For those with the tenacity to plough through it (and reach the delightful anecdote at the end - but no cheating!), this is former Gov. Dan Evans sweeping analysis of what he calls "initiatives for hire."

Short take: "These initiatives of the past decade have left us with a chaotic tax system and obligations for spending we cannot meet. Tax and budget-oriented initiatives are often poorly written, fail to anticipate unintended consequences, and mislead voters."

It's the (slightly edited) text of a speech he gave today at the South Everett Rotary and sent to us afterward. Bottom line: Pleeeease don't vote for Initiative 985.

Today is Halloween, and four days from now is our general election. I'm not sure which is the scariest. We can all vote for our favorite candidates with relative confidence, but it is the initiatives which trouble me.

Initiatives are an important safety valve for citizens. But all initiatives have consequences, many of them not considered when we vote.

When a bill is presented to the Legislature, it is considered within the context of history, the state's budget, and future impact on the state. Hearings are held, amendments made, arguments given, lobbyists heard, first in one House and then the other. After this tedious trial, a successful bill faces a governor's scrutiny and possible veto.

In contrast, an initiative requires no scrutiny other than that of the author. They are usually single-purpose efforts which ignore history, distort public budgets and wreak havoc on the future.

=> Read more!

Liberals all around the country are flocking to therapists to ease their fears that the polls will all be wrong and the next president will be named McCain.

So reports The New York Times, with only a slight hint of tongue in cheek. Self-medication with good Scotch would be less expensive and about as useful, if you ask me.

Anyhow, Garry Trudeau, author of the Doonesbury comic strip, is saying the hell with it. His strip for Nov. 5 assumes an Obama victory. (Update: Having a West Coast time advantage over East Coast newspapers, the TNT has a Doonesbury "re-run" handy just in case.)

He explains in this interview.

We're occasionally posting longer election-related pieces here that we don't have the space to print as opeds (without being unfair to everyone who wants a political oped in).

This one's from a retired doctor, Sharon Quick of Bonney Lake, who worries that I-1000 will alter the doctor-patient relationship. Her specialty was pediatric anesthesiology, pain management and critical care

The idea that patient choice is a valid argument for Initiative 1000 (I-1000) reflects a misunderstanding of the extensive ramifications of legalizing assisted suicide for patients, their families, doctors, and society.

Terminally ill patients and their families have grief work to do together. With advances in symptom management, pain can be largely controlled and fears can be addressed so that reconciliation and emotional growth can occur. Powerful experiences may happen when least expected, sometimes creating lifetime memories.

It is not in a patient’s best interest to cut short this time of grief, not only for his/her own well-being, but in consideration of the profound emotional effects that can devastate family left behind. Witnessing suicide sends a tragic message to children about how to handle suffering.

=> Read more!

Just got this in my inbox from a campaign volunteer:

I have just returned from helping a campaign I believe in most heartedly.

I was at a large well traveled intersection with another supporter, holding signs identifying the candidate and waving. I was standing there to not only identify the candidate but to also show support.

Everyone has the right to think and vote as they wish and not pay any attention to sign waivers but they should not go out of their way to splash those wavers. One dismisses those drivers who show their single digit IQ in their return waves but to intentionally gun through a puddle to throw water on someone is wrong.

Those individuals out there willing to support a candidate by sign waving, I applaud you, even if your candidate is not mine.

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Borrowers who use plastic responsibly shouldn’t suffer blows to their credit scores because banks are scrambling to limit losses.

Welcome to the U.S. Financial Crisis: Credit Card Edition.

Banks, already battered by bad mortgages, are now bracing for more bad news as squeezed consumers default on their credit cards. They are pulling back on new credit offers and putting stricter limits on existing accounts.

Tighter reins on the supply of plastic money are long overdue. But as banks pull back, responsible borrowers deserve some shelter from the fallout.

=> Read more!

The following editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.

State opened itself up
to dueling Capitol displays
By allowing one religious display, the state now must accommodate other groups’ expressions of their faith – or lack thereof.

One “silly season” – the political one – is almost over. But the next one – the so-called “war over Christmas” that seems to erupt every year – has already begun.

The battleground: the state Capitol in Olympia.
Weapons: a nativity scene and a sign erected by an atheist organization.

=> Read more!

Here comes the credit card crisis. It’s hard to blame lenders for pulling back, what with Americans’ credit card debt topping the Wall Street bailout in sheer size. But regulators and lawmakers need to make sure that creditworthy consumers are held harmless.

The Christmas wars have begun again with a tussle over a creche and an atheist manifesto planned for the state Capitol. Can’t we all just get along?

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Every year at election time, we get scores of letters from people complaining about their political signs disappearing. They're sure the culprits are opponents' supporters – and in many cases they are. The News Tribune has reported on several such cases over the years.

We don't run those letters, because we could fill the page with them and they do tend to balance each other out. No one party has a monopoly on stolen signs.

While thievery does take place, I suspect that sometimes, the "thief" is just tired of the visual clutter. And now, with the earlier August primary, that clutter is extending from late spring through the end of the year. Sometimes it takes more than a month after election day for all the signs to finally get picked up.

I'm still seeing signs supporting candidates whose fates were decided back in the August primary – most prominently ones for Superior Court candidates Michael Hecht and Sergio Armijo and state treasurer ChangMook Sohn. Couldn't someone perform a public service and make those disappear?

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Because President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld decided to police Iraq on the cheap in 2003, they left the back door open to disaster.

They didn’t deploy enough troops to lock down the Syrian and Iranian frontiers, and guerrillas and terrorists gradually figured out that they could launch cross-border raids and infiltrate Iraq with near-impunity. American forces and their Iraqi allies have paid dearly for that blunder.

