Few would dispute that one of the keys to the Seattle Times’ Darwinian triumph over the rival P-I was its success in altering the terms of their Joint Operating Agreement to allow the Blethens to shift publication from the afternoon to the morning. Afternoon papers had been declining for decades, [...]
I need to bake cookies, so in the meanwhile, here’s the video from last week’s roast of Geov Parrish.
[...]Of all the tidbits from last’s night’s post-mayoral-election consultancy tell-all, the conversation about McGinn’s tunnel “flip-flop” was the one I was looking forward to the most:
Just two weeks before the Nov. 3 election, McGinn shocked many by saying he would no longer oppose the controversial, $4.2 billion tunnel replacement. McGinn [...]
A curious happening greeted my cross-country news browsing this morning as I searched for something blog-worthy in Washington state. I looked to Publicola for firsthand coverage of last night’s Publicola-sponsored, post-election face-off between McGinn consultant Bill Broadhead and Mallahan consultant Jason Bennett, but found zilch. Yet there was [...]
“Bomb squad called to Bothell newspaper box Sunday morning.”
Turned out it was just the Sunday edition of the Seattle Times. Common mistake.
[...]I flew into Philadelphia yesterday in time to watch the Eagles-Bears game with my family, one of those typically frustrating Eagles performances where they can’t seem to get any rhythm going, yet show flashes of brilliance, only to eke out an unsatisfying win or a disappointing loss in the fourth [...]
With Senate Democrats securing the bare 60 votes needed to bring the healthcare reform bill to the floor for a full debate, it is important to note that had Washingtonians followed the Seattle Times advice, and elected Republican Mike McGavick over Democrat Maria Cantwell, healthcare reform would be [...]
I’ve been meaning to comment on David Brewster’s post-election analysis over at Crosscut — “A bad election for moderates” — but I just can’t work up the energy necessary to read it through a second time. So rather than a thorough, line-by-line fisking, I’d mostly just like to focus [...]
(Courtesy of Fake Ted van Dyk)
Why am I drinking Mike McGinn’s wine? Because he was out of beer.
Yeah, sure, I didn’t actually work for McGinn, and in fact, I voted for Mayor Nickels in the primary. But I gave McGinn my vote in the general election, [...]
Vote-by-mail advocates have long argued that the system increases voter participation, particularly in traditionally low-turnout off-year elections, and this recent general election certainly doesn’t provide any evidence to the contrary. Indeed, when compared to other cities, Seattle’s off-year turnout is simply off the charts.
HA comment thread regular N in Seattle, [...]
According to Publicola, Gov. Chris Gregoire told a Seattle audience last night that she would not accept an all-cuts budget in 2010… a 180-degree turnaround from her position heading into the difficult 2009 legislative session. What’s changed her mind?
Well, obviously, the $2.6 billion projected revenue shortfall is nearly impossible [...]
With only a smattering of ballots left to count statewide, it is interesting to note that Seattle voters have thus far turned out a 57.56% rate, four and a half points higher than the county as a whole, and nearly seven points higher than the state average.
To put that in [...]
Rightly or wrongly, Democratic elected officials are often maligned by their opponents as tax and spend, well, Democrats. And with the latest state revenue forecast now confirming a $2.6 billion shortfall for 2009 alone, it’s time for state Dems to finally live up to that reputation.
70% of the state budget [...]
According to a new poll, a majority of Republicans believe that ACORN stole the 2008 election, and that Barack Obama was not the legitimate winner.
The poll asked this question: “Do you think that Barack Obama legitimately won the Presidential election last year, or do you think that ACORN stole [...]
While Susan Hutchison did her best to blame Dow Constantine for the woeful condition of the Howard Hanson Dam, residents and businesses in the Green River Valley may have deeper pockets to sue should the worst happen during the current flood season.
In a groundbreaking decision, a federal judge ruled [...]
At only 42.96%, eight points below the statewide average, Pierce County had the lowest voter turnout in the state in the 2009 general election. Pierce is also the only county in the state without all mail-in elections.
