– The mechanics of getting death penalty drugs to states that use them is both fascinating and disgusting (h/t).
– I would hope Pam Roach’s plan to make it easier to recall elected officials would include abusing staff.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– The mechanics of getting death penalty drugs to states that use them is both fascinating and disgusting (h/t).
– I would hope Pam Roach’s plan to make it easier to recall elected officials would include abusing staff.
by Carl Ballard — ,
That’s my executive summary of every GOP press release on Inslee’s proposal to close tax loopholes and not let temporary taxes expire. Take for instance this blog’s favorite legislator, Senator John Braun (R-Hates Workers, Especially Women).
Sen. Braun unimpressed by governor’s tax-increase proposal
If a terrible state Senator is impressed or not should be the main quality we should look for when we judge a proposal. If only I knew Pam Roach and Rodney Tom’s level of impressitude we could really figure this out.
Sen. John Braun’s reaction to the governor’s proposed new taxes totaling $1.4 billion in the next two years, including tax increases on businesses, oil refineries, beer and bottled-water drinkers and out-of-state shoppers, is simple:
I sort of get that this is press-releasees, and he wants to separate the quote out from the build up. But it reads strange to not just have it in the same paragraph.
“What happened to the promise you made six months ago to avoid tax increases?”
I haven’t studied the plan enough, or gone through the transcripts of the debates, etc. to see if that’s a fair assessment. But, that’s a political debate, not a policy one. If Inslee’s pledge was violated, then I’m sure there are campaign ads to be made and Kirby Wilbur will complain on all the TV and radio that will have him. That’s fair. But if a legislator wants to do it, he should maybe stick to the policy.
Braun is also concerned about the increases for state employees while increasing in state tuition by as much as 5 percent.
“The governor’s proposal is a slap in the face of college students everywhere,” said Braun, R-Centralia. “We outline a plan that reduces tuition by 3 percent across the board, and he intends to increase rates for students enrolled in our two biggest schools by 5 percent per year?”
Argh press-releasees. Having a paragraph just to lead up to a quote and then a completely unnecessary “said Braun” in the middle. That’s terrible. Although this is actually on the merits, of the policy. I guess those merits are we can’t pay public workers unless there’s no tuition hike? I’m against any tuition hike, but that seems like silly logic.
“This is about a promise to working families and our unemployed friends, family and neighbors,” Braun said. “How are we going to promote private-sector job growth when the state budget calls for additional taxes on state businesses, computer software, phone service and new taxes on automobile purchases?”
Now we’ve broken the next paragraph up with “Braun said.” I literally hate his legislative aid, and I don’t even know who they are.
Sorry, I went off on a tangent there. Here’s the answer: By being able to afford to educate children who’ll be able to start the next business and who’ll make better employees. By not further dismantling the safety net so people are willing to take risks to start businesses. By contributing to the infrastructure that makes Washington attractive to businesses. Oh, that was a rhetorical question.
Also, for the trillionth time, while private sector job growth is important, a job is a job is a job. If that job is one of the state jobs that were bemoaned pay increases in the previous paragraph, or in the private sector, it still is important for the person who has it.
There’s more, but it’s basically more of the same, so I’ll leave it here. No actual proposals of its own, but plenty of bashing state workers and whining about taxes.
by Carl Ballard — ,
A bill to let people apply to clear their records of a nonviolent, misdemeanor marijuana offenses has passed the House Public Safety Committee.
As expected, Washington State’s House Committee on Public Safety voted this morning to approve House Bill 1661, moving it towards a full House vote. The bill would allow those convicted of a cannabis possession misdemeanor – up to 40 grams for those 18 and older – to have it removed from their record. The committee voted 6-5 in favor of the bill.
The primary sponsor of the measure, Rep. Fitzgibbon, says the chances are “really good” that it will pass the House. Newly elected Governor Jay Inslee hasn’t stated his position on the bill, but it would be unlikely for him to veto such legislation. Its fate in the Republican-controlled Senate is less than certain, but its passage isn’t an impossibility, especially considering that the measure has several Republican sponsors.
