Comments

1
Is it too much to ask for even an ounce of original reporting?

"Walkinshaw's claim that Jayapal missed a crucial vote"
Is this a claim? Or is this a fact? It's a fact, of course:
http://app.leg.wa.gov/DLR/billsummary/de…

Did the Machinists Union decide "to walk back their endorsement of Walkinshaw after this incident?" No, they made that decision after the August primary, months before this empty controversy:
https://iam751.wordpress.com/2016/08/24/…

""[These ads] are false and misleading," Brown said." Hmm, are they? This seems like something a journalist could evaluate.
2
BP Walkinshaw is a chip off the old Ed Murray block: crack a smile, whisper "progressive values" and stab you in the back.
3
http://pramilafacts.com/ seems to level concrete criticisms. Are we bothered by them because she's our candidate? If she wasn't The Stranger would without doubt fling around these charges like confetti.
4
Walkinshaw's attack on Jayapal for skipping a budget vote, with someone claiming that it was 'the most important vote,' us a blatant appeal to low-information voters who have no understanding of the legislative process. It's a disingenuous tactic from someone who knows better, but doesn't care because he's desperate.

The budget vote Jayapal skipped - along with several of her colleagues - was a fait accompli: democrats in the senate were lined up to vote no even though the republicans hold the majority and had enough votes to pass the bill anyway. Her vote wouldn't have mattered one bit, and Walkinshaw knows that.

I was inclined to vote for Brady because he had the guts to go after an entrenched incumbent, and the 7th CD wouldn't be an open-seat if he hadn't done that. And let's face it - there's not really a bit of difference in how either Walkinshaw or Jayapal would perform in Congress. They might have slightly different pet projects, but on the big stuff there'd be no difference whatsoever.

But in a Dem-on-Dem race, HOW you win should be as important as winning - so I'm switching my vote to Jayapal.
5
Did that really say "bottom 98%"? Doesn't that mean that she could be in the top 3% of legislators in the Senate?
6
When you label an ad that just presents your voting record 'negative advertising' it speaks poorly of your record.
And your suitability to serve in the public sphere.
Pramila may be too delicate a flower for the legitimate give and take of public service.
7
The only thing Trumpian here is the Jayapal campaign stunt and whining about being wrongfully attacked when some just presents her record. When facts hurts, accuse the other side of wrongfully using facts.

What continues to be really pathetic is the Stranger being a mouthpiece for the paid labor activists. Other than Dan, it's become a propaganda piece and has little other benefit. Wish the new editor added something fresh, but just more of the same shit.
8
@1 "Walkinshaw's claim that Jayapal missed a crucial vote"
Is this a claim? Or is this a fact?

It's a fact that Jayapal skipped a vote, but it's only an opinion that this was a CRUCIAL vote - as implied in Walkinshaw's attack ad.

Jayapal is a Democrat serving in a Republican-controlled senate that was going to pass that budget regardless of how or whether Jayapal, or any other Democrat, voted.

And it's disingenuous of Walkinshaw to imply that Jayapal doesn't do her job when she DID vote on the budget earlier in the legislative process, at a time when the issue on the table was a first-draft Republican budget proposal that was uglier than the eventual budget agreed to between the Democratic House and the Republican Senate (https://app.leg.wa.gov/far/RollCall?roll…)
9
I'm confused, wasn't this paper all about Walkenshaw back around the primary or so?
10
@7 Hear, hear!