Such is the context of Sunday’s U.S. raid on a Syrian village six miles from the Iraqi border. Part of Gen. David Petraeus’ counter-insurgency strategy has been to deny the enemy any sanctuary whatsoever. Despite the caterwauling of Syrian officials – who’ve never had qualms about ordering assassinations in neighboring Lebanon – the raid was thoroughly defensible.

The defense does presume that U.S. military and intelligence officers are more credible than the Syrians. The latter say the raid did nothing but kill “innocent civilians,” including four children. The former say it killed Abu Ghadiyah, an Iraqi chief of al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, and fellow guerrillas before they carried out an imminent raid of their own. Abu Ghadiyah is believed to have personally led the attack last May that killed 11 Iraqi police officers.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Builders have the right to give big to Pierce County executive candidates – and voters have the right to know about it.

Anyone who has lived in Pierce County for a few election cycles can hardly be surprised by news that developers are flexing their financial muscle in local political races.

This county isn’t called the poster child for uncontrolled sprawl for nothing. Developers have wielded a lot of influence over the decades, and they didn’t become a force by sitting on the sidelines.

As The News Tribune’s David Wickert reported this week, three prominent builders and developers have contributed a total of $50,500 to county executive candidates.

The local companies – Investco, Corliss Resources and Tucci & Sons – and their executives have given far in excess of the $800 limit on contributions by any single person or business.

Nothing illegal about that. State law permits companies to contribute through their affiliates, and builders tend to form a lot of limited liability companies in the normal course of doing business.

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Good Lord, the presidential campaigns are getting REALLY personal.

Somebody who loves me actually sent me this video to try to shame me into voting for the Terrorist Socialist candidate for president.

Check it out here, and tell me if you don't think that wasn't dirty pool.

Now, the version of the video my loved one sent me fingered me by name. It looks like the above link, due to the way the whole email thing works, doesn't actually name anyone. But you'll see how it works.

Too late to shame me, though: I already voted.

One of the major arguments made against Initiative 1000, the aid-in-dying ballot measure, is that patients' pain can be controlled these days, so there's no need for them to end their lives prematurely.

This McClatchy Newspapers article, however, suggests that pain management in this country falls short, with one-third of patients reporting that their pain is not well-controlled.

Here's the article:

By Robert S. Boyd
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Medical science has learned a great deal about the causes of pain and ways to relieve it, pain experts say, but for a host of reasons, the treatment of pain and suffering has improved hardly at all in recent years.

John Seffrin, the president of the American Cancer Society, calls this "a national health-care crisis of under-treated pain."
"Nearly all cancer pain can be relieved, but fewer than half of our patients report adequate pain relief," Rebecca Kirch, the society’s associate director of policy, told a pain seminar in Washington last week.

Hospitals do a little better than that in managing pain for patients with all kinds of illnesses, according to a survey to be published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

The economy being what it is, many Washingtonians have watched the union contract talks at Boeing with wonderment and perhaps even envy.

Before the Boeing Machinists went on strike in early September, the aerospace company's had offered the union's members an 11 percent salary increase over three years (5 percent in the first year), a minimum wage increase of $2.28, a ratification bonus of $2,500, a lump sum bonus worth about $5,000 and another large bonus linked to profits.

Out-of-pocket costs for the company's chief health plan would have gone up – but the coverage would still have been generous by most standards. Overall, even the original offer would have looked like heaven to most Washington wage-earners.

Now, after striking for nearly eight weeks, the Machinists appear ready to ratify a new offer that does not appear dramatically better. The lost weeks of work cost the rank-and-file members dearly. The hit to the company's profits may well exceed $1.5 billion.

=> Read more!

According to the Pierce County voter's pamphlet, "the world will be watching" to see how ranked-choice voting is handled here. What it's going to see is a needless delay in releasing the results.

Only Boeing's Machinists can ultimately decide if their interests were served by this year's strike. But the frequency of these long strikes – Boeing sees one roughly every five years – bodes ill for the survival of aerospace manufacturing in this state.

The Anchorage Daily News had this to say today about the conviction of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens on corruption charges.

Alaskan of the Century, convicted

A jury of ordinary citizens rendered its verdict: No one, not even Ted Stevens, the Alaskan of the Century, is above the law. If a powerful politician is going to collect a steady stream of gifts and home improvements from a powerful lobbyist, he must report them as the law requires.

The public had a right to know about the intimate financial relationship Sen. Stevens had with the state’s most notorious power broker. Sen. Stevens let Bill Allen rebuild his house and stock it with furnishings — and then hid the cozy arrangement from public sight.

It’s a shame to see Sen. Stevens’ once-great career end in scandal. No single person has done more to transform life in Alaska than Stevens, the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator in history.

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Here is Auditor Pat McCarthy's response to Dave Seago's posting below in which he argues for releasing all ranked-choice voting results on election night. Attached is a letter she sent to candidates explaining the process, which includes a results release schedule.

We are running elections in two different ways in Pierce County this year with two different ballot cards. One requires simple counting or tabulation of the results of the traditional ballot card and one requires a counting program that tabulates the results based on the ranking of candidates on the ballot. To do what the Ranked Choice Voting advocates want will stop the process for counting or tabulating all of these ballots, traditional and ranked choice in order to accumulate the results for just the ranked choice ballots. I am running twenty-four hour employee shifts beginning on Election Day to meet the high voter turnout and twice the number of ballots normally returned.

=> Read more!

Unintentionally or not, Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy made a mistake by putting her name on a voter survey included with the ballots mailed to voters this month.

But she'll make a bigger one, I think, if she doesn't reverse her decision to wait several days before releasing the full initial results of the county's first ranked-choice voting election Nov. 4.

Note: I asked McCarthy by email today for a response to the concerns I raised here. Unfortunately, her late-afternoon email was garbled due to a formatting error. My former colleagues at the TNT will post her comments as soon as they are received.

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By now everybody's familiar with the No. 2's on the two major-party national tickets. You'd have to be living in a pumpkin patch not to be.

