I attended the Washington State 25th District Democratic meeting last night and thought I'd pass along a couple of items of interest.
Firstly, I found out that you must mark the ballot for ALL candidates in the upcoming primary even if they are running unopposed. Thanks to the powers that be within both the republican and democratic parties, voters no longer will be able to cross party lines when voting in the primary. The danger here is that many will assume that when they select the party of their choice, unopposed candidates will automatically receive their vote even if they don't mark the ballot next to that person's name. Not so. If you don't mark it, that person will not receive your vote.
Why is this important?
Because the party hacks who supposedly represent us at the state democratic party headquarters also control a good deal of the dollars that will be spent in the general election on behalf of the candidates. And those same party hacks will not provide any financial support unless the democratic candidate gets a specific percentage of the votes.
For example, the 25th district has a candidate running against the republican incumbent for the state house of representatives. Although I do not know him well, this individual is a good democrat who has busted his butt for the party and for the district. Yet the state democratic party has not given him one cent to help him in the primary. And, unless he gets at least 45 percent of the vote in the primary, he will not receive any support from the state party headquarters for the general election.
Why?
Because the "club" at the top has decided that this race in the 25th district is not a 'targeted race'. What does that mean? I'm not sure, but an individual at the meeting much more experienced and wiser than I, told me that it meant that the "club" at the top 'doesn't care if the seat goes republican or democratic'. Personally, I think that every seat should be a 'targeted' seat. I'd ask for clarification for the state democratic headquarters, but I've emailed them several times in the past asking simple legitimate questions and never even received the courtesy of a reply (who are those guys anyway?).
So mark those ballots! And spread the word.