Archives for January 2009

The King County Democrats had a great turnout for their Elections Director Candidate Forum last night, at least amongst the members of the King County Democrats.  But the candidates however, well, not so much.

Of the six official candidates only Sherril Huff, Bill Anderson and Chris Clifford bothered to show up, and Clifford only stayed for the first fifteen minutes or so.  Pam Roach, David Irons and Julie Kempf were all no-shows, which if you ask me, was a mistake.  Five of the six candidates showed up for a Rotary Club forum earlier in the day, and apparently nearly outnumbered the audience, and yet Roach, Irons and Kempf chose to dis a packed room of some of the most engaged voters in the county.  Huh.

Ah well, the result was probably a better format, with Huff and Anderson having plenty of time to trade answers to the many thoughtful questions the audience had prepared.  And while Anderson and Clifford can be commended for their passion, I think those in attendance came away pretty damn clear that Huff was the only candidate at the table with the expertise to run elections in one of the largest jurisdictions in the nation.

As I’ve often said, I think the idea of electing an elections director is pretty damn stupid (Huff agrees, Anderson does not), as I’d rather have an elections director who knows how to run elections, than one who knows how to run for them.  And from what I saw of Anderson and Clifford last night, I’m not confident that they can do either.

Huff, on the other hand, while far from a polished politician, has done an admirable job running King County Elections over the past couple years; if you consider her the incumbent, I don’t see anybody making a cogent argument to kick the bum out.  On the contrary, Anderson seemed to trip over himself throughout the forum, commending Huff on her job performance.  I appreciate his honesty, but its an odd way to run a campaign.

I’ve refrained from writing about this race up until now, out of deference to my role as moderator, for which I wanted to maintain a degree of impartiality and civility, but apparently my restraint was wasted.  Obviously, this low-turnout/low-information race will come down to a battle between Huff, Irons and Roach—Huff on her qualifications, Irons and Roach on their name ID.  And now that I’m freed of my self-imposed shackles, I’m guessing I’ll have little bit of fun at Irons’ and Roach’s expense.

Too bad regular folks don’t have any lobbyists.

Programs approved by the Legislature but not yet implemented, including a paid family leave benefit and a working-class tax credit, should be among the first to go, Zarelli said. Cutting programs now would reduce the amount lawmakers will have to slash from the 2009-11 budget, he said.

Yeah, that blasted little tax credit that hasn’t even been funded sure is causing problems. The working poor don’t deserve tax cuts or government bailouts, only corporations and executives do. This leaves aside the pressing question of who the heck is actually going to buy stuff from these corporations, but as long as Republicans get to punish someone I guess it’s okay.

And that, in a nutshell, is why Republicanism is at such low ebb. Even in the midst of the worst economic meltdown in 70 years, they still want to punish those they see as undeserving. Sad, really.

MORE–If you want to see what I mean, peruse these sections of RCW 82.08 concerning sales tax exemptions. I’m sure all of them are well intentioned. But I don’t think the public understands how many of these there are, or how they got there. And yes, many of them were likely sponsored and passed by Democrats. I don’t care who passed them. If there’s a budget problem, all of this needs to be on the table, with apologies to bee-keepers, purchasers of milk cows for use on the farm and makers of anodes and cathodes used for making aluminum for sale, etc. Stop bagging on the regular people for once.

With a new Congress and soon a new President, the government stands to move pretty far to the left. Still, I imagine for many of Jim McDermott’s constituents it won’t be far enough. Personally, I’d like to see him push an agenda that most likely won’t come to pass, but that is worth pursuing for the long run. Here are some of my suggestions:

– A 50/50 scheme for spending the gas tax. Right now the formula is 80% for road projects, and 20% for public transportation. While the formula will be better for straphangers under the Obama administration than it has been under Bush, the more urban legislators push for, the more riders will likely get.

– Criminal justice reform. While this is mostly a state level issue, the Federal government can do a lot to get out of the way. Lee frequently writes about the federal government getting out of the way of states that want to pursue drug reform. A bill saying the feds won’t interfere if a state goes down the path of legalization is as good a place as any to start. But a conversation at the federal level about moving away from punishment and toward rehabilitation could – even in defeat – help start a conversation in the states.

– Significant reduction of the military. With the war in Iraq coming to an end there will probably be some restructuring of the military any way. I’d suggest Jim try to halve the military budget: not because it’s a brilliant number, or appropriate, but because I’d rather be haggling over the size of the reduction than if we’re reducing the military budget.

Those are it for me, but feel free to leave anything else you think is worth trying at the Federal level even if it’s probably not going to pass.

*For what it’s worth, the idea for this post came from a conversation with Nick, whose new blog is worth checking out, a few weeks ago.

TVW has a new political blog written by Niki Sullivan, who used to write for the News-Tribune. I always found her writing to be witty and informative, so I’m looking forward to this new effort. (Props to Bellingham Herald reporter/blogger Sam Taylor.)

And here we thought risky loans were not acceptable anymore. Guess the right wing initiative business is the last frontier for multi-level demagoguery.

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After you’re done getting your Elections Director Candidate Forum on, please help us celebrate the new year with an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We start at 8:00 pm at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Some folks will show up earlier for dinner.

If you’re not in the Seattle area, no worries. Swing by the Drinking Liberally web site for dates and times of a chapter within windsurfing distance of you.

The King County Democrats hold their Elections Director Candidate Forum tonight at Renton Carpenter’s Hall, moderated by… me.  Social hour starts at 6PM, and the forum starts promptly at 7PM.  Questions will be taken from the audience.

The on-again/off-again rumors of massive layoffs at Microsoft appear to be off again.  Well… sorta.

