Washington State Senators Cross Aisle and Tilt Ideological Balance

By artappraiser on Thu, 12/27/2012 - 2:44am |

By Kirk Johnson, New York Times/Statehouse Journal, Dec. 26/27, 2012

Home page lede: One of the creators of a new majority coalition in the state Capitol in Olympia said politics had become too liberal to be representative of Washington as a whole.

Excerpt: [....] Two Democrats in the State Senate, in bolting from the party’s ranks this month to join with Republicans in creating a new majority coalition, say yes.

True representation of state residents — republican government with a small “r” — demanded a broader discussion and a larger voice, they said, for marginalized segments of the electorate.

“Seattle-centric,” said Senator Tim Sheldon, a two-decade veteran lawmaker and Democrat from a district west of Olympia, summing up the combination of forces that alienated him: safe seats in Seattle, campaign money raised in safe seats but spread around, and a caucus that rewards and reinforces the safe-seat equation with powerful leadership posts. “They’re not representative of the state,” he said. [....]

URL:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/us/politics/washington-state-senators-cross-aisle-and-tilt-ideological-balance.html?hp

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Well the one guy, Sheldon, that dude has never been a Democrat, seriously, he's been siding up with Republicans since he was first elected. We think he is a major shithead, but his constituents don't so what are you going to do.

The new guy from Bellevue, he basically lied to his new constituents, claiming he was a Dem, they voted him in and then he did this. Me thinks he will be losing his seat in two years, at least that is the rumor, and of course he will no longer get money from Dems for his campaigning, and he doesn't realize Repugs won't give him money either. That is the losing hand he dealt himself. Sigh...

But those two certainly changed the face of the state senate, and it probably means nothing will be accomplished for a couple of years either.

by tmccarthy0 on Thu, 12/27/2012 - 3:42pm

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