The first week of the year could not end without more moves by Democrats scurrying to position themselves into (or out of) the race to succeed the retiring Congressman Jim McDermott. The only clear winner so far is liberal consultant Christian Sinderman, who has the one declared candidate in the race (rookie State Rep. Brady Walkinshaw) and generated news yesterday by having two of his Seattle City Council clients endorse Walkinshaw.
Of course, no one expects this to be a one-person race. Though a couple of potential candidates have taken their names out of the running – Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and State Rep. Reuven Carlyle, for instance – several others have let reporters know that “people” are just demanding they consider running for Congress. That list includes Seattle’s favorite Socialist, Kshama Sawant (who is acting uncharacteristically coy), freshman State Senator Pramila Jayapal, State Sen. David Frockt, and former U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan.
Absent from the list are any Republicans – and that’s for good reason. As Crosscut’s favorite demographer aptly points out, “in 2012, Mitt Romney won three of District 7’s 1,046 precincts – a section of tony suburb Woodway, Broadmoor Country Club in Seattle, and an evangelical Christian retirement home in Shoreline. The Republican Party is dead in District 7.”
However, there are plenty of living Democrats who have held or are currently in office in the Seattle-centric congressional district, and seemingly most of them are calling friends now to determine if they should get in the race.
Let the (McDermott) Hunger Games begin in earnest – we all need a few laughs after the week the stock market has had.
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