Archives for June 2010

I know I’m the last person who the Seattle Times would want to consult on how to save their dying paper. But despite myself, I feel a certain affinity for newspapers. I still read the dead tree version of New York Times, and although I make fun of the Seattle Times stupid ed page, I’m glad they’re around.

While I often have real problems with their editorial stance, and I don’t understand why they still have stale columns from national writers, I do think they are an important piece of what gets reported in Western Washington. So let’s start there. The Seattle Times shouldn’t run syndicated columns who we’ve seen the day before in their own paper, and who we can read for free online. I don’t know that it saves them much money, but it makes them more of a local paper.

So what to replace those columns with? Some days, I say dissenting opinions. Especially on candidate endorsements where Ryan Blethen says it’s important to have a conversation, there should be editorials in favor of each candidate (and let us know who wrote what). There would still be an endorsement, but the Times would acknowledge that there’s another side.

But mostly, just use the freed up newspaper space for more, you know, news. I’d say don’t run any opinion some days. Nobody cares what the paper thinks on any given issue except for people who already had an opinion about that issue, and nobody under 60 cares what Bruce Ramsey or Joni Balter think about anything. Make a couple days a week opinion free days, and give the space now for Ed and Op-Ed to in-depth reports on upcoming races, or investigative pieces, or important issues. Imagine picking up the Times in the 5 weeks leading up to an election and reading great pieces on each city council race. Imagine a full 2 pages given to an important issue. Imagine knowing every Saturday that there will be a well researched, well edited, well written long form piece instead of another vapid editorial.

And speaking of well written, give your writers license to write. The staid, boring style of reporting is often not worth reading. Of course as a fowl mouthed blogger that partly means swearing when it’s relevant: sometimes people say “Shit” in congressional hearings. And they say “Fuck” on the Gotti tapes. They don’t say “S***” or “F***” and when I read that sort of nonsense in their pages, or too clever by half word play that makes me have no idea what was said, it makes me not care if the Times goes under: while I know they’ll never swear as much as me, not having blanket censorship makes it a better read.

Because more than anything, I want a good read. I want to smile at a turn of phrase in the news coverage. I want to be wowed by the transition between ideas in the opinion pieces, and I want passion in the sports section.

But really, I’d settle for not complete shit in the sports section. I seriously can’t think off the top of my head of any Seattle Times sports writers. As much as I wonder if Art Thiel is fucking insane when I read him, or assume George Vecsey is writing with a quill pen when I read him, he’s so old fashioned, they are fun to read.

So those are my suggestions that I know will never actually be implemented. They’d make the paper more fun to read, and maybe save it in the end.

(And there are forty more media clips from the past week in politics at Hominid Views.)

I’m kinda with Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn in his opposition to the deep bore tunnel, though not exactly for all the same reasons. (I mean, we pick the most expensive Viaduct replacement alternative possible, but we can’t even scrounge up the loose change to replace the South Park Bridge? What’s up with that?)

Still, I think Gov. Chris Gregoire came awfully close to disarming the mayor’s most compelling rhetorical argument against the current proposal: the bizarrely punitive provision in which Seattle taxpayers are responsible for picking up the tab for any cost overruns.

Think about it. Regardless of how low the initial bids are coming, or how much of a cushion they’ve supposedly built into their estimates, we all know that mega-projects sometimes often more times than not come in over budget. That’s a fact. Yet the state DOT, which is tasked with managing this part of the project, bears none of the costs for the risks it takes on.

No doubt it made some legislators feel awfully damn good to slip in this provision, but it is simply untenable, and just cannot stand.

Gov. Gregoire now says that the provision’s language merely represents “legislative intent,” and would not be enforceable without further legislative action. “When the state budget is being drawn by the state, the state is responsible for the projects,” the Governor said yesterday, dismissing McGinn’s objections. In fact, she even challenged McGinn to go to Olympia and get the language changed:

“If you want it changed in the law, you need to take it to the Legislature in January. You get it done, you bring it to my desk, I’ll sign it.”

Great. So Gov. Gregoire is on the record in favor of striking the cost overrun provision. But instead of just shoving it in McGinn’s face — who, to be honest, has not thus far proven particular adept at persuading legislators — how about if the Governor offers to take the lead and propose this fix to the legislature herself? And while we’re at it, how about if House Speaker Frank Chopp, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and respective transportation chairs Rep. Judy Clibborn and Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen collectively swallow their pride, and promise to work with the Governor and the Mayor to get this done?

