Well done, David, save for moving Great Falls to Idaho, from Montana.

Where is your editor? Oh, yeah, you are the editor.

The Geezer

superb analysis. The "changing of the guard" and finding some "new normal" sounds healthy and energizing to me.

This piece is your best so far this year. Inspiring to think of a sea-change. Wouldn't it be something to be more global, less parochial. But ---- let's not make it the reason to destroy our neighborhoods and environment.

This is a much-needed airing of the local character and significant regional implications from the massive and fundamental changes sweeping over our society. I also agree with your analysis and feelings about Norm Dicks.

There are some typos, a couple of them important as pointed out by others. Please correct them in the text because this piece will become a "look forward" into the next five years, referenced often.

An unexpected and thought-provoking read today. Thank you! Well done.

Good work David. Norm and Dan Evans had a common belief.........'I'd rather cross the political aisle than cross the people' He has done incredible good for our Pacific Northwest. Ralph

The center of gravity for the federal delegation and the state legislature never has been reliably liberal Seattle, which has been taken for granted by Democrats for obvious reasons. The suburbs of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett (not just Bellevue, but places like Puyallup, Lakewood, and Lake Stevens) are where the real political battle has been fought for years, and moderate Dems have been winning. So I agree with your prognosis in the sense that the suburbs will (still) be where the real political action is, and that the Rs, if they can convince suburbanites that they're not crazy, may stage a minor comeback.

Thoughtful analysis, David. Not so sure about the power shifts within the state. After all, power will continue to reside where votes and political money are most prevalent. But it seems certain that the comparative power of public-employee and teachers unions will diminish as their Democratic allies are forced to come to terms with the stresses they place on public budgets. Some of the so-called new economy entities have gotten comfortable, too, with their state and local subsidies and tax breaks which distort economic development and diminish the public revenue base. A power shift in their direction will not necessarily diminish pork-barrel pressures.

I would separate Rep. Norm Dicks somewhat from the political shifts taking place in our state. My first reaction to his retirement announcement was
to regret that a strong, senior, and respected national voice would be lost to our state. Yes, he has helped Boeing because of his congressional influence on military and federal spending decisions. But he also has helped Washington communities inside and outside his congressional district and has done his best to save Puget Sound. A tireless worker of the Magnuson-Jackson school who was influential on national issues but, at the same time, never lost sight of his responsibility to the home folks---some with power, others comparatively powerless.

I thought Dicks would have been well served to leave the House, after the GOP takeover in 1994, to seek the governorship. He has an executive temperament and a make-things-work, problem-solving determination that would have helped him break longstanding Olympia logjams. He leaves with the House in Republican hands and, thus, will never get the chance he deserves to chair the Appropriations Committee. Washington will not fully recognize Dicks' loss until his (probably Democratic) successor takes office without any seniority or clout.

Finally, a personal word. I have known Norm Dicks since he first worked for Warren Magnuson. He is still the honest, hard working, and dedicated
person he was then. He has never taken himself more seriously than his work---rare among senior politicians. Over the years, I have had frequent
interactions with him, both personal and professional. I have never known him to be anything but a model public servant. He also is a good human being, husband, and father with high personal integrity. Norm Dicks'
reputation will grow in future years as we recognize how much he did for us and how much we miss him.

Thanks for the catch on Great Falls. I meant Idaho Falls, where the Idaho National Laboratory is located; now corrected.

Ralph Munro makes a good point about Rep. Dicks' penchant for crossing the partisan aisles. Dicks long learned to flourish, even with Republican majorities. He was essentially an artful dealmaker, rather than a policy politician, and he doubtless understood how the art of the deal is perishing in the poisonous current environment. Too, such political leaders able to work well with both parties and various presidents to put forth the needs of the Northwest are a distinctive feature, for good and ill, of our Cold War Consensus.

Interesting comment. The priorities of Seattle have never seem to be the priorities of state in my 18 years here. And Boeing/Microsoft agenda does conflict with support for higher education sometimes, as the $3 billion tax break for B. did not keep the head office here and is a sum that surely had some impact on how legislators looked at the discretionary funding. And the income tax that was targeted at funding higher education went down, probably doomed, but without much support from actual business leaders. What I want to ask, though, is the larger canvas that Colorado, Indiana, and Florida play on? Is this the canvas of WWF? Or because Rep. Govs in two of those states are chattered up as presidential material? What about New Jersey? Or is that the real big leagues, and Wa needs to get out of the developmental leagues first?

