{"id":2219020,"date":"2024-04-11T23:05:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T03:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/will-washington-gop-get-fooled-again-on-governors-race\/"},"modified":"2024-04-11T23:10:25","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T03:10:25","slug":"will-washington-gop-get-fooled-again-on-governors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/will-washington-gop-get-fooled-again-on-governors-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the Washington GOP avoid repeating past mistakes in the governor&#8217;s race?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwill-washington-gop-get-fooled-again-on-governors-race%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2219020&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In Bellingham, Washington, the state \u2064replaces party-specific primaries with a\u200b general statewide\u200c primary in August. The top two\u200b finishers, regardless of party, advance to the November ballot. The \u200bgovernor&#8217;s race is anticipated \u200bto feature Democrat Bob Ferguson and former\u200b Republican\u200b congressman \u200cDave Reichert.\u2064 Polls show\u200d a potential shift\u200c in voter support \u200dtowards Reichert, raising\u2062 speculation about the upcoming election dynamics.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>BELLINGHAM, Washington \u2014 <\/strong>Rather than allowing party-specific primaries, <a title href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/washington\/\">Washington state<\/a> has one general statewide primary in August. The top two finishers of every race, regardless of party, are placed on the ballot in November. The hopefuls that political handicappers are expecting in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/impossible-gop-picked-up-seats-in-house-picked-up-state-legislatures-picked-up-governorship-held-the-senate-but-sniffy-joe-won-not-a-chance\/\" title=\"IMPOSSIBLE: GOP Picked Up Seats in House, Picked Up State Legislatures, Picked Up Governorship, Held the Senate -- But Sniffy Joe Won?... NOT A CHANCE\">general election<\/a> for governor are Democratic state Attorney General <a title href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2792271\/two-senate-bills-target-washington-agos-use-of-lawsuit-settlement-money\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bob Ferguson<\/a> and former congressman <a title href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/686418\/lawmaker-demands-ruling-on-cops-as-pigs-painting\/\">Dave Reichert<\/a>, a Republican.<\/p>\n<p>Reichert is also a former King County elected sheriff and author of the true-crime bestseller <em>Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer<\/em>. Spoiler alert: they got him, though not as fast as Reichert would have liked.<\/p>\n<p>Notwithstanding Reichert\u2019s killer resume, the election would likely be a slam dunk for Ferguson in any normal year. Washington state hasn\u2019t had a member of the GOP in the governor\u2019s mansion since early 1985. Centrist Republican John Spellman was sent packing after a single term.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Democratic state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and former Republican congressman Dave Reichert. (AP Photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Moreover, Washington has nine statewide elected executive offices, from state auditor to superintendent of public instruction to governor to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/indiana-lawmakers-crack-down-on-bail-charities-after-grisly-murders\/\" title=\"Indiana Lawmakers Crack Down on Bail Charities After Grisly Murders\">state insurance commissioner<\/a>. Every one of those seats is currently occupied by a Democrat.<\/p>\n<p>Yet pollster Echelon Insights found in March that likely voters are starting to break for Reichert. In a two-way ballot, 39% of respondents said they would vote for the former sheriff. Only 30% of voters polled currently favor the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-ag-barr-authorizes-federal-prosecutors-to-pursue-substantial-allegations-of-voting-irregularities-before-2020-election-is-certified\/\" title=\"BREAKING: AG Barr Authorizes Federal Prosecutors to Pursue \"Substantial Allegations\" of Voting Irregularities Before 2020 Election is Certified\">attorney general<\/a>. Previous Echelon polling had shown a tighter race.<\/p>\n<p>Andrew Villeneuve, executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, isn\u2019t buying it. \u201cEchelon obtained these findings primarily by constructing a skewed statewide sample that doesn\u2019t have enough Democratic and progressive voters in it to properly resemble the likely Washington State November electorate,\u201d he charged on NPI\u2019s blog in early April.<\/p>\n<p>Though Villeneuve admits that Echelon, a Republican-aligned firm, made its mark by challenging skewed internal polls by GOP campaigns, he lamented, \u201cAnd yet, here they are, generating the sort of bad data that they were calling on Republicans to stop wasting money creating around a decade ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, he offered NPI\u2019s own polling, conducted by the firm Public Policy Polling. Its February findings had Ferguson leading Reichert 46% to 42% in a two-man race.