There are other good policy arguments for opposing the tunnel, but no other good rhetorical ones, so instead of just attempting to embarrass the Mayor in a public forum and hope he slinks away, it is time for the Governor and other Olympia leaders to put this to rest by promising to remove this last remaining political stumbling block.

If Mayor McGinn is smart, he’ll score some points by claiming credit for forcing a major concession. And as much as that might pain Gov. Gregoire to pay that sort of political price, well… sometimes mega-projects like this simply cost more than you expect.

I suppose state Sen. Don Benton’s unsurprising withdrawal from the U.S. Senate race is good news for real estate speculator and two-time gubernatorial loser Dino Rossi… that is, if you had any doubt of Rossi making it through the crowded Republican field and onto the November ballot.

No? No doubts? Then it’s not really all that significant, is it?

What it does do however, is focus the GOP primary as a contest between Rossi, the lone establishment Republican in the race, and Palin-anointed federal-subsidy-dependent teabagger Clint Didier. This simplified narrative leaves a much more compelling (and, well, easier) story for our media to tell. And I’m not so sure that is good news for the Rossi camp.

The problem for Rossi is that his hopes depend on a Republican wave, a wave built upon the enthusiasm of the teabagger base of his party. If Rossi draws too stark a distinction between himself and Didier, this enthusiasm may be hard to capture. Likewise, if Rossi simply tries to ignore Didier (which appears to be his current strategy), this too could create resentment within the GOP base.

But Didier’s politics are, well, crazy, so if Rossi embraces them he risks alienating the so-called “moderate” independent and soft-Democratic voters Republicans need to win statewide elections. Ask Ellen Craswell and John Carlson how an enthusiastic embrace of conservative ideals worked out for them.

The point is, it’s Didier not Benton who represents the biggest intra-party bump in Rossi’s road to the other Washington. And it remains to be seen if it will bump his wheels out of alignment.

Dino Rossi is trumpeting the $600,000 he’s raised in his first official week of campaigning:

“In just the first week, we have signed up over 2,500 people online, attracted over 20,000 Facebook followers, third most of any US Senate candidate and nearly twice that of Senator Murray, and raised over $600,000, including nearly $200,000 online,” Rossi said in a statement.

Yeah, okay, good numbers by any standard, but after months of lining everything up, nothing particularly exciting. One would expect an initial surge in donations, but even if he were to maintain this pace and raise $600,000 a week between now and the election, that still only comes to $13.2 million. And I’m hearing Sen. Murray had a bit of a fundraising windfall from Rossi’s announcement too.

I mean, it’s not like anybody ever questioned Rossi’s ability to raise money. Indeed, that and name ID pretty much appear to be his primary qualifications. But I sure don’t view this as any indication of a groundswell in grassroots support.

A lot of pundits were all but writing obituaries for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as polls in his home state of Nevada consistently showed him trailing badly behind nearly any Republican opponent, but things started to turn around a couple months ago, with the embattled Senator slowly clawing his way back into a dead heat.

What changed? Well of course, Republican frontrunner Sue “Chickengate” Lowden very publicly self-destructed in a series of ethical and intellectual fiascos. But one’s opponent’s mistakes aren’t on their own enough to assure an advantage.

No, one has to be in a position to aggressively capitalize on such mistakes… frame them effectively, disseminate the message broadly and draw a contrast that resonates with voters. And it is at least interesting to note that Sen. Reid’s rebound in the polls coincides almost exactly with his campaign bringing on the pugnacious Kelly Steele as communications director.

I got to know Steele in 2006 when he led the charge against Mike McGavick on behalf of the Washington State Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign, and later when he served as spokesman for the state Dems during Gov. Chris Gregoire’s bitter rematch with real estate speculator Dino Rossi. I know some journalists and editorialists scoffed at his relentless attacks and sometimes borderline over-the-top rhetoric, but it’s hard to argue with the results. Electoral politics is a brutal, adversarial process, and Steele approaches his task brutally.

And often, with a pretty damn fine sense of humor.

I don’t know how much of the message in Nevada’s Senate race these past few months is due to Steele, but it sure is suggestive of his handiwork, and if Reid completes his political resurrection, it wouldn’t be unfair to canonize Steele in the process. Back here in the Pacific Northwest (Steele had already made a name for himself in OR before coming to WA), a lot of folks already considered Steele a rising star, but if Sen. Reid wins reelection I’d expect his career to go supernova.

