[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orgUvo5iz2s[/youtube]
I sat down with Senator Eric Oemig (D-45, Kirkland) yesterday and asked him about some tough losses and choices he had to make last session, his hopes for next session, and in our obsession with “the Crescent”—the Eastside Seattle suburban swing turf that the GOP is angling to win back from the Democrats in 2010— his current race against Republican Andy Hill, a former Microsoft executive who has $88,400 on hand to Oemig’s $38,400.
Oemig was part of the Democratic wave that took control of Seattle’s Eastside suburbs away from the GOP in the 2000s.
Last session, Sen. Oemig, a former Micorosoft manager himself, was the point man on (trying) to close the $4-5 million tax exemption for TransAlta’s coal-powered steam plant in Centralia, Wash. He was also integral in the development of the state legislature’s education reform bill in 2009, which the teachers union, a traditional Democratic Party ally, vehemently opposed.
Sen. Oemig said the campaign trail has been tough this year, but what he sees as essential endorsements (the Sierra Club, Washington Conservation Voters, NARAL and Stand for Children) are rolling in.
Looking ahead, Oemig predicts a shuffling in Senate leadership; perhaps even (bomb shell?) a new Senate Majority Leader, the position currently occupied Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane).
Definitely check out the Cola video.