Sounds like a good idea in the wake of our passing I-502. It was illegal then, but it was also unjust. Since the people of Washington recognized that, it’s time to fix the problem for people who got caught up in the system before it got fixed.
So if you’d like to contact your legislators, you can find them here. If you want to ask the members of the Senate Law and Justice Committee to pass this, you can find them here. Something tells me that Pam Roach* will be tough to get but you can at least try with her and the rest of the GOP members.
If Inslee isn’t sure you can contact his office here. Or, I guess you could just ask him to pardon those people. It’s probably better for the bill to pass because it sets up a system, but if it doesn’t pass, that would be better than nothing.
by Carl Ballard — ,
I’ve already had my piece on Pam Roach’s state workers can’t lie bill. I haven’t been following it, and I have no idea if it’s going anywhere. But the Daily O gives her the quote of the day when discussing it.
“It’s good enough for God. He gave us a commandment that said, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness.'”
-Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, arguing for her bill that calls for discipline against state employees deemed to have lied.
I, for one, can’t wait for the no coveting by state employees law next. And for that matter why only apply it to state employees if you think you’re doing God’s work? Why not have a Deuteronomy 23:19 law and outlaw interest?
“You shall not charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest.
I mean that might be kind of tough for Pam Roach who just today voted (with I think all the R’s and several D’s, but that’s just a quick tally in my head since the website doesn’t break it down by party) to make it easier for payday lenders. As Senator Nelson explains in a press release:
In 2009, we passed payday lending reform. It put safeguards on a predatory lending product, allowing borrowers to make reasonable payments and not end up buried in high-interest loans.
But the payday industry is back, marketing this new consumer installment loan as having a ‘36 percent interest rate.’ In reality these loans include massive fees and penalties that take the rate as high as 220 percent. As a former banker, I’m confident that if a money lender can’t make a profit at 45 percent interest, as allowed in existing law, they have a failed business model.
As a legislator, I am shocked that a majority of my colleagues in the Senate voted to sidestep effective protections for Washington families and instead put high-interest lenders back in charge of people’s lives.
You know, like God intended.
Look, I don’t think the Bible, or any other holy text, is a particularly good guide for legislating. We’re a secular democracy. To say nothing of what version to use, or what interpretation? But if Pam Roach thinks her lashing out at state workers is God’s work instead of the business of a diverse group of people who swore an oath to two inherently secular documents (the US and state constitutions) then we can judge her by her own standards on the rest of her actions in the legislature.
by Carl Ballard — ,
– Picking a favorite part of this Pam Roach presser is damn near impossible. But I think “not even arguably” she cares more about people than anyone else in the Senate is probably it.
– Jonah Goldberg’s opposition to hucksters in movement conservatism is only hostility to the competition.
– Assholes gonna asshole.
– This Brandon McCarthy Twitter battle encapsulates everything right and wrong with sports people on social media.
by Carl Ballard — ,
Who could have predicted that building a legislative coalition where Pam Roach got plumb assignments might not work out well?
A report says Sen. Pam Roach of Auburn violated the Senate’s policy in March by verbally attacking a Senate Republican staffer charged with upholding sanctions against Roach that prevented her from having direct contact with staff. The report was compiled by a subcommittee created last summer solely to investigate incidents involving Roach.
When reached by phone Tuesday, Roach said she didn’t know anything about the report.
“I’m looking into it,” Roach said. She declined to comment further.
I mean, never bet against Pam Roach being an asshole. But I would have guessed that it would have taken at least until the session for her to abuse staff again. Now we see that as Rodney Tom was scheming to give her the chair of the Government Operations, Tribal Relations & Elections Committee, she had already gone back to her old ways. Rodney Tom should probably apologize to the staffer at the very least.
Tom has said the sanctions against Roach would be lifted, even though they recently were reaffirmed under a legal settlement announced in September. Tom did not return a phone message Tuesday seeking comment.
Courage.
by Carl Ballard — ,
During the budget coup, Rodney Tom’s magical mystery majority relied on Pam Roach coming back into the GOP fold. And as you may remember, there were some issues.
