Identify your legislators that you want to win or lose in 2018, start campaigning

I've been working to get rid of Dave Reichert, our House Rep, for more than a decade. He's had a voting record that has been straight GOP, anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, you name it, if it's Progressive, he's knee-jerk against it.

We almost had him out twice but he squeaked by. On the third time, the districts were shifted making his district more Republican and establishing a new district that leans Democratic which my neighborhood ended up in.

But in 2018, he's vulnerable again because of Trump. He's trying to distance himself, refusing to hold town meetings over the threat to the ACA claiming it was a security threat to hold such meetings. Not the first time he lied about security or police matters.

He claims continually that as King County Sheriff he got the Green River Killer. He didn't. Gary Ridgeway was interviewed when Reichert was the top sheriff but never arrested. Only after Reichert left office was Ridgeway arrested. From the time Ridgeway came to police attention until he was finally arrested, 30 more women were murdered, and 7 or more are possibly on that list. So out of the 49 murders Ridgeway was convicted of, 30 of them occurred after he came to Reichert's attention before another officer in the force took the steps that actually stopped Ridgeway.

MythBusters: Dave Reichert Did Not Catch the Green River Killer

Even then, on Sheriff Reichert's watch, the saliva sample that could have busted Ridgway as early as 1996 when the DNA technology became available, was not tested until 2001.

Women died in that interim.

In fact, as Part II of Hood's series explains, Reichert actually bungled the case almost from the start of the investigation:

Frank Atchley, who supervised Reichert in the 1980s, told the P-I that Reichert "actually was more of an impediment to the investigation. He was probably the worst detective I've ever worked with," Atchley said. "He developed tunnel vision."

He's talking about Reichert's lock on one suspect: an ornery cab driver named Melvyn Foster. They had butted heads in an interview early on and Guillén writes, "... an acrimony developed that seemed to taint Reichert's judgment on Foster's viability as a suspect for years." He was so convinced of Foster's guilt, the task force focus disasterously excluded everyone else.

Including Ridgway, who our local media myth-makers fail to tell us, became one of the earliest suspects in the case, after an area woman accused him of trying to abduct and strangle her... the Green River Killer's signature M.O. So much of a suspect that the brother of Ridgway's employer claimed in a call to my former 710-KIRO radio show, that the police went as far as to interview him.

Interviewing family members of employers; that shows a certain amount of interest. But Reichert was so focused on his ornery cab driver, that they let Ridgway go, allowing him to continue his killing spree for 18 more years, until someone in the Sheriffs office — not Reichert — took the initiative to DNA-test a near two-decades old saliva sample.

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It's unbelievable this man has been riding the coattails of that lie all this time. Reichert beat one opponent when he came out at the last minute with a negative campaign ad that she claimed to have an economics degree when she only had a classes equivalent of a minor and no official minor degree.

Yet the Democrats here have been unable (or unwilling) to expose Reichert's lie that he caught the Green River Killer. So I'm going to go on a one person campaign to expose that lie to a wider audience. Not sure exactly how but I have an idea to talk about all the women that were murdered in those 18 years, one at a time and see who I can get to spread that in the Progressive echo chamber.

Wait, do we have a Progressive echo chamber? We need one.


So I propose folks identify other vulnerable seats in 2018 and make some plans.

He's still vulnerable. Discussion on KUOW was that his most iffy voters are suburban women. I'm not giving up. And who says lies or outrage expires?

But no worries, all means are welcome.

SWest said:

The most effective way to change seats is to energize a New voter base. People who might otherwise sit and home and feel helpless about how The Scary-Complicated Government-TM works need outreach: help with registration, researching candidates' platforms, finding their polling sites, and getting in a booth on time.

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Trump triggers outrage; outrage triggers new voters.

SWest said:

...
Reps won't hold town meetings? Have them anyway! Discuss the issues, empower a large group to see that they are not isolated/alone, and organize on-site help with voter registration.

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I didn't have a chance to go to this one, but I'll make it to the next one: 'Empty Chair' Town Hall For Dave Reichert Planned This Week

This is the second "empty chair" town hall set up by progressive activists. The first, held in Cashmere in February, attracted about 400 people. At the time, activists were trying to call attention to the Obamacare repeal and replace effort. But this meeting will cover a number of topics, according to organizers, including "Russian interference with the 2016 US election and the Trump campaign, healthcare legislation, conflicts of interest and emoluments, and other executive actions detrimental to democratic values, such as the travel bans, removal of environmental protections, movement toward dismantling public education, and continued separation of church and state. "

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One problem with Reichert is his district covers a lot of territory. If there's a meeting in Covington, that's 45 minutes from Issaquah if you aren't stuck in traffic and well over an hour if you are. So we'll need more than one. And Cashmere, that's even further.

It's hard to pick among the many activists groups, I think we might be spreading ourselves a tad thin. Everyone's in on the fund-raising and that isn't helping. I get emails from dozens of Progressive groups.

Indivisible Movement to Resist Trump’s Agenda is cited in the news article above. I'm beginning to think I might also do some good to make a resource guide to these groups.


