Richard Wright - Not “Politics as Usual”

I was quite surprised that Chair Pelz made that “nice” comment. Even though I am still not sure about Pelz, at least he didn’t open mouth, insert foot, like Berendt had done at times in the past.

Granted, Richard is not the type of Democrat that the Westsiders like, but he is our type of Democrat for the 4th Congressional District. Maybe Pelz did listen to what we here in Eastern/Central Washington have been saying.

There are different levels of being a Democrat. One of those is being a “moderate” which is how I see Richard. Am I going to agree with everything he says? Probably not. But, I am more in line with him than I with some of the Westsiders.

Is Richard going to beat Doc? That will be up to every single one of us. What he is going to need is money. If every single Democrat voter in Central Washington were to donate $30 or more to Richard, he could have the money he needs for his campaign.

I plan on giving him much more than that (after I pay Uncle Sam). Will you do the same?

Comically, “moderate” has come to mean “not batshit crazy.” Thanks, GOP.

Richard is a trooper for running again, and I think the world of Jimmy for helping to publicize the campaign, and Sandy for urging everyone to write the checks. But let’s get serious. In our corrupt cash based system, the one skill that every politician MUST have is the ability to raise money, and Richard’s FEC reports tell the tale. He just ain’t getting job #1 done.

Why is it that we can either have candidates who can raise money, but who won’t play offence (like Sandy Matheson) or candidates who are willing to attack, but couldn’t raise cash if their life depended on it (like Craig Mason), but no one who can do both?

Richard can attack til the cows come home, but if he can’t put it on the airwaves, he might as well be shouting into a windstorm from the top of Badger Mountain. No one is going to hear him, and Doc is going to cruise to another 60%+ margin.

btw, don’t hate me because I am just the messenger, calling it like I see it. I wish like hell Richard has 500K in the bank, but he don’t.

I wish I could believe, Jimmy, but I know better. Political fundraising is a classic catch 22. To raise money, you have to show that you can raise money. That is why the first 100K is so important in any congressional race. The unions, PACs, etc. won’t even look at you until you prove you can hit 6 figures on your own. That’s why Richard needs checks now, and the sad fact is, they aren’t coming in.

Now, the state leg race is different. I wish we were at a bar, because I know nothing about Darcy Burner, and would love to have you fill me in. (on that subject, you should move drinking liberally to Tony Romas. Awesome bar, no noisy music)

But in general you are right. I should be more optimistic. The GOP might have screwed up so bad that we can win a congressional seat without any money.

I am confused. If someone owns just one restuarant, that is apparently accpetable, but if they branch out and start a few others, then it is no longer OK to patronize their business? Or maybe they can own two or three, but after five or six, then they are over the line? Where is the line? I draw the line at a place that blares music at me so I can’t have a conversation, but apparently you’ve got other criteria.

How about Richard Wright? He owns a “chain” of physical therapy centers. If you needed some physical therapy, would you refuse to patronize his business because it is a “chain”, or does that rule only apply to restuarants? Straighten me out here, Jimmy, because I don’t know what your rules are.

You can call it “defeatism” but I am not defeated in the least. In 1992, I was represented by Lane Bray, Jay Inslee, Patty Murry and Bill Clinton. The pendulum swings one way, then it swings another. The only point I am making is that no matter which way the pendulum swings, nobody is going to beat Hastings if they don’t have any money, and Richard has been running for Congress for two plus years, and he still hasn’t raised any money. That isn’t defeatism, its just the facts.

Finally, (the crowd does the wave) if making enough nuclear weapons to blow up the planet a dozen times over didn’t cost the Tri-Cities it’s “soul”, I kind of doubt a few liberals going to a “chain” restuarant instead of the Tuscany lounge so they can hear each other talk is going to do the trick. But you won’t have to worry about me showing up and trying to shout over the classic rawk. Having you piss all over me on your blog was more than enough to keep me away.

I’ve no desire to repeat the experience in the flesh.

~

and another thing:

“But face the facts, Darcy Burner is what some consider a front runner in the 8th and that money has yet to materialize.”

