Good morning everybody. It's sunny and 80 degrees, the views of Rainier perfect, and Poliblog's in a windowless room.
Warren Cornwall reports that two Washington police unions (including the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs) endorsed state Sen. Luke Esser, R-Bellevue, in the race to fill the 8th Congressional District, over King County Sheriff Dave Reichert. Reichert has received a few of his own police union endorsements. Still, odd the state's sheriffs think one of their own isn't the guy for the job. The reason, says the union's Mike Amos, is lack of legislative experience: "Dave's a nice guy. We want somebody who's going to hit the ground running." A nice guy?
The unanswered question: Does Luke Esser use hair gel, or hair wax, and what's the difference anyway?
PETER CALLAGHAN of The News Tribune , reports that Secretary of State Sam Reed will hold a lottery tomorrow to decide the color that will be associated with each party on ballots distributed to voters in September for the primary, the first in which voters will be restricted to candidates from one party only. You can't vote for an R in one race and a D in another. The idea with the colors is to help voters as they try to figure out the new type of primary ballot. Essentially, voters choose a color and can only vote for candidates of that color -- blue, green, red -- each one assigned to a party. That really clears things up.
The News Tribune also has a Washington Post story about the season of the documentary: "First came "Control Room," Jehane Noujaim's gripping film about the Arab satellite news service al-Jazeera. Last week Michael Moore's much anticipated "Fahrenheit 9/11" opened, as well as the lesser-known but just as incendiary "The Hunting of the President," about the investigations of President Clinton. Over the summer, wonks, activists and garden-variety political junkies will have lots to look forward to. Maybe it's just the time of year. But suddenly it seems that film, video and digital media have become the 21st-century version of the pamphlets, broadsides and theses that were used to rouse rabble from the time of Martin Luther through Thomas Paine to Karl Marx."
AP reports from PORTLAND - Supporters of a gay marriage ban pressured people into signing petitions and failed to witness voters' signatures, according to complaints filed Monday by a Portland-based gay rights group. Basic Rights Oregon says it has been monitoring the petition drive by the Defense of Marriage Coalition for weeks, watching for violations of election law. But a spokesman for the Portland-based Coalition said volunteers have been careful to follow the rules, calling the complaints "insulting and inflammatory."
Expect this to get nasty.....
Rep. George Nethercutt's campaign announced First Lady Laura Bush will host a fundraiser for the Senate candidate in D.C. on July 12. Will there be a reading of the Grand Inquisitor section of Brothers Karamazov, said to be her favorite piece of literature? Poliblog volunteers to read.
National
Good news and bad news for the president. From The New York Times: "A New York Times/CBS poll has his approval rating at an all time low, 42 percent, while nearly 40 percent of Americans say they do not have an opinion about Senator John Kerry, the likely Democratic presidential nominee."
The good news for President Bush is that among those who do have an opinion, Mr. Kerry is disliked more than he is liked. That means the very expensive Bush advertisements that painted Kerry a flip flopper, a taxer and weak on defense, worked, to some extent, for the 60 percent of Americans who have an opinion on Kerry, though most of those would have disliked him anyway. The good news for Kerry, aside from Bush's lowest-ever approval rating, is that 40 percent of voters still have no opinion on Kerry, even as he is in a dead heat with Bush. That means we're entering a crucial part of the campaign: Voters seem willing to fire Bush, but haven't decided whether his potential replacement is worthy. Kerry will get his chance in July, as he picks a running mate and makes his convention speech. Bush's approval rating on the economy is up, which is very good news for him. If Iraq stabilizes, and the economy continues to improve, he's looking good. Although, what really matters is the electoral college count. Remember, Bush must win everywhere he won in 2000. There's no margin for error.
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