Hillary Clinton

Mark Mays (D-Spokane) will give his campaign for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers' (R-Colville) 5th Congressional District seat a boost this month when he goes on a listening tour of the Eastern Washington district. His tour, similar ones of which were popularized locally by former Republican Rep. George Nethercutt in 1994 and nationally by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), will start this week in the southeastern corner of the district.

Mays will hit Dayton, Clarkston and Pullman on Wednesday, July 9, 2008. Full details can be found in the campaign's press release.

What did Hillary Clinton say to Barack Obama to cause him to react in such a concerned way?

And why is Bill Clinton there looking for the fist bump?

Click here to view the winners and runner-ups from this week's cartoon caption contest.

Care to come up with a caption for this cartoon? Click more for the rules and prizes!

Fox News reported early this morning that Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Belfair) was one of three House Democrats, along with New York's Rep. Charles Rangel and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), to convince Hillary Clinton to suspend her campaign for president later this week.

At the time of the conversation Wednesday, Dicks was still a supporter of Clinton's candidacy. Then this morning, he announced that he was backing Barack Obama in the spirit of party unification.

"It's time to move on," Dicks told McClatchy's Les Blumenthal. "We need to unify the party," Dicks said. "Whatever differences we have among ourselves, they pale in comparison to those we have with John McCain."

Click more to view the pencil sketch of this cartoon. And don't forget to vote in this week's Cartoon caption contest.

Former Governor Gary Locke, one of Sen. Hillary Clinton's co-chairs in the state, told the Seattle Times today that he is acknowledging Sen. Barack Obama's victory in the primary and is switching his allegiance to the Illinois Senator.

UPDATE: King County Executive Ron Sims, an automatic delegate, has also switched his support. Read both of their statements after the jump.

Washington State Democratic Party Vice Chair Eileen Macoll of Pullman announced today that she is supporting Hillary Clinton for President. Macoll will cast her automatic delegate vote for Clinton at the Democratic National Convention this summer.

She credited Clinton's policies on health care, education and Iraq as well as her electability in November for her decision.

The full statement  announcing her decision is below the fold.

Washington State Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz, a superdelegate at the Democratic National Convention this summer, has just announced that he will support Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"I will be supporting Barack Obama for many reasons," Pelz continued. "Over the last few years, I have gained a profound respect for Sen. Obama. I have read his books, listened to his speeches, and watched the campaign he has run on the grueling modern presidential playing-field for nearly two years. And I have spoken with literally hundreds of friends and colleagues -- both in and out of politics -- regarding their opinions and observations of this man. I have concluded that Barack Obama is ready to be a great American President."

NAPAVINE -

According to banners hanging from every streetlight in town, Napavine is Tiger Country. But Saturday afternoon the local high school gymnasium, where the Tigers play basketball Delegates seek support at Napavine High School/Politicker Photoevery winter, was also home to the 3rd Congressional District Democratic caucus. At the caucus, five delegates, two males and three females, would be elected to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer to elect the party's nominee.

But he delegate contest was not the day's only vote. With the advent of the state's "top two" primary that effectively ends the Party primary system, the Democrats' official nominee for Congress was also decided at the caucus. Rep. Brian Baird, the five term congressman from Vancouver, won his party's nomination by a vote of 59 to 24 over fellow Democrat Cheryl Crist.