This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
- All
- Editorial cartoons (284)
- Editorial outtakes (315)
- Election (109)
- How we work (185)
- Taking notice (1816)
- What's coming (890)
- Who's visiting (122)
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| << < | > >> | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
- July 2009 (7)
- June 2009 (94)
- May 2009 (80)
- April 2009 (91)
- March 2009 (99)
- February 2009 (90)
- January 2009 (125)
- December 2008 (111)
- November 2008 (89)
- October 2008 (111)
- September 2008 (87)
- August 2008 (75)
- More...
XML Feeds- justajim
- possum1
- gregoryrobinson
- teejay
- flashpoverty
- handsfour
- artman77
- Guest Users: 752
What's on the minds of Tacoma News Tribune editorial writers
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 06:05:24 am
Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg responded to my blog post yesterday about the attorney general's race.
Based on an earlier item from the TNT's Political Buzz blog, I had noted that House Majority Leader Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, had said she wouldn't endorse Ladenburg for AG – because Ladenburg had opposed her bill requiring local governments to record their executive sessions.
Ladenburg says that it it was all a misunderstanding.
Dave, I did not oppose the Kessler bill. In fact, I never took a position on the bill. The article in the Vancouver paper was wrong.
I was explaining to the reporter the opposition to the bill from local government elected I serve with on the Association of Counties legislative committee. Since that article came out, Kessler and I have spoken and cleared up the issue. I promised to work with her on the issue and find a compromise that could work for locals. She was very receptive to this because of my good relationship with county and city officials.
Kessler will support me and next year I will work with local government to find a solution to the problems they found in her bill. She pointed out that she cannot and will not support McKenna because he is against government accountability by promoting more government immunity.
UPDATE 6/30: A few commenters have challenged Ladenburg's assertion that Kessler is now supporting him, so I called her this afternoon to check. She said she and Ladenburg had a cordial conversation, but that she will not be endorsing – or supporting – anyone for state attorney general. She said she rarely endorses candidates, although she recently made an exception for her colleague Jim McIntire who is running for state treasurer. – KB
Categories: Taking notice
• 7 comments
Yes, please, ask Kessler for her clear opinion on this. Last word out was that she would respect her party by not endorsing McKenna, yet JL makes it sound like her decision was based on something else.
And gimme a break - if JL really has "...good relationship[s] with county and city officials.", wouldn't his list of County & City elects be longer? It's weak in that of 39 counties in the state, only three county's elects appear in his list:
• Dow Constantine (King County Councilmember)
• Ron Sims (King County Executive)
• Mike Cooper (Snohomish County Councilmember)
• Aaron Reardon (Snohomish County Executive)
• Timothy M. Farrell (Pierce County Councilmember whose assistant, Victoria Woodard, serves with Ryan Mello on the Metropolitan Parks Board - see below - and both were involved in the recent totally opaque "Metro Parks Revenue Task Force"--and approved the final report which showed plans to cover Swan Creek Park, Blueberry Park and other Metro parks with low-income housing and retail)
• Rose Ehart (Pierce County Conservation District Supervisor who, after the Ethics Reform Town Hall introduced herself to me as "working on John Ladenburg's campaign")
• Gerald Horne (Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney - which BTW, as a huge fan of Gerry's, this one disappoints me the most)
• Anders Ibsen (Pierce County Conservation District Supervisor who is brand new to the riff-raff of local politics)
• David A. Seabrook (Pierce County Conservation District Supervisor)
AS FOR THE CITY'S:
• Mary-Alyce Burleigh (Kirkland City Councilmember)
• Gerald Gehring (University Place City Councilmember)
• Connie Ladenburg (Tacoma City Councilmember & JL's wife who has proposed to abolish term limits for Tacoma City councilmembers to save herself from terming out)
• Ryan N. Mello (Tacoma Metropolitan Parks Commissioner who, as mentioned above, voted to approve a report which showed plans to cover numerous Metro Parks lands--a.k.a.Open Space--with low-income housing and retail)
• Aaron Pointer (Tacoma Metropolitan Parks Commissioner)
Does this list, which was pulled from JL's website, support his claim of "She was very receptive to this because of my good relationship with county and city officials.". I think not. Give Kessler the opportunity to clear it up.
COMMENTS:
I would suggest that even editors remember that stories have more merit when both parties are represented . I haven't noticed any follow up with Kessler to verify her change. In fact the last and only word we did hear reported from the same paper the TNT copied their information from had her saying " not now nor ever " would she support Ladenburg -period.
I await the clarification and reporting that Kessler has waffled on this ( or uses the same "special" dictionary of definitions as John L) and publicly now declares her support. Till then, my belief that she supposedly now supports him and is against McKenna would appear to be more wishful thinking on our exiting execs. part. Get the proof... otherwise its just "poof- smoke and mirrors" guys.
I await the clarification and reporting that Kessler has waffled on this ( or uses the same "special" dictionary of definitions as John L) and publicly now declares her support. Till then, my belief that she supposedly now supports him and is against McKenna would appear to be more wishful thinking on our exiting execs. part. Get the proof... otherwise its just "poof- smoke and mirrors" guys.
Yes, please, ask Kessler for her clear opinion on this. Last word out was that she would respect her party by not endorsing McKenna, yet JL makes it sound like her decision was based on something else.
