“The group of Libertarians that were seated near me, acted as though they were high most of the time at the convention.”
Some of them probably were, but most aren’t. Regarding Didier - the R establishment didn’t get behind him because he was very conservative and from the wrong part of the state, not because he was libertarian. Real conservatives are anathema to the King/Pierce/Spokane county crowd. I know because I have been watching WA politics since Catherine May represented Eastern Washington.
I have no doubt that Clint Didier would have been a better choice than Rossi, but the Libertarians ruined it for him.
But, you’re exactly right about the WA GOP be run by RINOs, not very smart RINOs, at that.
We have a coal terminal being built in Whatcom County. It’s a huge Democrat crony capitalist project being pushed straight from the Obama White House and funded through federal money through a bill that was proposed by Patti Murray. All the environmental groups were behind the terminal until they brought in the coal. So, now the environmentalists are leading the fight against it (and rightly so) while the Democrat politicians and bureaucrats work behind the scenes to push the terminal. The kicker is that they have talked the Republicans (and Libertarians) into supporting the terminal as a property rights issue. They don’t realize that property rights doesn’t mean that private industry has the right to destroy the health and well-being of people who live in a three to five mile radius of the coal terminal.
Anyway none of the Democrats who are running for office in November are openly supporting the terminal. Even Jay Inslee has come out in opposition to the terminal. All the Republicans are supporting it. So, while the Democrats work to push the terminal through, the Republicans are getting the blame.
The project couldn’t get passed without the Democrats. The Republicans in this state have no power. The problem is that the Whatcom County GOP is controlled by people who live in the eastern and central part of the county, who will not be affected by the terminal, in the short term, anyway.
Republicans lost almost every race last fall, due to the coal terminal support.