And the Winner Is....

So Far... It's Murray Once More:
As of Thursday afternoon, the Senate race is still to close to call with the number of ballots yet to be counted. However, incumbent Patty Murray is holding a lead that has been growing. Seattle Times reports that, "Murray led by more than 27,000 votes Wednesday night, up from 14,000 on Election Day". Most people with lots of knowledge of this election feel like this is a great sign that Murray will walk away with the win. For example, The Seattle Times also says that, "Matt Barreto, political-science professor at the University of Washington, said he felt even more confident in his election-night analysis predicting a Murray win." This comes as great news for the Patty Murray and the Democratic Party. If this election pans out to be another Dino Rossi defeat; it will be his third big loss after his two other unsuccessful campaigns for Governor of Washington State.


Murray Wins by a Margin!
As of this evening, Dino Rossi called Patty Murray to concede the race for the Senate.  Although hundreds of thousands of ballots remain to be counted, a win would be almost impossible for him.  This is because the majority of the remaining ballots come from King County, a highly Democratic county that has already shown support for Murray by giving her 68% of votes counted from the area so far.  This would mean Rossi would need two-thirds of the votes from the rest of the state, and he's only recieved 53.2% as of yet.  Murray's win contributes to Democratic control in the Senate, a helpful asset to President Obama's administration.  But Murray's win is by only 45,000 votes, a close race that has Murray leading 51% to Rossi's 49%.  The next question is: Will Murray use her newfound fourth term to win back a higher approval rating?


Brunner, Jim. "King County Votes May Tip Scales in Murray's Favor." The Seattle Times. 04 Nov. 2010.   Web. 04 Nov. 2010. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013340590_votecount04m.html.

"ELECTION: Rossi concedes Senate race to Murray." Bellingham Herald (2010): n. pag. Web. 4 Nov 2010. <http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/11/04/1704601/election-rossi-concedes-senate.html>.

The Final Days

Public Polling Place Prediction:
The end to the 2010 Washington State Senate election is drawing near. Recent polls show the race is still close, with incumbent Patty Murray falling behind to 48% to Dino Rossi's 50%. These numbers come from Public Policy Polling, a reliable polling agency. It is important to note that PPP is affiliated with the Democratic party. This is good news for Rossi. This is the first time this year that PPP has found Rossi to be leading when asking people the simple question of, "Who would you vote for?". However, this poll could be a ploy to motivate more Murray supporters to vote.

Predictions for this year's Senate election are leaning towards Rossi.  PPP states, ,"Like many races across the country this year, the Washington Senate contest is shaping up for voters as a choice between two candidates they're not particularly enamored with, and, for the most part, the GOP is winning out in situations where that's the case." This seems a highly likely possibility as PPP also found Murray's disapproval rating to be 51% for registered voters. If constituents disapprove of Murray, they are likely to try another direction-Republican canidate Dino Rossi.

"Washington Senate Race Remains Close." Public Policy Polling (2010). Web. 1 Nov. 2010.

Voter Turnout:
From Olympia, Washington, our Secretary of State, Sam Reed, predicts that about sixty-six percent of Washington voters will turn out for this 2010 Senate election.  This is the biggest turn-out since 1970, and includes about 2.4 million participating constituents.  Many Washington voters use mail-in ballots, and these votes need to be postmarked by tomorrow.

"Voter turnout of 66 percent expected in Washington." Seattle Times (2010): n. pag. Web. 1 Nov 2010. <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013315901_apwaelectionturnout.html>.

Matchbacks for Democrats:
For this year's Senate election, Washington's Democratic Party has invested in a master voter database, where voters are scored on how likely they are to vote Democrat, called "matchbacks."  They identified nearly 900,000 Democrats, 700,000 Republicans, and 220,000 independents, with about 1.4 million people unaccounted for.  The party has focused primarily on constituents who show all signs of voting Democrat, but have a shaky voting history.  The Democratic Party has stepped up campaign calls and door-to-door visits, visiting thousands of voters within the past few days.   Democratic strategists say, "Data through Thursday showed strong turnout in deep blue King County, and well over 60 percent of voters who've cast ballots are 'matchbacks' to the Democrats' database of likely voters. In Pierce County, more than 50 percent of the ballots are Democratic 'matchbacks.'"  Democrats also focus most of their efforts on King County and Western Washington, evident by only three of their fourteen offices being located in Eastern Washington.

But the race remains close as the final days close in.  Early voting accounts for much of the results mentioned above, and recent polls show Dino Rossi is much closer to a win than previously thought.  This race is much closer than previous Senate races for the Republicans, since Washington is a predominately Democratic state.  In 2004, however, when Dino Rossi ran against Christine Gregoire for governor, he tied the race in nearly every county, with 50.8% of Pierce County, 50% of Snohomish County, but only 40% for King County.  These results show that although early votes show Murray in the lead, the race is still close as final votes are turned in.

Martin, Jonathan. "Democrats say early voting "matchbacks" good for Murray." Seattle Times (2010): n. pag. Web. 1 Nov 2010. <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politicsnorthwest/2013319611_democrats_say_early_voting_mat.html?syndication=rss>.

Murray strikes again!

Democrat Patty Murray, trying to win an election against Republican Dino Rossi, sent out a piece of mail earlier this week.  The paper sent out had ballot measures and short summaries to go along with them.  Along with the ballot measures, was why you should vote for Murray instead of Rossi.  There were four sub topics and a brief summary to go with it.  The sub topics were Jobs and the Economy, Wages, Unemployment and Union Rights.

Under Jobs and the Economy for Murray it says she "successfully fought for job-creating federal funding" for schools, hospitals, military bases and roads for our state.  For Wages,  it stated Murray supports raising the minimum wage and voted against cuts in overtime pay.  The Unemployment topic says, "Murray wants to extend unemployment benefits for people who lost their income through no fault of their own."  Finally for Union Rights, "Murray sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) to restore the freedom to join unions without employer interference."

