Dan Evans

Secretary of State Sam Reed: Politicker photoSecretary of State Sam Reed issued a press release yesterday in advance of a statewide tour to promote the August 19 "top two" primary in which he predicted that voter turnout for the inaugural primary would hit 46 percent, making it one of the highest in state history.

 "We're expecting a good, strong turnout across Washington," Reed says. "Our voters are intrigued by our new Top 2 system of voting, which once again allows them to pick their favorite candidate for each office, without regard to party. This should be very popular  - it's the Washington tradition to `vote for the person, not the party.'  Even though there are not a lot of hotly contested primaries, we believe the level of interest is very high in this presidential and gubernatorial election year and that we will get a good turnout."

Still, voter turnout in the primary has not greatly fluctuated over the past four decades, with each election's voter turnout percentage falling somewhere in the 40s. It topped out in 1972 with 49 percent, and reached 45 percent in 2004 and 1992.

Is Governor Gregoire to blame for this year’s unprecedented political hardball? Widely criticized for not hitting back in 2004, her 2008 operation has given the Democratic Party the green light to hit and hit hard.

NORTH BEND -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain participated in a roundtable discussion on environmental issues today at the Cedar River Watershed Education Center in Eastern King County. McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, was joined by a wide slate of interested parties, ranging from Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland to REI CEO Sally Jewel, former Gov. Dan Evans and Mercer Island City Councilman Steve Litzow along with a handful of local business and non-profit group leaders.

Local Republicans in attendance at the event included Attorney General Rob McKenna, who is McCain's state chair, former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, former Secretary of State Ralph Munro, state Sen. Cheryl Pflug and party Chairman Luke Esser. The first thing off their tongues was their excitement at having such a prominent national figure in town.

Sen. John McCain leads a roundtable discussion