and the R's meaningful—barely.
7th District
Another two years, another Jim McDermott reelection campaign. Seattle's US representative-for-life recycles his campaign signs yet, for some inexplicable reason, just started a special club for $1,000 donors, complete with newsletter and events. It's disappointing: Sunny Jim could be the first US representative to win reelection without collecting a single penny in donations. He could also win reelection while riding a little scooter, standing on his head, or wearing a blindfold. We say vote for Joe Szwaja, the Green Party nominee. Unlike the guy at the top of the Green Party ticket, Szwaja is actually qualified for the job he's seeking. Formerly a four-term city council member in Madison WI, Joe's also a fair trader, a longtime activist, and could beat McDermott in a game of "horse." Plus, if Szwaja gets more than 18 percent of the vote, he'll be the best-finishing Green Party congressional candidate in US history. A vote for McDermott is a wasted vote; let's put Joe in the history books.
8th District
The Republicans will eventually lose their grip on the Eastside's 8th District, honest. We can only hope Heidi Behrens-Benedict's grandchildren will be alive to see it happen. After a predictable loss in 1998 against Republican incumbent Jennifer Dunn, Behrens-Benedict did everything right this time around: announced her candidacy immediately, courted early endorsements, and amassed a respectable campaign kitty—yet finished at 37 percent in the primary, a percentage point or two ahead of her previous run. Voters could do a lot worse than hardworking Democrat Behrens-Benedict. For example, they could vote for the jet-hopping Dunn, whose sole focus has long been her status as a national figure in the Republican Party. She's been heartbroken two presidential elections running: Will she ever get that coveted job in a Republican administration and leave her suburban district behind?
