This is another installment of my series over on The Political Junkie called, "Can We Talk?" where I have a frank and open discussion with some of our elected officials.

Hello Doug Ericksen,

I'm so sorry to interrupt your dinner, that looks like a delicious steak there and I'm sure the good lobbyist from BP can excuse us for a few moments while we talk.

I know we haven't always had the closest of professional relationships. I might have been a little bit critical of you over the last couple of years, over such trifling concerns like you trying to arrest a citizen journalist, your plans to break up county unions and your illegal shutdown of a bill that would have protected children from toxic mattresses, and to be fair, you did block me on facebook and your legislative assistant once hung up on me as soon as I identified myself. But I'm willing to let bygones be bygones, because we have to discuss something very important.

Doug Ericksen for Congress in 2014.

It is a bit of an open secret that you have craved a congressional seat. Rep. Rick Larsen has been preparing for you to run against him for years, until the redistricting put you into the "not his problem" folder. Rep. DelBene has built a reputation for smart moderate votes but she is just a freshman legislator, and let's face it, there aren't that many competitive congressional seats in Washington. With your elevated profile from the legislative session, you could pull in buckets of campaign cash. Which in turn, would attract the attention of the national Republican party. Eric Cantor would fly in and hold a big dinner fundraiser for you in Seattle (More dinners! Another win-win!) and you would definitely have a shot.

If not 2014, then when? Who knows how long the district will stay this competitive and off-year elections usually go against the president's party. This could be 2010 all over again, do you really want to be stuck in a clammy little office in the Leg building for the rest of your career? This is the time to step it up and shoot for the gold.

There is a downside, you can only file for one seat. Either you try for Congress or you stay a state senator. But why play the game if you aren't going to go big? I know you can do it. So dig deep, do your tai chi (or whatever it is that you do to clear your mind . . . dry clean your suits?) and find the inner courage to run for Congress. I'm sure it will turn out for the best for everyone.

Sincerely,

Riley Sweeney

P.S. I completely have your best interests in mind and am absolutely not trying to goad you into getting walloped by Rep. DelBene so that we can finally get some decent representation for the 42nd legislative district. I promise.

P.P.S. Also, I have a leftover Skagit bridge for sale, if you're interested, email me!