It was only a couple weeks ago that Seattle Democrats were all abuzz with word that Congressman-for-Life Jim McDermott was being challenged by first- term representative Brady Walkinshaw. Now that the news has sunk in, liberal blog Publicola has followed up with the obvious: it will take a couple million bucks to unseat the 27-year veteran, because even if he has been ineffective as a legislator in D.C., he has been effective at raising money from special interests.
From Publicola, “With traditional Democratic donors—like trial lawyers and union money (United Food and Commercial Workers and teachers, for example)—showing up as McDermott’s top career and recent donors, Walkinshaw, who also has a solid showing from traditional Democratic donors like unions, will have his fundraising work cut out for him now that he’s challenging the Democratic status quo.”
In a complete lack of understanding about what might go into a successful campaign, Publicola notes that in “a promising sign for Walkinshaw, he has managed to scoop up some Democratic party endorsements”, and lists six state legislative colleagues of Walkinshaw’s, half of whom don’t actually live in McDermott’s district. One can seriously doubt that any of those legislators will provide much heavy lifting on fundraising for their soon-to-be ex-colleague, or even bring any votes to the effort.
Perhaps the more interesting story will be which Democrats are secretly hoping that Walkinshaw makes McDemott actually campaign in 2016, so that he will get tired of it and not run in 2018 – and then they can line up for what would be a likely double-digit candidate open-seat race.
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