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2007 Election

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Is it King County's moment for change?

Posted Tue, Jun 9, 11:39 p.m.

The courthouse gang is overdue for reform. An overview of the politics of the campaign and Fred Jarrett's case for shaking things up.

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Running King County, Microsoft-style

Posted Mon, May 4, 6 a.m.

County Executive candidate Ross Hunter could bring some of the smart, combative, impatient style that was cultivated in Bill Gates' corporate culture.

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The campaign for Sound Transit will be 'going Facebook'

Posted Mon, Aug 11, 10 a.m.

Big and corporate didn't do it for last year's roads and transit measure, so the hurry-up, cash-starved campaign for Sound Transit 2 will be Internet-based and volunteer-driven.

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From Jim Crow to John Lovick

Posted Mon, Jan 7, 5 a.m.

Snohomish County's new elected sheriff is African-American, which is worth noting, hopefully, only for a moment.

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Port in a storm of its own making

Posted Thu, Dec 20, 4 p.m.

The state Auditor's new report on the Port of Seattle finds rats in the rat's nest of local governments.

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Beyond Proposition 1: A new consensus is emerging

Posted Tue, Dec 18, 5 a.m.

A group headed by Norm Rice and John Stanton is gathering allies for a more rational and practical approach to the region's transit needs. Both supporters and opponents of the failed Proposition 1 are part of the effort.

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Sizing up the Proposition 1 vote, precinct by precinct

Posted Wed, Dec 12, 5 a.m.

Voters were resisting a plan that was Seattle-centric and premised on the expectation that most people would become affluent professionals working in dense urban settings. This skeptic of rail transit also suggests how to recraft the proposal.

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Richard Conlin is the likely next president of the Seattle City Council

Posted Wed, Dec 5, 1 p.m.

It's the post he thought he had in 2006. This time, with no active rivals, it's likely his.

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The political legacy of Turk the Magic Genie

Posted Sat, Dec 1, midnight

He's the latest of a long line of characters who have run for office. Turk lost up in Snohomish County. But some of the Northwest's clown princes have actually gotten elected. And some of them have served the people very well. No joke.

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Tax-reduction redux

Posted Wed, Nov 28, 5 a.m.

Once again, Washington lawmakers are about to make law from flaw, correcting what Tim Eyman got wrong but embracing what voters clearly want: a crimp on taxation.

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The yearning for a strongman

Posted Tue, Nov 13, 5 a.m.

Seattle's post-election blues rekindle a desire for bigger government, run by a big boss. But we've done very well without either, thank you.

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Why voters expelled the Seattle School Board class of 2003

Posted Fri, Nov 9, midnight

Riding in on overreaction to a financial crisis, these reformers were so wrapped up in their various political agendas that they lost sight of the basics of educating kids. They paid a price in this week's election.

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Not anger, disillusionment: deciphering the voters

Posted Thu, Nov 8, 5 a.m.

Polls indicate a surge of resignation about government following the Hurricane Katrina non-performance. That, more than populist rage, seemed to be driving the recent election. To fix it, better to start outperforming expectations.

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A great big dose of antiestablishmentarianism

Posted Wed, Nov 7, 1 a.m.

Updated through the day: In an evolving thread, Crosscut's writers analyze Washington's general election. They see an electorate distrustful of the people in charge.

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That regional government we so desperately need is called a county council

Posted Tue, Nov 6, 5 a.m.

A brief history of King County government, and a question: Instead of creating a new regional transportation authority, as proposed in the Legislature, why not just empower our existing county councils to jointly convene?

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No, really, this is a watershed election

Posted Mon, Nov 5, 5 a.m.

Beyond the pettiness of the campaign just ending lies the potential emergence of a whole new mood in Seattle-area politics. It would start with a muting of the cultural wars that have bedeviled Seattle politics ever since 9/11. Call it the revenge of the center.

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Ballot measures: a Western anachronism and lazy democracy

Posted Sat, Nov 3, midnight

Conceived a century ago as a check on government power and corporate cronyism, initiatives and referenda have more often than not been co-opted by those in power. It's also an easy out for elected officials who are unable or unwilling to legislate.

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Proposition 1: the arguments against, deconstructed

Posted Tue, Oct 30, 5 a.m.

It's fairly easy to propound better solutions than the roads-and-transit measure about to be voted on. But it's not easy to see how they would be enacted.

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Does Tim Burgess have faith in himself?

Posted Mon, Oct 29, midnight

He better, because in his commentaries for The Seattle Times he set a pretty high bar for his performance.

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Political direct mail: That other guy is a kissing cousin of Karl Rove!

Posted Sun, Oct 28, 9 p.m.

In Seattle, election messages have been sharpened for mailboxes, and not just any mailboxes. Here's how a direct-mail campaign works – or how it's supposed to work.

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Other media

Jury finds Venus Velazquez not guilty of drunken driving The former candidate for City Council, whose arrest sank her chances for winning, prevails in the courtroom.

Obama's veep choice may be imminent, to be announced by e-mail Announcing by text messages and other sign-up devices would have the advantage of getting thousands of names for the campaign's later use.

Tim Eyman says legislators failed to follow I-960's tax-increase rules "The policies, purposes and intent of last year's taxpayer-protection initiative were clear. But rather than abiding by the voters' mandate, majority Democrats schemed all session to sidestep it."

The case against super-majority tax hikes: an initiative can't amend the constitution State Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, explained her rationale for seeking to overturn Initiative 960, which requires two-thirds approval in the Legislature for tax increases.

