In the months leading up to an election, candidates vie against each other for political and media endorsements, and in the liberal-eat-liberal world of Puget Sound politics none is more keenly prized than the non-endorsement from my good friend Stefan at (un)Sound Politics. For example, yesterday Stefan publicly threw his support behind Bruce Harrell for Seattle City Council, and today Harrell’s opponent, Venus Velazquez, triumphantly issued a press release touting her victory.
Congratulations Venus, your win in November is virtually assured.
Since rising to prominence with his feverishly paranoid coverage of the 2004 gubernatorial election contest, Stefan has proved a cannily accurate inverse bell weather of local politics, earning his endorsements the well deserved reputation as a political kiss of death. Indeed, considering his track record, the only thing more feared than Stefan endorsing your victory is him predicting it.
Amusingly, Stefan relies on a clip of Velazquez at the Hate Free Zone forum to justify his endorsement of Harrell, arguing that her appeal to minority voters to vote for leaders “who look like you … who come from you,” is inherently and unforgivably racist. Yet Stefan fails to inform his readers that Harrell — who was always Velazquez’s main opponent — is himself half-Asian, half-African American, so that any such appeal would apply to him as much as it does to her. How typically Stefan.
I’ve had the chance to talk one-on-one with both Velazquez and Harrell, and to be honest, I wasn’t excited by either one of them. But to her credit Velazquez actually argued with me about issues rather than just trying to win me over. I’ve heard that Velazquez has a reputation as being a bit brash and hard to work with, and Stefan warns that she’ll be a “shrill… divisive and… toxic presence on the Council.” But… well… that may be exactly the type presence the Council needs to shake things up and provide a little balance to our sometimes imperious mayor.
UPDATE:
Will just called me to remind me of his wise words to Harrell from way back in April:
Don’t let Stefan endorse you. Don’t email him campaign updates. Hope he doesn’t write about your campaign in any way favorable. Make no mistake, Stefan is the “Kiss of Death”. Just ask Robert Rosencrantz and Casey Corr, who both got hammered (Rosencrantz twice!) in city races. I’m amazed that Seattle’s preeminent wingnut blogger doesn’t understand how radioactive he is. Republican Jim Nobles, the first “out” Republican to run for city office since the 1980’s, is too smart to embrace Stefan and his mean–spirited, petulant, race-baiting politics.
Harrell’s half-Asian? Jeez. That makes it TWO Asians Stefan’s fucked.
Has he brought down Nancy Pelosi yet?
Sounds like the true kiss of death is the rarely sought after but to often given Goldy Endorsement. Marcy and whats her name challenging Cathy McMorris-Rodgers did wonders last year.
We await with fearful aprehension the Stefan’s endorsement in the Pope vs. Hague race.
Venus is pure ambition.
Watched them side by side, Harrell is my choice.
All the political novices, like Goldy, want cat on dog fights on the city council.
In reality, it takes 5 votes to be effective. Or you become the sweet outsider, can do nothing except bitch and moan, finger point, etc ….
Those don’t last long. Listen up Venus, running as a flame thrower.
Once we get Timmy renamed as the official state Horse’s Ass, what title is Stefan gonna hold?
Will Venus run on the Surrender and Socialism platform? Sounds like a winner to me…
What the fuck kind of name is “Venus”. With a name like that ya sorta hafta be a “moonbat”. Or a dingbat.
How ’bout calling her “Moonbat Dingbat Venus”?
And how the fuck can you have a “hate free zone” with libruls around. You guys are the embodiment of hate. Hate is all you have. OK, hate and greed. Well, OK, hate and greed and intolerance. And stoopid…
You folks should also keep in mind that Bruce has been endorsed by Al Runte, Scott Feldman, and John Manning. There are reasons for Bruce winning over ALL of his former rivals. The fact that Venus has conducted her campaign vindictively and the latest evidence that she’s the Mayors candidate (Check from Tim Ceis)doesn’t help her either. Vote for unity, strength, and leadership. Thats Bruce!
David, when are you going to post your post-primary endorsements and predictions? On August 22nd, you committed to posting them that afternoon. At this point, I’m reserving judgment on whether your word is worthless, but the patience of your readers is being tested severely. At the very least, David, you owe all of your readers, especially the dedicated and devoted ones, such as myself, an explanation as to why you haven’t fulfilled your commitment.
On an unrelated matter, I saw some “Richard Pope for County Council” signs on NE 85th St in Kirkland today. Did the Democrats come around? David, as an inside-baseball kind of guy, keep us informed on such questions, as only you can. The P-I and Times wouldn’t cover this question.
By the way, David, I listened to a podcast of your interview of Richard Pope. I thought the whole segment was great. The questions posed by you and the listeners were challenging. Having listened to that interview and seen Pope’s posts, I conclude, like you, that he is a reasonable guy. David, you owe him a big, splashy endorsement.
