As Shift recently reported, the 19th Legislative District—which includes Longview, West Kelso, and extends to the Pacific Coast—will get a new state senator and state representative by the end of the month. Unfortunately, voters won’t be the ones choosing the people representing them in Olympia.
Instead, as has been the Democrat strategy for keeping control in the area, commissioners from the district’s five counties will appoint these new legislators.
The appointment is a continuation of a decades-old tradition in the 19th of Democrat legislators resigning with a year left in their term so that their replacement is assured to be another Democrat. Once appointed, the new Democrat legislator is far more likely to win election when they actually go before voters.
But, that’s not the only sketchy behavior Democrats could be accused of in the 19th. According to The Daily News, a group of “left-wing, Seattle-style Democrats” tried to hijack the appointment process. In a scandal the news outlet calls “nothing short of disgusting,” it appears as though the group of “radical Democrats” have been attempting to “tear down” and “silence” the Daily News editorial board for backing two candidates that were not far-left enough. According to the paper,
“We’ve never met or spoken to these folks. This type of situation has never happened in all the years of being on an editorial board. People disagree, but vast, coordinated personal attacks? Unbelievable, ridiculous and disgusting.
“And it didn’t stop. The group went on a fishing expedition seemingly trying to find dirt on TDN employees and executive management. Public records requests were sent to county commissioners demanding all correspondence — printed and electronic — emanating from TDN and select TDN executives. Maybe this left-wing group didn’t think we’d find out. Maybe they don’t care. But they are trying to discredit our views and to personally tear us down.”
The Daily News goes on to ask why this group of radical Democrats would so aggressively attempt to denigrate others to achieve their ends. The news outlet speculates that the group may want to ensure the passage of legislation.
Whatever the reason, the attacks are just another example of all-too-typical Democrat behavior in our state. For them, the ends justify the means.
