The 13th annual post-election analysis and fundraiser State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-36th District) held on Nov. 16 was markedly different than her first 12. That's because in the latest election Democrats trounced Republicans at a state and national level for a change.
However, KIRO-TV reporter and master of ceremonies Bob Branom cautioned a roomful of people at the Hale's Ales Brewery & Pub, where the event was held, not to put too much store in the results. Polls showed, he said, that people voted against Pres.George Bush more than they voted for Democrats. "It's something we should keep in mind."
One of six panelists at the event, veteran political consultant Blair Butterworth had another take on the election results. In the past, he said, Democrats at Kohl-Welles' yearly event tried to put a good spin on bad news. This year, they got to put a good spin on good news, Butterworth said. "It takes a lot less work and creativity."
He also said that one truly interesting point about the local campaigns was "how lazy the Republicans were in recruiting people." The opponent for state senate candidate Claudia Kaufman (D-47th District), for example, was "really mediocre," Butterworth said.
"I think there's a tide of change going on here," he said, mentioning Eastside Republicans trying to appeal to moderates as an example.
State Democratic Party Chairman and former King County Council member Dwight Pelz was clearly elated. "It was a tremendous campaign," he crowed. "I think the Democrats are reconnecting with Americans."
Pelz said he thought Republicans lost so many seats because of the Iraq war, the culture of corruption in Congress and a sense that the middle class is deteriorating.
"It is very clear to me that the Bush administration and Congress have declared war on the middle class," he said. "And Democrats need to speak to the middle class," said Pelz, who added that such a political approach is going to become even more important in coming years.
The key to the future is people's children and grandchildren, and whether health care and Social Security will be adequate enough for their needs, he said. "When Republicans say Social Security won't be there for young people, that's a mythology they have created," Pelz railed.
George Griffin, an African-American public-affairs expert on the panel, cheered the fact that so many people of color won elections on a local and national level. However, more work is needed to get people of color involved in the political process, he said.
But like Pelz, Griffin went against conventional political wisdom that Republicans lost so heavily in the November elections because of just Iraq. "I think it was more than just the war," Griffin said. "I think it was the economy."
Radio talk-show host Dave Ross had another take on the election results-at least on a national level. "It was, I think, the nation waking up to the fact you can't have a faith-based foreign policy," he said of Bush's contention that he had a divine mandate to go to war in Iraq.
"One of the things I think Democrats can do is tackle health care," added Ross, who noted that Americans spend twice as much on health care as Europeans do. He also said Democrats should focus on education because education and the economy go hand in hand.
Using a reference to OJ Simpson's now-cancelled book and scuttled TV appearances, Ross also took a dig at the departing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. His next book should be titled, "If I had wanted to screw up the war, this is how I would do it," Ross said.
State Representative Helen Sommers (D-36th District) was especially happy about election results. "This is more fun than the others," she said of the yearly post-election analysis get-togethers, "because the election was such a blowout."
Sommers also took the opportunity to slam Republicans at the national level for-among other "sins"-their involvement in the Terry Schiavo case, the government's "brain-dead" response to Hurricane Katrina, opposition to stem-cell research and denial of global warming. "But all of this fades in front of the awful Iraq war," Sommers added.
Political blogger Lynn Allen said the big wins for Democrats were the result of the fierce determination of the American people. "It was time to take the country back," she said.
Blogs are relatively new to the political scene, Allen noted, but she stressed that blogs have the capability of helping people communicate with other people.
Still, Allen conceded, results have been mixed. "We had an impact on national races," she said. But the same couldn't be said of blogs' effects on the state-legislative level, according to Allen. "I think that will be next."
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
