Author: Emmett O'Connell (Page 164 of 177)

With less than 40 percent turn out, less than public candidates and one contested race between two cities of a total of more than 50,000 souls, it just about feels that way, doesn’t it?

The Onion:

OLYMPIA, WA—A primary election of some sort is believed to have occurred in the past week or two in cities and counties across the nation, according to a report published by a citizens advocacy group.

Although the report stopped short of affirming the claim, the Fair Election Advocacy Council believes that local political offices as diverse as mayor, city councilman, district attorney, and perhaps a judgeship or two may have been contested.

….

“Am I crazy, or was there an election or something not too long ago?” said Olympia, WA resident Rochelle Fleischman, who recalled receiving a multilingual “yellow thing” in the mail several weeks ago that may have been an election-related notice. She promptly discarded it with other junk mail.

The most telling part of the forum last night was who didn’t show up. The much discussed here Michael Normoyle didn’t show up, Ira Knight didn’t pop his head in, and neither did John Griogair Bell.

From past experience and recent election results, folks that only got into the city council races just before the filing deadline have a small chance of actually winning. Most of what they can expect to do is change what is being discussed during the race so that the winners can be held accountable when they’re serving. But how in the hell do you change what is being discussed in the race if you don’t even show up? Last night was free advertising for you!

A few days ago I complained about civic life in Lacey and Tumwater, but at least both Dick Yates and John Darby (the only two candidates in Lacey) showed up last night.

Here is a list of the folks we decided to endorse following the forum last night:

Chuck Namit – North Thurston School Board, District 2
Karen Messmer – City of Olympia, Position 4
Jeff Kingsbury – City of Olympia, Position 5
Doug Mah – City of Olympia, Position 6
Joe Hyer – City of Olympia, Position 7
Ed Stanley – Port of Olympia, District 3
Steve Klein – City of Yelm, Mayor

The position that we had the most discussion on was Position 6 for Olympia, which came down to a close vote. Here are my notes from the forum.

Two-thousand five hundred Olympians voted for a guy that can’t spell “wave” or “pundit.” Returning solid leadeship, just not spelling or usage.

Don’t blame it all on government, however. Part of our loss of community may be explained by the simple fact that we don’t put down deep roots as individuals and families because we don’t stay put the way we used to. How many of your friends live in their parents’ home towns?

And if home town is such a nebulous concept, should we be surprised that serious thought is being given to rebuilding New Orleans as a city full of charming old-style houses, with railed balconies and lovely verandas — but empty of the “blight” of poor people?

The idea — fortunately not yet the prevailing one — seems to be that the poor would stay where they’ve been temporarily relocated. Or maybe just disappear. Where is the “community” in that?

Strong communities typically have vibrant civic cultures, which keep government acountable to the needs of the community. The breakdown of communities drive a wedge between people, erode our trust in each other, alienates us from government and we all end up like Bill O’Reilly.

A new Olympia city council website over on the left with Ira Knight’s http://electira.homestead.com. Not much to say about this new entry, other than it is pretty typical of the sites so far, which mostly repeat what I assume the candidates are putting in their printed material.

That is to say that I hope Mr. Knight is proofreading his printed material better than his website. He does offer and interesting way to volunteer: Sign waiving.

In a campaign season that has been long on platitudes and short on specifics, Knights website does give you a small clue of what he is actually about. No fan of the nuke free ordinance or spelling:

Focus on local issues that affect our community, not geopolitical pundants or special interest groups.

Pretty sure he meant pundit(s).

What does it say about civic life in Tumwater and Lacey that between the two cities, with eight positions up for election, only one person has challenged an incumbent? Half of Tumwater city government is being decided, and the majority of Lacey’s is up for grabs.

No one can tell me there aren’t important issues in either city, especially in Tumwater.

Short of anyone running for Olympia City Council who is blogging, Kendall Miller, a candidate for Kennewick city hall, is putting his thoughts online. Its almost disapointing that he really doesn’t want to win, but that actually makes his blog better reading.

Here’s his take on the newspaper endorsement interview:

It was my first time, of course, dealing directly with media. The senior members of the board seemed offended by the very idea that someone would run for office with the expressed desire to not be elected. “Why waste people’s time?”, they asked. But whose time am I wasting? Certainly not the voter’s. They were complaining because I was wasting their time. I’m not wasting any more of their time than they themselves want to put into it. Would they rather I mount a lame campaign and pretend that I hope to win? At least they have the option to dismiss me if they choose, an option they wouldn’t have if I was pretending.

The other members could see the humor in the situation. There was a reporter present as well who smiled a good deal. There will be an interview with him later one-on-one. It will be interesting to see what angle he takes on my story.

I also like this from his candidate statement:

I have no experience in public service. I am fairly ignorant of recent issues faced by our city. I have no articulated platform that would give you any idea how I would fulfill the duties of this office. I have the support of no particular political party. I have no special talents that would be helpful as a councilman. I don’t even remember names very well.

When you see my name on the ballot, the most dangerous thing you could do is vote for me.

Thurston County Democrat Discussion Group will take on the issues brought up by I-912, which seeks to revoke the recent 9.5 cent gas tax. We will also discuss progressively framing the broader issue of taxation.

Olympia Center
222 Columbia St NW
Olympia, WA
Room 102 (first floor)

The Discussion Group is a meeting for Democrats in Thurston County who want a “low impact” informative meeting to discuss topics of the day and to get more involved in the Democratic Party.

For more information on groups fighting I-912, go to:
http://washingtondefense.org/
http://keepwashingtonrolling.org/

For more information on the Democrat Discussion Group, go to: http://thurstondemocrats.org/meetup

Didn’t take her very long. She’s cool:

Hi Emmett,

Thanks for the note. I’m from a lot of people that the $19/monthly fee was why a lot of them left … I guess I underestimated the effect that would have … Figured the organizer could collect a dollar from everyone in the group and still have money leftover for coffee …

But you’re right: SO many other options. It’s a great idea to ask the DNC for some help …

Thanks for writing.

Best and peace,
Nicole/

Nicole Brodeur sort of misses the point in her column this morning. Its not that online organizing (by youngsters even) is buying the farm, its just that its leaving meetup.com.

I wrote her an email:

Ms. Brodeur,

Great column this morning.

One thing you didn’t pick up on is that meetup.com – which had been a free service all the way back to the Howard Dean meetups (which I attended down here in Olympia) – has recently become a pay service. This has been hard on politically themed meetups, which have started leaving meetup.com to develop their own online organizing tools.

For example, townhall.com and democracyforamerica.com, have gone there own way:

http://tools.democracyforamerica.com/link/
http://www.townhall.com/meetup/

Just because its not happening on meetup.com doesn’t mean that online organizing isn’t still going on. For example when meetup.com started charging, we in Olympia decided to move our meetup from their site onto our county Democrat website. Since the election, our group has evolved into a Democrat current events discussion/letter writing group, and in the last meeting, we even discussed dropping the term “meetup.”

The hardest part about leaving meetup.com has been our drop in profile. Some people interested in getting involved would be more likely to find us at meetup.com than come to the county party website. I’ve advocated for the DNC to launch a free, meetup type tool for local communities, much like the efforts townhall.com and democracyforamerica.com.

Also, just wanted to add that I’m 29, so I fit the bill as a young organizer.

Thanks,
Emmett