Susan Hutchison has made much hay in recent days about an email from County Councilmember Reagan Dunn that allegedly shows he was concerned that he would lose funding for projects within his district if he didn’t vote for a ferry district tax sponsored by Dow Constantine.
In his Nov. 5, 2007 e-mail to County Council attorney Jim Brewer, Dunn asks if “vote-trading” is legal in Washington, and asks whether council members can legally “remove projects located in one Councilmember’s district when that Councilmember refuses to vote in favor of tax increases.”
Dunn said today he was worried that senior centers and other programs in his district would lose funding if he voted against the tax to fund passenger-only ferries.
At first I just wrote off Dunn’s alleged concerns to woosy naivete, or perhaps naive woosiness. I mean, horse trading in politics? Heaven forfend!
But as it turns out, Dunn is just a shameless hypocrite, as evidenced by how proud he is over his councilmanic arm-twisting to restore funding to the King County Fair in Enumclaw:
King County Councilman Reagan Dunn is pushing the issue in Seattle, urging his fellow council members to include at least $318,000 in the 2010 budget to make the fair a reality. … Dunn said he’s working on the rest of the county council, calling in favors when necessary.
“This is budget politics at its best,” he said, referring to the give-and-take that occurs when nine elected officials must come together to pass a working budget.
So let’s see… when Republican Dunn twists arms and calls in favors to save projects in his own district, that’s “budget politics at its best,” but when Democrat Constantine allegedly does the same, well, that’s a clear sign of corruption.
Uh-huh.
Reagan Fucking Dunn. The only name that could be worse is George Walker bush.
There can be no equivalence to these two instances, David.
Dow is accused of illegal “vote-trading.” That is, he traded a flood and mental health tax for a tax to fund his dream of booze-cruising mosquito boats.
It’s one thing to advocate for your district by trying to horn a project into the budget.
It’s quite another to illegally connect unrelated votes before the council, and strong-arm any opposition by threatening to remove funding for their projects.
Furthermore, given that the Republicans are in the minority on the council, there’s little if anything that Dunn or the others could do to force Democrats to go along.
Nice try.
sid @2,
Thanks for talking out of your ass. If you read Dunn’s email, it alleges nothing. You and Suzie are free to characterize it any way you want, but you can be damn sure that if Constantine had crossed some line an ethics complaint would have been filed at the time, instead of an email leaked two years later.
Oh, and by the way, Constantine voted for all the measures Dunn alleges he threatened to block, while Dunn voted against Constantine’s ferry district nonetheless. That’s some vote trading.
I saw a Nutchzichson TV ad condemning Constantine for pushing for projects in his district.
Ticky-Tacky. In every nook, glenn, and hamlet if Hutchison gets in. Lots of Mexican construction workers too, with simultaneous fear propaganda about Mexicans taking ‘our’ jobs.
These wingnuts should be strung up by the balls.
@2 “There can be no equivalence to these two instances, David.”
Sure there can. You don’t make the rules around here.
“Dow is accused of illegal ‘vote-trading.'”
Terrific circular argument, Ace, i.e. Dunn accused Dow, therefore you accuse Constantine of being “accused.” Just because an asswipe like Dunn accuses someone of something doesn’t make the accusation true; in fact, it’s almost guaranteed to not be true.
“It’s one thing to advocate for your district by trying to [illegally] horn a project into the budget. It’s quite another to illegally connect unrelated votes before the council and strong-arm any opposition by threatening to remove funding for their projects.”
No it isn’t. They’re exactly the same thing.
“Republicans are in the minority on the council”
No, they’re not. There are no Republicans or Democrats on the county council. They’re all nonpartisan.
“Nice try.”
No, it wasn’t. Your snidely amateurish comment isn’t even close to being a nice try. It’s merely sophomoric.
@4 I wouldn’t reelect the person representing my district if he didn’t push for projects in my district. That’s what I elected him to do.
I’m not here to defend Dunn, or support Hutchison. I’m here to tear apart your pathetic argument, and point out that YOU are the hypocrite.