I just hope he remembers us little people.

UPDATE:
I forwarded the post to Steele, and… well… he wasn’t pleased. “We have a huge and talented team of professionals,” he replied, “and it’s unfair to call out any one member.”

And I don’t think Steele was just being modest. He actually asked me to pull the post, which as a matter of principle, I just can’t do… and which in itself I guess, somewhat refutes my portrayal of him as a master of the message. (I mean, if he can’t even get a lowly local blogger to pull a post, how good can he be?)

Last night in Detroit, a blown call from a first-base umpire robbed Tigers’ pitcher Armando Galarraga of a perfect game on what should have been the very last out. I first saw what happened right after the Flyers won Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals last night. The Flyers were able to take that game into overtime and win partially because an official replay showed that their second goal just barely crossed the line (after it was initially not counted as a goal). Currently, baseball only has replay for disputes over whether a home run is really a home run. Is it time for baseball to implement instant replay for out/safe calls on the basepaths?

UPDATE (Goldy):
It should be noted that the Flyers needed to score twice in overtime to win the game, the first goal being disallowed when the referee blew a clearly early whistle, just before the Flyers swatted a loose puck into the net. So replay is no panacea.

The Stranger rifles through Dino Rossi’s baggage.

Here’s a bit of month old news I don’t remember getting much local press:

The Seattle, WA metropolitan area has the strongest local economy in the nation according to POLICOM Corporation’s annual economic strength rankings. Edwards, CO is top among the “Micropolitan” areas, which are smaller urban centers.

“The top rated areas have had rapid, consistent growth in both size and quality for an extended period of time,” stated William H. Fruth, President of POLICOM. POLICOM, located in Palm City, FL, specializes in analyzing local and state economies.

“The rankings do not reflect the latest ‘hotspot’ or boom town, but the areas which have the best economic foundation,” Fruth continued. “While most communities have slowed or declined during this recession, the strongest areas have been able to weather the storm.”

We hear an awful lot from our local media and Republican critics about how fucked up we are around here… about how our taxes are too high and our government budgets too big and our regulations too oppressive and all that. And yet, year after year, in reports and studies and surveys, Washington state in general, and the Puget Sound region in particular consistently ranks near the top in economic strength, quality of life, business climate, government efficiency and everything else that leads to prosperity.

It’s not like we don’t have problems to solve, but honestly, what a bunch of whiners we can be.

The odds of being a victim of a violent crime in the U.S.? About 0.45 percent. The odds of this particular gun owner shooting himself in the testicles… apparently, 100 percent:

A man was shot in the testicles Sunday afternoon after a gun in his waistband accidentally discharged, police said.

The man was shopping at the Lowe’s hardware store in Lynnwood around 12:30 p.m. when the gun went off, said Shannon Sessions with Lynnwood Police. […] Sessions said it was legal for the man to be carrying the gun and it’s unlikely he’ll face any charges.

I think a lot of guys like carrying a gun because it makes them feel more manly. You know, except this guy.

When Washington voters go to the polls in November, they’ll have a pretty clear choice in the U.S. Senate race, regardless of who captures the second slot in our top-two primary. On the one hand we’ll have a Republican like Dino Rossi, who is campaigning against earmarks, against regulation and for lower taxes. On the other hand we’ll have Sen. Patty Murray, who, you know, actually wants to do stuff for our state.

On Tuesday, Sen. Patty Murray joined a short roundtable session with Eastside leaders, transportation officials and developers to discuss future plans for the Bel-Red Corridor, and what the federal government might do to speed things along.

[…] Murray has been talking up the Bel-Red Corridor back in D.C., and on Tuesday she seemed pleased to hear that developers, city planners and transportation agencies are collaborating on the project. The city is hoping for federal money from a sustainability grant to help pay for planning, and also has been trying to get federal money to build or extend some of the roadways that will be needed to connect the Bel-Red Corridor to the rest of the city. That includes an extension of 120th Street, and an extension of Northeast 4th Street to connect to 120th Street, said Bellevue Councilman Grant Degginger. The city will also have to build a new arterial, Northeast 15th/16th Street, to run east and west through the Bel-Red Corridor.

Not only would Rossi lack the seniority, status and influence to help our region compete for federal money, he’s pretty much promising not even to try. On a matter of principle or something. Because, you know, it’s better to see our tax dollars go to Texas or Alabama, than dirty ourselves with something called an “earmark.”

