I suppose I should have posted my endorsements before most people voted… but then I’ve never claimed to be as responsible, forward thinking and independent conservative as say… the Seattle Times editorial board. (Tip to future candidates: the secret to gaining the Times’ endorsement is to rail against the estate tax and shoot a few dogs.)
Anyway… for what it’s worth, here are my choices in a handful of contested races. Ignore them if you choose… just get out there and vote.
King County Council District 1: Carolyn Edmunds
I know I probably should like Bob Ferguson, what with all his grassroots, door-belling, bus riding, status quo stomping, gosh darn hard-workin’-guy style of politics… but I don’t. Where others see a refreshing independent voice, I see a calculating, ambitious politician, carefully cultivating his contrarian reputation.
Carolyn Edmunds, on the other hand, is a Democrat, with an established record and strong connections to community groups throughout her district. The way I look at it, outside of District 1 there’s going to be four Democrats and four Republicans on the council. Elect Edmunds and you give the D’s a reliable 5-4 majority. Elect Ferguson and he becomes an unpredictable swing vote.
For my peace of mind, vote for Edmunds.
King County Council District 9: Steve Hammond
Devout Democrat as I am, if I lived in District 9 I’d be grabbing a Republican ballot and casting my vote for Steve Hammond. Not that I like Hammond’s politics… he’s an arch-Conservative Christian preacher with an overbearing, holier-than-thou demeanor and a complete and utter lack of political nuance. But he is what he is, and pretty honestly represents his district.
On the other hand, who the hell knows who Raymond Shaw Reagan Dunn really is? He’s been running like an arch-Conservative Christian preacher with an overbearing, holier-than-thou demeanor and a complete and utter lack of political nuance… but it just comes across as so much grandstanding. I think he made a miscalculation running towards the right, as first impressions count. Republicans need to run towards the middle to win broadly in King County and WA state, and while he likely has the money, the consultants, and the name to overcome these early missteps, I think we’ll all be better off if this GOP golden boy learns a few lessons from stumbling early.
Clearly, a mere council seat is beneath a man of such lofty political pedigree, so we might as well give it to a candidate who genuinely sees the council as an opportunity to serve his community (however misguided his politics), rather than just as a springboard to higher office. Vote for Steve Hammond.
Seattle City Council, Position 2: Richard Conlin
I dunno… I’m just not feeling that “throw the bum out” spirit this year. Conlin’s not given me any reason to dump him, and his opponents haven’t given me any reason to give them a try… and then the Times sealed the deal by endorsing Paige Miller. Vote for Richard Conlin.
Seattle City Council, Position 4: Linda Averill
Fuck The Stranger! I mean really… fuck them! I was so absolutely sure that I would be the only person to the right of Trotsky’s ghost endorsing Linda Averill… and then those cirrhotic fuckers at The Stranger steal my thunder. Well fuck them.
Why Averill? Well mostly I just wanted to piss off my righty trolls by endorsing the only Freedom Socialist Party candidate on the ballot. And… well… The Stranger actually makes some good points in her defense. (But fuck them anyway.) But if you really can’t bring yourself to vote for Averill, I’d just like to remind you that Casey Corr was once an editorial writer for the Times. Need I say more?
Seattle City Council, Position 8: Dwight Pelz
I know I said I don’t have that “throw the bum out” spirit, and I really don’t want to throw out Richard McIver… but damn it, the Council needs an asshole like Dwight Pelz to get in Greg Nickels’ face from time to time. (And Dwight… I mean “asshole” in the best sense of the word.) Truth is, I really haven’t made up my mind on this race yet, and just want to see Pelz and McIver face off in the general election. So whatever you do, don’t vote for Robert Rosencrantz.
Port of Seattle: Molloy, Hara and Pope
No surprise on my first endorsement. Lawrence Molloy is every liberal’s favorite incumbent in this year’s Port Commission elections. The Weekly endorsed him. The Stranger endorsed him. The P-I endorsed him. The Times didn’t. Need I say more? (Plus, I met him last night at the Red Cross fundraiser, and not only is he articulate and knowledgeable, he came across as a nice guy.) Vote for Molloy for Position 1.
Position 3 was a tough one for me. I really, really wanted to endorse Peter Coates, a reform candidate with strong Labor backing… but the pragmatic, good-government Dukakis-Democrat in me thought, gee, I dunno… maybe the Port could use a former City Treasurer and County Auditor like Lloyd Hara. And then the Times ruins everything for me, by endorsing Hara too. Well… screw the Times… I’m voting for Hara anyway.
