In a letter pub1ished Aug. 5, I made a prediction that if the recently-conducted Top Two primary election selected Patty Murray and Dino Rossi as opponents for the U.S. Senate seat, that Ms. Murray would win in the general election. At this time, I will stand by that prediction. Mr. Rossi drew only one-third of votes cast.

Nothing has been said by either candidate on job creation related to resource exploitation/development in mining, oil, or timber industries, or the reasoning behind wilderness designation or monument status that places vast tracts off limits to settlement and development. These are matters debated and decided in the U.S. Senate. Ms. Murray recently helped create a Mount St. Helens monument and in conjunction with Congressman Reichert added 126,000 acres to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area.

Mr. Rossi has never dealt with such issues in his political career and his persona as a mild-mannered, self-made real estate mogul makes me less than optimistic that he would cast a vote possibly creating an undesired effect on the price of his available properties or the interests of those involved in their operation, renovation, or construction.

I don’t feel that he is an appropriate party standard bearer at this time. And yet both he and Ms. Murray continue to make noise about jobs and money.

I am cynical enough to sense possible mischief in this primary election, yet cautious enough not to hurl wild allegations. Please permit me to state a few facts and let you and your readers to deduce or infer as you see fit:

Fact: The president visited Seattle on primary election day. He met with a pizza parlor operator and a hotel/motel owner to discuss job creation. Later, he held fundraisers for Ms. Murray.

Fact: Air Force One was delayed from takeoff to permit landing of a mysterious Lear Jet ostensibly carrying human organs for transplant (insert slightly off-color musing about what organ was planted where…”ballotectomy?”). This was shown and commented on by local Channel 7. People in the immediate area were distracted by fighter jets breaking the sound barrier to intercept a Cessna violating restricted air space and landing in the Lake Union area.

Fact: The Washington Secretary of State’s computer crashed for 2.5 hours on primary election night. The official story reported on local stations 5 and 7 was that the computer was overwhelmed with requests for election returns.

At the moment, I conclude that it doesn’t make a bit of difference who you vote for in this U.S. Senate race. I believe that Ms. Murray will leave office only if she wishes to retire or take another position within the current administration or as a lobbyist and that Mr. Rossi in his current form represents no change or improvement to the overall effectiveness of the Senate body as a whole in the unlikely event that he is elected decisively.

Edward D. Neil

Enumclaw