Local News

Finding people under the age of 30 who support Romney is a challenge in the Seattle area. Most support Romney, now that Perry, Santorum and Gingrich are out. But it seems like the majority of them were Paul supporters from the start.

SEATTLE — While many Seattleites were outside enjoying the sunshine on Saturday, almost a thousand hard-core Republican Party members were gathering for the  2012 King County GOP Convention.

(Photo by Lucas Anderson / UW Election Eye)

The meeting, which was held at the Washington State Convention Center, was full of enthusiastic Republicans sporting Mitt Romney, Michael Baumgartner, Rob McKenna and Shahram Hadain stickers and buttons. Ron Paul supporters were also on hand.

Those who visited the Paul campaign booth enjoyed free hard candy, while others enjoyed free doughnuts, courtesy of state Sen. Michael Baumgartner’s campaign. Baumgartner is running for Maria Cantwell’s U.S. Senate seat. Free doughnuts and candies might have off-set the $35 it cost delegates to attend the convention.

When I first entered the convention hall, I immediately noticed a lack of youth representation. I remembered how much youth involvement there was during the 2008 election season and it wasn’t just for Barack Obama. I was living in Arizona at the time and I remembered seeing a sizable amount of youth supporting U.S. Sen. John McCain’s campaign. I know Arizona is McCain’s home state and typically a red state, but there’s got to be some young Republican voters in the room who support Romney, right?

Well, sort of.

Rep. Hargrove was blasted as the "Dumbest Legislator in the State" on the cover of the Stranger (photo from thestranger.com)

State Rep. Mark Hargrove was criticized for his testimony against the same-sex marriage bill in February. But now he says he was speaking for the majority of people in the state and looks forward to the fight against Democrat Bud Sizemore to hold on to his seat.

At the beginning of the year Mark Hargrove, who represents the 47th Legislative District around Auburn and Covington, was a newcomer quietly serving his first term as a state representative. That is until his words against the same-sex marriage bill started getting him a lot of attention.

During the floor debate over the bill Hargrove talked about the Jack in the Box Commercial that appeared during the Super Bowl. In the commercial, a son tells his mother that he’s getting married, not to a woman, but to bacon.

In his speech, Hargrove said: “That mom was realizing that same-sex marriage is not the same as traditional marriage. And that same-sex marriage for her son would not be the best choice for him.”