Democrat Pat Campbell conceded the race for the 17th District legislative district to incumbent Rep. Jim Dunn, R-Vancouver, on Thursday and congratulated Dunn for “a good race with positive campaigning on both sides.”
Dunn trailed Campbell in the first returns last week but pulled ahead by late in the week. In results released Thursday by the Clark County Elections Department, Dunn maintained a 336-vote lead with 36,714 votes cast.
As predicted, the HDCC sat on their hands and provided no independent expenditure support. I’m hearing some buzz that Democracy for Vancouver is somehow to be blamed for this loss, that the party backed candidate in the primary would’ve won. DFV never endorsed anyone in the 17th LD, primary or otherwise, and folks need to stop confusing blog postings with official endorsements.
Not respecting the results of a Democratic primary contest appears to be a recurring theme with Democratic campaign committees, as we saw in the Lamont/Lieberman battle in Connecticut.
A couple of direct mailers from the HDCC could’ve made the difference here. Let the finger pointing begin, but at the end of the day, residents of the 17th LD are left with a less than do-nothing representative.
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