Sixteen-term Congressman Norm Dicks hasn't won less than 60 percent of the vote in a general election since 1994 (the Republican-dominated year when he still managed to win 58 percent). Two years ago, Dicks won 70.5 percent of the vote in his 6th District. So you could say he enjoys a fair amount of job security (but don't tell him that).

It looks like some Democrats want to send him a message.

The Daily World's Steven Friederich had a piece today about the difficulties Dicks is having in securing local party endorsements.

Friederich reports that a contingent of anti-war folks are holding up the Grays Harbor Democrats' endorsement process going into the Aug. 19 primary. Dicks got just 11 out of 25 votes, short of the two-thirds needed, in the campaign that also features anti-war candidate Paul Richmond, a Democrat from Port Townsend; Republican Doug Cloud of Gig Harbor; and Green Party candidate Gary Murrell of Hoquiam, who also opposes the war.

Congressman Dicks said Monday that he felt the vote was an "anomaly" representing a "small cadre of people on the far left."

"A few people didn’t show or we would have had the two-thirds majority," he said.

Here's the gist of the complaint:

"I’ve got three words for you," said Grays Harbor Democratic Chairwoman Dolores Cobb. "The Iraq War. They feel Congressman Dicks is supporting Bush and every time he votes for additional funding, the hairs on their neck go up. And that’s basically it."

Cobb said the decision not to endorse Dicks was clearly a message from some of the local Democrats.

"They feel he’s not listening to his constituents who want him to put his thumb down and not keep funding it," she said.

Friederich also reported that some Jefferson County Democrats also have expressed frustration with their congressman.

The county central committee overwhelmingly passed a resolution last month threatening the congressman with its formal censure if he did not explain his vote in favor of the Bush Administration’s controversial warrantless wiretapping program included in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, said Jefferson County Democratic Chairwoman Teri Nomura.

Dicks posted a statement on his congressional Web site explaining the vote. His staff members also contacted the Jefferson Democrats, Nomura said.

"I look at Dicks and he has a pretty good voting record on a lot of things, but he tends to stand by the military," Nomura said. "So, for the real progressives and the liberals, they don’t like that because we have this unjust war, we have a giant debt and all these people killed unnecessarily."

Nomura said her local Democrats will conduct an endorsement process later this month, but she said she wasn’t sure if Dicks could muster up enough support, especially with Richmond in the race.

Here's a link to the full story in The Daily World.