Posted Wed, Feb 17, 9:22 a.m.

Don Benton? Paul Akers? Seriously? These are the Republican "big names" against $5 Million Dollar Woman Patty Murray? She'll win by at least a dozen points against these nobodies. It could be time to dust off Dino and at least make it a respectable loss for the fading R's.

Posted Thu, Feb 11, 12:21 p.m.

@Leslie: Actually the jail in question was a Seattle facility, not a King County facility. King County has worked to create a regional process that will combine the Seattle and Eastside jails for misdemeanants and (hopefully) find a new location close to the downtown courts, not on the outskirts of ...

Posted Thu, Feb 11, 10:13 a.m.

@kieth: King County collects property taxes for all jurisdictions, but only receives a portion of the revenue. For every property tax dollar paid by KC residents, about 15 cents goes to King County for regional services. Another 31 cents of each property tax dollar goes to local services--i.e. Seattle residents' ...

Posted Mon, Feb 8, 11:17 a.m.

Actually, this piece was halfway funny, which makes it the best humor piece I've ever read in Crosscut. (Sorry Crosscutters, but being funny is just not your strength.)

Posted Fri, Feb 5, 9:19 a.m.

The death of WL&P; is a sad development, for all the reasons already listed and because there will now be even less smart writing out there about Seattle politics. The mag will be missed.

Posted Wed, Nov 18, 10:56 a.m.

Kent Kammerer is a bright man, but his constant griping about the focus on raising money in politics is beyond tiresome. Seattle City Council candidates have to run citywide in a city of almost 600,000 people. The average successful Council campaign raises more than $200,000. That's a lot of people ...

Posted Mon, Nov 16, 9:38 a.m.

As usual, David, you're missing a lot. Here are three things to consider: 1. The Seattle City Council is already dominated by moderates. Moderate Democrats, to be sure, but here's my supermajority moderate lineup: Burgess, Conlin, Clark, Godden, Harrell, Rasmussen, and now Bagshaw. Not a bomb-thrower in the bunch. O'Brien ...

Posted Thu, Sep 24, 5:03 p.m.

Thanks for caring enough to write this piece. I have several fond memories of KJET, including the time my band's single got played over the radio as I was sitting in a car full of college girls (someone said, "Hey, isn't that your band?"). Still, the occasional glitches with the ...

Posted Mon, Aug 17, 9:18 a.m.

Sorry, Cameron, but you've posted this statement before on other sites and never provided any proof. That's probably because you don't have any. The Maple Valley donut hole project was proposed by Ron Sims and promoted by Glacier gravel pit lobbyist Jamie Durkan. Dow Constantine has never played a major ...

Posted Mon, May 11, 8:27 a.m.

OK Gary, I'll take your challenge to David. James Donaldson can't raise money at all, positioned himself too far to the right to win in Seattle (announcing his candidacy on Dori Monson's Republican radio show? Seriously?), and has no political or public record to speak of. Michael McGinn has a ...

Posted Sat, Feb 28, 1:52 p.m.

"When Burgess reached out to former and natural supporters for his mayoral campaign, he found many of them willing to vote for him and quietly support him but "frozen, afraid of retribution." It all sounds so sinister, but it just means that a lot of his former supporters either don't ...

Posted Thu, Feb 12, 1:01 p.m.

I somehow missed the part of the story about Seattle seceding from King County. And how exactly would Seattle secede from Washington state? Very strange indeed.

Posted Mon, Jan 19, 10:08 a.m.

"I suspect that many of those supporting the deep tunnel solution will eventually push to have the historic pier sheds on the waterfront taken out to improve park and condo views for the lucky few who can afford to live in the new condos that will eventually develop in the ...

Posted Sun, Jan 18, 7:52 p.m.

A lot of Seattle residents actually seem enthused by the mere fact that we have a preferred option after all these years. I don't know that they will want to spend several years fighting this plan just to go back to zero. And, it seems like the Sierra Club surface ...

Posted Sun, Jan 18, 1:53 p.m.

