Cheryl Crist

The voters of the 3rd Congressional District, where incumbent Rep. Brian Baird (D-Vancouver) has drawn three challengers heading into next week's "top two" primary, will have their chance to vote a mixture of political ideology and war on both sides of the aisle. The reason being, each of the two major parties has two candidates with varying viewpoints on Iraq. Adam Wilson in The Olympian has a story about it today.

Within the Democratic Party, Baird has drawn a challenge from peace activist Cheryl Crist (D-Olympia) who also ran in 2004 and garnered 15 percent of the primary vote.

The Republicans meanwhile, have Michael Delavar (R-Washougal) who opposes the occupation squaring off against the pro-war and pro-surge Christine Webb (R-Tumwater).

Two insurgent Democratic challengers have expressed strong support for Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-Ohio) idea to introduce articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush Monday night. Paul Richmond (D-Port Townsend), who is seeking the seat of party mate Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Belfair), and Cheryl Crist (D-Olympia), who is running against Rep. Brian Baird (D-Vancouver), both issued press releases welcoming the impeachment and urging their fellow candidates to support the movement.

"I am thrilled that Congressman Kucinich has moved forward with enumerating the grave crimes and malfeasance in office of George W. Bush. There is ample evidence that warrants impeachment and removal from office of both Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney," said Crist. "I strongly wish that I were in Congress today so that I could co-sponsor this historic impeachment resolution."

The filing period for elected office began this morning at 8:00AM, and will continue through end of business Friday at 5:00 PM at the Secretary of State's office. In addition to providing extra money to the state, the filing also acts to winnow out candidates who are not serious enough to spend any money to get their names on the ballot. Filing fees range from $412.80 for state legislative positions up to $1,652.00 for U.S. Representative.

Already, two candidates for U.S House, Democrat Cheryl Crist in the 3rd District and Republican Rick Bart in the 2nd, have already announced their filing. Hundreds more announcements are sure to come this week, as are accompanying campaign events in Olympia.

For more information on filing fees and where the candidates will be doing it, see the Secretary of State's website here.