Will Washington state's GOP find a viable challenger for Sen. Patty Murray?

Eleven months before the 2010 U.S. Senate race, Washington Republicans do not have a single name candidate to oppose the popular Democratic incumbent, Sen. Patty Murray.

This is no plea for a razzle-dazzle Republican to emerge to oppose Murray, because of some feeling that she is not doing a solid job.

Quite the contrary. Murray is a heavy hitter serving capably in Senate leadership. She's a huge advocate for veterans issues and transportation projects. She is front and center on health-care reform.

Anyone remember the transportation stimulus package that first bypassed our state? Murray, who serves on the powerful Appropriations Committee, let that stand for about 10 minutes and then made one well-placed phone call. Money flowed. Oops, won't let that happen again.

The question is not whether Murray gets the work done. She does. But are Republicans so feeble they cannot field a decent candidate for a six-year job?

The answer, with less than a year to go, is yes. Sitting out such a race, or offering an unknown tea-party leader or motivational speaker is no substitute for a real candidate. (Chris Widener, the motivational speaker, and Clint Didier, the tea-party candidate, have exploratory committees.)

The race will cost a contender about $10 million or more to complete, so there is no time like the present to get moving — or raising money.

What about Dave Reichert? He is a congressman from a key suburban district, but Republicans are understandably reluctant to yield a seat that could swing to Democrats.

How about a prominent state legislator?

Susan Hutchison, the failed candidate for King County executive, has been asked by party insiders to run. She has a name and campaign experience. But don't you also need a record of accomplishment to vault from zero political experience to U.S. Senate? The King County race also revealed some real rookie problems.

By late October 2005, state Republicans had candidate Mike McGavick running against incumbent Sen. Maria Cantwell. He was a legitimate candidate with real money-raising prowess. McGavick had the support of the White House. He had served admirably as chief of staff to former Sen. Slade Gorton. He knew the issues and D.C. He was also CEO of Safeco Insurance, a sizable local company. He garnered only 40 percent in the election.

In 2004, Murray did not run unopposed. Republicans put up Congressman George Nethercutt from Spokane. State party Chairman Chris Vance insisted there be a credible name candidate by July 2003 and that there be only one to avoid open wounds from a primary.

In fairness to Nethercutt, it is difficult for anyone from Eastern Washington to beat a candidate from the more-populous western side of the state, but the U.S. House to Senate is a reasonable trajectory. Nethercutt collected 43 percent of the vote.

The star of the state GOP is Rob McKenna, the state attorney general, who is smart, thoughtful, and politically temperate enough to win the governor's race in 2012. He is expected to run for that job.

McKenna seems to be about all the Republicans have.

Let's ponder Hutchison as the candidate. She would not be a self-funder like Cantwell was in 2000. Cantwell didn't announce until late January that year but had to spend some of a small fortune earned at Real Networks to pull off a close win.

Self- funders can jump in late. I remember nonstop Cantwell ads running in June and July before the primary — the sound of money whooshing through the system to make up for lost time.

Hutchison spent much of the county executive race pretending she was not a Republican. She also ducked hot-button issues such as abortion. How does that fire up the conservative primary voter?

The obstacle for Republicans is huge. Murray is a top-notch, hardworking senator. She has fans on both sides of the Cascades. Still, it is pretty unusual to let one of these seats go unchallenged. The state Republican Party needs a Costco-sized bottle of iron pills to fortify its anemic bench.

Joni Balter's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is jbalter@seattletimes.com