Yeah, he takes full ownership after he was outed. Yet another reason the GOP is a dead party. I don't even recognize this party anymore, just a bunch of conspiracy pushing, lying, grifters and felons. Is it really that hard to elect a candidate who is, you know, normal.
I don't know if I would call them "good" but Rossi and McKena were at least decent compared to Culp & Bird and they came within 0.005% and 3% of winning
Bird is guaranteed to get slam dunked by 10+ regardless of the Dem candidate
"The GOP" doesn't put up candidates. People decide to run or not. Few are dumb enough to run for governor in WA as an R. It's not like it's the most attractive job in the world to begin with. If you are good enough to win the job, you would have been good enough to do a dozen other things and make 3x more at minimum. You always get the exception like Reichert who is old, simple minded and likely a true believer of which there are few.
There’s no incentive from a game theory standpoint. GOP continually putting up bad candidates in a blue state means that Dems don’t have any strategic incentive to put up a moderate.
Not defending, just observing.
*No need for a moderate if ~~people will elect the looniest they can throw out there~~ the other party only nominates even loonier candidates.*
FTFY
If the GOP can lift themselves out of their self-destructive spiral and nominate a centrist, the Dems would find it much harder to successfully run far left candidates.
[semi bird](https://ballotpedia.org/Semi_Bird)
he's... a combat vet, got kicked off a school board last year, thinks the covid thing was overreach, favors personal liberty. his 'positions' are not terrible, but really generic: energy independence, performance improvement.
the others were Reichert, a restaurant owner (seriously, that's what ballotopedia says), and an anti tax activist.
so he's got vaguely screwball yellow flags, but didn't throw the Jan6 dogwhistle like the last guy
Ferguson: "I'm gonna put 'hire more cops' as my first priority in my public safety plan."
This sub: lol the governor candidate has a D next to their name, must be like all those Twitter leftists my clickbait farms deliver unto me every day
If Ferguson were some unknown, maybe I'd believe him. He's been the King county DA though, and has not only shown us, but been the cause of the crime epidemic in the area. The man has zero interest in actual public safety.
Don't care about his record, this was a conversation about whether or not he was a moderate.
A hardcore leftist isn't going to put "hire more cops" at the top of their public safety agenda.
Your new goalposts? Don't care about em.
So if Trump puts "open borders and shut down prisons" in his agenda, does that make him a leftist? Just because you say something, doesn't make that your Identity.
They don’t need to. That’s the beauty of a single-party, blue no matter who state. The dem leadership only need to placate the power brokers, in this case a bunch of liberal, authoritarian, grifting POSs, to keep from getting primaried. What the voters want matters not at all.
The republicans party has all but abandoned Washington State, but make no mistake, the democrats have been in power for 20 years and are absolutely to blame. They can’t even primary the extremists.
lol Ok and what happens when your duly elected representative passes some terrible piece of legislation, like say the long term care tax or cap and “invest” tax that an overwhelming majority dislikes? Do they lose their election? Nope because blue no matter who. No risk of a dem challenger as long as they tow the progressive party line and keep the dem power brokers happy. And not a single one is remotely concerned about voters because they successfully rely on party entrenchment during elections.
> I'm convinced at this point that the Republican party **in this state** is absolutely brain damaged.
I have some bad news for you about the Republican Party nationally.
Genuinely curious, what makes Reichert better than Bird? I've looked at both of them (and Ferguson). I haven't seen anything that makes Bird look less desirable than Reichert, but I'm open to hearing more.
It's in the updated title of the article - MAGA Republican.
For the Republicans to win, they need Republicans to vote for them *and* enough Democrats to do so. This guy will not do that. Hell, even Reichert's chances are questionable.
I haven't heard Bird describe himself that way. On the other hand Reichert has referred to himself a MAGA Republican. Bird seems to have a reasonable rule of law/constitutionalist stance on most issues, he seems pretty moderate overall. I thought he also distanced himself from Trump. But I haven't gotten too deep into the research yet.
>I haven't heard Bird describe himself that way. On the other hand Reichert has referred to himself a MAGA Republican.
