Blue City Conservatives

It will all take time, of course. But Seattle's predicament reflects a larger challenge for urban conservatives and especially national and state GOP strategists. In a much-noted essay published online in The American Thinker in March, conservative commentator Ed Lasky argued that with suburbs no longer strictly the province of Republicans, and with big-city Democratic mayors becoming more skilled at co-opting Republican big-business interests, " . . . now is precisely the time for Republicans to extend their dominance in areas heretofore considered terra incognita: the nation's cities. . . . This [current] capitulation is wrong. . . . It is based on an outmoded and distorted view of city residents. . . . The Democrats see major cities as cash cows to be milked for favored groups; we should see them as areas . . . that with the right type of Republican activism and resources could be painted red. We should no longer avert our eyes from the city, for we do so at our own peril."

Put another way, as Mercer Island, Bellevue, and Issaquah continue to turn purple, Seattle must begin to do so as well. It's time to make Seattle a two-party town.

Pete Kuhns

Says Seattle Republican Brian Ballard: "As soon as you come out as a Republican here, minds start to shut down. . . ." 

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Writer and communications consultant Matt Rosenberg moved to Seattle from Chicago in 1994. He contributed a regular guest op-ed column to The Seattle Times for three years. He blogs at Rosenblog (www.rosenblog.com), Sound Politics (www.soundpolitics.com), and Red State (www.redstate.org).