For Position 4, I’m standing by my man: perennial candidate and HA regular Richard Pope. Sure, Richard’s a little nutty, and he’s probably unqualified for the job, but he’s got a couple good points to make about the Port being a drain on taxpayers, and what the hell… he doesn’t stand a chance of winning anyway. If you really don’t want to throw away your vote, Jack Jolley’s your man… but I’m voting for Richard.
Seattle Popular Monorail Authority: Stockmeyer and Goldberg
The Monorail looks so dead right now, it’s really hard to get too excited over these races, but whoever wins, I think their first act should be to remove the word “Popular” from the authority’s name.
Cleve Stockmeyer is an easy choice for Position 9. Yeah… he wants to build the Monorail, but he’s a pragmatist, a principled good-government activist, and an all around good guy. In the proudest tradition of representative democracy, I trust Cleve to make an informed decision on my behalf.
I’m not so enthusiastic about Beth Goldberg, who is clearly running to kill the Monorail, whatever the circumstances or final proposal. Yet she grudgingly earns my reluctant endorsement because, as her opponent Cindi Laws knows, all us Jews stick together… so I really don’t have a choice. Mazel tov on my endorsement, Beth.
Thanks Goldy.
As a newly returned Seattlite, I was a little unclear which candidates were most likely to get in mayor Smarmy McSmarmison’s face.
…but shouldn’t that be WE jews stick together?
Any word on how many people the minnow has anally probed as an elections official? Roger Rabbit, you are his boss, what’s the low down?
“All of us Jews stick together”………Racist? Hmmmmm, How about “All of us WASPs stick together”? Double standard much, Goldy?
What’s the beef with Robert Rosencrantz? Guy seems like a breath of fresh air compaired to tired has-beens like McIlver and Pelz.
Walt @4,
I don’t have a beef with Rosencrantz. It’s just that I’ve narrowed it down in my mind between Pelz and McIver, and want that to be the race in the general election.
JCH @3,
You’re a fucking idiot. (Perhaps somebody else will explain.)
As I drive around rural King County going to and from work, I’ve seen about a million Reagan Dunn signs. I saw some yellow sunbursts on some of them that said: ” Retain Reagan Dunn!!”
It was kind of funny that a conservative Republican would choose thye name ,”retain”, in reference to himself.
Goldy – Interesting nuances in your post.
You describe yourself as a “Dukakis Democrat”. WTF is that? In my mind, he was a kook who got his head handed to him because he was so far outside the mainstream.
You think Republicans need to move toward center? Have you ever read the book ” Great Moderates in History”? Neither have I. It doesn’t exist. Because there are none. We move forward when time tested conservative politics are implemented, and when kookball candidates and their childish naive left wing ideas are sent to the trash bin where they belong.
What’s your bitch with the Seattle Times? Too conservative? You gotta be kidding me. I read the Times, but not to get “news”. I read it to find out what the enemy is up to, but I certainly don’t take any of it as “fair and balanced”. This illustrates my second point above that trying to be moderate is a waste of time because it satisfies no one.
Goldy @ 6
No, why don’t you explain?
where are you today? Are youa religion hating liberal or a proud member of the tribe?
Or does it just depend which way the wind is blowing?
JCH @ 3 – Career criminal Cindy Laws made a terrible remark a about Jews in and around SMP a while ago. She’s a kook who should be thrown out. Not only does she hate Jews, but she’s totally unqualified to manage a large engineering project like the monorail. But like Goldy says, it doesn’t really matter because SPMA is DOA.
JCH @ 3 (cf. Goldy @ 6 . . . LoL!!!): You really should read Goldy’s blog more regularly if you want to understand the inside jokes. See http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....aws19.html and http://www.horsesass.org/index.php?p=924 , and for good measure http://www.thestranger.com/sea.....?oid=22728 .
Has Cindy finished her diversity training yet? I’d love to know.
prr @ 9: same advice (in 11) goes out to you, too.
@13,
I’m very familiar with the situation
She had nothing to aplogize for.
This whole situation was a bunch of Seattle Liberal Bullshit
Why waste “ink” on endorsements? Don’t you have Dean Logan and team already dialing in the numbers?
