Author: Emmett O'Connell (Page 134 of 176)

From the WDFW.

I think this needs no explanation, but the introduction from Jeff Koenings, director of WDFW is pretty telling:

Quite clearly Puget Sound is at a tipping point. Above the surface, things appear calm and peaceful and beautiful. And, Puget Sound remains the crown jewel of the Pacific Northwest. But, below the surface, as you’re about to see, things are quite different.

I didn’t follow the Peter Goldmark campaign as close as I did other races, but it surprises me that he faired worse than the “no” campaigns on two right wing ballot initiatives in the 5th Congressional District.

Both No on 920 and No on 933 had better returns in the several east side counties that make up the WA 5 than Peter Goldmark. While Goldmark failed to win a single county, No on 933 won in four counties, while no on 920 won in every single county in Goldmark’s district.

Actually, if Goldmark had been either of these campaigns, he would be the congressman-elect.

I did up a quick and dirty spreed sheet comparing the votes that Goldmark got county by county, and the votes No on 933 got county by county, and estimated how Goldmark would have done. He would have won with 54 percent of the vote.

Voters in eastern Washington apparently liked the idea of keeping the state estate tax and defending growth management laws than electing a congressman who would fight for similar values in DC.

A couple of year ago the Thurston County Democrats became a “membership organization,” but not really. We started accepting “members” to our organization, but we never really gave them a role. We let them talk at meetings, but not actually vote. So, what’s the point?

Well, apparently there was some fear that there would be a take over of the party, that just by paying dues, you could get in and make decisions. This put fear in the hears of duly elected PCOs, who felt it was there role to run things. There are though only a few roles for PCOs as outlined in state law, all other local party stuff is open.

So, I have a compromise for this year’s reorganization of the party. Members still can’t vote, but if they do enough for the party, organize a group of fellow Dems, work on a committee, etc… They can.

I outlined my proposal here at a moreperfect wiki under Article 2.

My rational is basically that the PCO position itself is archaic. People don’t organize themselves by geography anymore, but rather socially. This is true in politics as much as it is true in economics or religion. We are more mobile than we were one hundred years ago, we shouldn’t limit our local part organizations by a neighborhood based system that was developed before the telephone, television, internet or interstate highway.

Andy over at Thurston Pundits has some thoughts on the 2006 elections. He mispells Bob Macleod’s name and grouses over I-920, 933, Cantwell and other stuff that in the end doesn’t make sense. But, his 933 rundown is priceless:

On 933 losing- my family will get screwed on this. However in Thurston especially this will mean the fruit loop land takers have license to extend CAO’s by 10,000%. Don’t think they won’t try. Short of armed revolt (which I say as metaphor) nothing is stopping them now. Sucks to own land. There is a reason that Jews would not own land in the old world…the governments kept taking it! That is the same reason I won’t own a big plot of land either. Sucks to be my neighbor today though.

“Nothing short of armed revolt?” From what? The overwhelming majority of voters in Washington State. At the minimum folks like Andy simply failed to make their case, at most, they were wrong from the very start and got shown the door.

And, what is that a metaphor for? Andy: I actually accept comments over here, so please, make your case.

That he would imply armed revolt, rather than engagement in local government is troubling. But for a small government kind of guy, why even both using government to make your case.

The right step now for local governments in the post 933 world isn’t, I think, ironically the status quo. The right thing to do is the reconnect local landowners with the local land use process. If they own most of the land, they should be the most engaged in how it is managed for the common good.

An open engaged public process is the right way to move from this.

A long post over at Western Democrat. I think he’ll win in two years.

Transition NY, a site launched by governor elect Spitzer. What a great idea.

PDF:

The system for submitting ideas is fairly simple–and it appears that submissions are being screened before being posted and Spitzer is collecting names and zipcodes in the process (handy, huh?). His team has already posted a healthy number of submitted ideas, and they range the gamut from fixes to the state’s Economic Development department to establishing an Office of Lesbian and Gay Concerns to requiring cabs and buses to run on natural gases.

I’d like to see Spitzer expand on this and involve visitors to his site in helping filter the suggestions that people are making, and then display the most highly rated ideas on his transition home page (a la Digg.com, if you will). It would also be cool if he, or one of his top transition aides, periodically checked in on the conversation and engaged in some back and forth with what people are saying.

Spitzer is coming into office with a huge mandate, having beaten his opponent by about 2-1, but he’s still going to be dealing with entrenched bureaucracies and powerful interests. By involving ordinary citizens in a genuine multi-way dialogue thru his web site, he could build a large independent base to help push some useful reforms through.

O’Sullivan, 51, could not be reached for comment at the Republicans’ election night gathering at the Governor Hotel in Olympia.

That was from the Olympian yesterday. No new story in the Olympian today and unless you subscribe to the Chronicle, you can’t read their articles. So, I can’t tell if they got to him.

I wonder when he’ll talk?

And, here’s an interesting stat. Back in 2002 when he was jumped in the Democratic Primary by Macleod, O’Sullivan had a greater percentage of the votes than he did this year, facing Macleod in the general. For all the talk about partisan Democrats and the Party of Scoop Jackson leaving O’Sullivan, Thurston County doesn’t like him any more than the Thurston County Democrats do.

COUNTY COMMISSIONER, DISTRICT NO. 3

VOTE FOR 1

BOB MACLEOD (D) . . . . . . . . 8,762 53.2

KEVIN J. O’SULLIVAN (D). . . . . . 7,708 46.8

(one last election results post)

And a bad morning to be a Thurston County Republican. Even their one best hope, their former Thurston County Commissioner who lost in a partisan primary four years ago got his clocked cleaned.

Kevin O’Sullivan went down, not even breaking 40 percent as of right now.

I-933 went down in our county, where property rights battles seemed to rage earlier this year, 65 to 35.

And, we swept all of the other contested county offices with Patricia Costello (Assessor), Dan Kimball (Sheriff), and Gary Warnock (Coroner) all winning by at least 58 percent.

The only question, why did the Thurston County Auditor post the election results as a .pdf file?

933 fails in Washington.

Prop 207 passes in Arizona.

Prop 90 fails in California.

Prop 2 fails in Idaho.

Initiative 154 didn’t get on the ballot in Montana.

Question 2 passes in Nevada.

The property rights crowd is 2 for 6 in 2007. Not bad for our side.

If you include their best performance to date, Measure 37 in Oregon two years ago, they’re still well under .500.

A few months back I wondered if IRV was a nice in between for politicians that wanted to find a way out of the Montana Primary so the Grange wouldn’t file a totally non-partisan primary initiative.

IRV has won in Pierce County by a pretty nice margin, I wonder if this changes things at all.