Hmm.
[...]As of the close of business, Wednesday 11/4/2009, the day after the election, King County Elections had 572,611 total mail-in ballots on hand. As of the close of business yesterday, Tuesday 11/17/2009, two weeks after the election, KCE had counted 570,280 total mail-in ballots, with an estimated 1,400 [...]
Damn commie-pinko American public…
When it comes to paying for a health care overhaul, Americans see just one way to go: Tax the rich.
That finding from a new Associated Press poll will be welcome news for House Democrats, who proposed doing just that in their sweeping remake of the U.S. [...]
Then again, Jon, sexist or not, she did pose for the photo. And even if it was originally intended to grace the cover of Runners World, she had to understand that the shot was more likely to inspire lewd MILF comments than the kinda gravitas we’ve [...]
I’m too old to benefit from the Institute for a Democratic Future’s excellent six-month training program, but many of you are not, so if you’re between the ages of 21 and 36, and looking to make a difference through politics, I highly recommend sending in your application before the [...]
Washington state’s unemployment rate rose slightly to 9.3% in October… well, sorta. That’s the same rate that was originally reported for September, before being revised downward to 9.1%.
By comparison, South Carolina’s unemployment rate currently stands at 11.6%. Hey Palmetto State… how’s that race-to-the-bottom cheap labor strategy working out for you?
Pretty amusing video of an anti-immigration tea party in Minneapolis, where a prankster succeeds in getting the crowd to cheer the deportation of European immigrants. I especially enjoy the enthusiastic changing of “Columbus, go home!”
What a bunch of maroons.
[...]But wait… I thought the King County Council was officially nonpartisan…?
When Constantine is sworn in next Tuesday, that will leave eight councilmembers to decide his replacement: four Democrats and four Republicans.
Five Democrats, including Constantine, voted for the selection process while all Republicans voted against it.
Voters last year made council elections [...]
Why doesn’t this surprise me?
The state says Washington’s Republican Party is deadbeat in repaying legal fees associated with a failed challenge to the Top 2 primary system.
In a federal court filing Monday, the Attorney General’s Office wrote that while the Democratic Party has paid the $37,700 it owes, the [...]
A Moore Information survey released last week shows challenger Dino Rossi leading incumbent Christine Gregoire 48% to 42% in the 2008 gubernatorial contest, prompting the pollsters to speculate about the Washington state GOP’s rising prospects:
The fact that Rossi leads in this match-up is interesting and encouraging for Republicans in [...]
While Rep. Dave Reichert worked hard to appear more moderate in response to a tough challenge from Darcy Burner, he’s been veering hard back to the right ever since, culminating in his vote against the House healthcare bill, and his bizarre attacks on the AARP for endorsing it.
Of course, all [...]
HA contributors were unusually busy over the weekend, a typically slow time of the week when both posting and traffic generally dips, so here’s a brief summary of the posts you might have missed.
Even business guys befuddled about Baird’s vote
Spiraling healthcare costs is the number one issue for [...]
According to the headline in the Seattle Times, the “Airport link makes Sound Transit line the train to somewhere“…
The airport line is not expected to have a huge impact on near-term ridership, but routing to such a logical place squelches earlier complaints that light rail is the train to [...]
Now that’s rich… the Seattle Times editorial board advising organized labor on what’s good for workers and the Democratic Party.
THE revolt of organized labor within the state Democratic Party is a kamikaze effort that works against the interests of the Democratic Party and the workers of Washington.
Yeah, because nobody has [...]
I think it would have been funny if that guy carrying a gun into the West Seattle community center had been promptly shot.
Well, no… not funny, exactly. What’s the word I’m thinking of…? Ironic. That’s it.
Yes, I think it would have been ironic.
[...]Only one year after Barack Obama’s “change we can believe in” election, and in the midst of a crushing economic recession that has caused home prices to plummet, unemployment to spike, and state and local budgets to plunge into nearly unprecedented crisis, you might have expected incumbents to face more [...]
