8th District race has jumped the shark; voters are ready for Election Day to be over

Beleaguered voters in Washington's 8th Congressional District — the country's most expensive House race — say all the money spent hasn't necessarily made them more informed.

Now they're bracing for a final, frantic weekend of get-out-the-vote efforts from Republican Dino Rossi and Democrat Kim Schrier.

Candidates and independent groups together have raised more than $27 million to claim the open seat, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Kent resident Lindsey Shumway is no stranger to politics: the Republican ran for the state legislature for the first time this year. But she was still shocked by the campaign activity on her own front porch. 

“In my life I’ve had maybe two candidates come knock on my door ever. This year I have had had seven canvassers knock on my door,” Shumway said.

She said the canvassers were brief and to the point. Who was she voting for? In her case, Rossi.

“It was like a one-question visit,” she said. “I would tell them, they would put it in a little iPad and they would walk away.”

Shumway said her top issue is lower taxes, after the double-digit property tax hike in Kent this year. She said she sent in her ballot as soon as she could. At that point, the calls and doorbelling stopped; now it’s just the mailers and television ads.

Kent resident Dave Stockton is the Republican chair of the 47th Legislative District, so he’s well acquainted with the voter databases used by campaigns as well as the updates that help them focus on residents who haven’t yet sent in their ballots.

“It’s been a zoo,” he said.

He said whether it’s productive or not, campaigners heap leaflets on his porch because they simply have money to burn. “So you continue to get this buildup even after you’ve voted for this cycle. Now I think that’s just because of the extreme amount of money that’s being spent here this time.”

There are candidates for other House seats around the country who have raised more money than Rossi and Schrier. But Washington’s 8th, which extends from parts of King and Pierce Counties across the Cascade Mountains to Chelan, leads the nation in contributions from outside groups.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Rifle Association have spent money to help Rossi. Planned Parenthood and Michael Bloomberg’s Independence PAC contributed money on Schrier's behalf. This independent spending amounts to more than $18 million so far. 

Most of that independent money goes for negative ads, to the dismay of Kent resident Amy Jahn. “I mute my TV or I turn it off every time one comes on. I’ve seen them over and over again. And what I would like to see is what the candidates are for," she said.

On the bright side in terms of peace and quiet, Jahn said her home phone hasn’t been working and she lives in a less dense neighborhood, where canvassers are scarce.

Jahn said this race has given her a new passion for campaign finance reform to limit the TV ads. “I would like all candidates to have the same dollar-amount limit,” she said, “between PAC contributions and their own raising of funds.”

But Seattle political consultant Cathy Allen said the biggest surprise in this year’s midterm election in Washington isn’t the money, but the turnout.

“The rate of return is stunning,” she said. Allen said consultants often estimate that turnout from Friday before the election will ultimately double. In King County almost 35 percent of ballots have already been submitted.

She said that would be good news for Democrats. “Maybe the president really is on the ballot,” Allen said. 

This weekend both Democrats and Republicans have a packed schedule of phone banking and other efforts to energize remaining voters in the 8th Congressional District.   

Savannah Wentworth is a 19-year-old college student living in the Renton highlands.

“I come from a family with a military background so I view voting as a civic duty,” she said. 

But Wentworth said that urgency doesn’t seem to be widespread among people her age. “They talk about social issues, they talk about the changes that they want, but there’s not much talk of who they want as a candidate,” she said. “Some just say frankly that they’re not very interested and it doesn’t apply to them.”

Maple Valley resident Laura Bammer said getting her adult daughters to vote feels like a major civic achievement. “I taught them to vote, and that feels really good. I totally let them have their own opinions, I don’t really know what they vote for, but they vote. And that’s really cool.”

Bammer said she jumped into politics for the first time this year, becoming a Democratic Precinct Committee Officer. She said her top issue is health care, and “not undermining Social Security and not undermining Medicare,” because she has so many senior citizens in her precinct.

Bammer said she’s been doorbelling in the 8th for legislative candidates, and health care is the issue she seizes on if someone comes to the door. “Usually you don’t have much time,” she said.

The political diversity in the suburbs of Kent and Maple Valley creates neighborhoods with Schrier and Rossi yard signs juxtaposed. And there are stories of yard signs disappearing on occasion. But these voters said they’ve been able to keep up neighborly relations despite the fraught political year and the torrent of political spending.