WA: Dems Use GOP to Plot Revenge Against One of Their Own

Seattle Times columnist Joni "ulterior motives" Balter can't seem to contribute anything that isn't tied to helping her friends in the elitist Seattle political machine. If a candidate needs to be touted, a image needs to be portrayed, or a score settled, Balter's pals know they can count on her.

Balter was the first to push the idea of her comrade Christine Gregoire as a certainty for winning the governor's race. She was relentless in using her column for this purpose.

Now, it's about political revenge against the liberal Democrat who dared challenge Governor-For-Now Gregoire in the primary election: King County Executive Ron Sims.

It was Sims, don't forget, who brought up Gregoire's unpleasant past as a member of a whites-only University of Washington sorority. That, to Gregoire's people, was unforgivable. Democrats aren't allowed to criticize other Democrats in Seattle politics.

Since when does Balter care about the fortunes of the Republican Party? Only when it serves her purposes. A strong Republican could knock off Sims and make Gregoire's people happy. The best part of it is that someone else will do all of the dirty work like campaigning and fundraising.

Otherwise, she certainly wouldn't be interested in prodding Republicans into working harder at getting ready for the upcoming race. She'd be happy if none at all filed to run.

I'm not a Sims fan but it's easy to smell a rat here. It's one thing to handicap an upcoming race, but Balter isn't the one to do it reasonably. She's just too loyal to Gregoire to even see straight.



(Seattle Times- Joni Balter)


King County Executive Ron Sims is bruised from the recent governor's election and therefore more vulnerable.

Sims must still be licking his wounds from the primary, in which he came up very short against Democrat Gov. Christine Gregoire. With his pitch for a state income tax during that campaign, he leaned further left than he had before.

The public benefits from a healthy discussion of the issues every four years, so a credible Republican challenger would be welcome.

So far, no Republican candidate has emerged and it is getting late. But a buzz among pollsters and political advisers suggests a possible announcement of a qualified GOP candidate in the next few weeks.