In a letter obtained by The Seattle Times and others, an attorney for Republican Senate Counsel Mike Hoover contends Hoover has been the brunt of abuse from Roach for years. Allowing her back into the caucus — after she had been banned for past behavior — makes Hoover’s job with the Senate untenable, the attorney says.
“Mr. Hoover understandably has no faith that the caucus can or will take any steps to protect him or other staff from Senator Roach’s behavior in the future,” the attorney wrote in the letter to Secretary of the Senate Tom Hoemann.
…
Roach, R-Auburn, was banned from her caucus in 2010 over her treatment of Hoover. She was able to vote but was barred from the caucus room where her colleagues discussed legislation, and she could not deal directly with caucus staff or counsel.
In an interview last month, she said she was allowed back into the caucus when she cast a key vote that allowed the Senate Republicans, with the help of three Democrats, to pass their own version of the state budget.
I assume the GOP would have kept her on no matter the situation. But this deal gives her more power, and more opportunities to abuse the staff.
by Carl Ballard — ,
I just realized that with Gregoire’s retirement, Washington may have all men in the statewide elected offices. That would be a real shame.
And nothing against men; I am one. It’s just that top to bottom the elected executive branch could better reflect the state. We’re certainly willing to elect women statewide as evidenced by our current governor, US Senators and some State Supreme Court justices.
I’m not arguing for a quota system here, or saying you have to vote for the woman for any position. We should evaluate the candidates based on how well we think they’ll do in office. Certainly if Pam Roach jumps into any race for any executive position, you should vote against her. I’ve heard rumors that Lisa Brown is or was thinking about running, but I’d rather have Inslee than her.
So, I don’t know if the parties aren’t recruiting women, or if possible women candidates haven’t stepped up enough. But it would be a sad state of affairs if in 2012, we couldn’t elect a single woman to an executive position.
by Goldy — ,
One of the bellwether contests this November in the battle for control of the state House is being fought in the 25th Legislative District, where Democratic incumbent Rep. Dawn Morrell garnered only 40% of the vote in a six-way race, compared to GOP runner-up Hans Zeiger’s impressive 36%. There hasn’t been much press coverage of this pivotal race, but what little we’ve seen all focuses on the the same thing: it’s gonna be close.
As a four-term incumbent, Rep. Morrell should be familiar to 25th LD voters; she’s a registered nurse, a moderate Dem and the chairwoman of the House Democratic Caucus. But what do we really know about Zeiger, other than the fact that he might win? Well, if you read the papers, not all that much.
In covering the “tight race” in the 25th, the Seattle Times merely refers to Zeiger as Morrell’s “Republican challenger,” while NW Digest is only a bit less concise, describing Zeiger as a “young GOP upstart … poised to make this a huge upset in November.” The Bellingham Herald also focuses on what it calls a “tough re-election runoff,” but is at least a bit more expository, describing Zeiger as a “political newcomer … a writer and nonprofit professional,” while in its post-primary coverage, the Fife Free Press couldn’t even bother to describe Zeiger at all, instead choosing to let him paint a picture of himself with his own carefully worded written statement:
“As we go forward, I hope that we can conduct ourselves with integrity, civility and a bold determination to preserve our freedom in this most beautiful corner of creation called Washington state,” Zeiger said.
My gosh, what a nice, pleasant, well-spoken, young man, you might be thinking, and you might continue to think just that… if not for Zeiger’s long written record of not quite so carefully chosen words that establish him as a batshit-crazy, far-right-wing, Christianist nutcase whose utter lack of civility, toleration, statesmanship and rhetorical restraint makes Pam Roach sound like Adlai Stevenson.
In one of his many commentaries written for right-wing mouthpiece WorldNetDaily (yes, he’s a regular contributor to WorldNetDaily), Zeiger displays his profound intolerance of religious diversity, railing against Americans United for Separation of Church and State and its president, Barry Lynn:
Frustrated with the fact that the bulk of people involved in the National Day of Prayer actually believe in God, Lynn and his left-wing atheist-secularist-ecumenist allies are holding their own counter-events this year. […] Unitarians, mainstream Baptists, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, members of the “Military Pagan Network” and other watered-down ecumenists will hold an “Interfaith Day of Prayer and Reflection” on the steps of the Oklahoma State Capitol today to pray to the generic god.
