State Democrats Challenge Republican Turf in East King County

By Josh Feit, Monday, December 14, 2009 at 11:57 AM
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When we mapped out R-71′s winning election result numbers, we wrote:

There is an island of support (60 to 69 percent yes) floating in a sea of waning support north of Issaquah, in the Sammamish Plateau. This is good news for Democrats. This is the state’s 5th legislative district (currently represented in Olympia by three Republicans).

As the Microsoft suburbs expand into the 5th District, it’s clearly getting more liberal, which could explain 5th district Republican state Sen. Cheryl Pflug’s vote for gay rights last session.

(The two reps from the 5th, Jay Rodne and Glenn Anderson, however, voted no. Perhaps the Democrats should look into that.)

Voila: An Eastside businessman named Dean Willard announced today that he’s going to run against Anderson. Willard worked as a VP at T-Mobile (oh my) and currently works as a telecom consultant.

Willard focused on education in today’s statement:

“Washington State is still only graduating 70% of it’s [sic] high school students.  As a businessperson, I know we have to do better if our kids are going to truly compete in the global economy.  I am ready to take my business experience to Olympia to improve our public schools, balance our budget and bring some business sense to the Capitol,” said Willard.

Rep. Anderson voted with the Democrats on the 67-31 education reform bill. (So did his GOP seat mate, Rep. Jay Rodne.) The state senator from the fifth, Sen. Cheryl Pflug, voted ‘No.’

Eastside education activists played a giant role in pushing the bill through.

Democrats have been making steady gains on the formerly GOP-dominated east side this decade. The scorecard currently stands at: 12-3, with every seat—two reps and one senator per district (the 48th, 45th, 41st, and 47th)—filled by Democrats.

The 5th District could be the Republicans’ Alamo.  State GOP spokesman Dan Brady says he’s “not terribly worried about the fifth district” adding that “2010, from all indications, is going to be a good if not great year for Republicans.”

  • Michael M. I could not have said it any better.
  • Michael M.
    I happen to know Dean, and think he's a stand-up guy, and would be an asset to the State Legislature. He's not the best public speaker in the world, but he's super smart, gets policy, and will do very well at retail politics.

    I would agree that he should stay out of the fray when people start jabbing at him in various forums. Perhaps his time coming to the defense of Mr. Mallahan gave him a jump in and go habit. But it still is quite early, so a few gaffes and errors here and there are to be expected.

    Now, the idea that the Democrats will pick off both seats - we can hope, but the Chair of the LD I'm sure would be a bit more realistic about the prospects. While the Party has made gains in this district, we are talking about running against incumbents in a mid-term election where Democrats are not going to look so good.

    And I guess another big question is what Mary deems "Transportation". Is she saying that they want their own fancy light rail line, or infrastructure (ie: roads). If you're looking for gas tax dollars to improve roads, then a "corporatist" Democrat is exactly what you want, especially if they can form ties with people like Judy Clibborn.
  • Crazy Mary
    Dean won't even make it past the primary. David Spring is loved by Maple valley and he won 49% of the vote against Anderson in 2008 and 3 dem candidates drove the districts inches from being a full dem district. Dean has a few Arthur Andersen/Accenture skeletons in his closet, including no respect for bylaws or rules of the state or king county procedures when endorsing Mark Mullet a guy the 5th endorsement committee voted NOT to endorse even though he was unopposed. He and the Chair rewrote the rules to push the guy thru, so he's a 'screw the PCO's screw the citizens' kind of leader. we don't need more of that kind of back room democracy in this state... Chopp and Keiser and Dwight do enough of that.. we need someone who listens to the citizens and implements according to their wishes.

    the 5th doesn't want corporatist democrats, they want democrats that will finally get transportation funding in a district of do nothing republicans. Frank Chopp on record supporting Jay Rodne and telling dems not to run against him, but rumor has it there is a dead ringer to announce for that seat race as well. My prediction, we win both seats for the 5th as Democrats, but Dean will not be one of them.
  • Slippery Pete
    @19: HAHA.

    Looks like I did mess up the links. Put "http://" in them twice. Try these.

    http://soundpolitics.com/archives/011910.html

    http://cascade.sierraclub.org/node/1188

    Sorry about that.
  • Appology, #17, I got the link to go through. I think my computer is just alergeric to "Sound Politics".
  • #17 Just a note that your link is broken.
    In regard to business people in politics, I can say that Dow Constantine touted his business experience as well as his public service. Senator Maria Cantwell is a business person.
    Some bloggers could did not get past the fact that Mr. Mallahan had business experience, hence his good works were ignored, but who's going to look better in two years?
    In regards to #9, I was involved in the 5th when Barbara DeMichelle ran against Glenn. The district's main resources went toward defeating Cheryl Pflug for State senate. You obviously have little knowledge of trends on the Eastside, where Democrats have continually won seats formerly held by Republicans.
  • Slippery Pete
    @7, @13, @16

    Some free advice, because apparently Frank Chopp has been too busy to teach you anything:

    Don't feed the trolls. Your press release got play on one of the most widely read political sites in the state. Raise money and doorbell, don't argue with these guys. This happened before to a candidate (http://soundpolitics.com/archives/011910.html) who outspent his opponent by an 8-to-1 margin and still almost lost. Dude was too busy arguing with the crazies online and didn't go talk to the voters. (full disclosure: he also hit his wife, which may have depressed his numbers.)