As for Rossi, it is completely different.  Rossi vows not to bring back the tax dollar back to this state and he voted to lower the minimum wage.  Rossi also voted to cut jobless benefits by $200 and also voted to completely deny benefits to the abused forced to leave their jobs in order to flee from their abusers.  As for Union Rights, Rossi voted against collective bargaining rights for state employees and is against the EFCA.

So far, while not looking into it so hard, I really haven't seen Rossi do as much as Murray.  Step it up Rossi, do something besides putting up signs and ads on Youtube.



The WA Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28

First Lady For Murray

Michelle Obama visited Washington state today, in order to help campaign for Patty Murray. She spoke at two separate fundraisers raising money for Murray's tough campaign against Dino Rossi. Mrs. Obama explained that Murray's re-election is crucial for the president to accomplish his agenda in a friendly Congress.  She said, "This election isn’t just about all that we’ve accomplished these past couple of years. This election is about all that we have left to do in the months and years ahead." Michelle Obama was trying to excite and encourage voters to vote for Democrats, especially Patty Murray. This is yet another popular name endorsing Murray and trying to get Democratic voters out to polls. It will be impossible to know the exact impact of Murray getting all these endorsements. But one thing is for certain, the Democrats are trying to send all of their big players to Washington in what might be a desperate attempt to keep as many Democrats in office as possible.

Woodward, Curt. "First Lady Raises Money in Wash. for Patty Murray." The Seattle Times. 26 Oct. 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013256071_apwamichelleobama4thldwritethru.html>.

The Ethics of Earmarks

Seantor John McCain of Arizona, a former presidential nominee for the Republican party, has conducted a conference call-in with reporters to help fellow Republican, Dino Rossi.  Dino Rossi is running a close race against Patty Murray, a veteran Senator and fighting incumbent.  One of the main points of Rossi's campaign is showcasing Murray's use of the earmark.  An "earmark" is a special amount of money set aside for projects in a particular senator's state.  Usually, these projects benefit local, not national, interests, and are frowned upon by many.  However, Patty Murray defends her use of earmarks, saying it helps Washington state (which it does.)  Dino Rossi is opposed to the use of earmarks until after our national budget is balanced (since they can be costly.)  John McCain is very set against the use of earmarks, balanced budget or not, and his support of Dino Rossi's disdain will perhaps help Rossi win over voters.

"McCain calls in support of Dino Rossi for Wash.." News Tribune (2010): n. pag. Web. 25 Oct 2010. <http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/10/25/1395672/sen-mccain-calls-in-support-for.html>.

Gender Politics?

"And you thought gender politics were past-tense here in progressive, fair-minded Washington. This state, after all, was first in the country to simultaneously have a female governor and two female U.S. senators, so electing women to the biggest political jobs in the land is no big deal", says Joni Balter the Seattle Times editor columnist.

Well to others, it is a big deal.  Looking back to the past presidential election, I watched a T.V program were a reporter went around the city of New York asking people who they were voting for.  Well, Caucasians said McCain, and Africans said Obama.  After the reporter asked all these people who they were voting for, he asked another important question.  Why?.  About almost all of the people he asked, most of them said, "I don't know."  So this goes to show, why wouldn't women vote for Patty because she's a girl?  A woman understands how a woman feels, so of course they would use that power to draw in more votes, from the women voters.

Which would bring me to something I saw a couple days ago, "Trust."  I recently saw an ad that seemed specifically for women.  "He wants to take away women contraceptives, and emergency contraceptives, he also wants to take away a woman's right to choose and make abortion illegal."  Nothing in the ad would benefit men, therefore making me think that Murray is targeting women to win this election, because every person in this world has made a decision based on race, religion, and gender.

Like i said earlier, Caucasians said McCain, and Africans said Obama and they didn't know why they were voting for them. Same goes for Murray, targeting woman, because she knows how they feel and what it takes to get them to say "Wow, that is so true! I'm voting for her!"


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2013214505_joni21.html?prmid=op_ed


"Trust"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrUd9rUe3M4&feature=related

Obama Targets Women Voters

In the race for the Senate between Dino Rossi and Patty Murray, both sides are looking for endorsements, as previously mentioned.  The best politician to have on your side?  The president.  President Barack Obama is on a rallying road trip, traveling to both Washington and California in an effort to win support for Democratic candidates.  Patty Murray, running neck to neck with Dino Rossi, will need such rallying cries if she wants to win the majority.  


According to a poll in September by Pew, women are more likely to vote Democrat than Republican by 3 percentage points.  Men, on the other hand, favor Republicans by 17 percentage points.  Others who lean toward the Democrats are minorities and young voters.  The bad news: these groups are less motivated to vote.  An NBC poll found that women are 11 percentage points less likely than men to vote this fall.  


So how does Obama react?  He has decided to inspire women of Seattle to take an interest in this election.  At a town hall meeting in Seattle, Obama explained, “How well women do ... will help determine how well our families are doing as a whole."  Women are now over fifty percent of U.S. college graduates, and are closing in on a majority for the U.S. workforce.  By gathering female business leaders of the area, Obama has the leverage to persuade women voters that Democrat policies have benefited them.  For example, Jody Hall, chief of "Cupcake Royale," explained how a Small Business Administration loan helped her expand her business.  What this should mean: women, vote for Patty Murray.


Grier, Peter. "Obama Targets Women Voters in Seattle."Christian Science Monitor (2010): n. pag.  Web. 21 Oct 2010. <http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Election-2010/Vox-News/2010/1021/Obama-targets-women-voters-in-Seattle-trip-with-talk-of-jobs-cupcakes>.