But … the significant difference between the kumbaya sessions and interfaith vigils and atheist protests of the Religious Left and the Bible studies and prayer circles of the Religious Right is that our God is real.
Man… hating on Unitarians, Baptists, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and their false gods. If that’s Zeiger’s idea of being civil, I’d hate to see him in a bad mood. But in fact, that type of harsh rhetoric is nothing compared to Zeiger’s screeds on education in the oxymoronically named Intellectual Conservative:
This week, the National Education Association at its annual convention is bestowing an award for Creative Leadership in Human Rights to Kevin Jennings, co-founder and director of the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN). This is notable, not because the NEA is championing the radical homosexual agenda (it has long done so), and not because GLSEN is in our schools (it has long been there), but because both are terrorist organizations and we ought to be reminded of that.
[…] We speak much of terror networks in our time, and here is one of the vilest, for it has made greater progress in the tearing down of American institutions and ideals than Iraq or Al Quaeda have. NEA and GLSEN are not the only groups in the network; the ACLU and NARAL and Planned Parenthood and Americans United for Separation of Church and State and others come to mind.
And we all know what we do to terrorists.
Okay, yeah, sure, the NEA and its “Bolshevist platform” are standard right-wing boogeymen, as are the queers, the pagans, the atheists (and I suppose now, the Unitarians, mainstream Baptists, Muslims, Jews and, of course, those war-mongering Buddhists). But it’s not like Zeiger is so completely batshit-crazy that he’d stray into attacking, say, cute little girls wearing badge-covered sashes…
Next month, the Girl Scouts USA national convention will be held in Atlanta. It will be a gathering of radical feminists, lesbians, and cookie peddlers… During the last couple years, it has become clear that the Girl Scouts – nationally and, in many cases, locally – is allied with the abortion industry and Planned Parenthood… The Girl Scouts is almost as much a part of the radical feminist movement as the National Organization for Women. Knowing the radical agenda of the national Girl Scouts organization, parents need to take action.
That’s the Girl Scouts, for chrissakes… the goddamn Girl Scouts! Cookie peddlers, yes (mmm, Thin Mints)… but radical feminist lesbians? Is this guy out of his fucking mind?
Well… um… yes, he is — and you’d think that a competitive legislative challenger who abuses Unitarians, Baptists, Muslims, Jews and Buddhists for praying to a “generic god,” who accuses teachers unions and gay rights organizations of being a more dangerous “terrorist” threat than al Qaeda, and who derides Girl Scouts USA as a gathering of radical, feminist, lesbian, cookie-peddling abortionists… well, you’d think Zeiger’s own rather radical and offensive views might have earned him a tad more coverage from our local press. There’s a treasure trove of material to work from, just in the Google cache alone; I mean, this is a great story!
Instead, the voters of the 25th LD are treated to crickets from their local reporters, even after a press release went out alerting the media to the more than 50 pages of embarrassing rants that he’s already scrubbed from websites like IntellectualConservative.com. How is this even possible? If I were to run for office, would the press really ignore my long, foul-mouthed record here on HA?
Oh, we’ll get the usual horse race coverage as the November election approaches, no doubt, but if voters actually knew Zeiger for the vile, hateful, intolerant, dominionist theocrat he really is — you know, if voters knew Zeiger from his own words — there’d be no horse race to cover. Which I hope doesn’t explain the pathetic coverage we’ve seen thus far.
by Goldy — ,
What with our lack of both party ID and a statistically useful track record with the top-two format, the only thing we really learned from yesterday’s primary election was who made it through to the November general. But since I’m one of those bullshit pundits of sorts, who folks come to the morning after for bullshit punditry, I’ll do my best to oblige.
U.S. Senate race surprises analysts by producing no surprises
Had either Democratic incumbent Sen. Patty Murray or her Republican real estate speculator challenger Dino Rossi scored five or more points higher or lower than either one did, it might really tell us something about what to expect in November. But at roughly 46-34 in a 15 person race… not so much.