But quick: Can you name Ralph Nader's running mate?

I sure couldn't – until I spotted my first Nader sign today on Cedar Street across from the Galaxy 6 theaters.

Click on More to read the answer's to today's trivia quiz.

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This editorial will appear in Monday's print edition.

Toll-management of traffic has promise, but Washington may never know how much if Initiative 985 passes next month.

Highway 167’s HOT lanes are due a new nickname.

Data from the lanes’ first four months of operation are in, and the numbers undercut the claim that 167’s high occupancy toll lanes are a special privilege for the rich.

“Lexus lanes,” these ain’t. They are more accurately called Ford fast tracks, or maybe Chevrolet expressways. Nearly half of the drivers who bought their way into the carpool lane were driving those two makes.

(Lexus drivers represented a little over 1 percent of the HOT lane users, a share equivalent to their prevalence among registered cars in Washington.)

As The News Tribune’s transportation reporter, Joe Turner, points out, the state’s study is conclusive of nothing. A hulking Ford Expedition or a tricked-out Chevy pickup can cost just as much as a Lexus.

But the data do suggest that drivers in South King County – who are more likely to be driving SUVs than luxury sedans anyway – are warming up to HOT lanes.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear Sunday in the print edition.

Both parties guilty of mailing scurrilous hit pieces

It’s the same story every election.

Voters receive dramatic mailings that paint an incumbent as nothing short of a monster who is personally responsible for everything from the sex offender moving in down the street and clogged highways to higher prices at the pump.

In some cases the charges have a grain of truth. Say, hypothetically, a bill that the incumbent voted against several years ago included a line item that would have funded free mink coats for all children. A mailing screams: “Sen. X voted to deny winter coats to poor children.”

Technically true, but scurrilous.

This year, the most blatant examples of the art form slam Democratic state Sen. Jim Kastama of Puyallup and Republican Sen. Mike Carrell of Lakewood. The hit pieces, funded by the state Republican Party and the state Senate Democrats, respectively, hit below the belt. Far below.

=> Read more!

We’re running an editorial Sunday looking at state Republican and Democratic party hit pieces against two incumbent state senators, Jim Kastama of Puyallup and Mike Carrell of Lakewood.

We received this e-mail note from Kastama after the first mailing went out to voters.

The first hit piece from my opponent landed on Friday (Oct. 3). It shows me riding a Segway and says "Jim Kastama's idea of transportation might be using a high-tech Segway scooter, but the rest of us use our cars to commute."

Unfortunately, the facts are bad, or misleading.

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The huge price tag for light-rail projects like Sound Transit's Prop. 1 makes it hard even for transit supporters to make the case for backing the measure.

But the job is much easier if you study Seattle economist Jon Talton's "myth-buster" arguments for the measure, highlighted on the Crosscut Web site. Recommended reading.

Talton, a Seattle economist, has his own blog, Rogue Columnist, that is unabashedly liberal but nonetheless trains a critical eye on some of the stuff that pops up in today's politics.

For instance, he examines the McCain-Palin charge that Barack Obama is a closet socialist by explaining what socialism really is. Good stuff. And here's a good line:

In America, you could probably fit all the true socialists into a mid-sized tavern or faculty lounge.

The following editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

The new rap on Sarah Palin: Her clothes are too nice.

It turns out the Republican National Committee has been outfitting the vice presidential candidate with frocks from Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and other fancy shops. It has spent something like $150,000 on her wardrobe since the beginning of September.

There are reasons to question Palin’s candidacy. Her silk jackets and Naughty Monkey pumps aren’t among them.

What’s she supposed to wear on the campaign trail, anyway? Mukluks and moose hides?

=> Read more!

We're finally wrapping up our election endorsements. Believe it or not, someone called in today wanting to know what we recommended on the Pierce County charter amendment.

This editorial will appear Friday in the print edition.

Approve county charter amendment
Here’s our nomination for least sexy measure on the Nov. 4 ballot: Pierce County Charter Amendment 1.

The amendment is essentially a housekeeping measure designed to speed up how appointments are made to county boards and commissions.

=> Read more!

The Bush administration’s rush job on reviewing 200,000 comments submitted in response to a proposed overhaul of the Endangered Species Act is a sham.

What’s Sarah Palin supposed to wear while campaigning? Mukluks and moose hides?

The Bush administration is making a mockery of public process in its campaign to undermine the Endangered Species Act while it still can.

The Associated Press learned this week that the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service has called in reinforcements as it tries to review 200,000 comments about a proposed overhaul of the act before close of business Friday.

Each staffer will have to read and digest seven comments a minute to meet the deadline. Some of these comments are dozens of pages long. Many paper shredders don't work that fast.

This shortcircuited review period is tied to the Interior Department's stealth proposal to eliminate the scientific reviews required of federal projects. (Well, it was stealth until the media got wind of it and Dirk Kempthorne had to call a hastily scheduled press conference to defend himself)

As we said in an August editorial:

Under current law, the experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service determine a project’s possible harm to an endangered species.

The new rules would remove that oversight and hand authority to make the call to federal agencies that do not always employ the necessary specialists. Imagine the Army Corps of Engineers getting to decide whether a hydroelectric dam hurts fish, and you begin to get the picture.

If the Bush administration is successful at ramrodding this proposal through, it could take years for a new president to undo.

With all the talk going around of the "failure" of capitalism and free markets, here's a contrarian view.

I think it's self-evident that, as Berlinski argues, "even free markets that fail regularly create more wealth and raise general living standards vastly more effectively than do command economies."

Her discussion of the cultural and institutional conditions needed to allow markets to work applies directly to what went wrong on Wall Street.

By Claire Berlinski
Special to the Los Angeles Times

The free-market system, it is fashionable to say, is to blame for the current financial crisis.