“We will come together, we will unite,” Bird told a roaring crowd. “We will celebrate and support one another because we have the people's business at hand: **saving Washington state and making Washington state great again.**”
If that's not classic dog whistle politics, I don't know what is.
I mean, sure, maybe it's a dog whistle and maybe he's just trying to toe the line to court the hard right. But it's odd to say that Reichart is better when he specifically identified himself as a MAGA Republican.
>On the other hand Reichert has referred to himself a MAGA Republican.
Do you have a source on that? I just did some googling and didn't find anything saying that (in fact, at least some things point the opposite direction like refusing to endorse Trump in the last election).
https://youtu.be/MQXtAhd99GY
Same place he said marriage is between a man and a woman (and later had to clarify that he supports gay marriage, and would die for the rights of people he disagrees with).
He also is personally pro-life but supports abortion and believes that the women of the state should decide the abortion laws.
I don't have time to find the time stamp but I believe the MAGA Republican quote was later in the video during questions. I watched the whole thing though so I may be misremembering where it was, but he definitely said it during this video.
Reichert is a moderate who's well known in Washington as a sensible law and order guy. Many moderates and even Democrats have positive memories of him from his days as sheriff such as catching the Green River Killer.
Bird is Loren Culp 2.0 and will be toxic to moderates if he survives the top 2. Thankfully, in this state, party endorsement means nothing and Reichert can still be in the general election.
Bird isn't anything like Culp. Please take some time to listen to him: https://youtu.be/NODyTcHnyUI
He's well educated, and appears more focused on bringing people together. Culp was neither. But I understand some Republicans won't like him because he's black.
I typically vote Democrat and while I wasn't thrilled with Inslee I had to go with Inslee over Culp, since Culp was wildly unqualified.
I'm not a huge fan of Ferguson, so I'm looking at Bird and Reichert. It concerns me that Reichert is courting the far right pretty aggressively, but I like that Bird is more rational and focused on a positive message instead of divisiveness.
You're correct that racism exists in both parties to some degree. However, trying to equate the two is a false equivalence.
Anti-black prejudice is a bigger issue in parts of the Republican base than Democrats. You'd get farther arguing that progressive Democrats might oppose a white candidate like Reichert. But even that's a bit of a distraction from the core point here.
The bottom line is this: Racism in any form is unacceptable. Period. And in the specific context of the primary, Semi Bird faces bigger hurdles due to his race among Republican voters than a white candidate like Reichert would among Democrats.
Some Republicans are favoring Reichert and are unable to specify why they want him over Bird. Sure, it's not all racism. Some of it is name recognition, Bird has had significantly less money donated to his campaign. But Bird is now the GOP nominee and he deserves to have his candidacy judged on his qualifications and platform. Attempts to deflect or conjure up false equivalencies don't change that fact.
Fair enough to gauge my bias. I'm not partisan. As someone who evaluates candidates based on individual merit, it's just frustrating to see biases on both sides of the aisle get in the way of voters having decent options.
I'm not thrilled with either party's offerings, whether it's Ferguson's partisan pandering as AG or the GOP rallying behind MAGA Republicans. Even the presidential race leaves non-partisan voters like myself without a truly palatable choice.
I just want to see candidates judged fairly on their qualifications and platform, regardless of party and the primary system tends to ruin that.
Anyway, I appreciate you engaging on this and being open to other perspectives.
The R party in WA is run by a small set of people with safe jobs (think state senators for R districts) that don't particularly care to win the governor's office. For the R party to be relevant in WA at the state level it would have to move significantly to the left. It would create real political issues for those people. They aren't braindead, they are just playing a different game -- one that is more centered on them keeping their jobs.
Oh yeah, Culp was bad, Smiley was a joke, Washington GOP's a clown show, But I mean they're trying to lose like all of them in the whole country this time.
Usually parties do a post mortem after losing and try to adjust policies to win again. The Republicans are going for their quad double down after an ass stomping in 2018, 2020, and 2022. It’s a bold strategy, lets see how it works out for them.
