She knows she will continue to get the vote of every democrat and the support of both Seattle newspapers and every televised talking head in Western Washington. Combine this with the huge donations from the $1billion dollar per year Indian casinos, Costco, Starbucks and the other liberal businesses in the region plus the Dems ability to fabricate votes when needed and she is a big favorite to be reelected. Even against Dino.

For The Children!

She is apparently going to face someone with deep pockets of his own and political experience too.

Insurance exec McGavick signs up against Cantwell

Not undercut anyone's argument: Gasoline went under $2.00 today in Omaha.

Oh boy. An executive from one of the least-loved industries in America. And one who laid off a bunch of people, too! Yeah, that'll work.

Mind you, I'm not saying he's a bad person, or that the layoffs weren't necessary to keep Safeco in business. It's just that he's carrying around more baggage that Jacob Marley's ghost, and "yes, but..." is one of the least persuasive campaign slogans ever.

pchuck: I bought it at $2.07 & 9/10 last night in western KY.

She did it for the environment AND she is championing alternative fuels. Plus she has the ability to say, with a straight face, that she wants to end our dependency on foreign oil - you know by running our cars on soy milk additives. In her home state gas is running $2.45 in the city of Shoreline.

I'll second what Patrick said. Offering that amendment was intended to help her re-election chances. This is a state that has taken W.C.Fields' "Budget for the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves" to heart. Which is why we are paying for three stadiums, one of which was torn down, and are about to give the go-ahead for a combined highway spending fiasco (Alaska Way and 520 replacements, etc.) which will make Boston's Big Dig look fiscally prudent.

All of which makes withdrawn job offer in Idaho last month even more annoying.

Raoul: you are not mentioning, however, that the bulk of those projects are being paid for by gas taxes, which oj actually likes. Also, the Alaskan Way Viaduct does need to be replaced, as does the 520 floating bridge, so they're not 100% boondoggles. And, of course, we may not be stuck with a Big Dig Jr. after all, if this new suspended roadway idea gets off the drawing boards.

I agree with you about the stadia, (and probably the Moronorail) though.

Raoul - Boston's Big Dig was a scam, they only stopped it when the feds threatened to quit ponying up 90%. (With taxes and kickbacks, the state made up the other 10%). You guys'll have to have pretty corrupt contractors, unions, politicians, and bureaucrats to match the Big Dig.

So long as she loses in the senate vote, opposing drilling in ANWR is good electoral politics.

That's what makes this area so entertaining/scary: we don't need corrupt unions and politicians to waste huge amounts of money. They've already budgeted $2.4 billion for the Alaska Way project . On another page, they say it'll cost $3.7 - $4.1 billion, not including $250-$300 million for "Victor Steinbrueck Park Lid and Lowered Aurora", whatever those are. I figure a good rule of thumb is that such projects end up costing 2 to 4 times as much as they initially say they will. That's Big Dig territory, right?

This too is a scam, of the "good government" variety. The whole coupling of a sea wall improvement/replacement to the roadway is only justified if they go through with the tunnel. There's no rational reason to have a tunnel there when there's plenty of room for a standard boulevard for the amount of traffic the tunnel will see. Turns out the tunnel will have restrictions on truck traffic, so that ends up putting even more stress on I-5. We (meaning everyone who doesn't actually have property or work along that waterfront) is paying for the privilege of making the views from that waterfront property prettier. Billion dollar views, indeed.

At least with Boston style corruption, somebody is putting that money to use, even if it is to pay their brother-in-law for a phony job so he can buy that new Cadillac which helps keep GM is business a few minutes longer. Here we might as well fill Safeco with one dollar bills and make the World's Largest Bonfire.

Unfortunately, as noted above, the WA electorate is pretty lefty so this will probably help, not hurt Cantwell.
But what about the other 47 that voted with her on this amendment? any from red states or GOPers from blue states?

Cantwell's victory margin in 2000 probably came from her effective use of environmental issues against Slade Gorton. For instance, she and her Sierra Club allies more or less accused Gorton of wanting to poison the children becaused he favored allowing a gold mine up in the impoverished northeastern corner of the state.

Note: I said "effective", not moral.