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Posts published in “Day: June 16, 2007”

Giuliani’s entre

Dave Reichert

Dave Reichert

The 2008 presidential campaign has been going on for a long time now, and from a Northwest perspective one of the most notable things about it has been the thinness of many of the presidential campaigns in the region.

That's not true of all the campaigns. But while our presidential support page, in which we've been citing all the public-figure backers of presidential candidates we can locate around the region, has plenty of names in a few places, many others are empty.

Two candidates, one on each side, has amassed some strong support in the Northwest, though even then limited. Democrat John Edwards has an impressive collection in Oregon, though not so much in Washington or Idaho. And Republican Mitt Romney seems to have all but sewn up Idaho, and has a strong endorsement list in Oregon too; we've not seen anything comparable in Washington.

This is recounted by way of this week's announcement that Dave Reichert, the U.S. House member from Washington's 8th district (Bellevue area), will be the lead local figure in Washington state for the current (still?) Republican frontrunner, Rudy Giuliani. Not a bad catch, but it drew out the thought that Reichert is the first public figure - so far as we've heard - so far in the Northwest to endorse the frontrunning Republican.

Among the other candidates: Democrat Barack Obama has a small contingent in Washington and Idaho (plenty of individual Oregon supporters, but no public figures we're aware of). Republican John McCain has backing from Oregon Senator Gordon Smith and former Washington Senator Slade Gorton, but that seems to be it in the region. Democrat Bill Richardson has one Idaho name. We've seen no reports of a regional endorsee for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

We could, of course, always have missed some announcements; if you know of endorsers beyond those on our page, please let us know. But for the moment, with a couple of exceptions, the regional efforts look a little thin.

A matter of membership

Stepping back from the current Idaho debate over party declaration, maybe we should reconsider the whole question of political parties and what they are. Ordinarily, most of us are happy with the concept that private organizations can have broad control over who to admit to its membership. But what about an organization that in effect holds the keys to elective office? From the standpoint of the unaffiliated (as we are), political parties can look like private organizations that have hijacked our election system. Certainly such constitutional framers as George Washington, who was appalled at the rise of "faction," would likely see it that way.

Should we simply declare that political parties are not private at all - insinuated as they are in our governmental and political process - and declare them quasi-public organizations operating on special rules? In some ways, they already are. For all the discussion (periodically in Washington state and currently, hotly, in Idaho) about party members maintaining control of the nomination process, there is no control at - and none is proposed - for controlling who is allowed to be a Republican or a Democrat. (Will the courts address that next?) Anyone can join either party, for any reason. And if you doubt that leads to some loose election results in places where party registration is part of the system, look to Oregon, a party registration state, and compare the party registration numbers with the often at-odds results on general election days.

The current row in Idaho stems from an 88-58 vote at a state Republican Party meeting a Burley in favor of "closing" the Republican primary - that is, allowing only voters who are registered as Republicans to vote in Republican primary elections. (That is how it works, for both major parties, in Oregon and a number of other states.) Doing that would require a change in state law, which despite Republican legislative control doesn't seem likely; it also presumably would mean that Idahoans would register by party when they register to vote.

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