OLYMPIA -- First day of April rolls around and reporters tend to hold their breath, wondering what sort of silliness might they be sent by fax, e-mail, voicemail, Twitter, Facebook...So many delivery systems, so little time.

First such missive came early this morning from Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, saying he plans to seek appointment to the House of Representatives seat that came open recently with the resignation of fellow Democrat Jim Jacks. But keep his Senate seat, so he'd be serving in both chambers.

"The truth is, it's been difficult for me to make ends meet on just one legislative salary. With two of them I think I can live well and both the Senate and House will benefit from having somebody around who can truly understand both institutions. The offices aren't that far apart and God knows I can use the exercise running back and forth between the two chambers."

Pridemore points out correctly that while state law forbids a person from appearing on the same ballot for two different offices, which would ordinarily preclude achieving such double duty, it does not expressly ban the same person from holding both offices. But that's about the only serious part of the press release. A Pridemore aide said the key detail on the statement is the date of the release, April 1.

Mark it down as a possible opening salvo of April Fools jokes for 2011 for geeky government types.

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