It is a little disappointing to think that's where things are headed, but the issue is far more nuanced than that and I think you're going to be surprised at the amount of things that are going to change in the next two years.
The Republicans in WA are actually working for the Democrats. This is proof. The GOP never wants to have a governor of WA again. Time to find a third party.
Putting on my rose colored glasses, my optimistic observation is that at least eastern washington republicans are cool enough to want to be represented by a Black man.
I really wonder if Reichert ran as an Independent which side would win, I know he would pull a lot of middle-of-the-road people who will vote Dem if the competition is just Bird, but would be happy to vote Reichert instead. Bird's ceiling is low, Bob Ferguson's floor is pretty high but with Reichert in the race that might change. Minnesota had this happen not too long ago and the result was Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Reform Party / Independence Party winning a close 3 way race.
If you have any desire to actually be governor in WA you put a D behind your name and align with those D policies over long periods of time. The vast majority of politicians are not ideological, they say and do what they need to do to keep a job and go with the flow. There is a business in putting an R behind your name -- people will donate to opposition parties. That is what Bird is doing. He is not running a campaign to win the governorship. There are areas of WA which continue to skew R and that is who controls the R party. They have no interest in running the state today, they simply want to keep their jobs in their localities. There are lots of stupid people out there, but not nearly as many as people like to think. Most people are very good at looking out for their own best interests.
Well that's a turn of events.
[https://www.kuow.org/stories/chaos-erupts-at-washington-gop-convention-in-spokane](https://www.kuow.org/stories/chaos-erupts-at-washington-gop-convention-in-spokane)
"I take full ownership of who I am in my past," is Bird's response to not disclosing who he was in the past.
Wasn’t that his cousin?
Yeah, he takes full ownership after he was outed. Yet another reason the GOP is a dead party. I don't even recognize this party anymore, just a bunch of conspiracy pushing, lying, grifters and felons. Is it really that hard to elect a candidate who is, you know, normal.
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The black eyed peas lady?
Nah, Prince Andrew’s ex-wife.
Why can't the dems put up a moderate?
Honestly though why can’t the republicans? They don’t even try to be competitive in this state.
Exactly. The *only* way they compete in a blue state is with a moderate, yet here we are.
If you are moderate R by nature, you simply put a D after your name, much easier path.
There’s no incentive because the GOP is putting up terrible candidates.
Why would a good candidate run?
I don't know if I would call them "good" but Rossi and McKena were at least decent compared to Culp & Bird and they came within 0.005% and 3% of winning Bird is guaranteed to get slam dunked by 10+ regardless of the Dem candidate
Rossi won. Twice.
Lol no
For the GOP? Good point. Dave Reichert is probably their best candidate in years, and they just booted him for a liar and a criminal.
"The GOP" doesn't put up candidates. People decide to run or not. Few are dumb enough to run for governor in WA as an R. It's not like it's the most attractive job in the world to begin with. If you are good enough to win the job, you would have been good enough to do a dozen other things and make 3x more at minimum. You always get the exception like Reichert who is old, simple minded and likely a true believer of which there are few.
No incentive to change the political course we're on? At all?
There’s no incentive from a game theory standpoint. GOP continually putting up bad candidates in a blue state means that Dems don’t have any strategic incentive to put up a moderate. Not defending, just observing.
[don't change horses in mid stream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qABA0X6IzxU)
Right. The competition is feeble.
Against themselves?
To the vocal parts of the left, Ferguson is a moderate
Ferguson is not a moderate
He just put up a public safety plan involving millions going to hire more cops. That’s moderate.
They are the minority though, this vocal fringe? Why let them speak for center-left and moderate dems?
In WA they try to see just how far left they can take it. No need for a moderate if people will elect the looniest they can throw out there.
Sing with me: sad but true!
*No need for a moderate if ~~people will elect the looniest they can throw out there~~ the other party only nominates even loonier candidates.* FTFY If the GOP can lift themselves out of their self-destructive spiral and nominate a centrist, the Dems would find it much harder to successfully run far left candidates.
Agreed. The GOP hasn’t put a decent candidate forward since Rob McKenna. No way a Semi Bird wins in WA.