See Jimmy, the thing about the internets is that when some some blogger starts blowing smoke up your ass, you can look up the facts and figure out if he is a posuer or a playa. For example, Darcy Burner’s last FEC report for the period ending Dec. 31, 2005 is online, and it says that as of the year end she had raised $185,332.56 and she had on hand $111,857.01. So it is hard to figure out why you would think “that money has yet to materialize” until one realizes you simply don’t know what the fuck you are talking about.

If Richard had raised just shy of 200K with over 100K on hand, well, maybe we would have somethin’ goin’ on. But as it is, even if we are looking at a Ferrari, it ain’t got no gas.

Here is the link to Darcy’s last FEC, since you are obviously too lazy to look it up your own bad self…

http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecgifpdf/?_16237+26980031302.pdf

~

Jimmy’s mention of Darcy not having the money materialize, I assumed he was referencing the $500k. The fact that she has raised somewhere around $200k since last August is not bad, considering she has been doing this for about 6 months now.

True, Richard should have started sooner, much sooner. Why didn’t he? Only Richard can answer that and maybe you (notonyerlife) can ask him.

As for Tony Romas,,, I prefer the Clarion, not so crowded and they would probably turn the music down if they are asked. And, would Tony Romas let people come in and have a few drinks and sit around and talk for a couple hours,,,, dunno.

As for the congressional race 2 years ago, yes, Sandy M did raise the money and,,,,, if you really looked through her FEC reports you would see a lot of money came from the “Matheson” family, a lot of money came from people outside of Washington State, Paul Berendt backed her (the hell with the little people deciding), Paul knew that Craig Mason was looking at running again but bad blood between the two kept that from being successful, Richard had announced, I believe, before Craig and Sandy announced, that he was running but yet Berendt only had “eyes” for Ms. Matheson.

I worked on Craig’s campaign, he had a great message, but since Berendt had “blessed” Matheson’s campaign, anyone else was left in the gutter. Matheson had a lousy campaign, she did not have the fire in the belly, ability to talk to large crowds, but she was able to “draw” in the money.

Richard financed his own campaign then, which may or may not have helped him. Many people cannot get out and campaign and when they can donate, they feel as if they are helping in some way. He realizes that now. He also has, from what I understand, a pretty good staff. Now it is up to the rest of us.

As to what happens in this campaign is not just up to Richard, it is up to you, me, Jimmy and any others out there who are sick and tired of what Doc has not done for the 4th CD.

One more thing, “notonyerlife”. Maybe it makes you feel good to use bad language, but in reality it doesn’t make you look too smart.

Ouch! Sandy smacks me on the nose with a rolled up newspaper! Bad poster! Bad!

I agree the bad language doesn’t make me look smart, but no matter how stupid I might look, I do have my facts straight about money and politics in the 4th cd, and you do not.

You can complain all day long about who Berendt supported, but the fact is that Berendt didn’t give a dime to Sandy until after she had killed your boy in the primary. Again, check the FEC report, the dates of contributions are right there in black and white.

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/can_give/2003_H4WA04054

Either way, a decisive political death is exactly what Mason deserved. He started his 2004 campaign, what, ~$40,000 in debt from his catastrophic 2002 run? What was his excuse that time? The fact is, he ran uncontested in 2002, and he couldn’t raise any money.

Sorry you signed onto the sinking ship in 2004, but who in their right mind is going to give money to a campaign that couldn’t raise money the last time around when it had no primary opponents, lost badly, and then started the next round with $40K in debt and two primary opponents? Especially when the two primary opponents were millionaire CEOs?

The reason Craig couldn’t raise any money was because his campaign looked like nothing more than a poorly disguised effort to pay off his old debt, and even if it wasn’t, nobody had any reason to believe he could actually win. Paul Berendt didn’t create that mess, Craig Mason did. No matter how good his message, Mason’s complete mismanagement of both campaigns had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he can’t win political office.

Don’t get me wrong, I am no fan of Paul Berendt, in 2002 I voted for Craig Mason, and I am much more aligned with Mason politically than I am with Matheson. But just because someone shares my outlook doesn’t make them a decent candidate. Craig could fire up a union hall, but that don’t feed the bulldog. Either you have the cash to buy 6-7000 points on the teevee driving up Doc’s negatives, or you can forget about winning. By late summer of 2002, it was completely obvious that Craig couldn’t raise money, just as it is becoming completely obvious that Richard Wright can’t do it either.

