I received my ballot weeks ago. I’ve been harassing and tormenting and nagging everyone I know to make sure they fill in their ballots and get them in the mail ASAP.
Yet I’ve yet to fill out my ballots. This wasn’t for laziness, or because I was unsure of which candidate to vote for (save the occasional exception, which I’ll get to below). It was because I so relish the experience, the process, and the last minute details that come out during the election cycle, that I didn’t want to end it prematurely. During the primary, I voted day 1, and then felt like I missed out on all the other pressing issues. I’d meet candidates at local political events, shake their hands, but once I told them I’d already voted, they’d move on to someone else they could flip.
So here, now that there’s only two days left to get the ballot in the mail, I give you my 2009 General Election Endorsements.
I’ll list them in the order I find personally most important, because it’s my blog.
Dow first came into my realm of consciousness when I started looking for a campaign to volunteer with early in the primary. I wanted to get involved, was horribly unemployed, and I was going back and forth as to help out with Larry Phillips or Dow Constantine. (I ended up helping out with the Sigler for Seattle Campaign - great experience, even if we lost.)
Dow won my favor over Larry Phillips because he seemed to be everyone’s champion. He had favorable marks from the gays and people of color. Not only that, he was a progressive champion of everything else under the sun, including a stalwart defender of puppies and kittens. How could you not love him?
During the primary, he was also the only candidate to call out Susan Hutchinson’s ludicrous assertion that she was non-Partisan. Hutchinson has only donated cash to Republican candidates (Bush, Rossi, Huckabee) and once sat on the board of the Discovery Institute, a hyper-conservative group looking to teach Intelligent Design in schools.
Hutchinson has name recognition from being a news-anchor on KIRO TV. This recognition has helped her in the polls - ironic, as she left KIRO with a bitter lawsuit and lots of burned bridges.
Other than that, she’s run on empty pleonasms for her entire campaign (”bringing people together”, “non-partisan solutions”, “outsider”). She seems to have NO idea as to what she’d really do for the County (or has an idea and won’t tell us) and comes across rather vapid in most of her public appearances.
And trick-or-treat, the King County Executive used to be a partisan position, and candidates had to declare their political affiliations. Susan Hutchinson was part of the campaign to make the position non-partisan.
Full disclosure - I volunteered for the Mike McGinn campaign. So did a shitload of other Seattleites. When I went into the office to offer up some of my time, their volunteer coordinator, Sol, took me into a back office and ran a quick mini-interview to get to know me and my strengths. He then told me about his background working in the Obama campaign and why he cared for McGinn.
Within minutes, I was working alongside fellow twenty-somethings with time to give and a penchant for McGinn’s grasp of the issues, care for the city, and electric biking.
In contrast, Joe Mallahan’s campaign has been run by high-paid staffers who protect him from the media and try to prevent as many blunders as possible (e.g. “Africans endorse me”, “Hello my Brothers and Sisters”, and of course, everything he’s said during his multiple debates).
McGinn threw multiple town halls throughout the city (I attended three). During each, he was able to charm Seattle’s citizens with ease (he’s got a killer wink) and show that he really understands the issues at hand during this election.
The viaduct replacement, a $4.2 billion dollar tunnel that won’t even have any exits in downtown Seattle, has been a contentious issue throughout this entire campaign.
Many Seattleites (rightly) fear the viaduct will end up falling down before our local government acts. Washington State Department of Transportation released a video of what would happen to the viaduct if a strong enough earthquake hit us.
And McGinn’s protests about the tunnel stoked some of those fears. At the same time, the current tunnel budget leaves Seattle paying nearly a billion dollars for a state highway that runs through it, AND leaves the city on the hook for all overruns.
After the city council entered into an agreement with the current wayward Mayor Nickels, McGinn has signaled he would no longer oppose the tunnel (what’s done is done) but will continue to fight the provision leaving Seattle on the hook for overruns.
Deep bore tunnels don’t have the best track record for coming in under budget (few government projects do), but some estimates show the tunnel coming in another $2 billion over. This would (according to McGinn) saddle Seattle taxpayers with potentially $15,000 in taxes for the average family of four. At a time when we’re already heavily hit, that money could instead be invested in things that I (and I’d say most of Seattle) cares for.