On another matter, David, I don’t listen to your radio show a whole lot. I try to listen on Sundays. I never listen on Saturday. I perceive that some of your guests never take public calls, unlike Richard Pope. Is that true? If so, why?
Venus, i watched her. token, for the guilt filled lefties.
will she fight for Aztlan? Seattle a sanctuary?
6:
How about “The Horse’s Stomach” (because someone has to digest all that garbage)?
7&8:
All you seem to talk about is ‘surrender & socialism’. Perhaps that’s what you really want. Your surrender is inevitable, anyway. How about an original, somewhat intelligent thought now?
Didn’t think you could……
tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick
#8 — …or a WORLD CLASS tennis champ … or a carnivorous plant … or the Roman Goddes of Love …
Better to be a clay-eating redneck?
12 – Darn right I do. I think it’s the best platform for dems to run on. Surrender and Socialism have a long proud heritage in Murka. It’s a sure winner again.
Bellwhether (not “bell weather”).
A bellwether is any entity in a given arena that serves to create or influence trends or to presage future happenings. The term is derived from the Middle English bellewether and refers to the practice of placing a bell around the neck of a castrated ram (a wether) in order that this animal might lead its flock of sheep.
In sociology, the term is applied in the active sense to a person or group of people who tend to create, influence or set trends.
thats why god gave venus two sets of lips so she could piss and moan at the same time just like darcy
# 14 — It would have been even more aggravating if you’d said: ‘Darn Tootin’. I know that all you really want here is for people to think you are an aggravating bunghole.
I have to admit it. You are.
# 16 — I bet your wife or girlfriend would get a kick out of that one! If you had a wife or girlfriend.
s-choir how do you know i dont have both.eat shit and go bark at the moon
Jerry @ 15
Good call. I thought something was wrong there, but had neither the time nor inclination to figure it out. A bit of erudition, such as you’ve provided, is always appreciated. For the opposite of erudition, turn to the post above yours. Redneck, who claims several college degrees, is incapable of communicating to anyone other than his own dick.
Image of Berford
http://www.dba-oracle.com/images/redneck_smoke.jpg
That’s how I know.
Berford — You have man-boobs. That’s as close as you’ll ever get to the real thing.
s-choir @ 21
Man, I’m going off to bed, and that image is going to haunt me. The nightmares I’m sure to have, I’ll blame on you. Thanks, my friend.
@20
MTR has no dick.
No matter how you slice it, Venus’s message is toxic and we need to spread the word of her hypocrisy and race-baiting.
No way can Seattle let her get into office after these comments! I can’t believe any decent Democrats would support her based on this video. http://youtube.com/watch?v=LzEGpzGMgss
She’s toxic and has a reputation for being mean-spirited and divisive. Her own neighborhood Democrats endorsed Bruce Harrell over her because of her poor track record. This video proves the rumors about how bad she is.
Bruce is a Democrat who can build bridges with the Republicans. They support him for the reasons that makes him the best candidate.
“Goldy, sometimes you are dead right – on this one you are dead wrong. For you to jump on Venus’ ailing, smoke-and-mirrors campaign is crazy. She is a transparent fraud!! Do your homework. Talk to anyone who has had the misfortune of working with her on any issues in this city. I have. She has accomplished nothing in this community. She needs a job, and wants a soapbox to scream from. You might think Harrell is too friendly for your style, but the guy is an actual leader, a committed Democrat, and someone who seems genuinely interested in serving the community that he’s spent his whole life in. What kind of observation is, “provide a little balance to our sometimes imperious mayor”, more like the mayor’s puppet with the money that she has received from his people.
I think Goldy’s post was more about the hypocrisy of the Shark the the racism of either Harrel or Venus,
Having me both of them I plan to vote for Harrel. I really don’t think either is a a racist. While Shark’s endorsement worries me I suspect the SP blogmeister is so deluded by ARS that his opines are nto more valid than anything GWB says these days.
Harrel, OTOH seemed to me to be more of a Wonk, more knowledgeable abut the business issues the council needs to deal with,
I do wish liberals would put “people pf color” into a coffin alongside the N-word/
I don’t understand how anyone who has lived with people of different nationalities, ethnicities, or gender can take Venus’s statement as not being an appeal to race or gender, or both. Vote for me, because I look like you?
George W Bush is a white male. Does that make me more accountable for the Iraq war than Condaleeza Rice? How does race or gender make any guarantee about a persons values or philosophy? I did not know I should vote for the person who looks the most like me. Should I have voted for Dino Rossi?
