Olympia Time

History, politics, people of Oly WA

Author: Emmett O'Connell (Page 85 of 176)

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

August 20, 2008 / / 0 Comments

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?

August 20, 2008 / / 0 Comments

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.

Election day China thoughts

August 19, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Other than some early morning soccer games, I watched the first night of Olympics last night, pushing these thoughts to the front.

From one of the best political books I’ve read:

For those concerned about democracy and freedom in our world, there is no more important place than China. …A decisive step by China onto the road to democracy would by itself — in population terms — be no less significant than each of the previous “waves” of global democratization. Indeed, it might well bring many of the remaining dictatorships in the world through to democracy.

From President George W. Bush’s second inaugural:

The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.

Sigh.

Oh, that Pam Pugel!

August 19, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Joe Nilsson, via email:

Folks,

I’m sure many have seen the BIAW front group’s anti-Christine ads focused on transportation. They feature a woman, identified as Pam Pugel, talking about living on a tight budget and slamming the Governor on taxes and transportation.

All is not as it seems. Googling Mrs. Pugel and a little net surfing reveal she is a Republican PCO who lives in a $935,000 Mercer Island home. Her husband works for a high end construction outfit and she works for a Texas based military supply company. She also provides a web testimonial for her tennis coach – I don’t think she clips coupons.

I share this as an FYI and in case anyone wishes to pen letters to the editor to the Times, P-I, TNT, or Olympian.

In Solidarity,
Joe Nilsson

Her work in the defense industry

On citizen journalism and this blog

August 18, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Chill out indeed:

Do you make any effort whatsoever to gather facts before you make statements, or do you just type whatever pops into your head? Because the leaders of the opponents to the rezone, people like Bonnie Jacobs, Bob Jacobs, Thad Curtz, Barbara Gooding, etc., were certainly not participants in the Port protests. There’s very little overlap between resistance to the “rezone for sale” of the isthmus, and Oly PMR. It just astonishes me that you would write something so ridiculous, that has no basis in fact. So much for citizen journalism.

Good point that none of the actual leaders of the “don’t wall” groups where down at the protests, but dude, chill.

Its still my opinion that we’re riding a wave of emotion in Olympia, pitting the people who supported the protests, to those who didn’t.

And, this blog isn’t for any sort of citizen journalism stuff, I never claimed that. I do try to do that sort of stuff at Olyblog.

So called “frivolous” lawsuit upheld by State Supreme Court

August 14, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Hey, R. Scott, frivolous (and here, here) lawsuits don’t get upheld by the State Supreme Court (even partially):

We affirm the Court of Appeals in part and reverse in part. We hold a party may challenge a county’s failures to revise aspects of a comprehensive plan that are directly affected by new or recently amended GMA provisions if a petition is filed within 60 days after publication of the county’s seven year update. We hold a party may challenge a county’s failure to revise its UGA designations following a 10 year update only if there is a different OFM population projection for the county. We reverse the Court of Appeals’ holding that a county must identify and justify the use of a land market supply factor in its comprehensive plan. We remand the case to the Board to determine whether a land market supply factor was used and whether, Thurston County v. W. Wash. Growth Mgmt. Hearings Bd., No. 80115-1 based on local circumstances, the County’s UGA designations were clearly erroneous. We reverse the Court of Appeals’ ruling that densities greater than one dwelling unit per five acres cannot be considered in determining whether a comprehensive plan provides for a variety of rural densities. We remand the case to the Board to consider whether the various densities identified by the County in the rural element and/or the use of innovative zoning techniques are sufficient to achieve a variety of rural densities.

So, the summarize:

The State Supreme Court mostly upheld the decision which seems to be the crux of the Tim Ford vs. Robin Hunt Appeals Court race (Hunt was on the appeals court that originally made the decision considered by the court).

R. Scott’s dumb argument, no matter how or how many times its copied, its still dumb.

The State Supreme Court’s email notification tool is freaking awesome.

Interesting Reading at Washington Independents blog

August 9, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Not really sure what to make of this blog, other than its written by three pseudonyms and sometimes comes out with something interesting. Recently two posts on Gregoire, one on the race in general and another focusing on GMAP.

I was hoping to write two separate posts responding, but I couldn’t quite get my hands around the two pieces to respond, especially the GMAP one. I’m thinking there is more there for Motel Martin to say, but he just couldn’t get it out.

Anyway, good reading there lately.

RE: Political Parties Reap What They Sow

August 9, 2008 / / 0 Comments

You can’t pull at the edges of our electoral system and not expect the voters to react:

The Republicans and the Democrats are also complaining about Initiative 872.

Well, that is just two bad for these political parties. They are now reaping what they sowed. They took away the right of the people to vote in a truly democratic manner, and now they complain and whine about the alternative chosen by those self-same voters. There is a movement in King County to make all county elected positions non-partisan. Hopefully, this effort will succeed, and another voter initiative will drive the authoritarian political parties out the door. The parties started this battle, and now the voters need to finish it. The voters need to make every state office, from the governor to the legislature, legally and publicly non-partisan.

From everything I’ve heard, the state parties have decided to continue to challenge the Top Two primary. By nominating our own candidates, we’re supposed to be able to show damages when those candidates don’t make it to the general election ballot.

If the courts then do strike down the Top Two, putting back the Montana Primary, the Grange has said they’re going after a true non-partisan system.

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