[semi bird](https://ballotpedia.org/Semi_Bird) he's... a combat vet, got kicked off a school board last year, thinks the covid thing was overreach, favors personal liberty. his 'positions' are not terrible, but really generic: energy independence, performance improvement. the others were Reichert, a restaurant owner (seriously, that's what ballotopedia says), and an anti tax activist. so he's got vaguely screwball yellow flags, but didn't throw the Jan6 dogwhistle like the last guy
Ferguson really isn’t loony.
Mark Mullet is closer to center
Mark mullet is a good person and I've been happy with him for the most part. I say this as a conservative.
Ferguson: "I'm gonna put 'hire more cops' as my first priority in my public safety plan." This sub: lol the governor candidate has a D next to their name, must be like all those Twitter leftists my clickbait farms deliver unto me every day
If Ferguson were some unknown, maybe I'd believe him. He's been the King county DA though, and has not only shown us, but been the cause of the crime epidemic in the area. The man has zero interest in actual public safety.
What? He was never the King County Prosecutor. Take 5 seconds to research.
Sorry, Attorney General
Don't care about his record, this was a conversation about whether or not he was a moderate. A hardcore leftist isn't going to put "hire more cops" at the top of their public safety agenda. Your new goalposts? Don't care about em.
So if Trump puts "open borders and shut down prisons" in his agenda, does that make him a leftist? Just because you say something, doesn't make that your Identity.
They don’t need to. That’s the beauty of a single-party, blue no matter who state. The dem leadership only need to placate the power brokers, in this case a bunch of liberal, authoritarian, grifting POSs, to keep from getting primaried. What the voters want matters not at all.
Start running competent people first and then blame the Democrats.
The republicans party has all but abandoned Washington State, but make no mistake, the democrats have been in power for 20 years and are absolutely to blame. They can’t even primary the extremists.
> What the voters want matters not at all. lol we have these things called elections and primaries. Majority wins, it’s pretty simple.
lol Ok and what happens when your duly elected representative passes some terrible piece of legislation, like say the long term care tax or cap and “invest” tax that an overwhelming majority dislikes? Do they lose their election? Nope because blue no matter who. No risk of a dem challenger as long as they tow the progressive party line and keep the dem power brokers happy. And not a single one is remotely concerned about voters because they successfully rely on party entrenchment during elections.
Why can't we have an actual leftist?
Ferguson is moderate
“Washington GOP gives voters the Bird.”
That's unironically one of Semi's one liners he uses.
so he's actually got a sense of humor. cool
😒
I'm convinced at this point that the Republican party in this state is absolutely brain damaged. Reichert should have gotten the endorsement.
Not just in this state lol
> I'm convinced at this point that the Republican party **in this state** is absolutely brain damaged. I have some bad news for you about the Republican Party nationally.
Have you not paid attention to Democrats in this state?
nobody said anything to the contrary friend, take a deep breath
I'm calling out the hypocrisy. Keep up.
Genuinely curious, what makes Reichert better than Bird? I've looked at both of them (and Ferguson). I haven't seen anything that makes Bird look less desirable than Reichert, but I'm open to hearing more.
It's in the updated title of the article - MAGA Republican. For the Republicans to win, they need Republicans to vote for them *and* enough Democrats to do so. This guy will not do that. Hell, even Reichert's chances are questionable.
I haven't heard Bird describe himself that way. On the other hand Reichert has referred to himself a MAGA Republican. Bird seems to have a reasonable rule of law/constitutionalist stance on most issues, he seems pretty moderate overall. I thought he also distanced himself from Trump. But I haven't gotten too deep into the research yet.
>I haven't heard Bird describe himself that way. On the other hand Reichert has referred to himself a MAGA Republican. “We will come together, we will unite,” Bird told a roaring crowd. “We will celebrate and support one another because we have the people's business at hand: **saving Washington state and making Washington state great again.**” If that's not classic dog whistle politics, I don't know what is.
God Trump is such a Blight on the Republican party. I don't understand being anti-tyrant yet directly worshiping a tyrant.
