McGavick In, Republicans Wary

Thanks to a postor, who appears to be the candidate himself, RepublicanSenate has learned that Mike McGavick has formed an exploratory committee to take a look at the Senate race in Washington. McGavick is the first Republican to take an official step toward challenging incumbent Maria Cantwell. Cantwell is a far left Senator who simply does not belong in the US Senate.

Over at Sound Politics, Washington State's premire right-wing blog, conservatives are already debating how to treat a McGavick candidacy. Some argue that he is a liberal Republican, others say he's still better than Cantwell, and one or two even think he's the "real deal". For his part, McGavick appears to have no interest in clearing this up. The one "issue" he cares about is "sanity". You read that right. His primary issue is "sanity. Regardless of how insane many of our politicians may be, I doubt that any of them would acknowledge their own loonacy.

Make no mistake that Washington, though slowly trending Republican, remains a blue state and a difficult one for Republicans. Even so, the state has a small but active conservative community. Any successful nominee would have to have to have both the ability to garner grassroots conservative support while maintaining the ability to reach out to moderates. Admittedly, I do not know much about McGavick's views on real issues, but if "sanity" is what he plans to run on, I think everyone has to start scratching their heads and wonder if this guy is serious or if he just wants to see his name in the paper for the next year and a half.

Last year, Stephanie Herseth ran two House races against Larry Diedrich. She won both on her amazing ability to say something without saying anything. "Sanity" won't even cut it for that. McGavick missed a great opportunity today to say why he's running. Until he says otherwise, one would have to assume that it's one big ego trip.

I may yet endorse Gavick when he actually says something. Until then, though, I will have to just watch and wait.

Earlier this week, I said that Washington would be "Likely Democrat" with McGavick. Until he adds something to his platform of "sanity", it is "Safe Democrat" with him or without him.

Correction: Thankfully, republican sentinel was paying attention. The site previously linked for Mike McGavick was in fact most likely a lefty looking to make a buck by putting up a negative site. That site has been taken down. My guess, and it is just a guess, is that someone wanted to create a cheap negative site and sell it to him for a rediculous price. Sans the rediculous "sanity" issue, "Likely Democrat".