Madore is calling Pike our “citizen champion.” And Pike is calling for “new beginnings,” describes her losing bid as a “heart-warming experience” and assures the world she “will be praying” for the winner of the county chair race, Marc Boldt.
My advice to Pike? Please consider saving a few of those prayers for Madore. Maybe save one for yourself, too.
No question, we all should be trying to heal from this bruising election. Saying all the right things is a great start, but following the words with solid action is what’s needed.
Pike — as you know if you read this column — went against many of her advisers and friends who told her to stay out of this election mess that Madore brewed up. But she didn’t listen. So now she’s stuck with Madore. Only time will tell if enough showers will create a cleansing.
And make no mistake, although Madore lost yet another battle to seize control of our county, he’ll still be around for another year as county councilor. He will not go down easily.
State GOP chair in town
As mentioned, Susan Hutchison, the state GOP chair, was in town Friday. And she stopped by to meet the editorial board. She is a bright, hard-driving, focused chair. If you are a Democrat, you should take note of Hutchison. She will be a force in 2016.
She was here mostly to talk about how she feels the state is leaning more conservative and said that, with strong leadership and work, Washington could see a Republican governor.
Fair enough.
But I was mostly interested in her take on the crazy stuff going on in our fractured local Republican Party.
“How do you describe what’s going on here?” I asked.
“Entertaining. Lively. Certainly not a sleepy place,” she said.
But I was looking for more. So she began to explain local politics in all the counties throughout the state.
“All … have drama,” she said.
“Not as much as this one,” I interrupted.
“No, I think you all are No. 1,” she said.
At this point, Hutchison could have dropped the mic, suggested the patrons try the veal, and reminded everyone to tip the waitstaff.
But, heck, we were all enjoying ourselves, so we continued.
“When elections are interesting, more people are talking and participating,” she added.
I couldn’t agree more.
The Benton factor
I’ve been kind of busy lately commenting on the just-concluded election, so not much has been said about state Sen. Don Benton.
You remember this guy, right? He squeaked by in his last couple of Senate elections, but then he created a firestorm when he was able to get Madore and Madore’s sidekick — county Councilor Tom Mielke — to hire him as the $115,000-a-year director of the county Department of Environmental Services. Benton couldn’t tell the difference between stormwater and strudel, but — hey — Benton needed a little more taxpayer money, so he was slipped in the back door. Unfortunately for all these characters, The Columbian noticed.
Benton also happens to be up for re-election to his Senate seat next year, and I wondered about local Republican support for him. Parties do polling on senators to gauge their strength, and I said that I heard Benton was polling very poorly. Would the party step into a situation like that?
Hutchison said she doesn’t get all that involved in state Senate races, but the Senate Republican caucus does.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen to Don, but I have seen some poll numbers,” she said.
“How did they look?” I asked.
“They didn’t look very good,” she said.
Again, I give Hutchison high marks for being direct and honest. This should serve her and the Republican Party very well.
Benton is part of this small group of local Republicans who make the majority of local Republicans uneasy. And with a new majority soon to be seated on the county council, Benton could be in trouble, both in his county job and his state Senate seat. This, by the way, wouldn’t be surprising news to Benton. He is well aware of what you are reading now.
Keep moving forward
So, yes, there is more work we need to do as a community. But we’ve just made great progress. And if I were a betting man, I’d bet we will continue to make progress.
As one of my favorite TV weather guys used to say down in Gainesville, Fla.: “If the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise,” we’ll get there.