Have you read Dow’s email? The one where he makes a big fuss to his chief of staff saying, “I am fully prepared to vote agaist [sic] the flood district and the mental health tax?”
Dow clearly linked the two other votes to the passage of his precious ferry district. He was willing to sacrifice flood protection and mental health services for his own political gain.
And where were you on the ferry tax, David? Oh that’s right, solidly against it. Even HA contributors recognized it was a boondoggle project from the get-go.
So why are you shilling for Dow, again?
“I’m not here to defend Dunn, or support Hutchison.”
Sure you are. We get a lot of trolls on this blog who pretend to be independents or even Democrats but they all have the same objective: Shill for the wingnut agenda and candidates no matter what. You’re no different. You’re not fooling anyone, either.
[Deleted — see HA Comment Policy]
[Deleted — see HA Comment Policy]
goldy thinks he is a master spinnmiester for the democrats…when in reality he is merely the masturbating spinner…
Dow is a fucking crook, just like Ron Simms was.
oh, and to the guy who wants to string people up by the nuts…come and try you belltown faggot.
@11:
That’s one of 37 names used by headless lucy@4 racist 24×7
Reagan Dunn is bad spawn. His father, Dennis Dunn, fashioned himself as a big game hunter. Indeed, he did kill many game animals, and I don’t have any trouble with that. But, in hunting, there is a concept called “fair chase.” Dennis, up in the Northwest Territories, 10 or 12 years ago, shot at a caribou buck swimming in a lake. Hey, you hunters out there, what do you think about shooting an animal while swimming? He later posted a photo of himself with that buck in a bowhunting magazine. A friend of mine, who had the unfortunate situation of sharing camp with Mr. Dunn, had to put down a caribou fawn Mr. Dunn hit in the hail of arrows he launched at his trophy swimming in the lake.
Reagan’s daddy doesn’t have a clue what “fair chase” means. The bottom line is that it means having ethics. So, we see, Dennis and Jennifer Dunn. Reagan’s parents. Odds of him being ethical? Uh, not much.
re 12: You silly goose!!
re 11: Where and when?
Reagan Dunn is a shameless hypocrite. Why do people retain him?
[Deleted — see HA Comment Policy]
16
The GOP doesn’t have a bench. Hell, that party doesn’t even have a starting line-up. That’s why Reagan Dunn is a star in that party. Pretty fucking sad. I wish, like Reagan D., I’d been born with a silver spoon up my ass.
[Deleted — see HA Comment Policy]
Roger Rabbit @ 5 says:
You’re getting into Seattle Jew territory here for the sheer moronity of that statement. Hutchison is a Republican and so are Lambert, Dunn, PVR, and Hague.
That’s the whole point of this election. “Nonpartisanship” is a hoax. So quit using it just to get gotcha points in some comment thread with some wingnut.
proud leftist @13,
is the big game hunter you refer to Reagan Dunn’s deceased biological father?
Or is it the great Senator John Yerkes Iselin?
@20 Ivan
Leaving aside your praise of me, there is nothing about a non partisan election that says Dems and Reps can not run or even support their candidates.
What a non-partisan election does do is separate the parties from controlling the election by allowing for the possibility that the two top candidates may be of the same party, include a third party, or even include someone who is truly non partisan.
Where Hutchinson’s fraud comes in is her claim to not be a Reprican.
Ummm, concerning councilmembers doing things for their districts — I don’t know where my district’s boundary lines are. I care about my councilmember doing things that benefit my community (interpreted any way you wish) and for the good of the region as a whole.
Any candidate who can only point to a list of projects within an arbitrary boundary line is going to get a yawn from this voter.
sid snively,
“It’s quite another to illegally connect unrelated votes before the council, and strong-arm any opposition by threatening to remove funding for their projects.”
CHALLENGE — what law is violated in your view? Please cite to the RCW, WAC or case law.
Thank you for clearing up your own ridiculous position which, as you know, is totally untrue.
How about non-partisan football games where the players all suit up in the same uniform and mill around the field aimlessly?