By way of rejoinder, a growing cohort of commentators has argued that the crisis should be understood not as a failure of free-market economic theory but as its vindication. They argue that the U.S. government perverted the wisdom of the market by encouraging banks to make loans no rational actor would make — and that the players took the risks they did because they held a reasonable expectation of a government bailout should things get hairy.

The problem, in this view, is not that the markets were free but that they weren’t free enough.

=> Read more!

WASHINGTON (AP) — With Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O’Brien all taking the week off, the presidential campaigns are catching a break. But there were still some jokes to be found Wednesday night.

“(Barack) Obama is so far ahead now, seems the only way he can lose is if his supporters screw it up. But ah ha! Obama’s supporters have a secret weakness: They are Democrats.” — Craig Ferguson, CBS’ “Late Late Show.”

“They’re so far ahead in the polls — the Democrats — they won’t be thinking about the election. This is what we’ll happen. On Nov. 4 they’ll be too busy shopping at Whole Foods for the big Obama victory party. ’I’ve got the brie, I’ve got the free-range mushrooms, I’ve got the Tofu — I forgot to vote!”’ — Ferguson.

“How do you spend $150,000 on clothes in two months? What, do you buy the original ’Thriller’ jacket off of eBay?” — Jon Stewart, speaking about the Republican Party’s spending on Sarah Palin on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”

“The only person McCain’s not talking about is George the President.” — Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.”

=> Read more!

A couple weeks ago I posted an item, subsequently printed on the TNT oped page, contending that the hands-off regulatory stance championed by former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan during the Clinton and Bush II administrations was a huge mistake.

Now Greenspan himself admits it. This, from his testimony today before a Congressional committee:

But in a tense exchange with Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who is chairman of the committee, Mr. Greenspan conceded a more serious flaw in his own philosophy that unfettered free markets sit at the root of a superior economy.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.

Referring to his free-market ideology, Mr. Greenspan added: “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”

Mr. Waxman pressed the former Fed chair to clarify his words. “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Mr. Waxman said.
“Absolutely, precisely,” Mr. Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.”

Your obt. correspondent reports again from Ashland, Ore.:

If you're agog about -- or simply weary of -- the staggering amounts of money being spent on TV advertising in Washington's governor's race this year, it pales next to the TV ad spending in Oregon's U.S. Senate contest.

The total in the match between incumbent Republican Gordon Smith and Democratic challenger Jeff Merkeley has hit an astronomical $27 million, nearly doubling the previous record. That was the $14.7 million spent in Oregon's 2006 governor's race.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Election officials can’t look like they have their thumbs on the scale, especially when they are on the ballot.

Pat McCarthy knows that. So what was the Pierce County auditor thinking when she signed her name on a voter survey stuffed into the envelopes bearing mail ballots that will decide her bid for Pierce County executive?

The answer, we hope, was that she wasn’t thinking.

The survey registers somewhere between “What’s the big deal?” and “How dare she!” on the outrage meter. Some voters – for whom the Pierce County executive race is somewhat of an afterthought in this presidential election year – might not even make the connection.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

In elections, appearances count.

Think of the suspicion still surrounding the troves of ballots that kept surfacing in King County as votes were being recounted after the 2004 governor’s race.

That’s why ACORN’s blustering defenses of its sloppy voter-registration practices have gotten so aggravating. Its leaders continue to talk as if they’re doing the country a great service with a mismanaged registration drive that lets employees sign up the likes of “Mickey Mouse” and “Donald Duck.”

County officials in 11 states have reportedly found bogus voter applications submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Criminal investigations have been launched in at least two states.

It would be one thing if this were ACORN’s first offense. But it got caught doing precisely the same thing in 2006 in King and Pierce counties, where its canvassers registered, among others, “Veronica Mars” and “Pat Tillman” – who had been killed in Afghanistan two years earlier. Some of the ACORN employees involved have since been convicted.

=> Read more!

ACORN's got to find a business model that doesn't involve registration fraud.

Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy was, at best, not thinking when she stuffed ballot envelopes with a voter survey bearing her name. Appearances matter, and in this case, what is apparent to many voters is that the county’s chief elections official is not playing fair.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Your correspondent is on the road again, this time visiting Ashland, Ore., to take in a few plays.

Always attuned to the local political news, I was particularly interested in this news story from the Oregonian about a venal initiative promoter, one NOT named Tim Eyman.

This would be Bill Sizemore, whose money-making initiative machine in Oregon makes Eyman look like a piker. Then again, he's been at it longer than Eyman. Sizemore wrote the playbook, so to speak.

By using a charity like his personal ATM, initiative activist Bill Sizemore has himself at odds with federal law that bans individuals from using tax-exempt foundations for private gain.

Court records show that Sizemore -- who has five initiatives on Oregon's November ballot -- tapped a tax-exempt foundation over a two-year period for tens of thousands of dollars in personal expenses.

He took out $63,000 in cash and rang up $74,000 on the foundation's debit cards. He bought a 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix for his wife, paid private school tuition for his son and braces for his daughter, and vacationed at the foundation's time-share in Mexico.

=> Read more!

We're publishing our presidential endorsement of Barack Obama today. It's just about our last endorsement – and for good reason.

We figure a newspaper's endorsement for president is the one that is least likely to sway many voters. Readers are probably more interested in what we have to say about highly local races – so we focus on getting those in the paper earlier. To read endorsements that have already been published, click here.

If you're interested in how newspapers across the country are endorsing, Editor & Publisher has a state-by-state tally here that it updates frequently. It's running 3 to 1 in favor of Obama.

By comparison, the final endorsement score in 2004 was John Kerry 213 over George Bush 205.

This editorial will appear Wednesday in the print edition.

Obama for president, and for the future
The Illinois senator has the intellect, the temperament and the collaborative skills to be a great president.

The challenges ahead are daunting.

The United States is mired in war on two fronts, its financial markets are in crisis and its standing is diminished around the world, even among many of its traditional allies.