Mr. B.: I'm going to disagree with a lot of what you wrote, but I'm not just trying to be disagreeable. The viaduct won't be a major issue in this year's Council campaigns for two reasons. First, there isn't really a third viaduct option, unless you mean the Sierra Club/Stranger ...

Posted Sun, Jan 18, 11:38 a.m.

"I guess what Licata does could be called populism in contrast to Drago, though this is an isolated comparison. Jan is Vulcan's champion, and Nick is the wine bar/public art champion, both competing to tax me, the guy that wants neither." Damn, Mr. B., that was dead on. Good line.

Posted Sat, Jan 17, 4:52 p.m.

Seattle voters rejected both the elevated rebuild and a cut-and-cover tunnel along the viaduct corridor. The new compromise gives them a completely different package: the surface option plus a deep-bore tunnel on a different alignment. The will of the people has been implemented.

Posted Wed, Jan 14, 9:05 p.m.

Excellent points in your last paragraph, Jan. This proposal is by far the best viaduct replacement solution, even if it does send the 1950s elevated replacement thinkers sprawling and it adds more actual auto capacity to the surface solution than its anti-car supporters would prefer. A compromise always makes somebody ...

Posted Fri, Jan 9, 4:33 p.m.

Hmmm. I wonder how many people want to buy a business that's losing $18 million a year?

Posted Thu, Jan 8, 9:14 a.m.

Interesting theories, but you're wrong about Burgess. He has real political ambitions and would gain nothing from losing to Nickels at this point. Greg Smith is just not getting a lot of interest at this point (unless your gripe against Nickels is that he's not pro-development enough). Old dogs like ...

Posted Sat, Jan 3, 11:42 a.m.

or 2009!

Posted Sat, Jan 3, 11:41 a.m.

So, your basic argument is that Seattle voters should nix Nickels because he worked hard to get light rail onto the ballot and they voted for it enthusiastically. Sounds like a better argument to re-elect Nickels. Ted, your critics don't want you to endorse light rail. They just feel that ...

Posted Fri, Dec 26, 4:54 p.m.

Chris, you are hitting way too hard on the stock market as the single factor behind Obama and Gregoire's victories. Six months before the election, all the economic indicators showed that Obama was going to win--the housing market collapse/stock market collapse merely provided the final push to the dagger. Eight ...

Posted Wed, Dec 24, 2:17 p.m.

Having grown up in Cleveland, there is one major difference between Clevelanders and Seattleites when snow hits. In the snowbelt, people feel they are personally responsible for snow clearance on and around their own property. The day after a snowfall, you see gangs of employees (usually led by white shirt ...

Posted Sat, Dec 20, 12:22 p.m.

Actually, Skip, the Stranger's "Urban Archipelago" piece was a diatribe against the useless red fly-over states. The Eastside is now largely urban and is electing Democrats to everything, except for Jane Hague and those holdouts in the 5th District. The Stranger hasn't changed--your Eastside has.

Posted Wed, Dec 17, 5:07 p.m.

Chris: I don't think you can completely dismiss Spike's complaints about the Rossi ads, even though I think the three he cited (the guy with the match, the baby, and the sex offender ad) were all run by independent expenditure campaigns. I would argue that the most harmful Rossi ads ...

Posted Mon, Dec 8, 9:45 a.m.

Very well stated, RCR. The availability of 2-3 new council seats will draw all the political energy this cycle, leaving Conlin to run essentially unopposed and giving Nickels a third term. You've also hit on the essential weakness of Ted Van Dyk as a local political commentator--he doesn't have much ...

Posted Thu, Nov 20, 4:34 p.m.

I get that Carlson is an optimist and all, but I can't help mentioning that nearly every piece I've read outlining the Republican Party's road back to relevance in Washington state (including the Chris Vance pieces on Crosscut) listed electing Dino Rossi as a necessary first step. The few Republican ...

Posted Thu, Nov 13, 3:05 p.m.

Wrong you are, Ben. Ex-professor Al Runte got a little less than 35 percent (to Nickels' 64 percent) in 2005, but was nothing more than a protest candidate. The proof? Runte ran for a Council seat in 2007, which provided a perfect chance for Seattle voters to set him up ...