And gimme a break - if JL really has "...good relationship[s] with county and city officials.", wouldn't his list of County & City elects be longer? It's weak in that of 39 counties in the state, only three county's elects appear in his list:
• Dow Constantine (King County Councilmember)
• Ron Sims (King County Executive)
• Mike Cooper (Snohomish County Councilmember)
• Aaron Reardon (Snohomish County Executive)
• Timothy M. Farrell (Pierce County Councilmember whose assistant, Victoria Woodard, serves with Ryan Mello on the Metropolitan Parks Board - see below - and both were involved in the recent totally opaque "Metro Parks Revenue Task Force"--and approved the final report which showed plans to cover Swan Creek Park, Blueberry Park and other Metro parks with low-income housing and retail)
• Rose Ehart (Pierce County Conservation District Supervisor who, after the Ethics Reform Town Hall introduced herself to me as "working on John Ladenburg's campaign")
• Gerald Horne (Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney - which BTW, as a huge fan of Gerry's, this one disappoints me the most)
• Anders Ibsen (Pierce County Conservation District Supervisor who is brand new to the riff-raff of local politics)
• David A. Seabrook (Pierce County Conservation District Supervisor)
AS FOR THE CITY'S:
• Mary-Alyce Burleigh (Kirkland City Councilmember)
• Gerald Gehring (University Place City Councilmember)
• Connie Ladenburg (Tacoma City Councilmember & JL's wife who has proposed to abolish term limits for Tacoma City councilmembers to save herself from terming out)
• Ryan N. Mello (Tacoma Metropolitan Parks Commissioner who, as mentioned above, voted to approve a report which showed plans to cover numerous Metro Parks lands--a.k.a.Open Space--with low-income housing and retail)
• Aaron Pointer (Tacoma Metropolitan Parks Commissioner)
Does this list, which was pulled from JL's website, support his claim of "She was very receptive to this because of my good relationship with county and city officials.". I think not. Give Kessler the opportunity to clear it up.
How about TIME for the public to review pending legislations? Open government is more than just about providing information, it's about providing time to use that information before irreversible commitments are made. When I asked Kessler last week in the Open Gov't Forum about HB 1834 (stuck in Appropriations Committee), which provides for a minimum 5 days public notice before a vote, she couldn't recall it, and said it would be treated like all the other thousands of bills. She said it could take 11-12 years to get voted upon.
HB 1834 "Requires an omnibus operating, capital, or transportation appropriations bill, or any other bill that implements an omnibus, capital, or transportation appropriations bill and is effective for the same period as such appropriations bill, to be made publicly available to the members of the legislature and the public at least five calendar days before such bill may be voted on by the senate or the house of representatives."
HB 1834 "Requires an omnibus operating, capital, or transportation appropriations bill, or any other bill that implements an omnibus, capital, or transportation appropriations bill and is effective for the same period as such appropriations bill, to be made publicly available to the members of the legislature and the public at least five calendar days before such bill may be voted on by the senate or the house of representatives."
John Ladenburg has been against open government, and for good reason. My mom always told me that if you do nothing wrong, then you have nothing to hide. JL is the type of guy who does what it takes get the job done, even if that means using eminent domain to take someone's property for Sound Transit, or by hiding his actions as a prosecutor.
The Seattle Times caught on to Ladenburg's disdain for open government even back in 1998, when he was prosecutor in an article entitled "Foes of public disclosure want to turn out the lights" which stated:
"Another state Supreme Court case that has received little attention, Limstrom vs. Ladenburg, may do even more to turn the Public Disclosure Act on its head. Last month, Pierce County prosecutor John Ladenburg argued that prosecutors' criminal case files - both pending and resolved - should never be subject to public disclosure.
It is not Ladenburg's place to protect himself or the lower courts from "unreasonable" citizens seeking information about what their public servants are doing and how. Let's hope the Supreme Court remembers that the Public Disclosure Act was designed to keep the public in the know - not in the dark."
Let's remember that Kessler said that "she has no plans "now or ever" to endorse fellow Democrat John Ladenburg's campaign for attorney general" as reported by TNT. Let's see if she keeps her word.
Ladenburg's failure to gain endorsements from key Law Enforcement groups, like WACOPs is a bad sign for Ladenburg, and it's even worse when his own party won't endorse him, but with enough research you can figure out why.
The Seattle Times caught on to Ladenburg's disdain for open government even back in 1998, when he was prosecutor in an article entitled "Foes of public disclosure want to turn out the lights" which stated:
"Another state Supreme Court case that has received little attention, Limstrom vs. Ladenburg, may do even more to turn the Public Disclosure Act on its head. Last month, Pierce County prosecutor John Ladenburg argued that prosecutors' criminal case files - both pending and resolved - should never be subject to public disclosure.
It is not Ladenburg's place to protect himself or the lower courts from "unreasonable" citizens seeking information about what their public servants are doing and how. Let's hope the Supreme Court remembers that the Public Disclosure Act was designed to keep the public in the know - not in the dark."
Let's remember that Kessler said that "she has no plans "now or ever" to endorse fellow Democrat John Ladenburg's campaign for attorney general" as reported by TNT. Let's see if she keeps her word.
Ladenburg's failure to gain endorsements from key Law Enforcement groups, like WACOPs is a bad sign for Ladenburg, and it's even worse when his own party won't endorse him, but with enough research you can figure out why.
Ah. Just as I suspected.
Nice to see John Ladenburg get sliced and diced - his biggest mistake was opposing democracy and his next biggest mistake was playing games w/ the TNT staff and the next biggest mistake after that was deciding to challenge RMK (Rob McKenna to the uninitiated) and his supporters - many of whom see him as a Washingtonian Kennedy in the mold of JFK and possibly RFK.
Comments are not allowed from anonymous visitors. Please login or register to comment.