Like:
Expanded Light Rail: While neither candidate is against Light Rail, McGinn wants to put Light Rail expansion up to the citizens for a vote within two years, and connect our high density neighborhoods: Wallingford, Fremont, Ballard, Queen Anne, Belltown, and West Seattle.
Offer a Publicly Owned Fiber Optic Network for Internet: Some people see him as a crazy dreamer for trying to offer such a “luxury” as a public utility. The Internet is not a luxury, any more than roads or running water is. In this day and age, the Internet is an economic engine of it’s own. At the same time, local Cable companies have shown no interest in upgrading their services despite a desire to continue to increase prices. A public option (as in health care) would create a stronger infrastructure, and be offered to Seattleites for less money. This is a good idea. Period. Send.
I voted for Jessie Israel during the primary. Back then, I decided I liked both candidates and what they had to offer, and I figured a vote for Israel would guarantee I got to hear more from each of them.
After the primary, it seemed like Israel continued to go negative on Licata, touting his record of being a “No Vote” against the rest of the council. This didn’t seem to be based on any statistical record of Licata’s, and I also didn’t really care.
By failing to show me what she was able to offer, she lost my interest.
Licata, on the other hand, has been on the side of increased police accountability (while also offering better services), been a nightlife advocate, and created a study to see if we could avoid building another Jail here in Seattle (we shouldn’t). Keep him in.
Mike O’Brien is a tall, skinnier Mike McGinn. Both have claims to fame from fighting the 2007 Roads and Transit levy (the one Seattle rejected in order to come back with a transit-only levy). Both were high-ranking members of the Sierra Club. Both bike everywhere.
O’Brien has an MBA from the UW, an economic degree from Duke University, and has a comprehensive view of what we need to improve pedestrian and bike safety and accessibility in this city.
His opponent, Robert Rosencrantz, refuses to answer his positions on abortions (opting instead to quote Obama’s “agree to disagree” stance, and just kind of comes across as a weasel).
Vote for Pete Holmes, because Tom Carr is a crazy man with an agenda.
Tom Carr has repeatedly used his power as City Attorney to bully small bars and businesses. With Mayor Nickels by his side, they enacted Operation Sobering Thought: a completely unsuccessful sting leading to 20 bar employees being arrested, none of them charged with a single crime.
As City Attorney, Carr has continued to prosecute people arrested for marijuana infractions, despite Seattle voters approving a measure that would make them the “lowest possible law-enforcement priority”.
Currently he’s working to close down the Columbia City bar Angie’s, one of the last hold-outs to gentrification in the area. While Angie’s has had its share of abuses, closing down the bar is only going to make race relations uglier in the south end.
He’s also admitted to having a personal vendetta against alcohol after his father died of an alcohol-related accident at the age of 14. While my condolences go out to the adolescent Carr, the adult City Attorney has been using his power to go after everyone who drinks, responsibly or not.
And as one more nail in Carr’s coffin, police started aggressive audits of Gay bars in an attempt to shut them down for erotic or pornographic imagery on their walls. Gay bars have long used porn as a way to non-violently deter bigots from entering their establishments, keeping them safe.
Throw him out, and vote for Pete Holmes, a reasonable man who wants to defend the people of the city (those who elected him).
Just got back from my district’s Town Hall meeting. It was in Meadowbrook Community Center, a place that brings back a lot of memories. I went to high school directly across the creek, I was run over by a car in their parking lot (I walked past the chair I sat in while the paramedics provided aid and I cracked jokes), and I worked there one summer while in college. It’s nice to feel that this is my neighborhood.
The town hall was great. The one issue I was planning to bring up was a Washington State Income Tax. I figured I’d bring it up, and I’d end up getting attacked by crazy Republicans who thought I was trying to spread their wealth.
So when our representatives started in on raising revenues, I felt like I had a good shot. And then some older lady stood up and suggested an Income Tax. Everyone clapped. Someone else brought it up, people cheered.