I’m watching for their truck of spare ballots to roll into the building about 7 tonight…
Goldy—
Since when did you move to the RIGHT of Trotsky????
You are a Trotskyite in the absolute sense by your positions. Oh like most LEFTIST PINHEADS you occassionally masquerade as a reasonable SOB but when it comes down to what matters…VOTING…you are a Troskyite!!
Goldy, a couple of comments:
Spot on about Casy Corr. Knew his (extensive) family from school and church, and talk about asense of entitlement. Oldish seattle money, who I can’t imagine actually representing the will of the people. Becuz the “people” are just NOCD.
Mark The Redneck, on moderates: Spoken like a true divider, not a uniter. Are you familiar with the concept of polarization? If someone doesn’t atand up as say all the extremists (on BOTH sides) are full of shit, you get wars, famine, riots, mass hysteria, dogs and cats sleeping togehter, etc. It’s people like you who were all ready to push the button 30 yrs ago. Notable extremist losers in recent US politics? Goldwater, Mcgovern, Chong, Wallace, McCarthy.
More on Mark the Redneck: “time tested conservative policies”? First off, spoken like a true facist. And, please don’t talk down to Goldy, becuz he’s arguably one of the most intelligent and informed people I know. Finally, you reference to naive liberal ideas just weakens your position by making enemies. Smart conservatives keep who they hate/disdain a secret. Which proves you ain’t one Q.E.D. (look it up), so why listen to you?
Mark the Redneck: Let me explain it to you this way: The MAINSTREAM agrees with what the Contract with America says. As GWB recently discovered, they also want Republicans to DO those things as well. It’s not rocket surgery or brain science.
Larry – You sounded like another run of the mill kook maybe worthy of responding to, until you took a page out of Lucy’s book. Your use of the word “fascist” is stupid, and completely discredits you. You and Lucy have a ball together.
By the way, if you’re going to use big words, look up their spelling first.
LINDA AVERILL??????
My God Goldy, you are free-falling off the cliff.
This candidate brings nothing but fucking off the map LEFTIST bullshit to the table. I’m sure we’ll see a nuke-free zone and community TOFU factories plus no more cars in Seattle!!!
Will Linda Averill say the Pledge of Allegiance??
Redneck @8,
No… I didn’t describe myself as a “Dukakis-Democrat”… I said there was one in me. But then, why should I expect you to understand nuance?
Cynical @20,
Oh… so endorsing Averill is crazy, but endorsing Pope isn’t? (Got exactly the reaction out of you I wanted.)
Re: Carolyn Edmunds
She doorbelled my house and both the wife and I answered. I didn’t say much because I was so offended by her goofy, negative campaign against Ferguson.
Later, our neighborhood precinct captain doorbelled and didn’t have nice things to say about Edmunds either. She had previously invited Edmunds in to chat and was appalled about how poorly Edmunds answered her questions. “At least Bob Ferguson is intelligent..”, was our neighbor’s conclusion.
I don’t like Ferguson either for the reasons Goldy outlined. The wife already voted for Ferguson. I guess I’ll hold my nose real hard and vote for Edmunds.
Cynical, until the “Under God” part. Maybe she’ll skip the “With Liberty and Justice to All” too. Donks only give liberties and provide justice to other donks. Hence they don’t apologize for their actions or Trotskyite voting patterns. I am so glad to live in Snohomish County.
Harry Poon: You said “MAINSTREAM agrees with what the Contract with America says.” Are you finally admitting the mainstream is Republican? Thanks for finally agreeing with us RIGHTIES. I take back my accusation that you and Lucite are one or brother and sister. You are definitely more intelligent than Lucite! Q.E.D.!!
I’m glad that you brought the subject up , Puddybud. All the points that go to make up the Contract with America are not the actual heartfelt beliefs of conservatives but rather items that got at least a 60% approval rating at focus groups presided over by that Luntz character. For instance, Americans want a balanced budget, and Republicans promise to do that. Their WAY of doing that is to cut the funding on popular social programs that help the voters, while simultaneously increasing defense spending(read: “welfare for corporations) AND cut taxes for the rich. So the end result of the Contract with America is the mess we find ourselves in today.
Newspapers now clearly and in no uncertain terms warn readers that the rebuilding of New Orleans is a project that is going to be rife with graft and Republican corruption because that’s just who they are.
Edmonds. Carolyn Edmonds.
