Local blogger extraordinaire, Chris Bassett, was quoted in an Oregonian (Mapes on Politics) article about Clark County politics and the increasingly odd behavior of the 3rd District Representative Brian Baird.
Former Democratic activist Chris Bassett, whose blog on Clark County politics I discovered today, points to county-by-county returns on the two big initiatives on last week’s ballot. Voters in each county of the district, outside of Olympia’s Thurston County, voted against the domestic partnership law and voted for the proposed spending limit on state and local government. In each case, the district voted more conservatively than the state as a whole, which passed the domestic partnership law and deep-sixed the spending limit.
Baird caters to the district’s shifting political winds with a certain amount of his own unpredictability. He seems increasingly sure of his own judgment and appears quite unafraid to oppose his own party leadership. He did it two years ago when he returned from a trip to Iraq and pronounced that the Bush surge was working and that he would vote against attempts to pull out the troops.
Now he’s doing it again, adding insult to injury for Democratic activists by also voting against the leadership on the procedural vote allowing them to bring the bill to the floor for debate. Bassett predicted that progressives like him can do little about it. “We now have an incumbent congressman immune to any criticism from his own party, and thus no longer accountable,” he said.
It is looking more and more like Rep. Baird will be vulnerable to a Republican challenger in the next election cycle given the voting patterns of late in the district and our Congressman Baird’s ability to increasingly anger both sides of the aisle.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Baird votes against final rule (aneurinsblog.blogspot.com)
- PDC whining in America’s Vancouver (horsesass.org)
- I-1033 being rejected, R-71 up slightly (aneurinsblog.blogspot.com)
I have documentation of a major coverup by the City of Vancouver, Mayor’s office, City Attorney’s office, Code Enforcement, Planning Dept, and the Vancouver Police Department. The coverup affects the public at large and a number of individuals specifically. I need help determining the direction to take this in for justice to be served. Can anyone help me?