Would Murray have liked to have topped 50 percent? Sure. Would Rossi have liked to have garnered at least half the number of raw votes he tallied in his 2008 gubernatorial primary? You betcha. Both numbers will rise as the ballots are tallied and the big counties catch up with the rest of the state, but neither really tells us anything we didn’t already know heading into Tuesday.
Coffee-swilling Washingtonians brew weak tea
For all the huff and puff of our state’s teabaggers, they sure as hell didn’t blow my house down with their candidates’ performance in Tuesday’s primary. Clint Didier looks like he’ll break double digits in the final tally, but with all the Palin winks and free press he got, that’s not saying much. And while he did well in Benton and Franklin counties, there just aren’t that many people there, while he couldn’t even carry his home county of Kittitas.
Meanwhile down in WA-03, teabagger favorite David Castillo, who many had predicted to shock establishment GOPers by sneaking into the top-two, looks to finish a disappointing fourth behind two other Republicans. I mean, what’s up with that?
Let’s just say, except for the comparable size of our respectively immense, illicit pot-growing industries, Washington is no Kentucky.
Our regions voters are out of touch with the Seattle Times editorial board
In a bold and surprising move, the Seattle Times endorsed Democrats Suzan DelBene and Tim Dillon in the WA-08 primary, abandoning former ed board heart throb, Republican Rep. Dave Reichert. And while absolutely nobody is surprised to see Reichert and DelBene face off in November — they were the only serious candidates in the race from an organizational and fundraising perspective — it was kinda amusing to see Dillon come in fifth, behind some guy named Tom Cramer and the very, very, crazy teabagger, Ernest Huber.
What were voters thinking to diss a candidate the Times lauded as… um… not as unstudied or unacceptable as Reichert?
Or, I guess the real question is, if they believe Reichert is so undeserving of reelection, why didn’t the Times just give their sole endorsement to DelBene, who they surely knew would be his November opponent? Huh.
Roaches check in but they don’t check out?
A collective groan arose from the state’s political press corps last night, as early results suggested that gun-toting, flower-speechifying, blog-foddering Republican State Sen. Pam Roach may actually find herself in serious trouble this November. It’s not just that she only scored 40% of the vote, but that it looks like her top-two opponent is going to be a fellow Republican. Ouch.
Olympia without Pam Roach would be like the Asylum of Charenton without the Marquis de Sade. (Or some other, less literary analogy.) Say it ain’t so!
Meanwhile, a bit of irony elsewhere in the 31st LD, where Roach’s son, State Rep. Dan Roach, and Pierce County Councilman Shawn Bunney had a gentleman’s agreement to swap offices. (Word is that, underpaid at his wife’s gym, Roach needed the money that comes with the more lucrative council seat, while Bunney, apparently having never visited the place, longed for the glamor and excitement of the State House.) Well, the best laid plans and all that, because Bunney currently finds himself in third place, behind fellow Republican Cathy Dahlquist and fellow Democrat Peggy Levesque.
However, should Bunney manage to hop Levesque in the final tally, 31st LD voters won’t see any Democrats in any of their three legislative races in November. (And no, I haven’t forgotten about Rep. Chris Hurst.)
by Goldy — ,
I may not be a big fan of the Seattle Times editorial board’s prose, but it turns out it’s better than their verse.
“HOW do you solve a problem like Pamela?” reads the Times’ lede on the latest Pam Roach soap opera, apparently thinking they’ve made a clever reference to the iconic song “Maria” from the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, The Sound of Music.
But they haven’t. Because “Pamela” and “Maria” don’t rhyme. They don’t even share the same meter.
“Maria” is a double or feminine rhyme, with the accent falling on the second to last syllable, whereas “Pamela” is a triple rhyme (or antepenult) with the accent falling on the third to last syllable. To rhyme with “Maria” you’d need a word that mimics its final two syllables, like “Korea” or “diarrhea” or “onomatopoeia.” To rhyme with “Pamela,” you’d need a word that mimics all three syllables, absent the “P.”
