Dean-like campaign? Dean-like results? 04/21/04
Picture the scene: A feisty, tough-talking liberal Democrat with a track record of success and leadership runs an issue-oriented primary campaign, fueled by rank-and-file Union members, grass-roots activists, and Internet junkies, against "safe," well-financed, platitude-spouting, BORING middle-of-the-road candidates anointed by many in the Party establishment.
Sound like Howard Dean? Meet Phil Talmadge.
Challenging an incumbent two-term Governor from your own party is not the usual road to success. But faced with Talmadge's insurgency, and mounting criticism from all sides over his ineffectiveness and lack of leadership,
Governor Gary Locke declined to run for a third term.
Did that make Talmadge the Democratic heir apparent? Hardly. Into the fray jumped Attorney General Christine Gregoire, flush with campaign money, much of it contributed by out-of-state lawyers, whose pockets Gregoire had lined while negotiating the state's settlement with tobacco companies.
Washington's punditocracy, as if goosed in their collective butts with electric cattle prods, leaped onto the bandwagon. Seattle Times columnist Joni Balter, while throwing out a perfunctory disclaimer, all but placed the crown on Gregoire's head days after she announced. (Registration required)
When another high-profile Democrat, King County Executive Ron Sims, entered the race, the press figured it had license to ignore Talmadge completely. Only this week, Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly referred to the "marquee matchup" between Sims and Gregoire without even mentioning Talmadge.
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In truth, Talmadge is a longshot. Gregoire and Sims have money. Talmadge doesn't -- yet. People know who he is. He was a four-term State Senator from my district, the 34th. He was a State Supreme Court Justice for six years. He is co-chair of the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town, which is trying to preserve the Joint Operating Agreement between the Times and P-I.
The presumptive Republican nominee is former State Senator Dino Rossi, from Seattle's Eastside suburbs. Rossi, who has raised a big war chest, is potentially the GOP's strongest candidate for governor since John Spellman's single term in the 1980s. Rossi is running on his record as a budget hawk, but he is anti-abortion, which historically does not play well here.
Issue by issue, and in person, Talmadge's candidacy has resonated among rank-and-file Union members, and rank-and-file Democrats at large. That's because he seems to be the only candidate talking about issues at all.
Gregoire either cannot or will not get specific. Her Web site promises detailed proposals "during the campaign," but otherwise is a gagfest of platitudes. At this point, she appears content to run on name familiarity, the size of her war chest, the tobacco settlement, and her personal history (she is a breast cancer survivor). Her campaign dismisses charges that her staff influenced an investigation of irregularities in her office.
Sims is a genuinely good guy, with solid liberal credentials. But he is a taxer and a spender, and even Democrats who like him question whether he can win on that record statewide. He may have touched the "third rail" of Washington politics with his recent suggestion that Washington voters adopt an income tax.
With all that as background, Talmadge supporters and campaign workers still had high hopes Friday as they descended in force on the Sea-Tac Hilton, hard by the airport, to get the support of WEAPAC, the political arm of the Washington Education Association, the powerful but lately beleaguered teachers' Union.
Phil had the boots on the ground. His volunteers were there in force before anyone else's were. They lined the entrances and parking lots, and the hotel lobby. By the time the hospitality rooms opened, the Talmadge volunteers, many of them teachers, were busy lobbying the delegates.
Talmadge had the buzz, and the background. His father had been a teacher and a WEA member. His wife is a teacher and a WEA member. His sister is a principal. His platform was clearly designed to get the endorsement of the Teachers' union.
His campaign even had a secret weapon: Cedric Eklund, 5, who stood outside the Sims and Gregoire hospitality rooms, with his Talmadge sign and his Talmadge T-shirt that fell to his ankles, piping in his high voice, "Phil cares about my future!"
Long after the Sims and Gregoire hospitality rooms had closed, Talmadge's was full. To all appearances, Phil had won hearts and minds, and had the momentum. Next day came the vote, and it all went south.
The WEAPAC endorsement has Instant Runoff Voting. On the first ballot, there was no majority, but Talmadge led. The lowest option, No Endorsement, dropped out. On the next ballot, again there was no majority. Sims had the lowest vote total, and he dropped out. It was down to Talmadge and Gregoire.
Gregoire won. The argument in her favor was "she has the money." Evidently it meant nothing to the WEA that it was giving up its leverage by endorsing so early in the campaign, as several other large unions had done.
A disappointed Talmadge told the Seattle Times he was considering dropping out of the race, but by the next day had changed his mind and decided to soldier on. It will be an uphill fight, and his supporters face the daunting task of an insurgent campaign against perceived "electability," where so far the main issue appears to be "show me the money."