Just saw this in the Seattle PI from a month ago:

As evidence of possible obstruction of justice by Trump surfaced Tuesday -- asking then-FBI director Comey to shut down the Michael Flynn-Russia investigation -- U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert wrote on his Facebook page:
"Thank you to President Trump for honoring my request and lighting the White House blue last night in recognition of Police Officers Memorial Day and Police Week. This is a small but important gesture to thank our law enforcement officers for the big job they do."...

- The reaction of a Republican congressman: The usually-affable Reichert has become increasingly inaccessible, not holding town meetings, disclosing public appearances and communicating mainly by his Facebook page. He did not endorse Trump last year.

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Is that a non-endorsement endorsement?



Reminder: discussion of other vulnerable Republicans welcome in this thread. No hurry, I'll bump it from time to time.

Naysaying discouraged.

Coffman might be more vulnerable than you think.

This was from the 2016 election: A Congressman Slighted Immigrants, Then Embraced Them. Now He Runs From Trump.

In an especially troublesome year to run as a Republican in a district where one in five residents is Latino, the race for Mr. Coffman’s seat has become one of the most competitive, with Democrats hungrily eyeing it in their Quixotic quest to recapture the House.

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And 2018, you have reinforcements: Coffman camp shrugs off reports national Dems again targeting his seat

I'll be cheering from the sidelines for you.

Paul Ryan's competition for 2018, Randy Bryce, is making a big splash with a powerful commercial that is going viral.

http://www.gq.com/story/randy-bryce-paul-ryan-campaign-ad

Maybe that 'replace them all' campaign isn't as hopeless as I think.

Don't be so sure: As Don Young Gets Challenger, New Poll Shows Approval At Six-Year Low

That was a year ago. It can only have gotten worse.

How Don Young went from no to yes on the House health care bill

My theory on that, Ryan just told them all to vote for it and switch the heat to the Senate; evidence: stuff like this from the next link:

Curbelo and his moderate colleagues have argued their votes were designed to move the process along, and the final legislation will alleviate the many concerns over the bill and fix the current health care system.

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Push to pin health care vote on vulnerable Republicans begins

Here is the full list of House Republicans the ad will target:
Don Young (AK-01)+

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It does sound like Young would prefer to distance himself from Trump.

Celia Cyanide said:

Can you get this on Reichert's wikipedia page? This is all it says there:

Reichert served with the King County sheriff's department beginning in 1972.[SUP][5][/SUP] He was a member of the Green River Task Force, formed to track down the so-called "Green River killer" aided by the infamous Ted Bundy.[SUP][6][/SUP] In 2001, DNA evidenceidentified Gary Leon Ridgway as the Green River killer.[SUP][5][/SUP] In 2004, Reichert published the autobiography, Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer.[SUP][7][/SUP]

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I've not ever edited Wiki though I have considered giving it a try. My guess is Reichert's team would edit it right back out or it would be there already. That might be a time consuming battle and I'm not sure how productive that use of time would be.

I did try to see if anything was in the editing history but didn't find any blatant back and forth over it. Again though, there is time involved vs benefit to be considered.

Celia Cyanide said:

There are many people who know more about wikipedia than I do. If there is controversy about him catching the Green River Killer, then it should be there, but probably by someone more familiar with the process.

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I don't disagree with you. You are absolutely right.

But having seen a few battles between people trying to get poorly supported claims rebutted on Wiki, I know it can result in a lot of invested time. You put it up, someone changes it back, do it a couple times and Wiki sets up notes about the contested information. With some cases Wiki has to lock editing.

And you can bet politicians like Reichert have people keeping an eye on his page. It looks to me like he knew just how to walk the line by not making the claim outright in the Wiki entry, instead there's just a reference to his book and the fact he was on the task force.

And it's a win!

Dave Reichert Announces He Will Not Run in 2018

Reichert’s decision creates a political opportunity for Democrats who have been looking to flip his 8th Congressional District seat and regain control of the U.S. House. Democrats have recently been lining up to unseat Reichert, who represents a “swing district” that includes parts of eastern King and Pierce counties, spans the Cascade range and stretches to Kittitas and Chelan counties. ...

Reichert has been the target of much criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike. That pressure has only increased, most recently coming from his constituents and opponents who have attacked him for not holding public town hall meetings. In response, Reichert said such gatherings have “degenerated into shouting, yelling, and screaming matches.”

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Not quite as satisfying as it might have been if we could have defeated him sooner, but I'll take it. This Congressman was one of the worst for voting for anything conservative and not doing much else.

Not saying we don't need to work for the seat. Just saying I've been working to get this jerk out of office for years. Protested in front of his office more than once. I'll take it as a win because I don't think he would have retired had we not kept up the pressure.

A respected forum member shared this candidate's Twitter feed.

If I lived in his district in Utah, I'd vote for him.

https://www.tomforutah.com/

I was extremely disappointed to see Rossi announce he would run for Reichert's seat. I'm going to be working hard in that district. I haven't seen yet who the Democratic candidates will be. Hopefully Rossi's name recognition will not be that important on this side of the Cascades.


You're in Reichert's district? I thought Reichert was gerrymandered eastward and none of that included Seattle.

Guess I better start doing some homework.