Just a reminder to join me tonight for a 5oth birthday roast of Geov Parrish, with all proceeds benefiting Eat the State!
I’ll be emceeing as Knute Berger (Crosscut), former school board president Brita Butler-Wall, Tim Harris (Real Change), Lansing Scott (ETS!), Maria Tomchick (KEXP) and Mike McCormick (KEXP) futilely attempt [...]
Ten days after the election the votes are still being tallied, but the outcome only grows murkier with every passing day, setting the stage for a constitutional crisis that could grind our nation’s capital to a halt. What looked like a comfortable margin on election night has been shrinking steadily [...]
Longtime conservative talk show host Kirby Wilbur got canned by KVI yesterday, and as much as we disagreed on almost every issue, you might be surprised to learn that I’m sad to see him go.
Back when I first stumbled into activism, my talk radio skills were mostly honed on [...]
Even less surprising than the revelation that the Ivar’s undersea billboard was an elaborate hoax, is the revelation of how far the Seattle Times actually has that stick shoved up its collective ass:
Times Executive Editor David Boardman says that while he can appreciate the initiative behind the marketing ploy [...]
As best as I can tell, there are two main arguments being offered in favor of changing the ballot deadline from the current postmarked by election day to the more restrictive received by election day: 1) candidates and voters deserve to know who won on election night; and 2) it [...]
Ross Reynolds will be talking with Secretary of State Sam Reed and Rep. Sam Hunt sometime between 12:20 and 12:40 PM today on KUOW’s The Conversation, about the ballot deadline debate, and since I’ve been covering it so obsessively they’re gonna give me a couple minutes to respond before going [...]
I just finished listening to KUOW’s broadcast of a special Veteran’s Day edition of BackStory… one of my favorite public radio shows. The episode, “Coming Home: A History of War Veterans,” along with links to additional material is available from the BackStory website, or you can just listen [...]
These things don’t happen in a vacuum, and so it is not surprising to see Gov. Chris Gregoire joining the chorus of establishment voices demanding that the ballot deadline be changed from postmarked on election day to received by election day.
Earlier in the day, Gregoire said that the [...]
I’ll be emceeing a couple of celebrations this week, and you’re all invited.
Geov Parrish 50th Birthday Roast & ETS! Benefit
On Friday evening, Nov. 13, join me, Knute Berger (Crosscut), former school board president Brita Butler-Wall, Tim Harris (Real Change), Lansing Scott (ETS!), Maria Tomchick (KEXP) and Mike McCormick (KEXP) [...]
State Sen. Fred Jarrett announced today that he would give up his seat to serve as Deputy Executive to former primary rival Dow Constantine. The newly enhanced position will make Jarrett the number two man in King County Executive’s office. It’s a good fit for Jarrett, who brings both extensive legislative [...]
Writing in the Washington Post in the wake of the 2004 presidential election, Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury pitched his own state’s vote-by-mail system as an answer to touch screen and polling place staffing controversies experienced elsewhere. But in doing so, he obviously felt the need to spin one [...]
Forget the fact that he ran the most impressive, effective, tireless, grassroots campaign I’ve seen since I started following local politics. According to the political sages at the Seattle Times, Mike McGinn mostly owes his victory to moody voters…
SEATTLE voters are in a testy mood. They turned down the [...]
Has anybody else noticed how thoroughly Susan Hutchison got her ass kicked?
With the latest ballot drop, Hutchison has fallen to 40.93% of the vote. To put that in perspective, that’s less than a point and a half better than admitted-Republican David Irons garnered in 2005, a race in which a third [...]
Forgive me for obsessing on the topic, but when our foils at the Seattle Times editorial board and our friend Joel Connelly at the Seattle P-I are both editorializing in favor of changing the voting deadline from postmarked on election day to received by election day, you just know [...]
King County dropped an additional 20,953 Seattle ballots this afternoon, with Mike McGinn expanding his lead to a 4,939 margin in what until recently was considered a closely contested mayors race.
