Primary Season

Well, the 2022 election season is starting, and so my Voters' Pamphlet arrived in the mail today. Being something of a glutton for punishment, I read through them when they come. Not that they're particularly illuminating; most of the entries read like standard campaign-speak, spending for more words than needed to purchase the scant information they contain.

On the ballot this time around is the primary for one of Washington State's Senate seats, and it's a crowded field. 17 people are running to challenge Senator Patty Murray (who has certainly aged while in office) for her position. Primary elections are Top Two, so all of the contenders from any and all parties run against each other in something of a free-for all. As the name implies, the two candidates with the highest vote totals advance to the general election. Another quirk of the system is that candidates don't actually have party affiliations on the ballot - they have party preferences. This means that a candidate can run for any party they'd like, at least in theory. Several years ago, several Republican candidates chose to tell the state they preferred the "GOP" party, hoping that voters wouldn't immediately make the connection that the Grand Old Party and the Republicans were one in the same.

But what's really interesting about allowing candidates to pick their parties is that their platforms and policy statements can range far and wide from those of the parties they claim to represent. One of the Democratic contenders, for instance, believes that switching to Bitcoin would "provide relief from the failing US Dollar." Likewise one of the Republican candidates openly says that his goal isn't to win, "but to use the Voters' Pamphlet to attract viewers to posts on my blog."

Speaking of the Republicans, the state party endorsed someone who comes across as a typical American Conservative of years past. She plays up her "wife of a veteran and mother" credentials, and there is nary a word about Donald Trump or Trump-like politics in her candidate statement (which is the only one written in the third person), which instead focuses on her advocacy for veterans' issues. No "dog-whistles," no open pandering to the MAGA crowd, nothing openly divisive. In this political environment, that almost seems like a risk; I have to give them credit for that much. I find myself genuinely curious as to how well she'll do, given that she comes across as the one serious candidate running as a Republican.

I'd like for this to be an interesting race. If the Republican does well, the state party can be expected to continue to avoid running would-be Trump clones. If they're able to make things even somewhat competitive with that strategy, it will be better for everyone involved.