The Mullet-for-governor hypothesis, Part III

Plus more on the auto wars, and some recommended reading

The independent campaign to test the viability of state Sen. Mark Mullet’s centrist bid for governor launched this week with a TV spot in heavy rotation on local newscasts.¹ 

The ad was paid for by the Coalition for Pragmatic Leadership, an independent PAC set up last year to support the famously business-friendly Issaquah Democrat. Its money comes from some of the deepest pockets in the state. As we reported earlier this month, the biggest chunk came from Weidner Properties, a giant Kirkland-based landlord with apartment holdings all over the country, which kind of makes the campaign about rent control. Also in are Marathon Petroleum, which owns one of the oil refineries in Anacortes, Seattle property developers John Goodman and Geoff Petrie,² and George Rowley, who owns large chunks of downtown Issaquah.

Here’s the ad (Apologies for the dodgy image quality, somebody grabbed it with cellphone.):

Here’s why you should care about this: Under normal circumstances, running a television campaign ad this early would be insane in a winning–the-election sense unless the PAC was absolutely swimming in money. (It isn’t, yet.) This is a pilot project to test whether Mullet’s polling numbers—currently mired in single digits—can be moved up enough to merit a larger campaign ahead of the August primary. If this tactic works, we could be looking at the biggest independent campaign in a gubernatorial race in state history.