Old white ladies (OWLs) stood up over and over again to ask for continued support for public health, public services, school, and all the bleeding heart causes that Evergreen brainwashed me into caring about. And all of them were ready to step up and spend more to keep these services.
Late in the discussion an abrasive small-business owner stood up and began lecturing the crowd about California’s income tax. He spoke for about five minutes, staring down the crowd with a real “fuck-you” gaze. Finally a lady interrupted him and asked “Do you have a question?”
I wasn’t in reporter mode, so I didn’t get an exact quote, but Ken Jacobsen told the Re-Pub that some times people had to foot the bill for services. (Oh snap!) Perfect politician Scott White was a bit more tactful when he explained to the gentleman that sales taxes are incredibly inequitable, and that it’s about time for an income tax. And Phyllis was just great.
Regardless, the whole event made me feel pretty good about my district. Although we are lacking any significant presence from people of color. Oh Wedgewood.
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 3:27 pm. 4 comments
A Tacoma man has been charged with a hate crime after threatening a woman on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Alfred Salway, age 52, allegedly confronted a woman on January 15th and threatened to stab her in the eye.
Police reports indicate Salway yelled “Did you hear me lesbian,” followed by “I’m going to hurt you lesbian” and “Lesbian, I’m going to get you.”
The woman, whose sexuality was undisclosed, ran from Salway and he gave chase. The police were called, and Salway was arrested minutes later.
King County Prosecutors charged Salway with malicious harrassment, Washington state’s hate-crime law.
Salway, who has previously been convicted of 11 counts of assault, is being held in King County Jail under $50,000 bail.
Posted 1 year, 6 months ago at 4:45 pm. Add a comment
For those without a calculator handy (and you’re on a computer, so there’s one handy), that’s upwards of 15 million pounds annually. If only we could build condos out of this shit.
Of course, the problem isn’t the poop. It’s the placement. Despite the nominal threat of fines, poop still litters are streets and parks. Want a solution, switch to a bigger Times.
The New York Times ran an article on the city of Petah Tikva, a city near Tel Aviv. The mayor worked with the city director of veterinary services and created a system to establish a system able to DNA fingerprint the dog droppings left in public places. In order to so, they created a dog DNA registry of licensed dogs, and to convince citizens to take part, they rewarded dog owners who voluntarily registered their dogs.
The city placed specially created poop dispensers around the city, and paid city officials to sift through the properly-disposed-of excrement to find matches. When a registered dog’s poop was found in the bin, the owner received a prize.
Genius? Kind of. Once enough dog owners buy into the idea, it’s only a matter of time (and logical public policy) to start fining the owners of dogs whose DNA is found in piles on the street corners. And with an actual risk of getting caught, 100% of dog owners may start doing the right thing all the time.
While on some level, it’s very sad that we would need to create a publicly funded police force to encourage dog owners to always do the right thing, I think we’re there as a country. As a nation, and often as a city, our sense of entitlement and lack of accountability has created an incredibly irresponsible populace.
Apparently pooper-scooper laws are discussed in University of Washington law and economics classes. Professor Steve Calandrillo told the Seattle Times that irresponsible dog walkers who don’t pick up after their dogs are caught on average 1 out of 100 times.
This level of accountability turns a $54 ticket into a 54 cent per-pile fee. As someone who steers as far away from poop as I can, seems like a pretty good deal. Calandrillo suggests a fine closer to $500.
Which brings us to the conclusion: is it really that big of a deal?
Fecal landmines aside, the rainwater causes all of this poop to enter our waterways, streams, and eventually Puget Sound. The waste can contain such ickies as roundworm, E. coli and Giardia. Kind of detracts from the adorable wintertime images of kids eating snow off the ground, making snow angels, or even just playing in the yard.
David Ward, principal watershed Steward of Snohomish county, told the Seattle Times “Pet waste comes consistently to the top as one of the principal sources of contamination in urban waterways”.
I don’t know. Seems like a great way to provide jobs to our local unemployed geneticists. Let’s get some of that Obama stimulus money and put it to work.