This election is in part a referendum on the last eight years and a Republican administration that misfought four years of the Iraq War, ran up an unbelievable deficit and looked the other way while the economy lurched toward failure. Fairly or unfairly, John McCain – as a Republican – is closely linked to the Bush administration and its policies.

This election is also a referendum on who would be the best person to lead the nation into the future, to improve the lives of average Americans, to increase our energy independence, to make health care more affordable and more accessible, and to heal our relationships with other nations.

We believe that Barack Obama is that person.

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When I went to work this morning, the price at the Center Street Arco was $2.79 per gallon.

By lunchtime, it was down to $2.73. What happened in the space of a few hours to drop the price 4 cents a gallon?

I can't wait to see what the price is on my way home. No telling; a whole six hours will have passed!

Check the responses to Saturday's county executive endorsement for what's probably been the longest and liveliest argument we've ever seen over a post on this blog.

We have mostly enjoyed the back-and-forth, but one very troubling question popped up a couple times: Does The News Tribune's editorial board calibrate its endorsements to improve advertising revenue or protect other corporate interests?

See below for our response to a suggestion that we were in bed with Waste Connections of Sacramento.

I can't say emphatically enough how unethical it would be to endorse a candidate for covert, private business purposes. In the nearly 22 years I've been part of this editorial board, that factor has never entered into our deliberations over candidates or ballot measures. I am fortunate to work for McClatchy Newspapers, where journalistic ethics are an overriding priority and those who violate the profession's ethics for gain quickly find themselves out of work.

Stacy Emerson, one of this blog's readers, asked a legitimate question about a corporate conflict of interest she'd heard about. Here are our responses, one from me, the other from our president and publisher, David Zeeck:

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We're getting calls and letters about the survey Pierce County Auditor (and county executive candidate) Pat McCarthy included in mail ballots. Apparently, so is the Associated Press. This just moved on the wire:

By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE (AP) — The woman in charge of elections in Pierce County, auditor Pat McCarthy, included a note to voters in their ballot envelopes this year, asking for feedback about the county’s new election system.

Her opponents say there’s a problem with that: McCarthy’s on the ballot herself, running for county executive. They say her note comes across almost like a political ad.

McCarthy, a Democrat, says it’s important to get feedback about the new voting system, in which voters rank their top candidates instead of choosing one. She says sending out the survey falls within her job duties as auditor, and the secretary of state’s office agrees.

But two of her opponents in the race, Pierce County Councilmen Calvin Goings and Shawn Bunney, say the mailing is self-promotional. State GOP Chairman Luke Esser calls it unethical.

UPDATE: Here's the survey.

UPDATE 2: AP has clarified that it was Charla Neuman, Bunney's adviser, and not Bunney himself who called the survey self-promotional.

UPDATE 3: This year's survey looks a lot like the survey McCarthy sent out in 2004, when the pick-a-party primary was angering voters. But McCarthy wasn't a candidate in 2004.

The county's elections manager, Lori Augino, reports the surveys are pouring in. Augino says: "Most are not favorable about Ranked Choice Voting. The good news is that most people are indicating that they understood how to mark their ballot!"

Russ Hulet of Lakewood sent us an election-themed limerick. We'll print it here and challenge other aspiring limerists (limerickists?) to contribute theirs.

One rule: Keep it clean. No ladies from Nantucket, etc.

When the polls showed McCain he was trailin',
In a bold move he picked Sarah Palin.
But what once seemed inspired
has kinda backfired
And the GOP ticket is ailin'.

This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

Voters who want the option of physician-assisted suicide should feel comfortable voting for the Death with Dignity Act.

No matter what you call it – death with dignity, assisted suicide or the right to die – the decision by terminally ill adults to end their lives should be theirs alone under the right circumstances.

A state rightfully intercedes only when personal autonomy threatens the greater good. We’re convinced that Initiative 1000 doesn’t trigger that tipping point.

Both sides of the debate over allowing physicians to help hasten patients’ deaths hold sincere, principled positions rooted in respect for human life.

While The News Tribune’s editorial board remains uneasy about enabling doctors to help patients die, we see no decisive reason to interfere in what is a deeply personal issue.

=> Read more!

A luxury cruise to Alaska last year by a group of top conservative writers may have been the lucky break that propelled Sarah Palin to the Republican vice-presidential nomination.

Journalist Jane Meyer has a fascinating account of Palin's "discovery" in the Oct. 27 edition of The New Yorker.

While Brickley and others were spreading the word about Palin on the Internet, Palin was wooing a number of well-connected Washington conservative thinkers. In a stroke of luck, Palin did not have to go to the capital to meet these members of “the permanent political establishment”; they came to Alaska.

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Washington's legendary "Cascade Curtain" lives.

With most of the state's newspapers weighing in with their endorsements in the governor's race, Republican Dino Rossi dominates the Dry Side, Democratic incumbent Chris Gregoire the Wet Side.

The Spokesman-Review of Spokane backed the governor over the weekend, but it's the only Eastern Washington newspaper that has done so. The paper backed Rossi four years ago.

Joining in on the Rossi side was the Walla Walla Union Bulletin. The Tri-City Herald and the Yakima Herald had already gone for Rossi. Wenatchee World has not published an endorsement and may stay on the sidelines, according to the paper's editorial page editor.

New endorsements for Gregoire came from the Everett Herald, the Kitsap Sun, the Bellingham Herald and the Skagit Valley Herald. The Everett Herald backed Rossi in 2004.

The Seattle Times is the only large Western Washington daily that has endorsed Rossi, as far as I know. Still checking on the Centralia Chronicle (a likely Rossi endorser) and the Aberdeen Daily World.

How does a practicing coleopterist show support for Barack Obama? By creating a "beetle for Obama" poster, of course.

This one was created by Ainsley Seago, a Foss High School grad now working as a research entomologist in Canberra, Australia. Yep, she's my daughter.