Sorry to differ. Good riddance to the 'cold war consensus' (18 years after the cold war virtually ended!) and good riddance to cold warriors like Dicks. The military industrial complex is are alive and well (and greatly expanded), thanks to him and his ilk in both major parties. That is his (and all cold warriors) true legacy. A militarized state which supports the American empire (and wars) abroad and at home. What is needed (and unlikely to come to fruition anytime soon due to the plutocrats who fund campaigns) is a truely progressive party with a consistently progressive policy agenda that elects people to office to fight for this agenda. Unfortunately, progressive Dems can't turn the tide because they are locked inside the system that perpetuates the evils that the two parties are designed to maintain.

This is a good article, David.
But I’d like to mention another possibility we see unfolding: the last gasps of the “destroy to remake” politics introduced by Newt Gingrich in the 1990s.
One truth that is often overlooked, as you do David, is that government is intended to be an instrument for doing something. That “something” is to maintain stability within our society to allow for both short term and long term order. Without stability neither business nor the public can meaningfully plan for the future. The forces operating against stability come from the private sector: changes wrought by competition in the private sector, change resulting from demographic shifts, and change in the way we organize government itself to improve efficiency or to save money. It’s easy to see that the need for government to keep on “doing something” never ends.
From time to time our governments may find a way to maintain extended stability even with constantly shifting demands. The formula found by Frank Chopp seems to be one instance of that. Part of that formula has been to incorporate several “nominal Democrats” within his majority. Melding the diversity found within the typical Democratic House Caucus has never been easy and Chopp has met the challenge admirably. But as the recent incident in the Senate shows, sometimes it falls apart.
I think you are correct to wonder if the Chopp era has run its course. But I think the answer to that question may take us in the opposite direction. The Chopp era may be beginning to come into its own. It may well be that the voting public will reject the politics of obstruction and elect candidates who will be able to work together to make it possible for government function. It has happened in the past.
And even when a “throw the rascals out” election has given us a new government with shifts from the Democrats to the Republicans, as happened with the election of Nixon and later Reagan, we’ve had a continuation of the liberal policies brought to us by FDR and LBJ. And the shift that occurred here with the election of Evans et al. had almost no impact, short term or long term, on public policies within our state.
The great feature of Washington State politics has been the willingness and the ability for our elected officials to find a way to work together for the common good, independently of their partisan affiliation. Norm Dicks was an exemplary practitioner of this kind of politics on our behalf in national governance. Frank Chopp, I think, must be judged similarly for his role in State governance.

Wow. If the new political center is shifting from Seattle’s “exotic causes” to Bellevue’s “quality of (middle class) life” maybe we can still save the viaduct and avoid the billion dollar tunnel fiasco, and opt for an affordable, transportation oriented plan for the 520 bridge?

Maybe there’s still time to do the right thing..?

As a follower of and participant in state politics for longer than I want to admit, I find it a little difficult to read much into two disparate events – Rep. Dick’s retirement and Olympia’s current budget brouhaha.

Political shifts are generally gradual, and when changes do occur they are seldom lasting. Washington State is fundamentally progressive and its elected leaders have and will continue to reflect that reality.

If there has been a splintering of a “Cold War Consensus” or “Great Consensus”, it’s been underway for some time. Perhaps it started 20 years ago with the election of Patty Murray to the US Senate, to be joined by Maria Cantwell 10 years later. Having two women in the Senate is a milestone shared by only two other states in the country’s history. They have clearly brought a wider set of priorities to that body and to our congressional delegation compared to the largely all-male coteries that preceded them.

The state legislature has been in a constant state of flux since Dan Evans was first elected governor. The House of Representatives has been controlled by Republicans 6 times, and tied 3 times. Republicans have held a majority in the Senate 5 times. One of the famous partisan swings occurred in 1981 when Senator Peter von Reichbauer changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, giving Republicans a one vote majority. That lasted until the next election when Democrats reestablished control.

