Washington State Democrats are Being Stupid

This evening I received an e-mail from the Washington State Democrats detailing Day 6 of the Governor Election Challenge between Dino Rossi and Christine Greogoire. Obviously this is a very partisan trial and I would be setting myself up for a fall if I expected good behavior from either actor. However, this e-mail goes a little too far.

Our Secretary of State is a Republican named Sam Reed, and I vote for him without hesitation. He is a top notch guy, square and true. I had dinner with him at an HRC Event a few years back... and while he wasn't the greatest conversationalist, he was nice and polite. I agree with almost all of his policy stances, what few stances the Secretary of State is supposed to take, and many of his personal stances. Even my limited experience with his office as it relates to filing business records has been positive. Prior to the election contest I have never once heard Sam described as a partisan... in fact, I'm told that the Republican party establishment doesn't like him because he's too moderate! Heaven forbid!

This is why I get upset with the Democrats send out an e-mail detailing the position of the Secretary of State in the case. Sam's job is to defend the election (since he is in charge of the thing) which means defending Christine Greogoire as the sitting governor. His position in the trial has been just that: the election went fine with standard and acceptable error in any large-scale human endeavor. And yet, the e-mail from the Democrats mention that his a Republican three separate times! Its strikes me as if they want me to believe that Sam is actually a bad guy, and yet look... He's still on our side.

Its stupid, political, and short sighted. The best it does is rile up the rank & file to help pay for the ongoing lawsuit. At worst it undermines the credibility of the Office of the Secretary of State and only furthers my belief that we should get rid of partisan elections (more on that another time). Sam's a good guy, and anyone who doesn't realize that is either running against him or too shortsighted to realize that he is an excellent Secretary of State and we are lucky to have him.