Two former Lakewood officials – ex-police chief Larry Saunders and former deputy mayor John Arbeeny – are on opposite sides of the casino initiative on the Nov. 4 ballot. Saunders opposes the ban, Arbeeny supports it.

Saunders' viewpoint came in as a letter to the editor, but it's way too long. Arbeeny's is taken from one of the e-mails he circulates to his distribution list.

First, Saunders' letter:

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Joe Biden works the Cheney Stadium crowd in this Associated Press photo.

Finally made it back from the Joe Biden rally at Cheney Stadium. It was a last-minute decision to go, so I didn't try to finagle a press pass. Instead, I sat up in the cheap seats with the riff raff (aka, my relatives).

While the TNT political writers were down on the infield in the sun, those of up in the stands were in the shade – and cold. "At least it isn't raining," chirped one glass-half-full type.

I heard that attendance was about 12,000 – which is more than twice any previous count at a Biden rally. I stood in a long line of folks waiting to get in (the only local candidate I saw working the line was county executive hopeful Calvin Goings).

In line we were told we needed to fill out a coupon with our contact information and then tear off a ticket in order to get in. The coupons were collected, but no tickets were ever taken at the gate. Seemed like a kind of sneaky way to build up the contact list. Whatever. I just wrote down a bunch of nonsense anyway.

Some impressions:

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This editorial will appear in Monday's print edition.

The three incumbents who represent the South Sound in the U.S. House of Representatives deserve re-election.

Washington has only one genuinely contested congressional race in 2008: a rematch between U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert and Darcy Burner in the 8th District, which encompasses most of eastern Pierce and King counties.

We endorsed Reichert’s re-election in 2006 and do so again this year. He’s one of the most independent-minded members of the House Republican caucus, and a principled, thoughtful lawmaker. He works readily with Democrats and has become a determined advocate of preserving sensitive wilderness in the Cascades.

Reichert also has an impressive record of leadership and public service. Prior to his election to Congress in 2004, for example, he was King County’s elected sheriff. He has brought a rare depth of expertise in law enforcement to the House.

Burner, a Carnation Democrat, is a smart, tech-savvy candidate who’s mounted another vigorous challenge. She is a celebrity in the world of MoveOn.org, ActBlue and the Daily Kos. Her campaign has been powered by vast sums of money from the liberal blogosphere.

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Doesn't it just toast your grits that the city of Victoria, B.C., dumps its untreated sewage directly into the Strait of San Juan de Fuca?

The Victorians claim the sewage gets diluted to the point of harmlessness, but there is clear evidence of degraded water quality in the vicinity of the underwater outfalls. Despite years of criticism, city and provincial governments are still only at the planning stage for sewage treatment.

This bone of contention will be among the U.S.-Canadian environmental issues explored at an Oct. 28 forum hosted by the University of Puget Sound. The event begins at 7 p.m. in the Schneebeck Concert Hall.

KUOW public radio host Steve Scher and Vancouver Sun political correspondent Vaughn Palmer will lead the discussion. From UPS' announcement:

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Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi won a key endorsement from the Seattle Times in today's online edition. It will run in print Sunday. Read it here.

For those who like to track such things, The News Tribune, the Seattle P-I, the Daily Olympian and the Vancouver Columbian have all endorsed incumbent Democrat Chris Gregoire. The TNT and the Columbian endorsed Rossi four years ago.

The Gregoire camp has been anticipating a Rossi endorsement from the Times. A press release earlier this week suggested that Times publisher Frank Blethen's obsession with repealing the state estate tax would work in Rossi's favor.

The Yakima Herald endorsed Rossi earlier this week (note from Kim: as did my last paper, the Tri-City Herald, which endorsed Gregoire four years ago). As near as I can tell, the Spokesman-Review of Spokane has yet to publish its endorsement. The paper's Web site requires registration.

The fivethirtyeight.com poll tracking website now projects Gregoire winning by half a percent, and Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert beating challenger Darcy Burner by two-tenths of a percent. In other words, both of those races are clearly tossups.

This editorial will appear in tomorrow in the print edition.

John Ladenburg is moving on – possibly to the state attorney general’s office – and somebody will have to replace him as Pierce County executive.

Of the four candidates seeking the office, we think Republican Shawn Bunney and Democrat Pat McCarthy – in that order – come closest to filling Ladenburg’s big shoes.

This is an unusually diverse field.

All four candidates are serious contenders with impressive credentials. The other two are Calvin Goings and Mike Lonergan. Goings, a Democrat, has extensive experience in public office, including the Legislature. Lonergan, who is running under his own “Executive Excellence” banner, has served as a Tacoma city councilman and as the executive of two nonprofits, the Salvation Army and Tacoma Rescue mission.

We like Bunney’s calm thoughtfulness, analytical ability and inclination to work behind the scenes solving the knottiest problems.

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For my money, former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan is the most thoughtful and graceful conservative columnist in America today.

I can't finish breakfast on Saturday mornings without checking the Wall Street Journal's oped page for her weekly column.

And today Noonan joined the growing list of conservative columnists and writers who say that Sarah Palin is a dud. Palin was "a dope and unqualified from the start," Noonan writes. Excerpts:

There has never been a second's debate among liberals, to use an old-fashioned word that may yet return to vogue, over Mrs. Palin: She was a dope and unqualified from the start.

Conservatives and Republicans, on the other hand, continue to battle it out: Was her choice a success or a disaster? And if one holds negative views, should one say so? For conservatives in general, but certainly for writers, the answer is a variation on Edmund Burke: You owe your readers not your industry only but your judgment, and you betray instead of serve them if you sacrifice it to what may or may not be their opinion . . .

But we have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office.

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These cartoons are a little on the risque side for the printed edition, but I know our online readers can handle them.

And any offended plumbers out there, don't blame me; blame Michael Ramirez and Chris Britt. They just couldn't pass up the chance to take the low road.

Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy is our fourth and final candidate for Pierce County executive. She's "all about this nonsexy stuff about how do we deliver services."

Check back here later today for our Pierce County executive endorsement. In the spirit of ranked-choice voting, we will be offering our top two picks.

McCarthy on "that vision thing"

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Tacoma City Councilman Mike Lonergan, the third Pierce County executive candidate, is a videographer's dream. His answers were succinct and on point. (As a result, his clips are shorter than the others'.)

Lonergan's the dark horse in this race and he doesn't pull any punches. We'll see if his strategy of using the "Executive Excellence" party label to remind voters he's got the most management experience pays off. I personally think he would have been better off registering as plain old independent.

Lonergan on why he's running

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On Sunday, we'll print our endorsements in the Pierce County executive races.

On Monday come our endorsements for Congress in the 8th, 9th and 6th districts.

But look for previews of both editorials on this blog the afternoon before they run in print.

Next up in our rundown of county executive candidates is Calvin Goings, Pierce County councilman and former state lawmaker.

Goings is by far the most polished campaigner; he also is the candidate who offers the most specifics regarding his plans. His interview was impressive.

For those of you who like your politics served with something stiffer, I suggest drinking each time you hear "at the end of the day."

Goings on his management philosophy

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How about a $15 million "copying charge" to fill a public-records request? Incredible but true -- in Gov. Sarah Palin's Alaska.

From MSNBC news:

Sarah Palin's office has discovered a renewable resource to bring millions of dollars into Alaska's economy: the governor's e-mails.

The office of the Republican vice-presidential nominee has quoted prices as high as $15 million for copies of state e-mails requested by news organizations and citizens. No matter what the price, most of the e-mails of Palin, her senior staff and other state employees won't be made public until at least several weeks after the Nov. 4 presidential election, her office told msnbc.com on Thursday.

How did the cost reach $15 million? Let's look at a typical request.

See the full article here.

Thanks to Jason Mercier director of the Washington Policy Institute's Center for Government Reform, for spotting this story. He and I both serve on the board of the Washington Coalition for Open Government.

One of the coalition's aims is making sure copying charges for public-records requests are reasonable. I'd say $15 million was a little on the high side.

Look for our endorsement in the Pierce County executive race this Sunday. In the meantime, we'll be posting some excerpts of our interviews of the four candidates.

I'll take them in alphabetical order, starting with Pierce County Councilman Shawn Bunney.

We've tried to capture what seemed to be the most pertinent or interesting bits, but inevitably things get missed when you're editing four hours of footage. My apologies to any candidate who thinks their best stuff was left on the cutting room floor.

Without further ado, here's Bunney, a policy wonk who is never going to win an award for rousing oratory but does come across as thoughtful.

Bunney on his qualifications for the job

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This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.

Get Lakewood out
of the gambling business
The fact that many city employees would be laid off if a ban passes shows how dependent Lakewood has become on casino money.

Lakewood voters have a tough decision to make Nov. 4, no doubt about it.

If they pass Proposition 1 and ban casino gambling, the city’s budget would take an almost immediate 7 percent hit from closure of four “enhanced card rooms.” City Manager Andrew Neiditz has said that losing a projected $2.85 million in gambling tax revenue in 2009 means 11 police positions would be among the many cuts that would have to be made in the operating budget.

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This editorial will appear Friday in our print edition.

Our picks in the 29th, 30th and 31st districts

If the August primary was any indication, the incumbent legislators in the state’s 29th, 30th and 31st districts have little to worry about. All won by healthy margins.
They deserved to. And voters should again support them in the Nov. 4 general election.

29TH DISTRICT (includes parts of Tacoma, Lakewood and University Place): Give Republicans Terry Harder and Steven Cook their props. It’s been too long since any candidate threw his hat in the ring against Tacoma Reps. Steve Conway or Steve Kirby.

Democracy depends on voters having choices, and on that basis, we cheer their candidacies.

Unfortunately, we can’t also recommend them to voters.

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An interesting news release came in from the American Political Science Association. It reports that six of nine presidential election forecasts predict that Barack Obama will be elected Nov. 4. Two say the race is too close to call, and one gives John McCain a narrow victory.

Here's the article:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 — Most of nine forecast models developed by political scientists predict a victory for Senator Barack Obama over Senator John McCain in the two-party contest for the popular vote in the 2008 presidential election. Obama is predicted to win an average of 52% of the vote with an 80% probability that he will gain more than half the total two-party popular vote.

Six out of the nine presidential election forecasts predict an Obama victory with popular vote totals ranging from 50.1% to 58.2%, while two predict a race too close to call and one predicts a narrow McCain victory. All of the predictions appear in an election-themed symposium in the October issue of PS: Political Science and Politics, a journal of the American Political Science Association (APSA).

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We ran out of room in the editorial column today, so we're posting this endorsement here. We'll run it in the printed edition sometime soon.

Give Republicans Terry Harder and Steven Cook their props. It's been too long since any candidate threw his hat in the ring against Tacoma Reps. Steve Conway or Steve Kirby.

Democracy depends on voters having choices, and on that basis, we cheer their candidacies.

Unfortunately, we can't also recommend them to voters. Cook, a pastor and former George City Councilman, and Harder, an account manager for Office Depot and co-founder of Operation Support Our Troops, are credible candidates who might make fine lawmakers in time.

But it takes more than promise to overcome Kirby's and Conway's considerable advantage given their years in the Legislature. Their committee chairmanships give them pull that benefits the district.

They remain the best picks for 29th voters.

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Our choices for 26th, 27th and 28th districts

Incumbency matters, but maybe never so much as when times are tough.

The next Legislature, up against a projected $3.2 billion budget shortfall, is not likely to suffer rookies gladly. It’s in Pierce County’s best interests to return experienced hands who can fight for its priorities.