Lastly, someone needs to explain how the Republican’s supplemental budget shenanigans will be “a good election issue for the GOP and an early test of strength for the emerging Republican regime led by Rob McKenna.” How does a budget, passed in the middle of the night allowing no public input, that cuts another $75 million from K-12 and higher education, comport with “New Economy imperatives”? Will McKenna and other Republicans be running on it as an example of how they intend to govern?

DEBT!!! You missed a key point in the article. Dicks used DEBT to fund his programs. The DEBT was less than $1 trillion when he took office, now it's approaching $16 trillion. Dicks helped PREVENT development of resources to be energy independent. We can forget his cronyism to fund his kids' jobs - that's pocket change. Dicks' legacy is the rise of China on the back of America.

what randy said

Apparently Mr.Brewster prefers to opine about education rather than read the research and the record of the Hanauer-supported reforms. I think Mr. Hanauer - formerly a liberal - is more influenced by the threat of a cap & trade liberal like Mr. Inslee than by the safe GOP protector of big business interests McKenna. Just as the GOP and three Dinos threw aside education (with a record of what works), teachers, poor people, old people and children last week, Mr. Hanauer and Mr. McKenna will continue to advicate for more for the top and less for the bottom.

As for education, both Mr. Brewster and Mr. Hanauer would do well to read the post at Who Breaks a Butterfly Upon a Wheel
Posted on February 27, 2012 by Bill Lyne

An Open Letter to Nick Hanauer

http://www.ufws.org/2012/02/27/who-breaks-a-butterfly-upon-a-wheel/

Mr. Lyne is is President of United Faculty of WA State and on the faculty at WWU.

BTW, why is Crosscut a 501c3?

If you say something enough times then it must be right, eh David? Where in the insurrectionist budget cuts of ~$75 million to education is there a link to the truly centrist policies of Dan Evans? Speaking as a Seattleite, I will never (read my lips) vote for a candidate who is as regressive on social issues as are the current crop of Republicans and conservative Democrats. Never. Especially if they continue to trash the already pathetic state education regime.

Oh, great; we get to go from right- of- center to far right; now that's change you can believe in. Me, I'll stick to Occupy.

I see the shift, but I see it as the political consequence of a shift from industrialism to post-industrialism. In state politics it will be manifest as a shift from top-down rule - with all of the advantages going to those who can pony up the stake (Boeing, forestry, big construction firms, big government bureaucracies, cities, then, later, Microsoft and Kemper Freeman) to play in the big game (federal pork, state tax structure) - to a more bottom-up force facilitated by the new technology. We will see a shift from centralized power to distributed power. The end of state-controlled liquor sales is part of this shift. It should be less paternalistic and more democratic, but not necessarily (capital D) Democratic.

Republican party moderates stand to gain as this shift should lead to policies that will draw power from large corporations to small businesses, the traditional patrons of moderate Republicans. I look forward to business tax policy reforms over the next five years. The B & O tax is dreadful and begs for reform. We should see a clamp down on state tax loopholes for the big industries that could afford to buy them.

But the power will not go to far-right Republicans because there will be a mirror image shift in power in the personal sphere as well. Less regressive personal tax policy will bring about the dawn of an income tax on the very wealthy - possibly leading with a capital gains tax - and more personal freedom such as marriage equality and the possible end to marijuana prohibition. Far right Republicans have tied their fortunes to social conservatives who do not share anything more with the traditional moderate Republicans than moderate Democrats share with their left wing.

Nick Hanauer, rather than a flag-bearer for the new wave, is actually one of the last to try the crumbling big game. That game has degraded to the point that nouveau riche individuals like him (as opposed to the old guard industrial rich like the Simpsons, the Bloedels, or the Bullits) can play. He is trying to ride the wave of post-industrialism to the top of the tower that his own wave is toppling. He doesn't represent the grassroots but, like Kemper Freeman, a one-man special interest group. The fact that he can join this game is the best evidence that it is falling apart.

A better sign from the Seattle School Board election - if you must use it as an example - is how the big money (Mr. Hanauer included) won four out of four races four years ago, but could only win two out of four races last year. Grassroots candidates with a fraction of the money took two of those races. This was a victory for democracy over oligarchy. It was a victory for distributed power over centralized power. Look for more of that.