David, I’m shocked that you are defending a racist. BTW, any military time, David? [I thought not. Same as Goldenstein]
Why do you endorse a Trotskyist for anything? The whole purpose of Trotskyism is to be the Marxist-Leninist party of dictatorship of the proletariat without the paranoid violence of Stalin, i.e., they don’t kill their own henchmen such as Bukharin et al. in the Moscow trials. That’s not much of a purpose with Stalin gone, especially since Leninism wasn’t that much different from Stalinism, with Trotsky himself leading the way with Red Terror (read Terrorism and Communism by Leon Trotsky).
JCH @3,
You’re a fucking idiot. (Perhaps somebody else will explain.)
Comment by Goldy— 9/20/05 @ 11:20 am
[Er, Goldy, I’m a vet….You know, military service. If you were within 10 feet and said that your little Jewish bitchy ass would be on the floor. Best regards, JCH]
Harry @7
Dunn has to use stupid language like “retain” because he can’t use “reelect”, seeing as he was never elected.
Harry: Rife with Republican corruption? I say BS to that old chap. Who is being indicted in NO & LA by Fed FEMA for missing $30MM? State officials who misappropriated levee funds. Who has controlled LA since time immortal, or at least from 1935? Huey Long and the Landrieus’.
The MSM papers are a funny bunch. When most knowledgable people know that the the Democrats have owned LA forever, the papers never mention that. Like the papers not mentioning the Shaw Group CEO (thanks ProudAss) is the head donk in LA? So I suppose any $$$ going to the Shaw Group is corporate welfare. The MSM likes to trump up things unobvious, because of the po blacks blindly voting for donks without getting anything back is acceptable to the MSM. I’d call that taxation without representation!!!
Now being an honest person, the problem that some of the Republicans are having is the issue with power. They haven’t had the power and they are acting like donks. I hate pork barrel politics and I have stated this here many times.
Cutting popular programs, can you prove to me that welfare has made blacks successful people? Can you demonstrate to me the personal improvements HeadStart has done for the inner city fatherless black child? Where is the child getting that father figure from? Also your side calls a cut when the program isn’t funded at the runaway inflation rates of the 60s-90s!!!
Okay Goldy – make sure you vote for Dean Logan in that case.
Puddybud: I don’t have all day to list these things. Who was Brown’s predecessor at FEMA? Where does he work now and in what capacity? Graft and corruption. Case Closed, asshole!
Who ensured that the people who will actually do the work rebuilding NO will be underpaid ensuring that they will NOT get out of poverty. And who will reap the benefits of higher profits because of the lower wages? Graft and Corruption, asshole!
It’s your tax money too ya dope! Do you hate being wrong that much?
You know the Contract with America is BS. At least you do now. That’s why you talked about LA internal politics in your reply to my comment. Your own national administration wouldn’t stand up to even a little scrutiny. I consider you, sir, to be a traitor and a knowing liar.
Go read the latest edition of the “American Spectator.” They agree that the Bush administration is dead meat, politically—–and so are frauds like you , Puddybud.
Goldy@21–
You think Richard Pope is a fringe lunatic like Averill? Surely you jest! You fancy yourself to be a blogging slickmeister…yet this analogy is ridiculous. Think about it again.
At least Richard Pope has the guts to run for office. I salute him for that. Go ahead and ridicule Richard…but you know he brings a lot to the table (you just disagree).
Averill on the other hand, will surely lower the already bottom-feeding Council majority to the lowest low possible. With this clown in there, you can be assured she will waste time and money to the magnitude of the Berkeley City Council. Take a look at the Berkeley City Council agenda some time. It’s unbelievable. Averill will hamstring staff and Council with global & universal issues….rather than deal with important Seattle issues like infrastructure. She will tax-and-squander…repeatedly.
Richard would be a good steward of public funds. That should be qualification #1.
Goldy is such a fucking idiot that he somehow believes that HATING GEORGE BUSH is the #1 qualification for all elected officials. And Goldy wonders why the friggin’ roads and bridges are in disarray!!! You elect idiots…you get shit.
What are you talking about? If the Repubs followed the CWA to the teeth, your side would be screaming bloody murder. The first thing Clinton did was to start cutting the Military and that’s why we lost some great generals.
