Washington may be in for more aggressive TV ads in the U.S. Senate race. The gauzy, personality-driven ads that have blanketed the state so far have turned off voters, including Seattle-resident Michael Kinsley, who wrote this in Friday’s Washington Post:

If you knew nothing about Mike McGavick except what is in his TV commercials and on his Web site, you would conclude either that he is a moron or that he thinks you are a moron. Democratic incumbent Maria Cantwell’s ads aren’t so wonderful either. They’re mainly about all the federal money and other favors she’s brought to the state. But if any of this is part of the “pork barrel . . . wasteful, out-of-control spending” that upsets McGavick, he doesn’t say so.

McGavick has avoided talking about issues, because his positions won’t please both the Republican base and the majority of the state’s voters. Cantwell, whose reelection bid seems hardly even in question, just wants to run out the clock.

Kinsley blames the media for dumbing-down the whole political process by simply explaining how candidates use vague inanities like “change” and “families” in their ads:

The media do a better and better job each election cycle at pointing out and analyzing these campaign constructs. But by doing so, in a way, they legitimize it all. By raising up the subtext, they diminish the importance of the text. Don’t be naive: You’re not supposed to take this stuff literally. Politicians are trying to push your buttons. They aren’t trying to communicate with you.

Should we expect more? Shouldn’t specific proposals come from candidates — especially challengers?

Here’s an editorial that gets to the crux of what’s wrong with Initiative 933, the ballot measure that would require government to compensate landowners for regulations that limit development options:

To tell government that it has to pay the individual for not interfering with water, air, fish or wildlife is like telling the policeman that he should pay me for not robbing the bank.

Governments have a responsibility to regulate individual actions that harm the larger community. Under I-933, governments would be required to pay landowners or, since they likely have funds to do that, waive the land-use rules altogether.

Campaigns both for and against I-933 have obscured the issue. But the bottom line is that the initiative — which is mostly funded by the same group behind similar cookie-cutter measures nationwide — would gut land-use planning that has been honed through years of democratic process. Here’s a better idea: if citizens don’t like the current laws they are free to vote out their representatives in county and state government.

With U.S. Senator Cantwell agreeing to just two debates with Republican challenger Mike McGavick, the campaign remains stuck on generalities.

Cantwell has an imperfect record on the Iraq war and a vague strategy to end it. McGavick’s views are more conservative than those of most of the state’s voters and he needs to tack even further to the right in order to turn out Republicans.

That’s why McGavick is still talking about personality, barely a month before the election. In this profile in Washington CEO magazine, McGavick explains that he led the insurance industry’s trade group in Washington, D.C. but wasn’t actually a lobbyist. It’s a sleight of hand similar to his August confessional about a DUI arrest, which turned out to be incomplete. Will voters notice?

Democrats are an endangered species across most of Cascadia, with little party organization and mostly ineffective candidates outside metro areas. That’s why the new national “50-state strategy” of building Democratic operations even in mostly Republican areas is so important.

There are only 20 or so states where Democrats have a competitive organization, from the state level down to precincts. Most of the rest (Alaska, Idaho and Montana come to mind) have been written off by the national party. Building an organization in places where Democrats haven’t been able to compete means less money for toss-up races like Darcy Burner’s challenge to Rep. Dave Reichert (R – WA, 8th).

There’s plenty of criticism that the party hasn’t invested enough this year in order for Democrats to retake Congress. But the focus for Democrats needs to be on winning over the long-term and refocusing political debate around progressive values. There’s limited value if, for example, Burner wins and is swept out in 2008 or 2010. Far more important is building a wave of support values that would carry any Democrat to win in that district.

The 50-state strategy has already been paying off in Idaho, where new staffers are able to respond to Republican talking points. Now Democrats need to field good candidates to challenge incumbents like Doc Hastings (R – WA, 4th), who face only token opposition now.

Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Guthrie plans to put his $1.2 million life savings into his campaign for the seat held by Democrat Maria Cantwell.

The money could end up taking a couple of percentage points away from Cantwell and Republican challenger Mike McGavick, who were likely to finish within a few points of each other. Guthrie’s campaign previously raised just $31,000, compared to $16.8 million by Cantwell and $7.7 million by McGavick.

Guthrie’s issues appeal to liberal and conservative voters. He wants U.S. troops out of Iraq, criticizes the Patriot Act, and supports same-sex marriage. He also wants to eliminate the federal deficit and strengthen election rules.

A state commission is considering limitating political donations by companies, unions and trade groups in order to lessen their control over elections.

Current rules say groups can spend as much as they want on executive or court races but individuals are limited to $2,800. Special-interest groups, often with names that mask their geographical location or political ties, have spent $2.7 million on state races so far this year, mostly on the nasty primary races for state supreme court.

Initiative campaigns are another story. So far, an initiative to repeal state zoning rules, I-933, has attracted $2.3 million for and against. A national group called Americans for Limited Government donated $260,000 to support I-933, which would require governments to either pay property owners for hindering development on their land or exempt them from zoning rules.