Duty Still Matters

Late Tuesday night, his election certain, Washington state Rep. Don Cox took a break from savoring victory to feel for his opponent. “To some degree, you’re feeling bad for your friend,” said Republican Cox, referring to Democrat Mike Connelly whom he defeated handily.

That touch of empathy, uncommon in an era of bare-knuckles politics, came as warming relief from an icy political campaign that broke records for the dollars and attention it attracted in the rural 9th Legislative District. From the beginning, in fact, the Cox-Connelly contest could be seen as two campaigns, featuring separate political approaches. Blame it on the stakes.

A victory by Connelly would have broken the current 49-49 tie in the House of Representatives, giving Democrats control of the governor’s office and both houses of the Legislature. Cox’s victory preserves for Republicans at least a modest check on Democratic autonomy.

So if the candidates themselves wanted to focus their campaigns on constituent representation in the 9th District, players from far beyond the Palouse had other ideas, pouring unprecedented resources and energy into the pivotal race. Total spending may exceed $600,000, more than half of it from sources other than the two candidates’ own campaign treasuries.

In the search for their neighbors’ support, Cox and Connelly themselves stuck pretty much to the high road. Outsiders, meanwhile, took shortcuts and even swerved into the gutter on at least one occasion with a McCarthyesque tactic that tried to link Connelly to Leninism.

At the heart of the inside-outside dichotomy lie separate motives for public service. One, reflected in the outsiders’ influence on this campaign, is the craving for power. The other is a belief in civic duty. Cox and Connelly represent the latter. They belong to different parties but they share a sense of obligation to their communities.

Connelly has labored in a variety of time-consuming and usually thankless posts like Latah Town Council and school board. Cox first got himself appointed to a legislative vacancy not by seeking it but by offering party leaders his concerned citizen’s advice about issues.

For the candidates, the election is over. Cox won. Connelly didn’t. For the political process, however, the contest that pits money and power against community and duty goes on. Which style ultimately wins depends on which style attentive voters reward at the ballot box.