The CWA was voted in in 1994 by America because people saw through 40 years of Democrap BS. Our side didn’t follow it through with any of the promises except pork barrel politics. How many interstates does WVA have? It was Clinton, Daschle, and Tom Foley who stopped the 1995 budget process and then the Repubs, not knowing how to deal with a biased MSM, lost the initial American hearts battle. You see Harry, I have a great memory and I use the Internet to back me up. I can provide links, but I think you should do the due diligence.
Now we have General Schoomaker, a political correct guy who will be soon identified with the 9/11 Omission for his lack of actions in the Aden Sea on the Navy ship in October 2000 by Phillpott, Smith, Shaffer and others. We have Sandy Burgler who destroyed documents so his boss will look okay. We have the Clinton Pentagon stopping meetings with the FBI and doing nothing on Atta in 1999 and 2000.
Don’t call me a fraud, buddy. Your side are the frauds for the do nothing you all didn’t perform when you all owned Congress for 40 years and now you are screaming Oh my, look at the poverty in NO. You all control the cities. Tell me where does the money go? I haven’t gone to the American Spectator, but we call each other on disagreements. Your side following the lead of Mike Dukakis who would allow his wife to be attacked and he would sit there and smile, does not call a donk a donk when they are wrong. I don’t respect that holier than thou attitude. Where were you when Lucite was calling PacMan the N-word? Another enabler, eh Harry Poon?
OOOh, OOh, I want to join in: You want to talk about corruption in the NO clean up? How about this:
The grim task of recovering Katrina’s dead has been assigned to a private firm – Kenyon International, a division of Service Corporation International (SCI) – first through a Department of Homeland Security contract, and then directly by the state of Louisiana. There are two things you should know about SCI. First:
The Menorah Gardens cemetery chain, owned by SCI, desecrated vaults, removed hundreds of bodies from two cemeteries in Florida and dumped the gruesome remains in woods frequented by wild hogs, investigators discovered in 2001. In one case, a backhoe was used to crack open a vault, remove corpses and make room for more dead bodies.
SCI paid $100 million to settle a lawsuit filed by outraged family members of the deceased….
SCI also owned fifteen funeral homes named as defendants in a lawsuit filed on behalf of family members alleging “macabre mishandling, abuse and desecration of bodies” by Tri-State Crematory in Georgia. The lawsuit accused SCI-owned funeral homes of sending bodies to the unlicensed, unregulated crematorium, where never-incinerated corpses were found piled outdoors and stuffed in sheds in 2000.
And the second thing you should know about SCI? You just knew this was coming:
[Robert] Waltrip, chairman of SCI, is a longtime friend of Bush’s father, former President George Herbert Walker Bush. The firm’s political action committee donated $45,000 to George W. Bush’s 1994 gubernatorial campaign.
The company also contributed more than $100,000 for construction of the George H.W. Bush presidential library.
Go ahead – pretend that you’re surprised. The Empty Flight suit and his crowd are all about cronyism, corporate welfare and tax cuts for (ONLY) the rich . I don’t know why y’all are talking about the CWA, as that died the day W came to power. As a progressive, I look back nostalgically on the CWA days, as at least people like Bob Dole had some integrity. Not like this craven lot.
Thanks to Rod at http://buckmulligan.blogspot.com/
Mark the Redneck: Silly boy, I wasn’t trying to start a dialogue with you. Again, u are probably NOCD too. Just pointing out that ur diatribe was ill-advised. Secondly, I’m obviously very worried about correct spelling when I use words like “cuz” intentionally. Also, I’m a shitty typist, so sometimes I miss (leave out) letters. Go back and check the text. I mis-typed “stand” as “atand” in the paragraph before . And thirdly, your reply seems pretty petty when you have to stoop to spelling errors to get a jab in. And that exemplifies my point: Your tone does not do your cause service. It doesn’t persuade or even generate debate, it just turns people off.
It sure is amazing that the leftist donks of animal hind parts will use the American Spectator when they see it going against GWB. Wow one article while the rest eviserate your side! Louise Slaughter, what a piece of work she is. I have friends in upstate NY and she is not a rocket scientist. What you all fail to see is the real issue of the article and you misquote it. Typeical of your side. Harry Poon, et. al., you implement the same item extraction I accused JustDumbBozo of. Wow Harry Poon, you are a racist enabler and you are not too bright either.
And Urbanite Larry, you side stirs debate by calling people names, racial epithets, etc.? Come on Mr Urbanite, what are you really saying?