Frank Chopp cut his political teeth in Seattle, but his political views were already well formed when he came here as a student at the UW. They were forged in Bremerton, soon to be Norm Dick's district, where his working-class-conscious Dad worked in the shipyard. He has much more in common with the Magnuson-Jackson-Dicks wing of the party than Mr. Brewster seems to realize. Not surprising, in that Mr. Chopp abhors personal publicity associated with the media limelight, and it's a shame that local news organizations don't better inform the public about their devoted and remarkably selfless public servant in the Speaker's chair. Perhaps it would be better to run such a piece prior to his retirement, unlike waiting until his career is over like Crosscut has for Rep. Dicks.

From the piece:

There have been other shocks recently. . . . Kemper Freeman, the main man in Bellevue politics, is losing clout and failing to elect his allies to the city council.

The City of Bellevue still does what Kemper Freeman, Bob Wallace, and other property developers want. The significant upzones – including those along Bel-Red Road – are recent examples.

Freeman’s ongoing attempts to shape laws, public policy, and media coverage center on Sound Transit, not Bellevue. He’s a friendly-enemy, one Sound Transit’s PR and legal teams use regularly:

-- Team ST selected him to sign the lame “Statement Against” ST2 used in the 2008 voters guide. That statement was designed to be unconvincing. It was replete with vague questions, which made the authors appear weak. That statement failed to itemize the manifest faults with the ST2 measure (it allows people no power over the policies of that government despite its heavy permanent regressive taxing powers, the financing plan was a vastly larger version of the abusive one the monorail authority employed, no peer finances light rail using scores of billions of dollars of new local regressive taxes, it contains no taxpayer-protection provisions, etc.).

-- Freeman played the part of “The Opponent” during the weeks before the ST2 vote, appearing with Nickels at a series of “debates” where he never gave good reasons to oppose the measure.

-- He and Phil Talmadge brought lame claims before the supreme court in an attempt to obtain for Sound Transit case law that would enable the proposed I-90 corridor infrastructure handover. When that action was dismissed last year as premature, he immediately brought another set of lame claims in a lawsuit in Kittitas County that he intends to use as the vehicle to get back before the justices.

-- Freeman’s quotes about Sound Transit that are used by the media outlets invariably are dissembling and they never reference that taxing district’s flawed governance structure or its aberrant financing policies and practices.

-- Freeman funded and acted as the front man for I-1125 last November. That initiative was designed to do two things: before the election it was an excuse for ST’s PR team to put out press releases designed to make that taxing district look good, and if it had passed it would have brought about lawsuits that ST’s lawyers would have controlled. Those lawsuits would have caused years of delay for East Link (which Team ST wants) and they would have given the justices ample opportunity to again put Sound Transit’s plans above the law.

Freeman’s “opposition” to Sound Transit, and to East Link in particular, is as phony as a three-dollar bill. He wants it built and operating because it would make him vastly richer. Everybody gets that, right? His properties in downtown Bellevue near those planned light rail stations would increase in value by scores of millions of dollars. He’s probably got plans to develop properties on Bel-Red Road near those planned stations, and on the former Group Health property near the planned Overlake station. Developers are the primary financial beneficiaries of light rail lines, and he’s looking out for himself by taking actions designed to increase the chances East Link progresses.

As for the 'timing' of this decision by Congressman Dicks to terminate his long-running public career, might it have anything to do with with a slow-simmering scandal involving Congressional earmarks that have gone to the state agency headed by his son, David Dicks? There was a front-page article about this in "The Washington Post" just last month. (See the following link: .) Until the retirement announcement, this had been the biggest story in the press about Congressman Dicks so far this year. Obviously, Dicks' impending departure from office puts a damper on the newsworthiness of this story. His timely retirement enables David Dicks to emerge from the shadow of his influential father's career and to better pursue a public career of his own.

Maybe this link to the Post Story will work:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/earmark-investigation-rep-norm-dicks-and-puget-sound/2012/01/19/gIQAj3VZxQ_story.html

There's always a story behind the story. I guess it doesn't really alter the good he's done for WA State, does it? It seems that everyone disappoints eventually. I believe the only governors we've had that were totally honest were probably Evans whom I greatly admired and Gregoire. Any skeletons in her closet? I admire her as well. All the others? If you looked hard enough, you find something.

