The Rossi contributor behind that traffic survey
By Austin Jenkins
June 18, 2008
It's an election year and my political antennae are up. So when I saw this story in The Seattle Times, my first thought was: This is a gift to Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi.
The story is about a new National Traffic Scorecard by Kirklind-based Inrix that places Seattle among the top 10 most congested metropolitan areas in the U.S. (Seattle ranks No. 9). The report also names the Highway 520 corridor — from Seattle across the Evergreen Point Bridge on Lake Washington to Kirkland and Redmond — as the wost traffic bottleneck in the region. The survey is ammo for Rossi's campaign, which has made congestion relief and Gov. Chris Gregoire's record on transportation a top issue.
A quick check of the state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) Web site confirmed my suspicion that there's a political angle here. It turns out that back in February, Inrix CEO Bryan Mistele contributed nearly the maximum of $2,800 to the Rossi campaign. The money's nice, but Mistele's bigger contribution might turn out to be the congestion report.
Comments:
Comment by Cameron, posted Wed, Jun 18, 9:24 a.m.
How was this reports conclusion any different that the State Auditors?: Answer: It isn't, it simply validates the Auditors report. Does the State Auditor need to file an "in-kind" contribution with the PDC?
Comment by Willi, posted Thu, Jun 19, 3:59 p.m.
Is the traffice survey tainted?: I gather that you believe that Inrix CEO's contribution to the Rossi campaign creates a bias that taints the traffic survey. This proposition is about as logical as suggesting that any journalist who makes a contribution to a candidate is disqualified from writing about politics.