Mike McGinn 96,514 50.88% Joe Mallahan 91,575 48.28%McGinn won 56.5% of this batch of ballots, most of which I presume to have been received after [...]
I’ve already spent some time joyfully fisking the Seattle Times’ “absurd” proposal to change the deadline on mail-in ballots from the current postmarked on election day, to the more restrictive received by election day, so there’s no need to do a line-by-line takedown of Joel Connelly’s own contribution [...]
My reliably liberal Democratic mother and stepfather both kinda like Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, as do many of their friends down there in the Sunshine State. Despite the fact that he’s a (gasp) Republican.
You know, you raise your parents as best you can, and then you have to let go.
But [...]
Former U.S. Marine Jay Clough will announce his candidacy tomorrow for Washington’s 4th Congressional District, currently held by Republican incumbent Rep. Doc Hastings.
“I expect our Representative in this district to work harder. As I traveled throughout the district in the last few months, I heard over and over that people [...]
Assuming he’s guilty, Christopher Monfort is a cop killer. From what limited biographical information we’ve learned about him thus far, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is seriously mentally ill. At the very worst, he’s an awful, sadistic, cold-hearted, anti-social murderer.
But calling him a “terrorist” just trivializes the word, [...]
The Seattle Times editorial board is once again arguing for making it more difficult to vote.
AH, the weekend after the election and that weird feeling of knowing it could be several weeks before voters learn results of the Seattle mayoral race, a contest essentially tied.
Actually, as the Times’ own [...]
It is do or die time on healthcare reform, and with Republicans promising not a single vote in favor of the Democratic plan, it is time for us here in the Pacific Northwest to let our Democratic representatives know that if they don’t support us, we won’t support them.
For example, [...]
Details are starting to emerge about suspected cop-killer Christopher Monfort, and not surprisingly, he sounds a little crazy. And as it turns out, he’s also a pretty crappy artist.
Really. Those are images from a 2003 art exhibit of Monfort’s titled “No War” at Highline [...]
King County Elections just dropped another 19,562 Seattle ballots, and these went strongly for Mike McGinn, 53.2% to 46.8% for Joe Mallahan, once again doubling McGinn’s lead to a 2,384 vote margin.
Mike McGinn 85,416 50.31% Joe Mallahan 83,032 48.91%Based on today’s earlier drop, I think it’s fair to say that this is the trend we [...]
Mike McGinn padded his margin by an additional 694 votes this afternoon, more than doubling his narrow lead over Joe Mallahan to 1209 votes:
Mike McGinn 75,657 49.99% Joe Mallahan 74,448 49.19%This represents McGinn’s largest numerical lead thus far, and while not conclusive, bodes well for those anticipating a trend toward McGinn amongst late voters.
In this [...]
Washington’s best political satire site is without a doubt, Red County, a pitch-perfect, Colbert-esque parody of the angry, deluded, self-denial that tends to fill the right-wing blogs. And it doesn’t get any better than their frenetic mock analysis of the King County Executive race:
The general election result that shattered [...]
I feel snubbed…
Locally, an iron triangle of left interest groups (e.g. NARAL) liberal media (The Stranger, PubliCola) and the labor left (SEIU) seek to impose ideological requirements while slamming any Democrat who hints at moderation.
What am I… chopped liver?
Other than that, I kinda agree with Joel.
So, how crazy is Susan Hutchison’s letter to supporters, hinting that a U.S. Senate run might lay in her future? Not so crazy that I hadn’t predicted exactly that just a couple weeks back.
[...]A lot of folks deserve credit for the defeat passage of Referendum 71, but when it comes to the underlying strategy that got us this far, it’s hard to argue that anybody has played a bigger role than state Sen. Ed Murray.
Murray says the state’s organizing networks now are [...]
Yeah, I know, there’s a tea party at the Capitol, and a tragic mass shooting at Fort Hood, but still, you’d think the House healthcare reform bill being endorsed by the AMA of all organizations, not to mention the AARP, would be much bigger news.
Whoooo, pretty radical groups there. [...]
