GOP U.S. senate candidate and former Washington State Republican Party chair Chris Vance tried to distance himself from presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump today, even as, finance records show, Vance's own general political consultant, Patrick Davis, is working for the Trump campaign and is an alternate Trump delegate from Colorado. 

At a press conference today, Vance, who's challenging 24-year incumbent U.S. senator Patty Murray (D-WA), called Trump "insane." Asked to elaborate, Vance told me, "look, forget his put downs and his style and his hair, to me it's the substance that matters, and what the guy says is crazy talk." (You can watch Vance's press conference here.)

Specifically, Vance took issue with Trump's isolationist politics. "We are the world's policeman," he told me. "We are the cop on the corner making sure fights don't break out. When we leave, that's when the fighting starts. Him [Trump] encouraging Japan and South Korea to build nuclear weapons. [Insane is] the only word for that."

So, what's the word for hiring a general consultant who was also Trump's Colorado state director during the GOP state convention there in April and  now an alternate Trump delegate? "Patrick and I have agreed to disagree on this," Vance says. "He's a consultant. This is what these guys do."

Davis, a longtime GOP operative, runs Patrick Davis Consulting, LLC in Colorado Springs. And, indeed, he just signed on as a paid consultant on Trump's campaign; he's in West Virginia today doing "grassroots ground game" Davis told me. "Hey, I don't agree with my wife on everything, and I don't agree with Chris on this one," Davis says. (The two met, according to Vance, when Davis was in Washington state in 2004 working on then Republican U.S. representative George Nethercutt's (R-WA, 5) failed senate run against U.S. senator Patty Murray.)

It's certainly true that consultants pay the bills by working for all sorts of candidates—and Vance went on to point out that his creative team worked for John Kasich, his fundraiser worked for Carly Fiorina, and his pollster worked for Jeb Bush. Isn't it different though, when your general consultant is an outright Trump activist? Vance says simply: "Republicans are a big family."

Vance may be the black sheep in that family. The centerpiece of his campaign is the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan which, "yes!" he says, "includes tax increases." He also says: "Climate change is real. And we caused it." He doesn't go as far off the GOP reservation to support a carbon tax or a cap and trade scheme, though. He says alternative energy and "carbon capture" technology are the best ways to fight climate change.  

The Seattle Times had a round up  yesterday of GOPers who are and aren't supporting Trump. In the #NeverTrump column, I'd also add eastside suburban Seattle state senator Steve Litzow (R-41, Mercer Island) to the list because Litzow's gone as far as to call Trump "fascist."