All this hubbub got my attention and cracked my wallet open for Walkinshaw. I guess it's a symbolic vote until I get my real vote in.
11
@9 - it's a rally that points out the facts that Pramila was ineffective in the legislature, is jumping on her commitment to her district, and is taking credit for things she had nothing to do with, while supporting Brady's narrative that he is the more effective choice and actually lives in the district unlike Pramila. I don't get how that helps her, but then I expect this is the way she will govern.
12
"It’s a shame," Rose continued, "that we have to stand here…talking about a misleading ad against a woman fighting for women to have a voice." this part was pretty annoying. I get that she is for helping women but doing so doesn't mean we cannot criticize or question her work. This isn't a sexist thing its about bringing out the truth and educating the voters. I did not know this about her and I find these details incredibly important. I don't think his ad was an attack ad I think if they take it as an attack ad then its coming off defensive and that makes me feel more sketched out about it than anything else. Im not for Walkinshaw i didn't even know about him until all of this but the information he provided and Jayapal is providing is useful.
13
this makes Walkinshaw look more aggressive than Jayapal.

and the 7th has needed someone more aggressive than McDermott for (literally) decades. it's a safe district that can have a full-throated left-liberal who's willing to make noise in DC. politeness is not a requirement. in case you didn't notice, the House of Representatives is chock full of aggressive GOP assholes who aren't going away.

I might be talking myself into Walkinshaw.
14
@13: If you're looking for a "left-liberal" then Brady Walkinshaw is not your candidate. There's a reason he rode Pedersen and Murray's coattails into the Legislature. He's in their mold of moderate, corporate Democrats.

And McDermott was plenty aggressive, which is why he's hated by the loony Right.
15
Except the information isn't misleading, it's the facts... I guess Jayapal supporters would rather just be led away from the facts? It seems to many she is still wearing a halo from her Bernie endorsement... but she is not Bernie, and he made the wrong call in endorsing her. She is no more progressive than Walkinshaw, just less effective. I say this as someone who passionately supported Bernie during the primary (Walkinshaw caucused for him too, FYI).
16
If Jayapal needs a safe space due to an "attack ad" as which really did not even lie about anything, and was really tame, she may not be a good fit for politics.
17
Jayapal is a Socialist - socialism will never get my vote.
18
This was a pretty big screw-up by Brady. Dan's endorsement, coming on the heels of three days of social media posts by Capitol Hill gay white boys (like me) bashing Pramila, isn't good either.

Calling Pramila "bullshitty" and "ineffective" was over the top by Dan...and gets Pramila's 30-year record of accomplishment wrong. Dan doesn't always know when to stop talking.

And its not an "attack" in isolation: its paid for by a $285,000 media buy through a Super PAC and bolstered by endorsements from the law firm of Bagshaw, Burgess, Corporate Developer, & Jack Your Rent. Brady *IS* a very good guy. And he is also, without any shadow of a doubt, the establishment's choice in this race. That is neither good nor bad per se, but it does mean the solutions and the conversation will run the gamut from A to B.

19
Put me down for "I don't get this". How is it wrong to point out someone's voting record? I don't see that as negative. And it's telling she won't respond to it. It seems like Payamal's campaign is going negative by making this personal. Just address her voting record, if she has a good reason, then what's the big deal?

I.E. missing the budget vote cause the republicans have it under wraps seems like a valid excuse, although missing it to be out east to campaign seems a bit strange (honestly it seems strange that you can take money from outside your state, that should be outlawed).

But she was an elected official who is running for another elected official. Voting record is part of the job. Come on, if Brady voted for something like an anti plan parenthood bill or something, it would be completely fair to bring it up and wouldn't be "negative".
20
Last minute attacks by Walkinshaw and his hidden SuperPAC smell of desperation - why the sudden concern for missing a budget vote when voting records have been public all along? Why criticize thousands of small donations from around the country that are part of a movement that will hopefully only pick up steam after this clusterf#$k of an election (yes, Bernie endorsed her)? Walkinshaw gets a lot of big donations from old and establishment Seattle money. Jayapal apparently doesn't have to trot this and other criticism out - even through dark money SuperPACs - because she's running an impressive positive campaign on her proven record as a relentless fighter, bridge builder, movement leader, and defender of underserved communities. Easy choice, vote Jayapal.
21
Brady's a little bourgeois neoliberal yuppie, straight from the corporate wing of the party. Pramila is the working class candidate. This particular contest was such a no-brainer it wasn't funny. The very first circle on my ballot I filled out was for Pramila.
23
@14: fuck it, then. I'm running. I'm left-liberal and really agro lately. McDermott was hated, but he was never loud enough for me.
24
The notion that Jayapal is a "working-class candidate" is ridiculous. She's a millionaire whose first job out of collage was doing leveraged buyouts on Wall St - literally! That was her job at Paine Webber... This talks about it: http://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2014/…