Just read your link:

"Over the next four years, father and son worked in tandem to restore Puget Sound, with the congressman directing millions more to the work, including a $1.82 million earmark and more than $14 million in grants and other funds that went to his son’s agency.

Wasn't that a terrible thing to do? Simply awful of them to restore Puget Sound.

Earmarks are not evil in and of themselves. Thank you, Norm and David.

BTW, I see this:

“Everyone was scratching everyone’s back with this Puget Sound Partnership,” said Republican state Sen. Mark Schoesler, who has been a vocal critic of the partnership. “They were banking on daddy Dicks to bring money home, and then his son squandered it.”

Where is Schoesler's evidence that money was squandered? Oh, right. Republicans don't need evidence.

I watched Schoesler during the budget debate. He said nothing supportable and his spin was puerile and snotty.

Fascinating piece for someone who had a good handle on NY City politics after 25 years, but has mere inklings here where the bodies are buried; and fascinating comments as well. As very much of an anti-imperialist I nonetheless appreciate some of its boons, such as the excellence of the UW Medical Center. Will these many military bases actually ever shrink?
As a footnote to the largess of earmarking even Idaho got a submarine facility: http://www.ss563.org/idahoss.html

My comment was simply to point out a possible motive for this 'surprise' announcement coming when it did--based on evidence that has somehow escaped the notice of the local press. I wasn't making any judgment calls on the Congressman's ethics, or the value of his work to the people of this state or to the nation. But let's face it: the lengthy Post article on Dicks steering federal funds to an agency headed by his son was in no way meant to be flattering to either of them, despite a couple sentences to the contrary that can be cherry-picked by folks like northender. Dicks pulling out at this time--even when he predicts the Dems will retake the House this coming November--may result from other factors than just a hankering for a life-style change.

That's what sells papers. What do you think they're gonna write? Get real.

BTW, this from the comments to the WAPO article:

njglea
2/8/2012 5:24 AM PST
"As a Washingonian I'm very interested in what the money was used for and what was cleaned up. Senator Dick's son left a lucrative law practice to take a $129,000 a year job, which is peanuts in today's job market. If Senator Dicks benefitted from business or personal interests from the money it is not acceptable. If not, Thank You Senator Dicks for helping to clean up Puget Sound after years of corporate pollution. Republicans would like to do away with the EPA so robber barons can once again rape our environment for personal gain. No thanks."

Something to think about? Perhaps more benign that your first take considered?

@northender-
that would carry more weight if they got their facts straight. Senator Dicks is a rep. In any case, if Dicks the younger is wrongdoing, it would behove the accusers to present the facts of it rather than wave their hands and smear.

When did Puget Sound get cleaned up or restored? I missed that part of the article.

Just because government throws money at an issue doesn't mean squat. For the record, in order to clean up or restore Puget Sound you HAVE TO start at the storm drains and catch basins that dump into creeks, streams and rivers, it doesn't get any simpler then that.

Show me a link to that part of the article that Puget Sound is restored.

Superb analysis, your piece reflects the on the ground experience of the Eastside and I believe, the rest of Washington State (population 6.8 million). Frank Chopp and his machine do represent Fremont, but in his role as unelected governor he has not been so good to his close neighbors at UW or the rest of the state. You have taken, and will take more heat from the Alice in Wonderland dreamers of Seattle (population 0.6 million) but that does not mean you got it wrong, quite the contrary. Those who doubt should do the math.

Please keep on parsing, it's all very interesting, even more if I had a clue as to what exactly you mean by the following phrasing at the top of the second page:

" liberalized environments to attract highly educated new workers, higher education calibrated to these needs, and infrastructure to keep the global trading economy moving smoothly. Watch out, Olympia!"

What definition of "liberal" are you implying here? As you go on it sounds for a while as if you mean the ancient definition, as in "neo-liberalism." Then close to the bottom it ALMOST sounds as if you have the more current version in mind as in "Death of the Liberal Class." Problem is, I wouldn't call Dan Evans or Wes Ulman either one, so I remain very much in the dark as to what you really meant to say.

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