It is simply a shameful statement. The Republicans have done it for so long, maybe some people think it is now socially acceptable. I don’t know. What I do know is that I used to have respect for you, Goldy. Never thought much about Will, and his post above shows a foundation of easy racism too. “He has now fucked two asians.” How easy and trite, as if you couldn’t take one moment, and think how offensive that may be to an asian woman.
Well, I hope Lee pipes in, and does not make it a trifecta.
I actually agree on the issue but not on the hype.
Velaquez and harel’s comments are wll within the norm and there is no reason not to be proud of their origins. I kind of like the idea of Bruce’ Harrel’s anjcestory being a token of Seatle’s future even as I an proud of Ron Sims. At the same time as I wold not vote for anyone because of race, I am a happy supporter of Mr. Obama in art because his elction would be a great symbol of our progress.
At the same time, the whole phenomenon of “reverse” racism has become endemic. Here is one message I would like to give:
“Hispanic ain’t a race!”
Nor is it true that color is the dividing line in the US. For certain races it is but not others. African descent, for example, is a lot different than Dravidian (aka Tamil or S. Indian) or Australian in terms of our society even thought genetically these three popel are closely related. Caribbeans do as well as Koreans and better than Euroes in their first and second gen. as immigrants.
Unfortunately the term “people of color” is often used as a code word. For example, it may shock most folks to realize that African Americans are a minority in the Seatle Public Schools. The African American community, a very agrresive ethnic group, however dominates SPS in part by equating its interests to those of people of color. At the UW, there are affairs that intentionally divide people on the basis of whether they are POC or not.
Apparently someone thinks if you are a wealthy person from Toledo with pure Visigoth ancestry you are colored but a poor person from Appalachia is only a minority if she has a minimum amount of African “blood?”
In my own case my ancestors on one side are Ashkenazim (german descended Russin Jews) and the other Sephardim (Spanish). Having lived in the African American communir=ty as well and grown up as the only Jewish kid in an antisemitic neighborhood, I refuse to ever accept the desgnation “white” or “caucasian.” This sometimes creates crises when bureaucrats say I MUST be one of the officlial races. Lately “other” has appeared. Or … being half Sephardic should I list myself as “Hispanic?”
Are “others,” people of color?
Back at Harell and Velasquez, they both tout racial/ethnic identities and frankly I see nothing wrong with that as long as it s not exclusionary. Irespect the chices of people who decide to vote for either one, at least in part, because of identity. It is certainly better than the feminist arguement that women should vote for women regardless of party, race, etc.
Yep. Shark is the kiss of death when it comes to endorsements and predictions… I was just mentioning that to Congresswoman Burner the other day. We joked about how Sound Politics continually cried out that a person with no public service experience and no real management experience in the private sector either couldn’t possibly win. Jeez, was Shark way wrong on that one. It was good for a belly laugh (not completely lady-like, I know, but Darcer can bellow with the best of the House).
Gosh, it is such a shock. A Republican website in a very very blue area is usually on the losing side when it comes to endoresments. In other breaking news, pit bulls sometimes bite.
@1
That’s awful. Will, you are pathetic. Go away if you would.
David, your comments on Velazquez are beside the point. Irrespective of the race of her opponent, her comment was unequivocally racist. What’s your stand on racism? It’s not a big deal in this instance?
I’ll vote for any candidate who pledges to overturn the mayor’s idiot nightclub law, which the lame ducks will no doubt pass after the SWAT team runs the “troublemakers” out of the room at tomorrow’s meeting.
Nickels is going beyond being just a bad joke. If he’s a “democrat” it’s in the spirit of Richard Daley the Elder or Boss Tweed. He ought to be sent back to the century where he belongs.
12 “How about an original, somewhat intelligent thought now?”
Back atcha, sweetie.
What’s clear about Bruce Harrell is that he is unethical, a liar and an impostor. He takes credit for things he didn’t do (but not, interestingly enough, for the things he DID do, such as losing $15 million for his clients because of his own greed).
Harrell and his campaign went to Sharkansky first with the specific intent to smear Venus. And that’s not divisive? Harrell is an arrogant ex-football player with a sense of entitlement that is both oppressive and offensive. He has no knowledge of the issues and offers nothing but platitudes as solutions. He is an angry man who talks about “muscling up” and “kicking butt” as his approach to solving problems. And there’s the rub: He can only talk about his approach, because he has never done anything in the public arena.
Venus’ comments, while clumsily said, reflect one of the most democratic notions of our nation: that leadership should reflect the people it serves.
Let the readers decide for themselves whether the comment is racist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzEGpzGMgss
Is that Sharkansky dressed in a wig in that video?
Then, I guess Venus smeared herself.
Leadership should reflect the people it serves, but gender or race is not one of the attributes of true leadership.
But nice try on the spin, it was almost Rovian.
