Mike McGavick is a real challenge ... to unseat Maria Cantwell in the US Senate (here in Washington State)

Ouch! This one hurts me in more than one way! After I returned from my two decades overseas stint both with the USAF and then, upon retirement, as the "Political Advisor" (but only in title) to the Royal Saudi Air Force, I was lured to Seattle by my daughter who noted that Safeco Corporation was hiring "IT education instructors."

Well, I bit and spent the next five years working with/at Safeco -- and in so doing, had the pleasure of having lunch periodically with Safeco's CEO, Mike McGavick (upper right), who is now running for US Senate as the Republican challenger against Senator Maria Cantwell. He was both congenial and impressive in every way.

Of course, he is from the insurance industry -- long time, both before and during his stint with Safeco -- and stands firmly to the right of nearly everyone on issues like tort reform and national health care. No, I couldn't vote for this nice man, but I'm quite concerned that his congeniality and "stage presence" will be more than Maria Cantwell will be able to handle during the upcoming campaign.


Maria Cantwell has been a little conservative in her votes ref. the Iraq War and has been somewhat moderate of late on other issues, although she entered the Senate as a real breath of (liberal) fresh air. I hope she will return to her liberal roots and beat someone whom I truly like as a person -- because we need every Senator and House member we can elect in November -- possibly just to stay even with the GOP during this sad time of the Democrat Party's (seeming) disintegration.