WA-01: Watkins Banks on Business Experience

By Evan at June 21st, 2010.

This is the second in a two-part series on the GOP candidates contending to take on Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Bainbridge Island). The first article profiled candidate Matthew Burke.

In the 2008 presidential campaigns, Ron Paul led an insurgent campaign for the GOP nomination.  His “come from nowhere” campaign gained traction from an army of online and offline libertarian-conservative activists, many of whom professed no previous involvement in politics.

Now, Paul’s ‘08 national campaign manager Lew Moore is helping to lead another long shot effort, as the consultant to former Microsoftie, James Watkins against incumbent Democrat Jay Inslee.

In an email reply from NWDIGEST.COM, Watkins’ said that although Inslee may be able to outspend him, the incumbent won’t be able to outwork his grassroots team. Watkins had just under $100,000 cash on hand at the end of the first quarter.

For a first-time candidate, $100K in the bank can mean the difference between getting assistance from the Party’s national committee, and absolute radio silence. But that kind of fundraising prowess will also be necessary to purchase ad time across TV, radio, and online.

Dr. Paul’s former strategist, Moore, helped his candidate take in an unexpected windfall of campaign cash from thousands of grassroots donors across the country. Watkins no doubt would like to capitalize on that same phenomena.

In terms of issues, Watkins says he’s focused on a pro-jobs message.

According to his campaign bio, Watkins has some serious street cred when it comes to the economy and cutting spending. During the Reagan-Bush years he worked at the FDIC on the Savings & Loans crisis, and helped steer banks affected by the crisis back to fiscal sanity.

But it’s the benefit of running a campaign in the era of newspapers with barrels of red ink that may most be the changed dynamic in his campaign against Inslee. Taking another page from the Paul campaign playbook, Watkins says he plans on communicating his pro-liberty message without the support of the legacy media. And it’s the aggressive ground game that Paul-inspired groups like the Campaign for Liberty have been noted for, that Watkins also undoubtedly hopes to bring to bear in his bid to take the WA-01 seat.

Watkins will have some help in that regard: his campaign boasts nearly 400 grassroots volunteers throughout Snohomish, Kitsap, and King counties. With endorsements from GOP leaders like Rob McKenna, Kathy Lambert, Jane Hague, Kirby Wilbur, and others — Watkins also has some heavy GOP name ID backing him.

Getting through the Top Two primary doesn’t seem of much concern to Watkins at this point, and he says he’s focused squarely on Inslee (not dissimilar from Dino Rossi’s approach in the hotly contested U.S. Senate primary).

It’s too soon to tell, however, whether that confidence may be misplaced considering Watkins’ chief GOP rival Matthew Burke also has a well-connected hardball consultant in his corner (Bruce Boram) — and is also a small-business, pro-liberty candidate.

At the end of the day, Watkins says it all boils down to the voters’ mood in November.  If they’re satisfied with the direction of the country, and want to return a “career politician” for another two years to Congress, they’ll return Jay Inslee.  If they want a candidate with a pro-liberty, pro-business background — Watkins thinks they’ll pick him.

On that note, Watkins’ campaign did produce some surprising polling showing that the more voters learn about Inslee’s record of marching in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi (98.9% of the time, according to the campaign), the less voters like him.

Watkins and his challenger face the challenge of defining Inslee during the dog days of summer.  And it’s as the summer wanes to a close that the next real poll that matters, August 17th — Primary Day, will be out.

Tags: Bruce Boram, James Watkins, Jay Inslee, Lew Moore, Matthew Burke, WA-01

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