Posted Thu, Oct 23, 9:39 p.m.

Interesting claims all around. I was especially amused by Lincoln's statement that: "Since one bus can replace 75 cars, adding buses will make it easier to get on and off freeways, because there will be many fewer cars." I really wish that buying one Metro bus would cause 75 people ...

Posted Wed, Oct 15, 5:05 p.m.

The basic dispute over the Southeast District Council is this: Should a board set up to provide neighborhood representation in city affairs for activist and business groups be subverted to serve the aims of social service groups who move in and take over? Social service groups all share the same ...

Posted Sat, Oct 11, 10:17 a.m.

Sims has just lost touch: Yikes, David! Ron Sims a maverick? Isn't that just a nice way of saying he's lost touch with his community and reality? And, Steptoe Fan, the total KC budget is almost $5 billion, but only $660 million or so is in the general fund (i.e. ...

Posted Fri, Sep 19, 12:26 p.m.

Before the yuppies ruined it?: Everyone gripes about the changes that big money brings (i.e. Microsoft), but nobody really wants to go back to being poor (the Boeing Bust). Note to Skip and Kieth: You were both 25 years younger in the 1970s, which helps in keeping all your memories ...

Posted Tue, Sep 9, 1 p.m.

Palin's a lightweight: Yikes! The right wingers are so desperate to find some reason to praise Sarah Palin that they're crediting her for defending Alaska's coastline? Well, I guess no one's invaded yet. Palin's resume claims just haven't panned out, folks. Last Sunday's Seattle Times pretty well debunked her claim ...

Posted Wed, Aug 20, 3:04 p.m.

Facts are still good: Oh, all right. When the concept of Seattle District Elections comes back, I'm sure some dumbhead will claim it's a Republican plot (although where in Seattle you could draw a Republican-majority district is anyone's guess). I just hate the Medic One canard (a fave of Dori ...

Posted Wed, Aug 20, 2:39 p.m.

Still need more facts: Benjamin: Medic One was founded as a city of Seattle program in 1970 and was so successful it was expanded countywide within a decade. It has always been funded as an excess levy and has never received city or county general fund money. It now costs ...

Posted Wed, Aug 20, 8:23 a.m.

Need a few more facts here: In your haste to mock King County Democrats, you neglect to mention that both the initiatives they consider to be Republican plots actually are Republican plots. Both the non-partisan Council/Executive and elections director charter change initiatives were funded by a small group of major ...

Posted Sat, Aug 2, 11:57 a.m.

Sorry to interrupt your rant, but...: "The sales tax on food is voluntary because you could grow your own food." Sales taxes on grocery items were eliminated in 1976 through a statewide initiative.

Posted Wed, Jul 16, 10 a.m.

Cops, cops, cops: Rossi can talk all he wants to about hiring more police officers, but until state government provides a steady revenue stream to cities and counties to fund this, it's just talk. The state, through measures like Eyman's I-747 (struck down by the courts, but approved by the ...

Posted Tue, Jul 8, 12:15 p.m.

Tired, old Jim: Jim McDermott has fought (and lost) the good fight for Seattle liberalism for many years, but it's perfectly reasonable for the locals to wonder what might happen if we had a real powerhouse in his seat (a la Norm Dicks or Patty Murray). Some established D should ...

Posted Fri, May 16, 3:07 p.m.

Um, wicked fat guy joke, but...: ...if that's the best Greg's critics can manage, he should easily get elected to another term next year.

Posted Tue, Feb 5, 6:04 p.m.

Susan has a point: Sorry, artists, but you shouldn't blame the impolitic lady from the Mayor's office for speaking the truth. Any building that has been a haven for arts groups over mutiple years should have already been purchased and protected by an arts groups or a coalition of arts ...

Posted Sun, Feb 3, 12:04 p.m.

Nickels could still face a serious challenge: The reason you failed to spot Mr. Wolbeck is because there's nothing to see. Lippy minor candidates aside, there is talk out there about three potentially viable challengers: City Councilmembers Tom Rasmussen and Richard Conlin and ex-Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck. This trio will need ...