Not only doesn’t “Maria” rhyme with “Pamela,” offhand, I can’t think of another word in the English language that does.
And to make matters worse, not only isn’t the Times lede singable as written, nobody but nobody refers to Pam Roach as Pamela. So this supposedly clever reference fails on two fronts. (Not to mention the fact that 95% of non-gay-male readers under the age of 40 probably aren’t even familiar enough with the song to get a properly made reference in the first place.)
Fail, fail, fail.
And even as a fail, the Times’ reference is unoriginal. Indeed, I castigated Newsweek on similar lines just a couple months ago, for attempting to force “Sarah” into the same lyric in a feeble cover headline.
Of course, it is possible to make this lyrical reference work, as I did in a headline not too long ago. My secret? Having the discipline to only make the allusion where it fits.
So my advice to the Times’ editorialists is to leave the rhyming verse to the experts, and stick to… well… I’d prefer they leave the editorializing to experts as well, but I suppose we can’t have everything.
by Goldy — ,
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.
by Goldy — ,
I’m not really sure why I still bother to read him, considering nobody else of influence seems to bother to read him much these days, but I couldn’t help but be amused by our friend Stefan’s conspiracy theories about “Blagojevich-style quids pro quo in the elections director race.” Stefan obsesses on efforts by state and county Dems to consolidate support around a single candidate, ultimately current elections director Sherril Huff, and not surprisingly determines the process was criminally corrupt:
The “read between the lines” understanding among people who are familiar with the discussions is that Osgood and Hansen were promised jobs to get out of the race and Baker was promised help with a bid for Seattle City Council.
Oh no… unnamed sources “familiar with the discussion” (but not actually present), “read between the lines” to conclude that Osgood and Hansen were promised pay to not play! Quick, call the FBI!
Still, I have sources too, first hand at that, and I’m even willing to name some of them. KC Dem Chair Suzie Sheary, one of the participants at the meeting in question, simply laughed off Stefan’s speculation as “a hoot,” while Jason Osgood, who Stefan essentially accuses of taking a bribe, sarcastically sighed “And here I am thinking people are starting to take me at my word…”
“No machinations. I woke up, read that Huff was running, called her to confirm, congratulated her, told her she was the right person for the job, and bowed out. I heard about the Tuesday meeting after the fact. I haven’t spoken to anyone who participated.”
Say what you want about Jason, but he’s nothing if not a true a believer. With his accumulated name ID coming off his recent run for Secretary of State, and his unquestioned devotion to election reform, he would not have dropped out of the race if he wasn’t convinced that Huff was both qualified and, in a better position to win.
Jason’s take on the process? “Play to win and know when you’re beat.”
Of course for Stefan, Jason and Suzie’s denials only prove his suspicions:
Naturally, folks who were at the meeting claimed that “They weren’t pressured into bowing out and weren’t offered anything for doing so”. What would one expect them to say even (especially) if there were pressure and inducements to bow out? But why would these folks go to a meeting to discuss this at Democratic Party HQ in the first place?
Yup, that’s the sort of journalistic rigor and “when did you stop beating your wife” kinda logic we’ve come to expect from WA’s preeminent righty blogger, relying on speculation from unnamed secondhand sources to charge conspiracy, while tautologically proffering the alleged participants’ firsthand denials as incriminating evidence. But, then, you know… anything related to King County Elections brings out the very worst in Stefan, so I guess we should cut him some slack.
So what really happened at last Tuesday’s meeting? Dwight and Suzie kicked the GOP’s ass, that’s what, consolidating support around a single, viable candidate, while the Republican faithful will largely split between armed and dangerous Pam Roach and David Irons and his dangerous hands.
Political horsetrading is neither illegal nor unethical; candidates are pressured all the time to bow out of races with promises of future support and/or threats of political retaliation. And if that’s what was necessary to clear the field for Huff, then the Democratic leadership deserves kudos for their efforts to bring a semblance of sanity to this stupid and irresponsible no-primary, low-turnout special election.