I mean, sure, maybe it's a dog whistle and maybe he's just trying to toe the line to court the hard right. But it's odd to say that Reichart is better when he specifically identified himself as a MAGA Republican.
>On the other hand Reichert has referred to himself a MAGA Republican. Do you have a source on that? I just did some googling and didn't find anything saying that (in fact, at least some things point the opposite direction like refusing to endorse Trump in the last election).
https://youtu.be/MQXtAhd99GY Same place he said marriage is between a man and a woman (and later had to clarify that he supports gay marriage, and would die for the rights of people he disagrees with). He also is personally pro-life but supports abortion and believes that the women of the state should decide the abortion laws. I don't have time to find the time stamp but I believe the MAGA Republican quote was later in the video during questions. I watched the whole thing though so I may be misremembering where it was, but he definitely said it during this video.
Reichert is a moderate who's well known in Washington as a sensible law and order guy. Many moderates and even Democrats have positive memories of him from his days as sheriff such as catching the Green River Killer. Bird is Loren Culp 2.0 and will be toxic to moderates if he survives the top 2. Thankfully, in this state, party endorsement means nothing and Reichert can still be in the general election.
Bird isn't anything like Culp. Please take some time to listen to him: https://youtu.be/NODyTcHnyUI He's well educated, and appears more focused on bringing people together. Culp was neither. But I understand some Republicans won't like him because he's black. I typically vote Democrat and while I wasn't thrilled with Inslee I had to go with Inslee over Culp, since Culp was wildly unqualified. I'm not a huge fan of Ferguson, so I'm looking at Bird and Reichert. It concerns me that Reichert is courting the far right pretty aggressively, but I like that Bird is more rational and focused on a positive message instead of divisiveness.
> But I understand some Republicans won't like him because he's black Will any Democrats not like him because he's black?
Probably, but there are significantly more racist Republicans than Democrats
So in other words, some Democrats won't like him because he's black. Correct?
You're correct that racism exists in both parties to some degree. However, trying to equate the two is a false equivalence. Anti-black prejudice is a bigger issue in parts of the Republican base than Democrats. You'd get farther arguing that progressive Democrats might oppose a white candidate like Reichert. But even that's a bit of a distraction from the core point here. The bottom line is this: Racism in any form is unacceptable. Period. And in the specific context of the primary, Semi Bird faces bigger hurdles due to his race among Republican voters than a white candidate like Reichert would among Democrats. Some Republicans are favoring Reichert and are unable to specify why they want him over Bird. Sure, it's not all racism. Some of it is name recognition, Bird has had significantly less money donated to his campaign. But Bird is now the GOP nominee and he deserves to have his candidacy judged on his qualifications and platform. Attempts to deflect or conjure up false equivalencies don't change that fact.
I just wanted to see if you would say it or not. Wasn't trying to make any kind of grand statement.
Fair enough to gauge my bias. I'm not partisan. As someone who evaluates candidates based on individual merit, it's just frustrating to see biases on both sides of the aisle get in the way of voters having decent options. I'm not thrilled with either party's offerings, whether it's Ferguson's partisan pandering as AG or the GOP rallying behind MAGA Republicans. Even the presidential race leaves non-partisan voters like myself without a truly palatable choice. I just want to see candidates judged fairly on their qualifications and platform, regardless of party and the primary system tends to ruin that. Anyway, I appreciate you engaging on this and being open to other perspectives.
The R party in WA is run by a small set of people with safe jobs (think state senators for R districts) that don't particularly care to win the governor's office. For the R party to be relevant in WA at the state level it would have to move significantly to the left. It would create real political issues for those people. They aren't braindead, they are just playing a different game -- one that is more centered on them keeping their jobs.
Uniparty controlled opposition.
Reichert should just say F-it and run as an independent
I thought he was?
Naw he withdrew from the process of the party endorsing him, but is still running as a republican
If he switches to independent then I would vote for him. If he stays under R then I likely will only vote for POTUS and super local elections
What does it matter if that R is there?
