For months Republicans have been warning about the “Ramtha money” referenced in our story about the late money into the 35th Legislative District primary. The New York Times focused on our state this week and this is what I took from it: The racist rants (taken out of context or not) of an ancient enlightened one that helped a Yelm woman make a sizeable enough living to fund Democrats can make for campaign indignation, but that money isn’t anywhere near the GOP’s biggest problem this year.
No sir.
The biggest problem for Republicans is this little piece from the Times story about the goals shared between Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and rich guy Thomas Steyer:
Mr. Inslee, who is campaigning for his agenda across the state this summer with oyster farmers in tow, is trying to position himself as America’s leading governor in the climate change fight. But Mr. Inslee does not have the support of the majority of the Washington State Senate, particularly those conservative lawmakers from the rural inland, so Mr. Steyer’s advocacy group, NextGen Climate, is working with the Washington League of Conservation Voters to handpick Democratic, pro-climate policy candidates across the state.
Steyer plans to spend about $100 million across the country to elect politicians who see it his way on climate issues and to oust those who don’t. A fair share of that will come here to Washington, and the Times speculates the candidates he chooses, working through the Washington League of Conservation Voters, will see hundreds of thousands of dollars going either to support them or against their opponents.
While chatting with Tim Sheldon Tuesday night I asked if he thought, assuming Tuesday night’s results stay as they are, any of that money would wind up in his race. He thought not. “Steyer won’t dump money into the race. I would be astounded if he did. What you see so far is 65 percent of the district is voting conservative,” he said, a reference to his vote totals plus those of Travis Couture. “I don’t care how much money he has, he can’t turn that around.”
This gets to another reason I posted the picture. You see Inslee walking the beach with Bill Dewey of Taylor Shellfish Farms. Dewey, according to Public Disclosure Commission reports, gave Inslee $500 this year toward Jay Inslee for Washington, which we can assume is his 2016 re-election campaign fund. Dewey gave $1,250 for Inslee’s 2012 campaign and Bill Taylor from the same company gave $1,000.
But both have also donated to Sheldon over the years. Dewey gave the senator $500 in for his re-election campaign in 2010 and another $500 in 2013. Taylor gave $250 in 2010 and $500 in 2013.
Most donations coming from the Taylor company, primarily Taylor and Dewey, go to Democrats, and technically Sheldon is one of those. But you know the story; Sheldon caucuses with the Republicans, giving them the majority and lessening Inslee’s chances of getting his climate agenda passed. So Inslee has an agenda designed to benefit Taylor Shellfish, but someone who votes against Inslee’s agenda is their friend, too.
Washington Conservation Voters has already endorsed Bowling in the 35th. Sheldon received a “0” score from the organization after voting for nine bills the organization considered bad for the environment and against three bills the group said were good for it. Sheldon’s lifetime score is 30. By comparison Christine Rolfes, a 23rd District Democrat, received an 83 for the session. Democrat Nathan Schlicher in the 26th received a 56 for his votes and Republican Jan Angel got a 25.
So will Steyer go after Sheldon?
That might depend on the polling. Someone is going to do some once the primary dust is settled. If Sheldon is not right in fact, in philosophy he is. Steyer will want to put money to races that are winnable, so he and his allies will decide whether to back Democrat Irene Bowling in the 35th and Judy Arbogast in the 26th. Steyer spent a lot of money against Jan Angel in 2013 and lost, but the Times story shows where he won, too, and those were not insignificant wins.
Bowling saw the same numbers Sheldon saw and had a different take about votes for Couture and was not so agreeable to the idea that those votes would now go to Sheldon. “I think that Travis represents people that are fed up with government as it stands and they want change,” she said. Her hope is she can influence Couture voters to vote her way in the general election.
