Six years ago, Reagan conservative Reed Davis put his neck on the line in support of a grass-roots initiative to ban government racial preferences in Washington State. As chairman of the local GOP in ultraliberal King County, Davis made the first formal party endorsement of the effort. “We will do everything in our power to help make (it) the law of the land in 1998,” Davis declared.

Despite overwhelming opposition from the media establishment, left-wing Microsoft billionaires, and cowardly business lobbyists, Initiative 200 went on to triumph at the ballot box with nearly 60 percent voter approval.

I remember this well because Davis threw his early support to the initiative over the phone to me for a Seattle Times column I wrote surveying Republican leaders on their views about banning racial preferences. Only Davis and conservative talk show host John Carlson would publicly back the ballot measure. By contrast, Rep. George Nethercutt refused to answer repeated calls about his position on the issue; sat on the sidelines during the initiative battle; and when asked recently how he voted on I-200, reportedly denied remembering whether he supported it or not.

Now, Davis is challenging Nethercutt for the opportunity to take on Democratic incumbent Sen. Patty Murray.

The state Republican Party rewarded Davis’s principled and savvy leadership by refusing to allow him to speak at its state convention last month because he wouldn’t sign an idiotic “11th Commandment” pledge. (I know, I know, it was Reagan’s idea. But in the hands of RINOs, it has become a weapon used to silence grass-roots conservatives.) The Party’s web site doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of Davis’s candidacy.

If I’m not mistaken, the decision about who gets to be the nominee is made by voters, not Party operatives. But that’s being treated as a formality and a nuisance by GOP elites. With the backing of every major Party leader from President Bush on down and a virtual blackout of Reed’s candidacy, Nethercutt’s victory is, unfortunately, a foregone conclusion.

Hans Zeiger has more on this travesty at WorldNetDaily.

And while we’re on the topic of the Pacific Northwest, let me send a shout-out to two of my favorite Seattle blogs, Shark Blog and Rosenblog.