Posted Mon, Jan 21, 11:33 a.m.

Eyman fiddles while GOP churns: A reasonable analysis, but why stop at Eyman's effect on Eyman? Timmy's run and the similar tactics of John Carlson should help keep the Democrats in power statewide for another 20 years. After his long vacation, Dino Rossi has fallen to third-best-known Washington state Republican ...

Posted Mon, Jan 14, 1:16 p.m.

Where's your initiative: Mr. Eyman, the link you provided (reducecongestion.org) switched me over to the Permanent Offense website, which doesn't contain a copy of the text of your initiative. When will the text be available?

Posted Mon, Dec 31, 12:26 p.m.

Rick's a great coach, lousy employee: Give credit to Neuheisel--he's a fine coach and an excellent recruiter and a good hire for UCLA. However, UW didn't have much choice but to fire him based on his habit of always denying charges up front, then admitting later that he was lying. ...

Posted Wed, Dec 5, 4:41 p.m.

RE: Much ado about 1 percent: If I know nothing about you sir, I see that you are a whiner and a dedicated Paul believer. On checking the latest New Hampshire poll I see that Paul is now at 8 percent support and has taken fifth place from Fred Thompson. ...

Posted Mon, Dec 3, 12:46 p.m.

Magic genie made Republicans disappear: A 35 percent showing is not respectable in a county that was majority Republican a couple of cycles back. Any opponent to even the most popular incumbent always manages 20-25 percent of the vote. Turk's numbers means that lots of folks who consider themselves to ...

Posted Thu, Nov 29, 8:28 a.m.

Much ado about 1 percent: If you take Paul's 1 percent Republican support and link it with Kucinich's 1 percent Democratic support, you get 1 percent national support. That's not even Ralph Nader territory. Paul is an interesting eccentric, but his views are too random and goofy to appeal to ...

Posted Wed, Nov 21, 5:39 p.m.

Soccer is OK, but only just: Soccer will never displace the big three of football, baseball and basketball. Hell, it probably won't pass professional golf anytime soon. But it's a fine sport and there's no reason that a team couldn't be successful in Seattle. Just don't expect too much.

Posted Thu, Nov 15, 8:18 a.m.

A little research, perhaps?: Actually, the ferry district (and a flood control district the County Council approved on the same day) aren't a case of "found" money, but are new special-purpose districts that can only spend their funds on specific items. The King County Ferry District can't spend the transportation ...

Posted Wed, Nov 7, 10:49 a.m.

Not bad for a first try: Skip, I'm not sure what you mean by the Democrats failing to capture the King County Prosecutor's office "yet again." The Dems cut a deal with Republican Norm Maleng years ago to ensure that he'd face no opposition or a token candidate (Richard Pope ...

Posted Thu, Oct 11, 9 a.m.

Where's the Seattle Way?: Seattle newspaper editorialists like to wring their hands and weep about the lack of capable officeholders, the dearth of election challengers, the do-nothing Seattle Way, etc. Yet, when a guy who knows what he wants and knows how to get it done like Greg Nickels shows ...

Posted Mon, Sep 17, 2:33 p.m.

Laurelhurst vs. the world: Thanks for noting your conflict of residence, Casey, but you should also mention that the Laurelhurst Community Club is the best-funded neighborhood group in the city (it even has a Rainier Club membership!), so this is hardly a David vs. Goliath scenario. Children's Hospital is obviously ...

Posted Thu, Aug 23, 1:07 p.m.

Venus, Bill looking good after primary: Casey's analysis of the Harrell-Velasquez race is awfully generous to Bruce Harrell's fading campaign. Twelve grand in cash on hand isn't much, especially when you've lost the primary by 15 points to a strong opponent like Venus. Velasquez has the momentum; it's her race ...

Posted Mon, Aug 20, 1:26 p.m.