Ethics panel clears former City Council member David Della of charges Police Guild, in thick of campaign against Della, had accused him of using improper implied threats about the police labor contract, but an ethics panel found the charges unsubstantiated.

Blog posts

The post-partisan electorate

Posted Wed, Aug 20, 7 a.m. 2008

Reform of King County county government is popular but is almost always painted as a Republican plot. Nevertheless, the generally liberal electorate has embraced change. Last night, they gave the nod to I-26, which would allow a vote in November on whether or not to make county elected positions non-partisan. It will join another measure passed last year as I-25, which will ask whether or not to make the superintendent of county elections an elected post.

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The budget mavens take hold at Seattle Schools

Posted Tue, Apr 1, 10:24 a.m. 2008

Read this interesting story about the Seattle School Board. You'll find the new language of big-company management being spoken by the new boardmembers, all of whom promised to bring that perspective to the troubled district. The four new members, Peter Maier (a consumer lawyer), Steve Sundquist (formerly with Russell Investment Group), Sherry Carr (finance manager at Boeing), and Harium Martin-Morris (also a Boeing executive), all ran on the same basic platform: it takes experience with big business to handle a huge budget like the School District's. This experienced team was cast in the role by an informal coalition of school activists, with some helpful guidance from the Mayor's office.

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Is Tim Eyman ripe for the Oklahoma treatment?

Posted Wed, Nov 21, 2:03 p.m. 2007

Given the rivalry with Oklahoma City over the Sonics, we're not too likely to emulate politics from Oklahoma, but here's one political ploy that may be worth borrowing, particularly now that Tim Eyman, the initiative king, is riding high again. Attention John Ladenburg, Pierce County Executive who is gearing up to challenge Rob McKenna for Attorney General in 2008. Here's an Oklahoma six-shooter.

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The unseemly scramble for freed-up taxes, post-Proposition 1

Posted Wed, Nov 14, 11 a.m. 2007

Defeat Proposition 1, as happened last week, and you leave a lot of taxing authority on the table. Not surprisingly, local governments are pouncing. Their greediness perhaps got out of hand this week, with the Metropolitan King County Council launching a county ferry system, jacking up bus fares, and wading into programs to rebuild levees and help mental health. In what's called "Tax Hike Tuesday," the Port of Seattle also got into the frenzy, approving a $78 million property tax levy, in a kind of premature celebration of the likely departure of its one anti-tax commissioner, Alec Fisken, who appears to have been defeated. Grab it now, was the mantra.

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Gov to Seattle: You dithered away your chance

Posted Tue, Nov 13, 10:25 a.m. 2007

That was fast. Just a week after the voters nixed Proposition 1 for roads and transit, Gov. Chris Gregoire announces she's taking control of 520 bridge planning. Seattle is about to pay a price for its dithering -- loss of local control. A similar theme was sounded in Bill Virgin's column in today's P-I, suggesting a divestiture of authority for Sound Transit, handing over the controls for Sounder Commuter Rail to Amtrak and bringing on some private transit services. Is the corpse about to be carved up?

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Where those crazy election parties are tonight

Posted Tue, Nov 6, 7 p.m. 2007

A tip of the organizational hat to Slog for giving us the long list of all the political parties happening around town tonight. We decided to annotate the list a little so you have some idea what to expect if you're there.

Yes on Proposition 1
Westin Hotel, 1900 5th Ave.
Big spenders. Two olives.

No on Proposition 1
Piecora's Pizza, 1401 E. Madison St.
Little spenders. Plain cheese.

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Let's hear it for election 'malaise'

Posted Thu, Nov 8, 4:51 p.m. 2007

Not everyone is glum about the outcome of Tuesday's election, but you would hardly know that from some of the analysis. John Arthur Wilson is right, I believe, that there is no sign of a large populist uprising out there, but I wouldn't, as he says, say the election reflected "disillusionment." You know, it is possible that a "no" vote on a bad ballot measure, like Prop. 1, is a positive thing.

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How to fund transportation without raising taxes

Posted Thu, Nov 8, 1 p.m. 2007

David Brewster makes a good catch on the "private entities" reference in Gov. Christine Gregoire's comments on life after Prop 1. In talking with both House Speaker Frank Chopp and King County Executive Ron Sims, they have both assured that they are opposed to privatization of road projects – and Chopp was the hero of anti-privatizers on the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge project. But many regional transportation wonks aren't convinced Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are a bad idea.

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Ballot measures update: I-960 and R-4204

Posted Wed, Nov 7, 6:16 p.m. 2007

After a day on post-election clean-up, I can provide a couple of updates on two of Washington's statewide ballot measures.

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The last election day

Posted Wed, Nov 7, 2:59 p.m. 2007

When I walked out of my old polling place Tuesday morning, Nov. 6, I felt depressed. Not just because there were so many complex ballot issues (all those constitutional amendments with virtually no public discussion) or because, for the first time that I could remember, I didn't see Bonnie Shride, a longtime poll worker who died earlier this year. No, as I walked out I realized that I had just participated in my last real election day. I started going to the polls with my mother when I was a little kid. I've always valued the ritual. I know people say we don't have time for these little rituals any more. Give me a break. This is a society that has elevated Super Bowl Sunday to a national event, a society in which adolescents rent limos for high school dances. We have plenty of rituals. Voting just happens to be one on which we no longer want to waste our time.

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