Finally, (the crowd cheers) the responsibility for raising money doesn’t fall on you or me or Jimmy or your husband or Mimi or Gabriel. It falls on the candidate. People don’t write checks to surrogates. They write checks when they are asked directly for money by a candidate they believe in.

I don’t think Craig or Richard were bad people, or bad Democrats. I think they were and are bad fundraisers. And until we have publically financed elections, that makes them bad candidates. As long as elections are financed the way they currently are financed, it is a complete waste of everyone’s time to run people who can’t or won’t do the hard work to raise money. If you aren’t willing to spend hours and hours on the phone dialing for dollars, you shouldn’t be running, because you are just going to make us all look bad.

Mason 2002 campaign
1. He started waaayyy too late, August 2002 (3 months before the general) because he couldn’t stand the idea of no one and I mean no one running against Doc. He used his own money based on promises from Paul to get the PACS to give him money. When Paul failed to deliver, it was Craig’s personal money. He did not owe a single vendor/person/bank any money. I didn’t work on that campaign in ‘02 because I really did feel it was way too late and I was already working on 2 county campaigns.

2. Berendt did give money to Sandy BEFORE the primary, in-kind contributions (which does count as contributions) to help in setting up her office, verbally backing her in Spring (in the papers), not letting all the congressional candidates know about the various functions they could attend to get endorsements (Young Democrats, State Convention). After the primary he did give her more money. And because of the way the law is written, the local counties/4th CD couldn’t give her any money because they fell under the state umbrella of $10k limit for the election cycle.

3. I don’t believe I signed on to the wrong campaign in ‘04. Craig did have the better message. Yes, he could get people fired up and some gave money. But, if a candidate has to spend all of his time “dialing for dollars”, how does a candidate then have the time to get out and speak to the crowds?

There is a lot dirty politics played behind the scenes. So much so, that it turns my stomach. Don’t forget, Paul also screwed around with the 8th CD candidates. Alex Albin was THE candidate, then from the stories I heard, Alex wouldn’t play ball with Berendt and the puppet masters. That is when Dave Ross was recruited. Albin had been well received by many Democrats before Paul brought in Ross. Berendt did the same thing here in the 4th. Craig had planned on running and some of the local Democrats after telling him they supported him went behind his back and started working on a couple people to run (including Matheson). Like I said, dirty politics is what we have around here and the state.

It is obvious you know quite a bit about the local party, mentioning Mimi and Gabriel’s name. I don’t know who you are since you don’t sign with your real name, so it is hard to tell what you really do know or what you have heard.

Whether Richard is able to raise the money through “dialing for dollars” or not, the question really remains who do the people really want for their representative? If they don’t want to donate (without a candidate having to “beg” for money) to get rid of Doc, then they must be satisfied with what we have here in this district.

I will be glad when 2006 ends…….my life will begin anew and be mine again.

You mention some very good points. Yes, a candidate has to do a lot of that, but some of it can be done by a staff. Based on what you are saying, it seems to me that you have worked on campaigns. I would be curious to know who you have campaigned for.

Keep in mind though, if a candidate does not spend time with the “people”, they will be in trouble. Case in point, Maria Cantwell. Despite the polls, she is in trouble with the “people”, especially over on the Westside. Reading some of the blogs, the “people” are not happy over her votes, her not meeting with the “people”, and blowing off their questions via letters. They are not happy campers.

If money was the solution, why did Gregoire have trouble, why did Cantwell have to use her own money in her first campaign (which she has had to pay herself back, debt, these past 4-5 years through fundraising)?

Jim Davis was in a fundraising frenzy as well (campaigning from time of filing 11/8/99 to election date of 11/7/00), raising how much, approximately $450k and he still didn’t win. Based on what people told me, he didn’t spend enough time with the “people”. There were some who didn’t even know who he was or what his message was, and yet he advertised on TV and mailings? (I had only been in the area for a year or so, and was not involved in the political scene at all)

You are correct in that all those things that need to be done. The best thing a candidate could do is to file the day after an election for the position and start their campaigning then. You do have to give credit where credit is due,,,, Doc did that after he lost to Jay. Of course, the “Contract with America” benefited Doc as well.

