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THE NEW REPUBLICANS
After Years of Getting Trounced, Washington State Republicans Develop Smart Game Plan

by Sandeep Kaushik

The Washington State economy is in the toilet. The incumbent Democratic governor isn't running for reelection, and the gaggle of circling Democratic wannabes appear to be headed into a brutal primary battle. Polling shows that the state's senior Democratic senator, Patty Murray, may be vulnerable in 2004. The current Republican president is broadly popular. For these reasons, the Mayberry Machiavellis in the vaunted White House political operation smell blood and are targeting Washington State for big Republican electoral gains.

And that's not the good news, crows Republican Party state chair Chris Vance. The good news, he says during an interview in the party's suburban Southcenter offices, is that the Washington Republicans, after a long string of statewide campaigns in which they got their asses handed to them on a plate, finally have their act together.

The 41-year-old Vance is a paid partisan and a master of political spin. He may well be the most quotable guy in Washington State politics. After a recent area appearance by Democratic presiden- tial candidate John Edwards, Vance dissed the North Carolina senator as "a phony, a hypocrite, and a political flash in the pan." Still, Vance's vision of a kinder, gentler Washington Republican Party--one that is disciplined, organized, and unified behind candidates with potential salability to centrist suburban voters, particularly women--may finally be coming to fruition.

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Vance, as usual, is just making it up as he goes along. Methinks that the Washington Republicans will, once again, get their collective ass handed to them on a plate.