Goldy for Senate !

Proving yet again that today's dems and repubs are pretty much the same anyways

@1: Goldy would, understandably, go crazy in the state senate. He'd be a much better fit for City Council.

Dominic, you're totally wrong about not fighting for moderate D's in the purple districts. You're completely right about not having a great message. However, you can have those progressive priorities and still have a big tent. The problem with Democrats isn't that they aren't progressive enough, it's that D interest groups pull support of the moderate members when they don't vote with them 100% of the time. The numbers just simply aren't there to elect enough progressives to supplement the moderate Ds it takes to have a majority.

Wow. Miloscia was always a strange duck, but he took many positions that seemed bona fide progressive. He always cut a profile as a seriously pro-housing and pro-education politician, despite his obviously troublesome Catholic worldview. This news is extremely disheartening.

Luke. Come join me on the Dark Side and we can rule the universe.

Most of the state is much further to the right than the People's Republic of King County. What may very well work in Seattle doesn't work in the rest of Western Washington, let alone in the east.

Corporatist warmongers aren't "moderate" or centrist. The Democratic party leadership has a huge responsibility for the Overton window moving right for 30+ years but journalists also have to stop using right wing framing.

Tea Party logic from Dominic. When your team loses people, the obvious answer is imposing more ideological purity. Good luck with that.
The post ignores obvious realities. Don't want the burbs on your team? Oh, OK. Can you add? You know, count the number of seats from Seattle and the number of seats from everywhere else?
Let's just see whether those progressive funders (you know who you are) pump a truckload of money into Rodney Tom's race. I'm guessing they won't, because they'd rather piss away money in deep blue Seattle districts and squabble about who's really progressive. The strategy worked so well in 2012 that the Dems blew the Senate majority.

Nice try, but this guy is anti-LGBT and anti-choice and he has been since day 1. He's been a Republican disguised as a Democrat forever.

Not only that, but he LOST a statewide primary in 2012 because he wasn't liberal enough.

Mr. Holden, weren't you just yesterday extolling the virtues of compromising ahead of time?

@11) Phasing in a 60 percent minimum-wage hike for small businesses isn't compromise, it's how that sort of thing works.

"...right now Dems don't stand [for] much for anything."

I agree. Hard to get excited about the positions taken by centrist/corporatist Democrats.

Watching the Democrats self-destruct may be painful but maybe it's the best thing in the long run.

Maybe all the Senate Democrats should just join the majority coalition caucus. It's where the party is at.

@7 - Reason enough for me to support bifurcating the state along the Pacific Crest Divide. Let's form two states, and then learn to actually negotiate together to get along. Instead of petty "party lines" infighting in the State Legislature.

@7 where are Tom and Miloscia's districts again? Sorry were you trying to make a point?

The "big tent" cannot accommodate both tools for the 1% and advocates for the average citizen no matter how much demagogues claim it is possible.

Yes, by all means, Dems should run on a much more progressive platform. I think they should be talking about tax reform, specifically replacing the B and O tax with an income tax as a way to increase school funding. Yes, yes, I can hear people groaning already, but a progressive income tax needs to be part of the party's platform. The dems can't and shouldn't give up on the idea.

I would also add green jobs to Mr. Holden's list. To me this means investing in infrastructure and technologies that conserves energy and lowers fossil-fuel consumption. This could include subsidies or low, low interests loans for individuals to purchase energy efficient appliances (above what the utilities currently offer), retrofit homes with better insulation, etc., help finance installation of roof-top solar water heaters and other active and passive solar devices, increase rail service along the I-5 corridor (as a way to alleviate traffic, lower carbon emissions, and created jobs), etc, etc. I'm sure Climate Solutions has a good list of things the state could do to promote jobs in this area.

Fuck the dems. Elect more socialists. Sawant is only the beginning.

And @12 why is that how it works? Because you say so? Do democratically elected representatives not have discretion to legislate in good faith on behalf of the citizens who elect them? Is there not an initiative process in our state?

@19 even if they run on a more progressive platform, it doesn't mean they'll legislate from one.

@16 Our electric bills maybe but that's the BPA which is a federal agency.

The Tolt and Spada reservoirs are on this side of the Cascades.

Miloscia was pro-housing but not a Dem. He's now where he belongs.

If he ever appears in public he should wear a paper bag over his head.

@ 21 Socialists are extremists and a problem, we see if she can win another term.