Snoqualmie Falls is way cooler than Mall of America (Ive been to both).
Snoqualmie Falls is way cooler than Mall of America (I've been to both). The New York Times with some added illustrations by yours truly

Our national paper of record put out a cool idea today—instead of tracking all 75 House races that are competitive this fall, how about grouping each one by its general characteristics? The Times’ political writers grouped races into five archetypes based on their attributes: the Metro Melting Pot; the Wealthy Suburbs; the Outer Suburbs; The Open West; and Rural Trump Country.

Washington has three competitive Congressional races this fall and each one made it into the Times' roundup. Our Third (Vancouver) and Fifth (Spokane) districts were categorized as the “Outer Suburbs” archetype, which the Times describes as “once-reliably conservative seats” that are now up for grabs thanks to centrist Democrats. And our Eighth Congressional District got thrown in the “Wealthy Suburbs” group, where rich and mostly white “Mitt Romney-style Republicans” that hate Trump are making these districts competitive for Dems this year.

The Times illustrated each archetype with famous landmarks and Twin Peaks’ own Snoqualmie Falls made it, as did the less impressive waterfalls at Spokane’s Riverfront Park. It’s pretty cool to see Spokane’s most famous landmark illustrated next to James Madison’s Montpelier, and see Snoqualmie Falls grouped in with the Mall of America and Laguna Beach.

The Times doesn’t spend much time actually exploring our races in this story, but we have Rich Smith for that. Check out Smith’s stellar coverage of last night’s forum in the Third District, and his running coverage of the race between the fire that is Kim Schrier and the Dino “I just can’t win anything” Rossi.