Can we please not make Patty Murray the world's second luckiest Senator?

Patty Murray is a mediocre Senator. I don't think anyone disagrees with that honestly. I suspect, among friends, you know, she might even cop to it herself. She reminds me of someone. Oh, that's right. It's the mediocre, stridently partisan senator I was just writing about -- Barbara Boxer. Oh, no their personalities are not much alike. But Boxer is the luckiest person in the Senate (details here) and Murray would like to be the next luckiest!

My previous article (what, you haven't read it? shame on you) pointed out that Barbara Boxer has earned a long career in the Senate by knocking out lightweights. Patty Murray has gone up against the following contenders:
- Rod Chandler
- Linda Smith, who focused unrelistically on the Choice issue, and
- George R. ("I know I have no chance") Nethercutt, Jr.

Who?

Against Chandler in 1992, it was the "year of the woman" in the Senate, the year of Clinton-Gore and the previous senator, Brock Adams, stepped down due to sexual abuse charges. This was the right place, right time for Murray.

In 1998, Linda Smith was not very dynamic and focused on a sure loser issue, abortion.

In 2004, Nethercutt...well, Washington hasn't elected a senator from east of the Cascades since Miles Poindexter in 1916. Yes, Miles Poindexter.So let's leave it at that. 

Murray has faced mediocre challengers generally under favorable circumstances. She could be vulnerable to a strong challenger in 2010.

However, that person has not emerged yet. A lot of nice and well-meaning people have emerged, but no stars. There's Art Coday, a real life doctor who talks too much about the Civil War and abortion (but he did go to Harvard -- go Harvard!). There's a guy who used to play pro-football. There's Chris Widener, a motivational speaker who seems like a nice guy but just, uhmmm not to be rude but, at this stage I don't think has enough heft to make it into the senate. There's a guy named Bob Denton -- oops, I think it's Don Benton -- who has apparently been in the state legislature and who was briefly the head of the state Republican Party before everyone realized he is hard to get along with. On the plus side, Benton is the spitting image of the Mayor of Munchkinland from the 1939 Wizard of Oz. It's really weird. So that's good...

California has recruited Carly Fiorina and Tom Campbell and Meg Whitman to run this year. Those people have heft. They are stars. They have done important things. Where is our star?

One challenge in Washington is that Republicans don't get elected much here, certainly not near Seattle. So Republicans don't have the kind of candidates who often succeed in other states, who, let's say, have been in Congress for ten years and who have some statewide name recognition.

OK so where will our stars come from? I think the strong candidates will have to come from Seattle's business community. Most high tech business people are Dems but if someone with star power and heft is going to give Dems a run for their money in state-wide offices, it is going to have to be, in my opinion, someone from business, like a Mitt Romney or even a Maria Cantwell who was at Real.

Who is that person? Whoever it is, I hope they step forward soon!