I know the timing is a bit insensitive, and it will probably piss off some folks for me to go there right now, but dwelling on the tragic mass shooting today at Fort Hood, in which 12 have been killed and 31 injured, I couldn’t help but think about the [...]
King County Elections just released their latest results, and of the 27,151 Seattle ballots counted today, Mike McGinn expanded his narrow lead over Joe Mallahan by 54 votes, taking a 515 vote advantage in the mayor’s race, 65,172 to 64,657.
Countywide, KCE dropped a total of 68,507 new ballots today, with Seattle [...]
Washington State Republican Party chair Luke Esser explaining Susan Hutchison’s lopsided loss in the King County executive race…
“King County is a tough place to do business if you’re not a left-wing Democrat,” Esser said. “Inside the city of Seattle I could probably bring Abraham Lincoln back from the dead [...]
Much has been made of the placement of Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033 on the King County ballot, somewhat hidden below the instructions on the left-hand side of the page, visually separated from the rest of the ballot questions. I-1033 opponents had raised alarms that this poorly [...]
Susan Hutchison has called Dow Constantine to concede the King County executive race. I guess she was neither professionally nor spiritually ready for the job.
[...]King County Elections just dropped the results from about 54,000 newly tallied ballots, about half the number we were expecting to be reported today. No word yet on what’s taking so long.
In the King County Executive race, Dow Constantine now leads Susan Hutchison, 57.53% to 42.26%, a full one point [...]
So how does Susan Hutchison explain her electoral ass-kicking at the steel-tipped boots of Dow Constantine? Apparently, the voters were confused…
She several times blamed “attack ads” taken out in the last weeks of the campaign, and “huge dumps of money coming in, for these false, misleading ads…The partisan issues [...]
Of course, Susan Hutchison lost big last night, as did Tim Eyman. And I suppose every candidate who didn’t come out on top probably feels that they lost big too. But I’d say the biggest loser last night was the Seattle Times editorial board, considering the woeful track record of [...]
A few days ago Joe Mallahan was that business guy who was about to become mayor after spending gobs of his own cash. Kinda Seattle’s version of Michael Bloomberg, but without all that Bloomberg money.
But this morning Mallahan is just that business guy who spent gobs of his own cash. [...]
Of all the “too close to call” races this election, the easiest to call is R-71, which reaffirms the “Everything But Marriage” bill that passed the legislature last session.
Election night results have the measure passing by a mere 2 percent of the vote, a margin well within the swing that [...]
Susan Hutchison refused to concede the King County executive race last night, despite trailing Dow Constantine by a better than 14-point margin, because apparently the only poll that really counts was the one conducted by KING-5/SurveyUSA… on October 12.
Told in an earlier interview that Dow Constantine had already declared [...]
Tim Eyman's government limiting I-1033, Nov. 2009
Tim Eyman's government limiting I-960, Nov. 2007
I’m going to spend a lot of time over the next few days talking about trends, and what that predicts for the handful of close races in today’s election, but the maps [...]
Early results are coming in on the statewide ballot measures, and it doesn’t look good for Tim Eyman. In Spokane, Lewis, Franklin and Island counties, I-1033 is performing dramatically worse than Eyman’s I-960 did in 2007. Based on even these early results, I’m ready to call it. I-1033 loses.
UPDATE (8:15):
[...]
With Republican Bob McDonnell winning big in Virginia, and incumbent Democratic Gov. John Corzine apparently headed to defeat in New Jersey, Republicans are loudly pitching the election as a referendum on President Barack Obama.
Well, uh, not so much…
Chuck Todd reports that Barack Obama’s approval rating among Virginia voters stands [...]
Goldy votes at the King County accessible voting center in Tukwila
The Seattle Times’ Bruce Ramsey thinks “lazy people” shouldn’t vote:
For the past 30 years I voted at a neighborhood church. As years went on, more people I knew were voting absentee, though they weren’t absent [...]
“The fact that an idea is proven as a disaster doesn’t mean it dies in American politics. One of the perverse things of our federal system is that there’s dozens of states that the advocates of these kinda lunatic measures can continue to funnel money into to try to get [...]