So where does this lead? Beats me,,,, if anything, people who are reading this have been given a pretty good idea of what can happen in a campaign.

But I will give you a challenge, that I hope you will take up,,,,,, Who are you? Do you dare to tell me? All in good time. I promise not to hit you over the head with a newspaper. Have a great Sunday!

To tell the truth, I don’t know that anyone could have beaten Doc between 1994 and 2004. The political environment was pretty tough, whether you were Richard Locke, Jim Davis, Sandy Matheson, Craig Mason or Richard Wright.

The pondering after the 1996 election was “What if the Dems had run Jay Inslee again?” Doc won 52-48. I don’t know if those 2 percentage points could have possibly be bridged, and if 48 simply represented the ceiling for any Democratic challenger, with a few things going right. (I’m guessing that Rick Locke had a set of advantages as an “outsider” that Jay Inslee might have lacked, so the question would be awash.)

Beyond that year, I agree with that statement. But what do I know?

Well, here I am, wandering around the internet, and find that while I was blissfully practicing law in Spokane (I’m back here now) I was such a topic of conversation.

2002: I was “blessed” by Berendt in 2002, but I also knew that no major contributors would believe that a Democrat could beat Doc in 2002 — Jim Davis’ resounding defeat after spending 1/2 million had put off the big money.

And so I studied for the Bar Exam with the time I had set aside for running. I entered at the last moment — with just as much certainty of losing as I had in March. However, I realized that if I did not “build the party” Berendt’s strategy of only putting money in Westside races would cause the Democrats to lose the statewide races.

I also figured that I could show the big money a message that could work in rural/working class America.

The labor PACs promised me money, and I ONLY spent that much money. Berendt sent folks over to tell me that the money was going to the Westside, due to the races being closer than expected. Hence the debt.

I had not expected the press distortions, but that was that. The party-building efforts had begun, and the 4th CD committee built up after that election, and with Keith Gourley as the head, and both Gourleys (and others) working very hard up through 2004 is the reason Gregoire is governor.

2004: I had no intention of running once Berendt made the deal with local wealthy Republicans that he would put “one of their own” in power, if they would provide the funding. These usually-Republican donors wanted “in” to power “around” Doc. Hence, the Berendt-Sandy Matheson deal.

I only entered the race because Sandy Matheson was alienating the labor base. Yakima labor, especially, was going to sit out the election in protest over Berendt putting a Republican into the election. (Again, if they had, Gregoire would not be governor.)

At the state labor council in May, Yakima labor was solidly behind me, and enough Tri-City labor tried to defect (but did not understand the procedure) that Sandy Matheson would have not had a labor endorsement — and Berendt would have been stuck with me.

I did not spend any money in 2004. I simply did door-to-door party-building and listening.

I kept hoping that Sandy Matheson would become a real candidate. She did not.

And there we are. I am no longer a starving teacher, who only knows poor people. I am a starving new lawyer, who is getting to know starving and plump lawyers.

However, my politics remain “out of style.” I am a good fit for the district, but Democratic money comes from outside of the district.

Despite being a UW Law grad (high honors and a law review editor), and having other advanced degrees, I am comfortably “working class” in my tastes — guns are fine with me, I fish and golf, and I am libertarian on social issues, while “New Deal” (social democrat) on economic issues.

There is no donor base for my views. (Although face-to-face time with the donors might give them a view of me that they do not have from a “distance,” it does not seem worth it at this time.)

I knew that before, and I accept that now.

I did my civic duty to try to keep
a) the Democrats from losing statewide office, and
b) the rural Republicans from becoming tooooo much more corrupt due to lack of competition.

Lots of good theories, but you can always ask me.

Gregoire would NOT be governor without the party-building begun in 2002, and without the labor of the Gourleys. We got enough of the working class back to win that close election, and to show the Democrats that there could be success outside of downtown Spokane.

Peace.