21 THATS ROGER RABBIT.WORKING ON A CASE FOR THE STATE
Do you people really believe that Venus was race baiting? Have any of you watched the three hours of the forum from which this clip was taken? Harrell comes across as an angry numnut and talks about his race and ethnicity several times. Venus does not. She does make the point that representation matters – and doesn’t it? Sure, it’s not the only thing that matters but this was a forum sponsored by several civil rights and immigrant/refugee groups. The whole thing was about how those folks do not feel like their issues or concerns are represented or dealt with by the city council.
Why can’t people see Venus’ comments in that context? So she’s a rookie public speaker who inarticulately tried to make the point about representation. That does not make her a racist, it makes her a pretty unpolished politician. I am not defending her language but I got the meaning of what she was trying to say. And I can cut her a break. She’s a newbie with some good ideas on a lot of issues that matter to the city. I don’t get the reactionary attitudes here.
And for all of you who thing gender and race don’t matter, tell that to Hillary and Obama.
Sounds like Venus’ people are trying to manipulate us with spin. Last I heard Venus was touting herself as a political affairs consultant. Anyone who looks at the video can see that she meant exactly what she said–vote for those who look like you. She thought she could get away with this statement which she’s also made in other places. She’s known for being divisive and this time it’s there for the world to see.
Racists good. Republicans bad. OK, got it.
Does anyone remember that Velazaquez, as a finalist for the open seat of Jim Compton, joined a group called the “sisterhood?” The group excluded Sally Clark, a white finalist.
See this story in The Seattle Times:
http://archives.seattletimes.n.....e=20060128
“…a little balance to our sometimes imperious Mayor.” You’ve got to be kidding!!!
Hmmm, let’s see who is supporting Venus with their checkbooks: Tim Ceis and his mother Margaret, $3040 from mostly high-level City employees who are beholding to the Mayor (compared to Bruce’s $875 from City employees), and $2400 from The Money Tree or those related to Money Tree employees (of which she’s returned $1050). She’d not only be the Mayor’s mush-puppet, the loan sharks that suck blood from low income communities seem to think they’ve got a chance for her support.
Family Values: Her husband, James Savitt, defended the City in an employment discrimination case. Bruce Harrell was representing the employee who was passed over for promotion. Savitt’s firm has a contract to represent the City in various legal matters. A built-in conflict of interest for Venus. Bruce isn’t afraid to stand up to the Mayor. See Stranger article: http://www.thestranger.com/sea.....oid=309625
Added Bonus: She’d walk all over the sore, sweaty backs of the Latino day laborer’s she’s supposed to care about if it would promote her career and/or pocketbook.
So Goldy, you go right on thinking she’s the better choice. I’d rather support a loser with principals than toss my values out the window to support someone who thinks of only herself.
Harrell gets endorsed by the convicted wife-beater John Manning, who had to resign his seat on City Council, and that’s a good thing?
Harrell is the one race-baiting here. Both he and his opponent are minorities, and she said our city council should reflect our city. If we didn’t all believe that, our council would look like the current GOP presidential candidates. We all like diversity – pure and simple. New people at the table bring new viewpoints. That’s obvious and that’s a good thing. Harrell is trying to scare up the “angry white-man,” afraid of losing his power. And nothing could be worse to those people than to lose some of that power to a Latina.
His shopping the video of this forum from months ago shows just how desperate his campaign really is now. Shame on Bruce!
TJ, you seem angry that the video is being discussed now; it looks like the video has been available online for the public to view since late June. I am just glad someone actually watched the entire video and brought it to our attention, who really watches them anyways. I am now more informed about who to vote for, can I take back my vote from the primary. As the saying goes, you are what you are, and for her to say this publicly with the tone of conviction displayed in that video proves her lack of character. Based on the bio on her website, she’s a public relations consultant, remind me not to hire her. It’s evident that she’s not from Seattle and doesn’t understand Seattle.
The fact that anyone out there is saying that Bruce Harrell has principles is a scary, scary thought. I mean, he lost $15 million for his clients because he cut a greedy, backroom deal with the defendant, and got caught by the judge. Bruce should just go back to being a has-been football player and call it a night.
Bruce is a class act. i saw a slanted story aobut a case recently and could tell somebody planted it. he fights in court for the little guy and mostly wins. she’s on video spewing racism with a bad reputation. i’ll take my chances with him.
Harrell is not to be trusted. He is unethical and a liar. I’m voting for Venus. Anyway, with our growing Latino population, I (a White girl) think it will be good to have a Latino on the council who will not brush over issues that affect that population.
Yes–Venus’s people are trying to maniuplate us. Well–if any of us white folks said what she did we’d be kicked out of town like that Imus guy. She’s a professional public affairs consultant so that makes it even worse. A rookie public speaker–my ass. What she is — a mean-spirited racist candidate who should not be elected.