My Brief Encounter of the Cantwell Kind

On Sunday I attended the Snohomish County Democrats picnic as a representative of Democracy for Snohomish County (DFSC). I was there with my wife to sell tickets to our Renewable Energy Symposium (Friday, August 18th). Due to some other family business I had not originally planned to attend the event but when it became evident that there would be no other person available to staff the DFSC table, my wife (who is the Secretary of DFSC) determined we needed to shift our priorities.

The event flyer for the picnic suggested that many of our county electeds would be there, including our two congress members, Jay Inslee (1st CD) and Rick Larsen (2nd CD). At the last minute an email went out stating that Senator Maria Cantwell would be there as well. Considering that both Inslee and Larsen are scheduled to speak at the symposium, I figured this probably would give me an opportunity to discuss the event with them and thank them ahead of time for agreeing to be there.

My wife and I arrived around 10:30am to set up our table (the picnic was scheduled to start at 11:00). We were the first “table” to show up so we had first pick for location and immediately determined the area that would have the most shade for the day. It didn’t take long to realize that the Auxiliary Cantwell Campaign (aka Coordinated Campaign) would be in full service here. In Snohomish County we have a significant number of folks either up for re-election or running for the first time. I have already mentioned Larsen and Inslee. In addition, all seven LDs have legislative races in play (all three seats in the 38th). We have races for County offices as well as some judges who have been endorsed by the SCDCC. However, if you lived outside the county and came in from the street, you would have thought that this was one big Cantwell Campaign event. Just as in Yakima, Cantwell signs and t-shirts were the decoration of the day. It was almost an hour into the morning before Marian Harrison (38th LD Chair) finally went to her car to retrieve a blue and white John McCoy yard sign to break up the green and blue theme. After a while, someone brought in a couple of Mike Sells signs and leaned them up against a table (far from the festivities). This is not to say that some of the candidates were not there mingling with the group but I just felt that somehow our county party event had been assimilated by the Borg that is the Cantwell Machine.

At some point after 12:30, Senator Cantwell arrived. She was accompanied by Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota (he is currently on a book tour and has in-laws here in Snohomish County). Someone suggested to me that I should go over and have a chat with her. Some folks actually thought that this could be somewhat contentious and said they wanted to tag along if I went over to her. I gave this some thought and decided that, since I have devoted so much Bandwidth as a Cantwell protagonist of sorts, it might be a good thing to pay my respects. I left my wife at the table and took the walk over to the area where Senator Cantwell was greeting folks and waiting for her introduction by Mark Hintz, County Chair. The wait wasn’t very long as most folks seemed content to shake her hand and maybe get a photo with her. She was very obliging but I could tell that she was pretty focused on Hintz so she wouldn’t miss her cue to address the crowd. When it was my opportunity to greet her, she seemed to be focused on my Progressive Caucus of Snohomish County Democrats t-shirt and Mark (who was some 10 or 15 feet away from us with a wireless microphone in hand). I introduced myself as Chad Shue and said that I just wanted her to know that I did not have pointy horns and I hoped she did not take personal offense to anything I may have written. She looked at me as if I had just landed from Mars and said, “Is there some reason I might think you had pointy horns?” At that moment I realized she had absolutely no clue about who I was! Before I could explain that I wrote this little blog and about how I had been a Mark Wilson supporter and had some issues with her, Hintz was calling her up and she was on her way to address to crowd.

There is a happy ending to the story. (OK, I know some of you think the story already has a happy ending but this is, after all, all about me and some “blogger’s ego” thing). Just as I was turning around to sulk away the rest of the day, Michael Meehan, Cantwell’s chief campaign strategist put his hand on my shoulder and said, “If you would have said you were “The Left Shue”, I think you might have gotten a different reaction.” Ego healed!

My review of Cantwell’s remarks to the Snohomish County Democrats picnic will follow in my next post.


Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue