History, politics, people of Oly WA

Month: August 2008 (Page 1 of 3)

Gawd, not “another woman on the bench”

You know, emotionally, I have a lot of sympathy for the “dads rights” folks. I don’t want my children ever taken away from me.

But, if you want to be taken seriously, I’d hope the guys over at the Thurston County Family Court Reporter blog stop being sexist jerks:

Well, Ms. Murphy, I hope you prove me wrong. Every woman I have talked to about women on the bench has agreed that women rule by emotion first and foremost despite what the facts of record are. Additionally, the women judges tend to rule like a Monarchist and can’t seem to treat it like a job. People who are employed by the people are public servants not “officials” or royalty. Anyone that has witnessed Pomeroy, Schaller and Casey on the bench knows exactly what I am talking about. Power corrupts.

Washington State Dems have a blog (2 years, 4 months, and one day later)

Ken Camp had a great idea, oh two freaking years ago. That the state party should use the web in a better way, including developing a blog, to expand their reach.

Chair Dwight Pelz’ reaction at the time was pretty stupid:

Invariably some comment will be posted there, and then attributed by someone as being from “an official State Party publication”. A scandal is then born.

Yeah, right, ok. Whatever Dwight.

Now, you’ll be happy to know that the state Dems are blogging.

I guess in the two intervening years, blogging has become a lot less scary to some folks.

Dear over-the-top anonymous commenter

You are right, the port protests and the sometimes over the top reaction to the ithmus debate have nothing to do with each other:

Protesting war equipment at our port? Tall condos for rich people? Olympia as a nuclear-free zone? Improving downtown – but how? Traffic conditions(bikes & cars)

Our community needs to discuss a number of controversial issues, and every person has values, experiences and perspectives worth sharing. Solving our community concerns needs everyone’s voice – including YOURS!

Jim Cooper in Denver

Our very own will be blogging the convention. Follow him at the Thurston Dems blog, and here’s his first post:

Our first event was the party at the Convention Center for the New Orleans Katrina Survivors. We got to see many diverse Americans from all walks of life, as well as great music, that included Randy Newman. We also heard form the Colorado State Dems Chair, the DNC Convention Chair, and DNC Chair Howard Dean! We also got to see Nancy Pelosi. There was even a tornado 20 miles from here this afternoon…

Going to Denver on a coin toss

Probably the most interesting story I’ve heard this caucus/convention season was how Jim Cooper, one of our Thurston County delegates finally got to go to Denver.

On a coin toss.

Well, let’s back up. Jim was elected at the state convention is Spokane to one of the many spots that are alloted in Spokane. I’m not sure of the actual process, but Jim left Spokane assuming he was going to Denver, as long as he could get a plane ticket and a hotel room.

Well, someone screwed up counting.

Turns out that there are strict rules regarding the distribution of delegates between the men and the women, and there was one to many male delegates for Obama in the category of delegates that Jim was in.

So, how to settle this situation?

Coin Toss!

The following is a big long email (really long email) from the state Dem chair Dwight Pelz explaining the whole thing.

Here’s the boring part that lays the background (mostly what I said above, but what the hell, skip this if you want):

According to our current, still unofficial projects; here is the profile of delegates that Obama and Clinton will add in Spokane. Let me know if you disagree with these findings.

———————————————————-

Clinton will add 3 PLEO’s, 6 At-Large, and 1 Alternate.

Obama will add 7 PLEO’s, 11 At-Large, and 3 Alternates.

Clinton will add 4 men and 6 women.

Obama will add 9 men and 12 women.

Clinton will seek to include 1 LGBT delegate, I disabled delegate, and 3 Hispanic delegates

Obama will seek to add 1 LGBT delegate, and 1 Hispanic delegate

————————————————————

In fact, on Sunday, June 15th the Elections Committee added for Obama 10 men and 11 women. Over the past week Sharon Smith, who chaired the Obama Sub-Caucus in Spokane, has reviewed these numbers and concurred with the DNC findings.

As a result, we must now:

1. Elevate a female Obama alternate to delegate, and appoint a female Obama alternate.
2. Move one male Obama delegate to alternate.
3. Remove one male Obama alternate from the delegation.

Adjusting the Delegation to Meet the Requirements of the DNC

Jaxon, Sharon, and I have reviewed the result of the balloting by the Obama Sub-Caucus on June 15 at Spokane. Here are the relevant results of that balloting.

1. Elevate a female Obama alternate to delegate, and appoint a female Obama alternate.

The female Obama alternate chosen in Spokane was Didi Saluja. She would become a delegate.

The next highest vote-getting female candidate who was not elected delegate or alternate was Michelle Gonzalez. She would become an alternate.

2. Move one male Obama delegate to alternate.

Here is where it gets tricky. The last two male delegates chosen were tied in the balloting. They are Robert Stowers and Jim Cooper.

3. Remove one male Obama alternate from the delegation.

This is also tricky, because the last two male alternates chosen were also tied in the balloting. They are Harvey Brooks and Mori Rothman.

This means we will have to remove at least one alternate from our delegation, understanding that he has purchased a ticket to Denver and reserved a hotel room. We will continue to consider this person a valuable and welcomed member of our group, including provision of a four-day Guest Pass to the Pepsi Center.

How to Proceed

The 2008 Rules for Election of Delegates and Alernates at the Congressional District Caucuses address the matter of tie votes in choosing delegates and alternates:

1. Presidential preference sub-caucuses shall be conducted as follows:

(D) After nominations are completed, voting shall be by signed ballot with all positions filled, no duplications and distribution by gender in accordance with subsections F, G and H. that follow. Any candidate for Delegate who receives a majority of the valid ballots cast on the first ballot shall be eligible for election. If all of the available delegate positions have not been filled after the first ballot a second ballot shall be held between the next two highest voter getters, for each position remaining in the field (if there is one position remaining there will be two candidates, if there are two positions four candidates, three positions, six candidates.) Ties will be decided by lot.

After receiving notice from the DNC I contacted David McDonald, member of the DNC Rules Committee and State Party Parliamentarian, on how we might proceed. He conferred with Phil McNamara, Director of Party Affairs and Delegate Selection with the DNC, who confirmed it would be appropriate to break the ties in the male delegate and alternate positions by lot to allow us to finalize the delegation.

Ok, here’s the fun part:

Therefore, I have asked delegates David McDonald, Helen Howell, and Sima Sarrafan to join me as witnesses in the State Party office on Thursday, June 17, at 4:30 for a coin toss to determine which delegate shall become an alternate; and which alternate shall become an unofficial member of our Washington delegation.

Thank you for your patience on this matter, and for agreeing to serve in our delegation.

Sincerely,

Dwight Pelz
Chair, Washington State Democratic Party
Chair for Washington’s 2008 DNC Convention Delegation

Turns out that Jim won the toss, so he’s going to Denver as a delegate. The other guy, Robert Stower, if he is going, is an unofficial guest.

Hey, lookee here, Top Two didn’t hurt parties in swing districts

Kari from Blue Oregon pokes a nice big hole in one of the main arguments in the Top Two primary, that a major party could be “aced out” (boy I love that term this morning) in a swing district:

The argument goes something like this: In a top-two primary, situations would arise in which districts that are usually closely divided between the Democrats and Republicans could wind up with a general election featuring two candidates from the same party – effectively wiping out the other party’s “right” to contest a close seat in the November election. Presumably, that situation could arise with four (or more) candidates tightly bunched together — say Donnie Democrat 26%, Lucy Liberal 25%, Ralph Republican 24%, Connie Conservative 23%. And while the Democrats combined for only 51% of the vote, they would get 100% of the spots in the general election (acing out the GOP.)

But here’s the thing: In Washington’s inaugural top-two primary, across 124 separate legislative races, that didn’t happen a single time. In fact, in every single swing district, the top two candidates were one Democrat and one Republican.

Read his entire post, its well worth your time.

Also, given the weird situation with Halvorson, Romero and whatever the Republican’s name was, this “swing districts will still elect a Republican and a Democrat” theory holds water.

Halvorson not in the Top Two?

UPDATE: From this, it looks like there are about 10,000 more ballots to count, so maybe Halvorson isn’t sunk yet. Too damn close for someone who spent that much though.

Wow. Have to say the surprise of the night so far is Jon Halvorson seemingly packing his bags early from the county commissioners race.

I think everyone sort of assume that it would be Halvorson and Romero facing off in November and the nominally funded Republican and Independent would head home. But, despite spending the most of any candidate ($39,000) and raising the most ($51,000) it just goes to show that money isn’t everything.

County Commissioner District No. 2
Vote for One 1
Sandra Romero . . . . . . . . . 3,885 31.49
Robin Edmondson . . . . . . . . 3,792 30.74
Jon W. Halvorson . . . . . . . . 3,245 26.31
Bill Pilkey. . . . . . . . . . 1,059 8.58
Lucius Daye. . . . . . . . . . 342 2.77
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 13 .11
Total . . . . . . . . . 12,336

Just a few thoughts:

1. Halvorson was running for a really long time. If memory serves, he announced in February of 2007, even before most city council candidates had gotten on the ground. Were people just tired of him?

2. He was endorsed by the local builders and well-liked by other local conservatives, but he failed to get the nomination of the local Dem party. I don’t think this had anything to do with it exactly, but…

3. Despite fears by some that Thurston County would be the prototypical “Top Two” locality with two Dems in the running in November, maybe voters really do sort themselves by party.

You have to admit that with the endorsement of the builders, Halvorson was cutting to the right of Romero. Maybe voters who wanted to vote for a more conservative candidate just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for someone who preferred Democrat?

Maybe Halvorson was just plain bad at spending his money and people just voted the labels and Romero just did a plain better job getting her name out to people who vote the Democratic label. I think that’s likely.

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