Kos: "local activists hate Sen. Maria Cantwell"

On tour to promote his book, Crashing the Gate, Kos has been summarizing local buzz for Democratic candidates. He has a glowing report from Washington on strong support for Darcy Burner's challenge to Republican Dave Reichert in my neighboring WA-08 district.

But then he drops this bombshell:

Meanwhile, it was quite shocking to see just how much local activists hate Sen. Maria Cantwell. It isn't that they're disappointed in her positions on issues like Iraq in an effort to appear "moderate" or "centrist", it's that she won't even talk to them about those issues. The dislike was near universal and truly based on that lack of communication.

So, according to Kos, it's not the Senator's position on the war, but her lack of communication with progressives that's the problem.

Well, on that there's news: Last week, Cantwell met with a delegation of eight organizations to discuss Iraq. As reported by Lietta Ruger on Washblog, it took six months to obtain this meeting. Six months?! But a dialog has started.

Since the dialog, it's hard to detect any shift in Cantwell's Iraq position. It remains essentially the same that she articulated in December 2006: "This year must be a year of transition. In 2006 we must get the Iraqi people back on their feet and bring our troops home."

Today's Seattle-Times covers the Cantwell-McGavick race under the headline "a contrast of moderates." Cantwell has a comfortable, but not commanding 10-point lead in the polls. Nevertheless, the Republicans consider her seat potentially vulnerable--especially since she won it by a slim 2,229-vote margin.

McGavick is still pretty much an unknown. Serious money has yet to be spent.