<\/p>\n<p>Villeneuve also pointed to the 2022 elections, when Democratic Sen. Patty Murray comfortably dispatched Republican challenger Tiffany Smiley \u2014 57.1% to 42.6% \u2014 in spite of some polling by Republican-aligned firms (though not Echelon) that indicated a tighter race.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>The state Capitol building in Olympia, Washington. (Lindsey Wasson\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Yet it\u2019s possible Echelon is onto something here. The elections of 2022 in Washington were marred by state infighting between Trumpist and non-Trumpy factions of the GOP. One primary challenge cost a sitting Republican congresswoman her own party\u2019s nomination and the GOP did not hold that seat in the general election. There is some evidence that Republicans simply didn\u2019t show up in their historic numbers.<\/p>\n<p>There are also many indicators that this year might be different. Washington is famous for its direct democracy, but there have been few plebiscites since Ferguson went after and legally and financially hobbled former initiative kingmaker Tim Eyman.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the group Let\u2019s Go Washington qualified six measures as initiatives to the legislature. After much debate, the Democratic majority in both houses in Olympia passed three of those initiatives into law that would likely have been layups with voters.<\/p>\n<p>The initiatives passed by the legislature affirmed parents\u2019 rights to be informed about their children in public schools, prohibited an income tax, and rolled back much of the state\u2019s mocked and highly restrictive police <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/op-ed-naacp-made-a-telling-move-before-desantis-declaration-how-far-has-this-group-fallen\/\" title=\"Op-Ed: NAACP Made a Telling Move Before DeSantis' Declaration - How Far Has This Group Fallen?\">pursuit law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>(True story: One man who was suspected of kidnapping called 911, said police had no legal right to pursue him under the pursuit law, and insisted that they back off. The stunned operator suggested that maybe if he pulled over voluntarily, they could sort this all out.)<\/p>\n<p>However, the legislature did not act on three initiatives. Voters in November get to decide the fate of the carbon tax scheme that has added almost 50 cents to the price of every gallon of gas, a capital gains tax that is incentivizing billionaires to flee the state, and the right to opt out of a payroll tax that would confer some limited subsidy for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/neb-gov-ricketts-says-only-documented-workers-will-receive-vaccine\/\" title=\"Neb. Gov. Ricketts says only documented workers will receive vaccine\">long-term care<\/a> in advancing years.<\/p>\n<p>Echelon found that these initiatives would likely be passed by voters and that some of that populist fairy dust could rub off on Republicans. For instance, \u201cVoters strongly prefer candidates who back the state LTC reform measure, with almost two-thirds\u00a0(65%) more likely to support them,\u201d the polling report states.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Another key Echelon finding was that voters have soured on three-term Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, first elected in 2012 and now retiring. One of the polling firm\u2019s \u201cKey Findings\u201d is that the governor\u2019s approval is currently \u201cunderwater by a 10-point margin, 43-53.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Does that matter, since Inslee won\u2019t be running for reelection? Hard to say at this point. But if that finding is remotely accurate, it does suggest Ferguson won\u2019t have any coattails to ride in on.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Bellingham, Washington, the state opts for a general statewide primary in August instead of party-specific ones. The system advances the top two candidates from each race, regardless of party, to the November ballot. Political analysts anticipate a showdown in the governor&#8217;s race between Democrat Bob Ferguson, the state&#8217;s Attorney General, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2692,"featured_media":2219021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/WB.Campaign1-1024x591.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2219020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/WB.Campaign1-1024x591.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2692"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2219020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2219021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2219020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2219020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2219020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}