So to raise the specter of Blagojevich-style corruption under these circumstances, based on secondhand conjecture, is not only silly, it ultimately serves to minimize real corruption, like that of the real Blagojevich. Someday, Stefan might dig up an actual scandal, but given his boy-cries-wolf track record, how would we know?
by Goldy — ,
Apparently, state Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt (R-Buttcrack) did indeed moon Sen. Pam Roach, as she alleged… at least according to yet another inflammatory intraparty email, this one from Sen. Don Benton:
“First, the fact that our elected leader, Senator Hewitt screamed uncontrollably at both Senator Roach and myself during the meeting was degrading and embarrassing. I believe it made everyone in the room feel uncomfortable. No one wants to attend a meeting like that and perhaps that is his goal since we are in such dire straights. His immature and vulgar display of lifting his coat and showing his rear end to Senator Roach may be comical to some but was over the top and most certainly behavior unbecoming any senator let alone the leader of our caucus.”
I sure find it “comical,” but not necessarily in the way that Sen. Hewitt intended. As for those “dire straights” Sen. Benton writes about…?
“I was shocked to discover at the meeting that $300,000 of the $400,000 raised in 2007 was also spent in 2007 even though we had no races that year at all. It appears that no attempt whatsoever was made to conserve funds for the crucial 2008 election cycle. This is greatly disturbing. A statewide mailing list composed of only 2600 donors is pathetic. And I hope you caught the fact that $100,000 was spent on direct mail to break even and only add 200 or so additional names to our list. If this wasn’t so sad it would be laughable.
[…] The other serious concern after spending over $300,000 last year is the fact that we still have no candidates recruited for 14 of the 16 “D” seats that are up this cycle. The filing period is only 2 months away. In fact, we only have two candidates, one of which found us. This is a sad commentary on the effectiveness of our whole team in recruiting candidates.”
A “sad commentary”…? Gee… ya think?
Read the whole email over at the TNT’s Political Buzz.
by Goldy — ,
I disagree with today’s Seattle Times editorial on voter registration, and that’s okay — they’re entitled to their own opinion. But the headline they used, well, it’s fucking irresponsible: “Less tampering with state elections.”
I suppose, perhaps, they meant to advocate less tampering with state election laws, which seems to be the relatively even-tempered thesis of the editorial, but if they did, they could have just said so. No, instead they chose to leave a provocative, misleading headline dangling out there, that — even outside of the context of our 2004 gubernatorial election controversy — clearly implies that our state elections are being tampered with.
That’s tabloid journalism. Which again, I guess would be okay… if Frank Blethen were man enough to own up to the journalistic ethos that guides his op/ed pages.
Apart from its childish potshot at the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Eric Oemig (who is ironically presented as a figure of ridicule in a piece that stoops to quoting Sen. Pam “Who took my roses?” Roach as the voice of reason,) there is little opportunity for fisking in the body of the editorial itself. As far as I can tell, the facts don’t seem particularly distorted, and the unnamed author makes an effort to present both sides of the argument. But the headline… oy… the headline.
The headline belies the true history of election tampering in America, which despite the popularized image of ballot-box-stuffing and fraud, has predominantly relied on voter suppression. There is no need to tamper with the results of an election if you can succeed in preventing your opponents’ supporters from voting, and so poll taxes, poll tests, felon disenfranchisement, unequal access to voting facilities, voter roll purges, dirty tricks and outright intimidation have long been the primary means of manipulating the results.
The purpose of Election Day registration is to make it easier for eligible citizens to vote, thus increasing voter turnout and decreasing the opportunity for voter suppression. Hell… what’s the use of a voter roll purge if an eligible voter can just re-register on Election Day? As for accurately verifying these last minute registrants, even the Times admits that “it could be done.” They just don’t think it’s worth the time and money.
Registering to vote already is easy, and vote-by-mail has made voting easier. It is not so bad to require a little effort on the part of the citizen.
“We’re talking about adults here,” says Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn. “At some point, the people have to take a responsibility.”
I guess when one’s political agenda is shared by only a small fraction of the electorate, universal suffrage must lose its universal appeal.