Somehow, I think Washington voters will prove more pragmatic than that.

It’s a primary election night tonight! Okay, so it is in Alabama, Mississippi and New Mexico. Even so…you now have a good excuse to join us tonight for an evening of electoral politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. beginning at about 8:00 pm. Stop by even earlier and enjoy some dinner.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 325 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

Jim Kenny, one of the two Democrats running to be the Snohomish County Prosecutor, has endorsed I-1068 to make marijuana legal in Washington. In his press release, he touches on the key reason why our budget-conscious politicians should be joining him:

There are also many cost savings which can be realized if the voters pass I-1068, especially at the cash-strapped county level of government. Kenny points to the 16,000 marijuana criminal cases per year that would be removed from our state and local court systems, saving tens of millions of dollars in police, prosecutorial, and judicial resources. “I can point to two medical marijuana cases in the last year on which the Snohomish County Prosecutor spent valuable taxpayer resources, neither of which led to conviction. If juries are throwing out cases like that, clearly we need to move on.”

“We are looking at a crisis in public safety with declining revenue for local government. I think it’s time to prioritize and really focus our criminal justice resources on violent criminals,” said Kenny. “Given the state of our economy and the projected financial situation facing government at every level, we need to get down to the fundamentals and prioritize.”

There was a time when politicians (let alone prosecutors) didn’t dare talk about reducing law enforcement budgets or cutting back on waging the drug war. But two things have changed since then – a bad economy forcing even police budgets to be slashed, and a growing awareness that marijuana prohibition causes far more crime in our communities than would occur if we treated it the same as alcohol. Being smarter about how we reduce crime in our neighborhoods – rather than doing things that appear tough – is one of the most effective ways that we can introduce more fiscal sanity to our bloated budgets.

This morning the Washington Poll released an expanded sample of their recent poll of Washington state voters. Their press release explains:

Last week (May 24) we released the results of an n=1252 survey, yet we continued to conduct additional surveys through Friday May 28th, and amassed a total of 1,695 interviews.

While there are some interesting results in this new release, particularly regarding the Teabagger element of the GOP Party, I’ll simply focus on the match-up between Senator Patty Murray (D) and perennial candidate Dino Rossi (R). I recently analyzed this poll with the original sample of 1,252 registered voters that went for Murray over Rossi 44% to 40%. The results suggested that Patty Murray was leading with an 86.5% probability.

The new results still have 44% Murray and 40% Rossi but now, with the larger sample, the uncertainty in the result goes down. In a Monte Carlo analysis Murray won 897,105 of 1,000,000 elections, suggesting that an election held now would be won by Murray with an 89.7% probability. Here is the distribution of outcomes:

A few days ago I did an analysis of the three polls in this race that were taken in May. The analysis gave Murray an 84.8% probability of truly leading the race. Doing that same analysis with the expanded Washington Poll ups Murray’s probability to 88.7%.

So, based on the available evidence, Dino Rossi is still losing to Patty Murray, but we can say this with a little more certainty.

(Cross posted at Hominid Views.)

According to sources close to the campaign, Democratic state Sen. Craig Pridemore will announce today that he is withdrawing from the race to replace Rep. Brain Baird in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, leaving fellow Democrat Denny Heck with a sure path to the November ballot.

With a slew of establishment endorsements and a $250,000 infusion of his own money, Heck became the early Democratic favorite, an advantage Pridemore, a strong, populist-minded campaigner, simply wasn’t able to overcome, especially as he continued to be locked up in an endless, special legislative session. Pridemore had intended to run an energetic, grassroots primary campaign, a strategy that depended on strong support from labor organizations like the Washington State Labor Council and the Washington Education Association. And while he recently secured the endorsement of the former, word leaked over the weekend that the WEA would be endorsing Heck, largely based on his fundraising lead and frontrunner status. (I don’t think teachers have a bigger champion in the Senate than Pridemore.)

Pridemore’s withdrawal is of course a blow to progressives like me who saw him as the better choice of the two Dems. Whether it’s a blow to Republicans, who wouldn’t have minded a Democratic cat fight in the primary, remains to be seen. In this anti-incumbency year, my gut told me that the more populist Pridemore had the better shot in November than the more establishment Heck.

But here’s hoping the Democratic establishment proves me wrong.

UPDATE:
It’s official, and Publicola has Pridemore’s statement.