Here’s how I would characterize Marie Gluesenkamp Perez the candidate and soon-to-be member of Congress. She’s smart and sensible, with her feet on the ground. She has a degree in economics from Reed College and, with her experience on the State Democratic Executive committee, understands how politics works. She doesn’t live in relatively liberal Vancouver, but in deep-red Skamania county. She knows how to run a business and use a chainsaw.
We need more Democrats like her. Not surprisingly, she was underestimated by elites, whether we’re talking about 538 or the DCCC. Even the Washington State Democratic Party didn’t make her race a priority until late in the cycle. She had some good people campaign for her, such as state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, but the strength of campaign was in the small army of volunteers. She won’t be like other beltway Democrats. When she returns home on recess, she’ll be driving down that gravel road to her place with its well and radio tower internet. And, unlike so many self-obsessed Republicans, instead of avoiding the diverse voices of people in her district, she’ll listen to their concerns and struggles.
You’ll now be able to drive down I-5 from the Canadian border to the bridge over the Columbia and pass through all-blue districts. This is in part due to the fanaticism of Republicans in a state that rejects fanaticism. It is a mistake to regard Washington as some inherently blue state. It’s only blue as it is because voters don’t like the radical right candidates Republicans keep putting forward in primaries. If the day ever comes that Democrats succumb to mismanaging the budget and state agencies, and Republicans manage to run sensible candidates grounded in reality, the Democrats will be swept from power in an instant.
I like Gov. Jay Inslee personally, but I don’t always agree with his policies, especially during the Obama administration when he felt compelled to support Arne Duncan’s corporate education policies. However, I will give him this: he’s successfully advanced progressive policies while remaining down-to-earth. He isn’t slick like Gavin Newsome, but he gets the job done. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, like Mary Peltola, will work hard to support policies that help her constituents. Like Jay Inslee, she’ll be a pragmatist, not a performer.
When she says that she’ll work right down the middle, I would take her word for it. I don’t want to make specific predictions, but I would expect that she won’t always align herself with progressive policies. She’s a member of the Democratic Party, which is a center-left coalition, not a personality cult. She gets that the majority of her constituents are tired of all the extremist noise. They want her to go to work. And she will.