I’m cautiously optimistic about this year’s two statewide ballot measures, expecting R-71 to pass, and I-1033 to fail, but when the numbers start coming in shortly after 8PM, I’ll be paying particular attention to the county-by-county results.
There’s little doubt that King County, with about a third of the state’s electorate, [...]
I was driving along Rainier AVE yesterday, when I saw Joel Connelly. On the side of a bus.
Apart from being a tad distracting to see a larger than life Joel staring back at me from the side of a bus, it was interesting to see that [...]
Mark Griswold may be an asshole, but more significantly, he’s a really crappy muckraker. I’d throw in a link, but honestly, he doesn’t even deserve that much respect.
What a maroon.
UPDATE:
In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, Publicola explains.
This afternoon I sent the following email to TVW President and CEO Greg Lane:
Subject: Bad Faith DMCA Takedown Notices
From: david@horsesass.org
Date: November 2, 2009 2:08:55 PM PST
To: greg@tvw.org
Dear Mr. Lane,
I am writing in regard to the takedown notices TVW recently issued to YouTube and Vimeo regarding my video [...]
The details have yet to be released, but the latest KING-5/Survey USA poll shows Democrat Dow Constantine surging to a 10 point lead over Republican Susan Hutchison in the race for King County Executive.
The poll, conducted over the weekend, shows Constantine leading 53-43; that’s a fifteen point swing from [...]
I’m not much into the idea of publishing endorsements, because anybody who reads me regularly should already know where I stand on the races I cover, but I thought I’d make an exception to mention a race I haven’t written much about: the Seattle City Council contest between Robert Rosencrantz [...]
Susan Hutchison, through her role as a board member of the conservative Stewardship Foundation, has helped steer nearly $600,000 to anti-choice groups over the past few years. But since she refuses to actually answer Yes or No to questions regarding reproductive choice, I guess that’s something voters don’t need [...]
That’s what Susan Hutchison has been running… the most dishonest local campaign ever. And to a large extent, the local media has been somewhat complicit.
Hutchison is a Republican, and Dow Constantine is a Democrat. That is obvious and indisputable. And yet when Hutchison denies her party identity she large goes [...]
KING-5/SurveyUSA have one last poll in the field regarding the county executive race, and this time they’re asking about party identity… whether we identify Susan Hutchison as a Democrat or a Republican, and whether party affiliation makes a difference in determining our choice.
It’ll be interesting to see the results.
One of the things that irritates me most about Seattle Times editorial columnist Kate Riley is the way she writes so authoritatively about things she knows absolutely nothing about. For example…
But Constantine really stepped outside the lines of propriety, not for nastiness, but for violating the copyright of a [...]
As usual, I’ll be dressed up in my scary Tim Eyman costume, trick or treating with my daughter, and frightening the neighborhood kids, but if you don’t have plans and are looking for a fun and productive way to celebrate the holiday, I suggest you check [...]
TVW is still playing their stupid little takedown notice game, now having my “Suzie Huckabee” video pulled from Vimeo, after first having it pulled from YouTube. Only this time their actions have resulted in all my videos being pulled from Vimeo, even those which consisted solely of footage I [...]
Back in 2005, while investigating allegations of David Irons’ abusive behavior, I repeatedly contacted Councilmember Dow Constantine’s office to confirm reports that he had intervened on behalf of one such abused female staffer. Constantine and his staff refused to talk to me, on or off the record, despite the fact [...]
Democrats don’t endorse and campaign for Republicans. That means Brad Owen and Brian Sonntag are not Democrats. At least, not real ones.
Democratic constituency groups should keep that in mind come 2012.
[...]It is fashionable around these parts to criticize Seattle Rep. Jim McDermott as a do-nothing congressman who fails to bring home the bacon (you know, unlike Washington’s paragon of something, Rep. Norm Dicks). So I guess I shouldn’t expect our local media to break with the meme by covering [...]
