I spotted this at the Washington State Democrats annual Holiday Party last night:
The BIAW (Building Industry Association of Washington) was one of GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi’s biggest supporters (over $6 million) this election season.
So, wearing an anti-BIAW pin at the Democrats’ Holiday shindig oughta be no big deal, right? Ha.
This was a shoe thrown over the lectern aimed directly at Democratic State House Speaker, Frank Chopp (D-43, Wallingford).
Democratic Rep. Brendan Williams (D-22, Olympia) was wearing the defiant pin and said he’s not running again because Chopp has neutered the Democratic agenda in Olympia by cozying up with the BIAW.
Rep. Williams has been the main victim of Chopp’s alliance with the BIAW: Two years running, Williams’s homeowner bill of rights has been killed at the last minute by Chopp. The BIAW was upset that homeowners would have the basic right to sue for faulty construction.
Chopp also killed my favorite progressive bill last session: A Senate bill that added climate change impacts into growth management standards so that development projects had to be environmentally responsible. The BIAW didn’t like that one either.
Rep. Williams wasn’t the only Democrat dissing Chopp. I was talking to a Democratic state Senator about the 2012 governor’s race. We were handicapping state Senator Lisa Brown’s (D-3, Spokane) chances vs. U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee’s chances, in what’s likely to be a bruising primary between the two anticipated candidates. And could either one beat GOP media darling, AG Rob McKenna?
“McKenna will be the Republican nominee, right?” I asked.
The Democratic Senator quipped: “Who knows? The GOP could run Chopp.”
Chopp is a BIAW lackey, a Sonics hater and a viaduct loon. The state Dems would do well to get rid of him as speaker.
I thought Josh was posting here only through the election.
Sounds like it’s time to chop Chopp.
Josh–
Hey Numbskull–
The Construction Industry generates more Living Wage Jobs and Tax Revenue than any Industry. Chopp is not such a fringe lunatic Atheist Leftist Pinhead that he doesn’t realize it.
Grow up.
Gregoire desperately needs Chopp in order to use the State Credit Card to “balance” the Budget. Keep tormenting Chopp you idiots….and watch how many State Jobs expire.
Minnesota Update
Although the media continues to report that the Brand X candidate is ahead, these reports are based on an incomplete count. Democratic observers keeping a tally that includes canvassing board ballots now predict Al Franken will win by 4 votes.
4 The residential construction industry would do well to take the same lesson from Henry Ford that today’s auto manufacturers seem to have forgotten: your own workers had better be able to afford your products. The BIAW has become all high and mighty in the last decade on the backs of customers using flaky credit to buy McMansions and units in 5-story wood-frame condo blocks for ridiculously high prices.
The party’s over, folks. These guys think they can get back on the gravy train by using the rest of their slush fund to bribe their way into being allowed to build their crap so it falls apart in just five years instead of ten–and they still expect the rubes to go into hock for 30 years to buy it? Feh!
And people like Cyn have the gall to accuse government of living beyond its means? Gimme a break! The two-by-four pushers may well be the next “vital industry” to go begging to Congress for a handout.
Chopped Lieber, man.
AF–
Since when did you conclude BIAW is only about RESIDENTIAL homebuilding??
Look at their website….a vast array of Suppliers, Subcontractors, Commercial guys etc. plus others that serve the Industry.
Construction has been a major source of Jobs & Tax dollars.
Seems like you KLOWNS think the Government is the source of everything.
Therein lies the problem…your disconnect from the private sector.
You KLOWNS ought to take a look at today’s stock prices–
Microsoft $19.02 (so much for the endless millionaires)
Starbucks $9.00 (so much for $4 coffee!)
Jones Soda 44 cents (so much for politically Progressive Dog Piss pop!)
Boeing $38.74
Weyerhauser $36.89
Real Estate values have plummeted over $2 TRILLION in the US
Stock Prices more than that.
Yet you KLOWNS are determined to cheat, borrow whatever to keep a massive State and Local Government tub of bureaucratic Goo well-fed?
With what???
Borrowing??
Wake up KLOWNS…most of you have never faced tough times….or are lifestyle poor (meaning you are too lazy to get a real job and save money).
GREAT NEWS KLOWNS–
TEAM OBAMA has concluded it’s investigation of themselves and proclaims they have done nothing inappropriate re: Blago the Serb.
http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....nate-seat/
Whew! Glad that’s over….right?
I mean when Barrack declares his innocence, it’s the end of the story.
Amazing how Barrack remains totally unstained by Chicago/Hyde Park politics.
Only guy to ever do so.
What a miracle….
although I do want to see the dots connected on Michelle’s fabulous Hospital career and Salary increases.
Cynical
The conclusions you reach without a shred of a factual basis underlying them are truly astonishing. Sometimes, I think the folks on your side of the ideological spectrum believe that liberals and conservatives are two distinct species of animals.
Cyn, Your-President-Not-Mine basically sold this country to China to get the dinero to pay for his War for Profit, so don’t talk too much about borrowing.
If the BIAW had ever held an interest in building affordable housing, maybe Chopp’s relationship with them wouldn’t be such a bad thing. But since there’s no real profit in such housing, it’s poisonous to Progressive ideas, as we’ve all seen.
So here’s my bad pun, gained from far too many years of Looney Tunes:
HASSAAAAAAAAAAAAAN CHOPP!
@9 Liar.
@10 Liar.
@11 Liar.
You’re so full of shit. The BIAW would go tits up without residential builders, and likely will go tits up because it’s residential builder and supplier base is going tits up. No commercial contractor of any repute is a BIAW member. Name one or shut the fuck up.
When the BIAW is gone, all Cynical will be left with will be a pink slip and his pathetic delusions.
I’m in favor of a market solution to BIAW’s campaign against homebuyer rights: Don’t buy new homes! Send a message to BIAW’s members that if buyers have no protections they’ll have no sales.
The financial press is now speculating on what the results might be if the Fed does what everyone expects it to do and lowers its lending rate to zero…might as well, because the one percent they’re charging now doesn’t even begin to cover the processing costs anyway.
The result may be that there will be no such thing as a “safe” investment. Anyplace you can put your money that delivers any prospect of a positive return–even only a couple percent a year–will be in something like a hedge fund or ZZZ-rated bonds, so highly leveraged that you’d get better odds going to a casino and shooting craps.
14 Let me put it this way: If the sleazebags who dominate the BIAW were building 50-story skyscrapers, I’d be afraid to go downtown for fear of one of them falling on me.
@16
At this point, much of the big pool of money out there doesn’t really care about return, they just want to be sure they’ll get their money back when they want it. There’ll still be a huge demand for Treasury Securities even with a 0% interest rate.
But then people are scared even of muni bonds at the moment. WPPSS aside these rarely default. Same thing with AA and AAA corporate bonds and the money markets. Shit’s crazy, nobody wants to lend to anyone other than the central banks right now.
Frank Chopp is a goofy, reactionary populist. That’s why Tom McCabe and Tim Eyman like him so much.