The local political story of the day involves supercop Dave Reichert, running for Congress in the 8th.
Jessica Blanchard of The Times reports: "The King County Sheriff's Office issued a press release yesterday touting Sheriff Dave Reichert's role in the recovery of two stolen cars earlier this week. 'You can turn a cop into a politician, but apparently a cop is always a cop!!,' it read.
The two-page news release, printed on Sheriff's Office letterhead and faxed and e-mailed to local media outlets, detailed how 'one day after his big win in the primaries,' Reichert pursued what turned out to be a stolen vehicle driven by a convicted felon."
Two exclamation points. Because sometimes one doesn't show enough emphasis.
The story is that he saw someone driving recklessly, tried to pull the suspect over, the suspect runs, the sheriff pursues for awhile, then stops the pursuit, they get the suspect and the stolen cars later.
Reichert's campaign said they had nothing to do with what looks a lot like a political advertisement coming out of the sheriff's office: "We go out of our way to keep the Sheriff's Office and the campaign completely separate," said communications director Jennifer Scarlett. "We keep a very strong dividing line between (the two)."
Right, and when Scott McClellan, White House press secretary, stands in front of the press gaggle, he has nothing to do with the Bush/Cheney re-election campaign. Right. Sure. Of course.
Also, Andrew Garber and BTC bring you up to date on the close races.
State Rep. Helen "How could you?" Sommers is probably going to beat back the challenge of Alice Woldt in a Democratic primary in the 36th. Woldt was backed by unions, who are really angry with Sommers, hence the "How could you?" ad campaign. On the Eastside, in the 48th Legislative district, James Whitfield, an executive of a nonprofit health-care organization, held a slim 115-vote lead over businessman David Doud. There's a Democratic primary House race in the 11th that had been separated by a single vote, but new returns last night widened the lead for Bob Hasegawa over Rosemary Quesenberry. Also, the rural library levy continues to look like it will pass; the Kenmore card room ban continues to look like it will fail.
Dino Rossi, running for governor as a Republican, is tacking left, David Ammons of the AP reports:
"Dino Rossi, the Republicans' newly minted nominee for governor, pledged yesterday to fight higher taxes, but said he'd protect the vulnerable, guarantee annual education increases and boost the state parks."
Smart play, Dino, but look for Christine Gregoire to respond sharply; though, this is really weird: "Gregoire's campaign did not immediately return calls for comment."
It's a political campaign. Return calls, especially when it's in your interest to do so.
National
In The Washington Post, Howie Kurtz looks at the wildly divergent poll numbers, some that show Bush with a big lead, others that show a dead heat. Al Hunt, in The Wall Street Journal, has a hunch that the wrong people are being sampled. Perhaps, hopefully, this will be the year when major news outlets lose confidence in polls. One thing to keep in mind: Democratic voters can be hard to find: They're often more transient or only have a cell phone. Pollsters have trouble catching up to such people. But then, so do Democratic candidates.
Also, The Post reports on the new power center at the heart of Clinton, er, Kerry campaign. Joe Lockhart, Mike McCurry, Doug Sosnik, Carville-Begala. All Clinton vets. Unlike Bob Shrum, the 0-7 Kerry adviser, they've actually won campaigns.
And note what they've been doing the last two weeks. No interviews, just attacks on the President's record. This way, reporters have to report on the attacks, and never get to change the subject, never get Kerry to meander on about this or that. Also, the attacks are a little different every day, so there's new news. The Bush/Cheney campaign knows this strategy and plays it brilliantly also. But the incumbent, ultimately, has to run on a record, a record the Kerry team has been attacking with some vigor the last two weeks.
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