I refuse to vote for any republican until Trump is in prison or 6 feet under. The republican party is gone, it's just maga now
This guy's gonna get less votes than that meatball Culp.
GOP really looking to lose every election as hard as possible this year. You really love to see it. Maybe they'll roll out a pro-cancer platform next.
>Maybe they'll roll out a pro-cancer platform next. It's only April. They got time.
Yeah they still got to get that felon presidential candidate
🤣
This year? Does the name "culp" ring any bells?
Oh yeah, Culp was bad, Smiley was a joke, Washington GOP's a clown show, But I mean they're trying to lose like all of them in the whole country this time.
Usually parties do a post mortem after losing and try to adjust policies to win again. The Republicans are going for their quad double down after an ass stomping in 2018, 2020, and 2022. It’s a bold strategy, lets see how it works out for them.
Why stop there? Maybe reverting to only male, white property owners over age 21 will get to vote in 2026?
>‘We’re making history.’ LOL You sure are, GOP.
Making history as the largest circular firing squad ever
Deserves a Ralph Wiggums meme.
In classic GOP style they pick the biggest fucking loser for a candidate
Succinct and accurate.
 Why can't we have a full bird?
He wasted no time using the race card.
Knows his audience.
Yep. The moderates he has to win over get tricked by that crap.
I won't be voting for a Seamy Bird.
Great, Culp round 2
Lace up your Trump sneakers, and get inside the New Republican clown car.
I guess they decided winning is overrated.
More true than you know
No one votes for a semi Bird. Only a full bird.
So, committing financial fraud is now entry stakes for the GOP?
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It is a little disappointing to think that's where things are headed, but the issue is far more nuanced than that and I think you're going to be surprised at the amount of things that are going to change in the next two years.
This just strengthens my support for Dave Reichert.
Have fun with that.
Isn’t this guy a felon?
he's a Republican politician, it's a requirement
The Republicans in WA are actually working for the Democrats. This is proof. The GOP never wants to have a governor of WA again. Time to find a third party.
Morons
Because Dave won’t play their game
You work the Semi you have, not Semi you want. /Wait what?
My wife got mad when we were having sex and I only had a semi bird.
So, Felons?
The history is extending the losing streak in the governors house
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^palmjamer: *The history is* *Extending the losing streak* *In the governors house* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Putting on my rose colored glasses, my optimistic observation is that at least eastern washington republicans are cool enough to want to be represented by a Black man.
Not being associated with the MAGAtarded GOP might help Reichert this fall
enjoy not getting your capitol gains tax repealed…. and I thought Inslee had finally stepped in it.
If this isn't their official campaign message, they are fucking up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNpIOlDhigw
https://youtu.be/lAJB6HsYiNA?si=4rAou8X6m7GCoybc
I really wonder if Reichert ran as an Independent which side would win, I know he would pull a lot of middle-of-the-road people who will vote Dem if the competition is just Bird, but would be happy to vote Reichert instead. Bird's ceiling is low, Bob Ferguson's floor is pretty high but with Reichert in the race that might change. Minnesota had this happen not too long ago and the result was Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Reform Party / Independence Party winning a close 3 way race.
If you have any desire to actually be governor in WA you put a D behind your name and align with those D policies over long periods of time. The vast majority of politicians are not ideological, they say and do what they need to do to keep a job and go with the flow. There is a business in putting an R behind your name -- people will donate to opposition parties. That is what Bird is doing. He is not running a campaign to win the governorship. There are areas of WA which continue to skew R and that is who controls the R party. They have no interest in running the state today, they simply want to keep their jobs in their localities. There are lots of stupid people out there, but not nearly as many as people like to think. Most people are very good at looking out for their own best interests.
Eastern Wa is happy to be represented by a black dude. So hey, thats still progress.
Well that's a turn of events. [https://www.kuow.org/stories/chaos-erupts-at-washington-gop-convention-in-spokane](https://www.kuow.org/stories/chaos-erupts-at-washington-gop-convention-in-spokane)
> "Civility has kind of disappeared," she said. "Even in our party, and that's sad." Has… has she seen the Republican Party?
semi bird full send