CNBC, citing Microsoft sources, said that cuts will be made through attrition and within the ranks of contract employees and not from full-time staff.

I’ve known a lot of folks who’ve worked at Microsoft over the years, and a helluva lot of them have worked as contract employees.  So while Microsoft may not be planning to “lay off” 17-percent of its workforce, as had been recently speculated, a large cut in contract employees could still have a significant impact on our regional economy.

Vancouver City Council member Tim Leavitt, who has announced he will challenge long-serving Mayor Royce Pollard for the city’s top spot, complains about Department of Ecology stormwater regulations:

Leavitt, an engineer by profession, doesn’t believe that is a reasonable rule to follow.

“Where do I find a map of pre-European development?” he asked during a Monday city council work session. “Did Lewis and Clark produce a map when they came out this way?”

Um, yes.

So one thing federal financial regulators and Congress need to examine is why banks can pay virtually nothing in interest rates on standard savings accounts while continuing to charge in the 5 percent range for 30 year mortgages and 6.5 percent and up or so on new auto loans, even as the federal funds rate is very nearly zero in real terms. It strikes me as a hidden corporate subsidy, in a way.

Financial advice gurus are always encouraging Americans to save more money, which is sound advice. It seems likely more folks will want a greater proportion of their money in FDIC insured accounts as opposed to the Ponzi stock market right now.

But people shouldn’t have to lock up several thousand dollars in a CD for two years just to get a meager 2% return. I mean, if a banks loans money at 5% and pays depositors 2%, the advantage is still with the bank, to be overly simplistic about it.

Sure, there are those who can buy CD’s and do so with tens of thousands of dollars, and good for them, but families who have smaller savings accounts are likely reticent to trade liquidity for a couple hundred dollars a year or less in interest. If we want a higher savings rate as a matter of national policy, people should be encouraged to save.

I think there used to be institutions in this country geared towards ordinary consumers known as “Savings and Loans,” but something happened to them about twenty years ago and they went away, curiously enough during the reign of Bush the Elder.

Not sure the best way to address this exactly, but banks should at least have to pay out more in interest than they charge in fees, over a certain minimum balance. Either that or we bring back savings and loans, and keep everyone named Bush away from them while regulating the hell out of them.

And yes, there are credit unions, which can be a good option as well.

The TNT’s Joe Turner reports that Gregoire Communications Director Pearse Edwards kinda-sorta lied to AP reporter Rachel La Corte about the governor’s whereabouts.  Edwards admitted to Turner:

“I did tell Rachel that the Governor was not in Iraq yesterday when we spoke. The security on this was critical and I was under strict instructions not to release that information by Dept. of Defense.”

Yeah, well, technically, the governor wasn’t in Iraq, she was en route, but considering the security concerns, wouldn’t La Corte have honored an embargo if Edwards had forthrightly answered her question on that condition?  I know I would’ve, for in the same way that Edwards might have damaged his credibility by deliberately misleading a reporter, I would have damaged my credibility by not honoring an embargo.  It’s a two-way street you know.

Or maybe I just don’t get something about this journalism thing?

Well, the big news apparently is that Gov. Gregoire will be making a “surprise” visit to WA national guard units in Iraq.  Which I suppose would have been big news if her staff had not allowed speculation of something bigger to get out of hand yesterday evening.

Big sigh of relief from local Dems fearing the turmoil of a Gregoire appointment.

Scanning the old RSS reader and the impressive amount of speculation by both dirty hippie leftist bloggers and traditional media types, I vote for the sensible speculation of Joe Turner at Political Buzz, who wonders if this is all about Viaduct money and then adds:

It could be broader than that. Democratic governors are set to meet again with Obama this week about the stimulus package. Gregoire has been active in pushing for a large boost to state’s with shovel-ready projects but there is no word as to whether she will be part of any meeting

It is awfully hard to imagine Gregoire departing so soon after an election victory that ratifies the rather solid job she does as governor, although I’d imagine she’d be a fine Commerce Secretary as well.

Turner’s theory seems a lot more plausible to me. The Obama team started rolling out more information about the stimulus proposal today, so it makes sense.

I guess we’ll find out tomorrow, which is a bajillion million thousand years in blog time.

The blogs are all a twitter with speculation that Gov. Chris Gregoire has flown to the other Washington, where she will be named tomorrow as President-Elect Barack Obama’s Secretary of Commerce, replacing his previous choice, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Well, what we do know is that she is indeed in D.C., that she’s booked satellite time at 6 7 AM tomorrow morning for a big announcement… but folks who seem to know these kinda things seem pretty sure that she is not being appointed to Commerce, and that tomorrow’s announcement may be big, but not that big.

Of course, if the announcement is that big, it certainly throws a wrench into our state government, and at a particularly bad time.  Lt. Gov. Brad Owen—nominally a Democrat—would take over until a special election is held in November of this year… an election that could be an absolute free for all on the Democratic side.  As for the Republicans, Dino Rossi would have to be the favorite out of the gate, but I wouldn’t put it beyond Rob McKenna to throw his hat into the ring.

As for me, I’m still exhausted from the previous gubernatorial election, which essentially lasted for the past four years, so I’m crossing my fingers that the folks who seem to know these kinda things know what they’re talking about, and Gregoire remains governor at least for the time being.

The Newport Hills chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight, 7-10PM, at the Mustard Seed Grill and Pub, 5608 119th Ave SE, in Bellevue, and I’m told that Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz will be stopping by.

Of course, the Seattle chapter will be meeting tomorrow night as usual, at the Montlake Ale House, although I’ll be arriving late after moderating the King County Democrats’ elections director candidate forum, 7PM at the Renton Carpenters Hall, 231 Burnett Ave. N.