    Pick better issues to talk about. You'll lose to Glenn on education, because he's one of the only Republicans who can bust out a stack of bills that he has passed which do things Democrats actually like. Claiming your going to "work to balance the budget" implies that other folks aren't going to balance the budget and that just promotes idiocy. You're constitutionally mandated to balance the budget. We could elect monkeys and the budget would still have to be balanced. And why would you tout "business experience" when Glenn is also a businessman. Yeah, VP at T-Mobile definitely beats the empty words ("former small business owner" . . . "management and business consultant") country bumpkin Glenn throws onto his resume, but good luck explaining that to the masses. (Also, nobody likes T-Mobile, so you got that working against you.)

    Lastly, Glenn isn't a Republican ideologue. Yeah Republicans are evil and all that, but typically Republican ideologues don't get shoutouts like this: http://cascade.sierraclub.org/node/1188.

    HTH.
  • Dean Willard
    @14 Sarah68

    I'm sorry that I didn't meet your comments section personal disclosure standards during the mayoral race. Someone should post those somewhere.

    If I ever post anonymously in the future, I'll consider supplying a link to my resume. ;-)
  • fredster
    Granted I don't know all the history of the posts alluded to above; but the mayor's race is in the books. If Hillary and Barack can make up and move on, I'd like to think McGinn and Mallahan supporters can do the same. The 5th is going to be a tough nut to crack just running against the R's, if D's pile on against each other there is no chance. Give Willard, and I understand their are others, a chance to put forward their agendas and then offer constructive feedback on those positions.
  • sarah68
    Neither. I don't believe in the Church of Democratic Businessmen. Luckily, I don't live in the 5th LD so I don't have to sit out that vote.

    I do believe you said that you worked with him at T-Mobile. You didn't say you were who you are (a known political/civic figure) and you didn't say you were a VP at T-Mobile. Those are rather big omissions, and presenting yourself as a woman was pretty cheesy.
  • Dean Willard
    @12 Sarah68

    I was (am) a former T-Mobile employee (left June 2008) and I do recall disclosing more than once. It was a source of my insights regarding Joe Mallahan during the recent Mayor's race. I was also a Mallahan volunteer/supporter.

    Would you prefer a Democratic businessman or Republican idealogue representing the 5th LD Sarah? That's the choice.
  • sarah68
    #9: Yes. But magnanimous (or at least polite) in defeat. However, he did not disclose that he was a T-Mobile employee when he was commenting as a "supporter/campaign worker" for Mallahan. Interesting how people don't disclose stuff like that.

    Business experience is not what we need in Olympia. There are plenty of businesspeople in the Legislature and all they have done is starve the beast into deficit by piling all their favorite tax breaks onto the giant Post-It Note that is the biennial (now annual) budget process.
  • Tyler
    @7 but still, if your press release were a high school english paper it would have been marked down, typo or otherwise
  • eats, shoots, and leaves
    @7, apologies, I was shooting for "snarky" in that comment and hit "douchebag" by accident.
  • Redak
    The last time Glenn had a serious challenger (Barb de Michele) was in '04. The so-called traditional campaign allies backed her, etc., etc., and she still lost by 10+ points. It was a while ago, but thinking that he can be beat in this scenario is foolish considering 1) traditional campaign allies are not looking for another D in the House and 2) a vote on Ref 71 is far, far from a vote on a legislators.

    And wasn't StacyX3 an ass in the comments here?
  • Francis
    Glenn Anderson didn't just "vote w/ the Dems" on ed reform. He's worked the issue a lot in recent years. He helped create that package.
  • Dean Willard
    @3 I do know the difference between "its" and "it's." I just missed the typo.

    @6 Thanks Stacy.
  • Stacy
    Stacy, Stacey, Stacie FTW!
  • eddiew
    @3, also on page one of the Elements of Style, Strunk and White, first 1959.
  • Slippery Pete
    Don't you mean "local GOP spokesman" Dan Brady?
  • eats, shoots, and leaves
    If you're issuing a statement about fixing education, it's probably going to be more persuasive if you can tell the difference between "its" and "it's."
  • elaineinballard
    @1 yes indeed, I think you are correct!
  • Guest
    Is this the same Dean Willard who worked on the Mallahan campaign and who went by "Stacy, Stacey, Stacie" in the Publicola comments?
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