She really looks like just another opportunist politician to me. What's surprising is that so many people have fallen for it...
27
Those who are characterizing Walkinshaw's move as "desperation" are clearly not far enough inside the staff - of either campaign - to have seen recent tracking polls on this race, which show a razor-thin margin. The Jayapal campaign's been standing still in the low/mid-40s since before the primary. If anything, this is Walkinshaw closing the deal, not lashing out in desperation.
28
#27:

You're funny! :)

1. There are no tracking polls on the race.
2. If your opponent has been stuck in the polls in the mid-40s for months, you don't do this..because you don't need to.

Nice head fake though.
29
Brady is for housing and against homelessness? He might be, but I've attended many #HousingJustice actions and never seen him at a single one of them. I never saw him fight for $15 either, though Pramila was invariably there in the streets fighting hard for low wage workers.
30
@27
Nice try, Brady
31
@28 (Hi, Colin!) - your omniscience is impressive. You can empirically deny the existence of a thing simply because you have not seen it! Note, I didn't say the *campaigns* are running a tracking poll on the race, and sorry, it's not distributed to district volunteers.
32
@31 so if it was close why would they run attack ads? This isn't D vs R so what the point? Brady's already pissed off prominent people in the district with this stunt such as Lorena Gonzalez.
33
It's the Hillary Clinton C-U-N-T Effect: criticize a woman politician's politics, policies, and practices and you're labeled a misogynist or "being negative." Fuck Pramila Jayapal. Bitch looks like she hit the glass ceiling with her face.
34
And, courtesy of @33, there it is..."It's the Hillary Clinton C-U-N-T Effect...Fuck Pramila Jayapal. Bitch looks like she hit the glass ceiling with her face." Misogyny defined.

@27/31: I don't know who "Colin" is, but the reason I say there are no tracking polls is because...there are no tracking polls. (I'd bet all of the anonymous Super PAC's ad buy that I've been doing this a LOT longer than you-which is both, admittedly, an asshole thing to say and probably true. I've been in the elections game a VERY VERY long time.)

1. If there were tracking polls that you'd seen and you had extensive political consulting experience, you'd know that (a) you don't cite them (b) you don't talk about them, and (c) especially not on a comment section of a blog.
2. It's an intra-party race. The parties won't do tracking. It's a BIG expense for campaigns and you note yourself, they didn't do it. The Downtown Association might do it (in which case, if you know the district and have political chops, you'd know not to cite it which you did). Unions would be unlikely to do it either--they win either way.
3. In re my earlier comment, I think you misread: if your opponent is stalled in the low/mid 40s for 3.5 months, its a very strange tactic to attack your opponent. Its superfluous and bad strategy. Particularly where, as in this race, the supposedly stalled candidate is not mentioning you.

My objection isn't to one candidate over the other. Either will do fine. What I object to is driving the race into the gutter with Super PAC money in the last 2 weeks for no good reason. Bad strategy is bad politics. And on that point, Brady owns this one.
35
Gee, what did Brady expect when he launched this "desperate, Trump-style attacks on women and their accomplishments" using "dog whistle language" financed with "dark money." (Yes, that's how Sharon Nelson actually characterized Walkinshaw's ad saying she missed a vote and got a low rating from some nonprofit. Wow. Makes me think whether we really want Senator Nelson as Minority Leader.
36
Well, there we have it. Congratulations to US Representative-elect Pramila Jayapal.

Here's a thought: when the Stranger speaks editorially in the future, let's try doing it with one voice. Dan's intrusion came off like privileged Cap Hill snit fit.Unhelpful.

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