Norm Dicks

Washington's superdelegate count stands at five for Obama, five for Clinton and seven undecided. State Republican deciders may know something the Democrats don't know, since they've been campaigning against Obama, without a single mention on Clinton in recent letters. The Republican decidee is coming to town, and you can meet him for dinner for only $33,100.

Representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dave Reichert have gone kosher and sworn off the pork. Which sounds admirable but also correlates to their effectiveness rating, and will likely get them less goodwill than a couple of good projects for their districts would have. On the other side, Rep. Norm Dicks won Citizens Against Government Waste’s “April Porker of the Month” for trying to get the Air Force to buy from Boeing. What nerve!

TACOMA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire's campaign kickoff bus tour hit Tacoma's Stadium District today moments after noon in a meeting room dotted with campaign signs that read, "Making our communities safer." Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Belfair) began the festivities by calling her a fighter for, among other things, taking on the tobacco industry, and highlighted the construction of the second Narrows Bridge under her leadership before handing the microphone over to a series of political leaders.

Paul Richmond, Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the 6th District that covers much of Tacoma and the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas, calls himself the "story telling lawyer" in his private law practice. With his candidacy for Congress, Richmond hopes to tell the story of a nation turning its back on a history of civil liberties, experiencing economic trouble and a shrinking middle class, and how the current representatives in Washington, D.C. are not doing enough to change that.

In new congressional power rankings released this week, Washington's delegation ranked 20th out of 50 states led by Rep. Norm Dicks and Sen. Patty Murray in the House and Senate, respectively.  read more »

The Kitsap Caucus Blog is reporting that Port Townsed Attorney Paul Richmond is considering a run for congress in the 6th District against long time incumbent Norm Dicks.

Richmond seems most interested in restoring personal liberties, reigning in defense spending and taking care of veterans.   read more »

Yesterday the League of Conservation Voters, an interest group that calls itself the “independent voice for the environment,” released its annual congressional scorecard. These ratings are based on the environmental legislation in the House and Senate from the past year. The LCV makes a judgment on what they consider to be the environmentally friendly position on each bill, and assigns a plus or a minus to each vote, with absences considered a negative.

Lacey, WA -

A five-piece jazz band kicked out the funky jams while an assembly of Washington State Democratic Activists trickled into the St. Martin's College Pavilion basketball arena last night.  It was the annual crab feed, where paper plates carried the food, brown paper bags held the empty shells, and wooden mallets accompanied each table to smash up the peskiest of claws and legs.

Barack Obama’s landslide victory over Hillary Clinton in the Washington Democratic Caucus was a romp -- about 68%-31%. Clinton won just Douglas County, and received less than half of the precinct caucus delegates.

This makes Governor Christine Gregoire a big winner; she endorsed Obama on February 8. It is also fair to say that Obama’s 2-1 loss does not demonstrate any gravitas from Washington’s two United States Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both strong Clinton backers.