To sign or not to sign: Ask any consultant about yard signs and you'll get the same political cliche: "Signs don't vote." Maybe not, but supporters enjoy posting a candidate's sign in their front yard, so a few signs are on every campaign's "must-have" list (along with the obligatory T-shirts ...

Posted Thu, Aug 16, 1:43 p.m.

72 hour parking is a reasonable tolerance policy: Sorry, Skip, but people don't have a right to turn public streets or parks into mobile home parks. It's my understanding that the police will ticket or otherwise post a vehicle before towing it. If the vehicle owners move when they're warned ...

Posted Tue, Aug 14, 2:39 p.m.

Nothing to see here: An interesting rumination on a dull election. Godden and Rasmussen will be reelected to City Council, along with Sally Clark and (probably) Della, based on relatively good economic times and the lack of any real scandals. Despite your earlier poster's enthusiasm for Lauren Briel and Al ...

Posted Fri, Jul 27, 7:25 a.m.

RE: Who's better qualified?: Satterberg, again, is a guy who has never held a job outside the KC prosecutor's office, will continue the policies of Maleng, and is the status quo candidate. Fair enough. What if voters don't want to continue the status quo? Read Rick Anderson's piece in the ...

Posted Thu, Jul 26, noon

RE: Bill Sherman - for the Long Haul: Sorry "T," I'm just not getting your point. Why should Bill Sherman's diverse resume (federal govt., private practice, KC prosecutor) be considered a drawback? Satterberg has never held a job outside of the prosecutor's office and would likely continue Maleng's policies and ...

Posted Wed, Jul 11, 5:27 p.m.

Close, but no designation: Current city land use law requires automatic landmarks review of buildings slated for demolition. Mr. Berger's original piece included enough interesting points that I think the Ballard Denny's would be nominated for landmarks protection, but it is simply not a significant enough structure to be designated ...

Posted Wed, Jun 20, 10:47 a.m.

A word about Professor Morrill: The claim that Professor Richard Morrill is "almost single-handedly responsible for today's (transportation) mess" is beyond silly. Professor Morrill isn't a transportation expert, nor does he claim to be one. In the last 20 years, he's functioned more as the Charlie Chong of UW planning ...

Posted Tue, May 22, 3:42 p.m.

RE: No vision: I blame the Masons.

Posted Fri, May 18, 10:04 a.m.

Best piece yet on Crosscut: Great job, Casey. This is an excellent primer on election fundraising, plus a good feature on Colby Underwood, a very powerful player in Seattle politics. Aside from the expected whines about public financing schemes, someone needs to address the major question it raises. Why haven't ...

Posted Wed, May 2, 2:24 p.m.

Your rant is humor-impaired: Greg, when you try to write humor and people don't find it amusing, it isn't necessarily THEIR fault. I'm glad you and Piper thought your piece was hilarious. Anyway, I wanted to correct one claim of yours. Gas taxes play only a very small role in ...

Posted Tue, May 1, 8:49 a.m.

Do your homework, Sean: Paul Allen was systematically buying land at South Lake Union both inside and outside the boundaries of the proposed Commons Park. The land he donated to the city would have been an investment to increase the value of his other property. Rich guys don't get rich ...

Posted Tue, May 1, 7:33 a.m.

Little guys still matter: It's interesting to see from Sean's arrogant rant that revisionist history on the Seattle Commons is already underway just a decade after the fact. Simply because the Commons was a "big idea" doesn't mean it was a good idea. I opposed the Commons project and, like ...

Posted Sun, Apr 29, 10:26 p.m.

Dino is dead: Dino Rossi is a virulent right-wing pro-lifer. This was ignored by the idiots who ran Christine Gregoire's last campaign based on the assumption they were going to win easily, so they didn't have to work very hard. This strategy didn't work. This time, they'll go hard after ...

Posted Sun, Apr 22, 2:53 p.m.

Reality check for CHECC: It's heartening to see the general lack of reverence for CHECC among the commenters. A close reading of Peter LeSourd's just-the-facts narrative shows conclusively that CHECC's major function was to allow Seattle's young would-be establishment politicians to push the old establishment types into retirement. The CHECC ...