The News Tribune editorial board is endorsing every sitting lawmaker who is seeking re-election in the legislative districts that represent the county’s most urban core. For the only open seat – a House position in the 26th District – we favor a Kitsap County commissioner from Port Orchard.

26th District: State Rep. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, is retiring after 12 years in the Legislature. Her decision has sparked a close race between two women from local government ranks. Of the two, Republican Jan Angel has the longer and broader record of public and community service.

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Bruce Lachney, who's running for the Pierce County Council from District 3, initiated this thoughtful exchange with me after we endorsed his opponent, Roger Bush.

Hi Pat,

First let me say thanks again for the opportunity to talk with you and Kim about an endorsement.

However, I think I do need to clarify my position on Growth Management Act issues; it appears to be one of the Board’s main concerns and something I’m very well versed in.

Are you aware of my record from the Planning Commission on Growth issues? I’d be more than happy to discuss my views in depth (even after the election). But if you’re interested in an unbiased view I encourage you to talk to Chip Vincent [until last summer, Pierce County's chief planner].

At this point, Chip, having no personal interest in the present race, would certainly give you a fair assessment. Clarity is always preferable to assumption.

Feel free to explore the entire landscape.

Warmest regards and best wishes,

Bruce Lachney

Bruce,

We liked your views on growth management and on other issues. We liked you, too.

What we just couldn’t get past was your repeated statements (and we came at this from different directions) that you would always follow the public sentiment in the district.

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This editorial will appear in Wednesday's printed edition.

The stated purpose of Initiative 1029 – stiffening training requirements for home-care workers – is hard to quarrel with.

It would require, with some exceptions, those workers to be certified with 75 hours of training, more than double the current requirement of 34 hours. They would have to get federal criminal background checks, despite the fact that they are already being screened by the Washington State Patrol.

A big concern here is cost vs. benefit. With a yawning state deficit, lawmakers would have to scare up $30 million in the next biennium to pay for the measure.

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This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

No matter the outcome of the election, voters in the 25th Legislative District are assured that they’ll be sending fresh blood to the Legislature.

The decision by Puyallup Republican Rep. Joyce McDonald to leave the Legislature to run for a Pierce County
Council seat puts her position up for grabs.

Both men running to replace her in House Position 1 have records of community service. Both are moderates befitting their swing district.

But the advantage goes to Republican Bruce Dammeier. A Puyallup School Board member, his grasp of the challenges facing public education is needed in Olympia.

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So how's the Troopergate report playing in Alaska? Here's an editorial that appeared Monday in the Anchorage Daily News.

It's pretty devastating, accusing Gov. Sarah Palin of perpetrating a "big lie" by claiming vindication. The editorial says she and husband Todd "had no sense that the power of the governor's office carries a special responsibility not to use it to settle family scores."

Here's the entire editorial.

Palin vindicated?
Governor offers Orwellian spin

Sarah Palin's reaction to the Legislature's Troopergate report is an embarrassment to Alaskans and the nation.

She claims the report "vindicates" her. She said that the investigation found "no unlawful or unethical activity on my part."

Her response is either astoundingly ignorant or downright Orwellian.

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"Fair and balanced"? Baloney.

Any pretense that Fox News maintains at being genuinely journalistic was thoroughly trashed last weekend when Fox's Sean Hannity trotted out Andy Martin as a supposedly credible source on Barack Obama's radicalism.

What's fair and balanced about relying on a certified nutcase to air atrociously unfounded innuendo suggesting Obama's goal is overthrow of the U.S. government? How low can you go? Not as low as Fox.

Opinion is one thing. Knowingly presenting B.S. as factual documentary is purely dishonest.

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Here's a good example of state Rep. Dennis Flannigan's formidable networking skills. The Tacoma Democrat has the best email list in town -- and he often uses it to make good things happen that have nothing to do with politics.

I'm happy to pass this one on. (Sorry, I'm too tech-impaired make the PDF file work here)

Dear people not picked at random,

Two months ago I met Tacoma's Linda Danforth. I knew she provided studio space for artists and crafts people. I didn't know she did it for less than a buck a week per member. For 48 bucks a year, anyone can work on their projects five days a week at Tacoma Art Place on South 11th Street. So far there's quilters, painters, crafters, photographers, potters, jewelry designers, fabric artists, film makers, and fabric artists on board.

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This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

The wrong way to get rid of Tacoma term limits
Proposition 1 is a self-serving, expensive way to end City Council
term limits. Voters should reject it.

The problem with Tacoma Proposition 1 – which would remove term limits for the City Council – isn’t necessarily what it’s about, but how it came to be on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The ballot measure would make a significant change to the City Charter, but it didn’t go through the regular charter review process conducted by citizens every 10 years or so.

It was put forward by Councilwoman Connie Ladenburg, who stands to be term limited out next year along with three other council members. No public hearings were held, and public comment was allowed only immediately before council members voted to put the measure on the ballot.

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This editorial will appear in Tuesday's paper.

Mike Murphy’s decision not to run for a fourth term as state treasurer has provoked an identity crisis of sorts for his office.

The open seat has attracted two comers with different takes on the job. Deciding between them requires voters to consider what they want from their state treasurer – a banker’s banker or a financial guru.

Murphy, a Democrat, has been a careful steward of public funds content to largely work behind the scenes. His advice, rarely dispensed, carries great weight.

His assistant treasurer, Republican Allan Martin, would continue that approach. The former Chelan County treasurer argues that the office should be a strongbox, not a soapbox.

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This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

It is a testament to Paul Pastor’s record that no one in law enforcement is opposing his bid to be the first Pierce County sheriff elected since 1975.

Pastor, the county’s appointed sheriff since 2001, has a solid reputation for integrity, accessibility and fairness.

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Pulitzer, schmulitzer.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, whose work regularly appears on The News Tribune's editorial pages, just won the big one: the Nobel Prize in economics.

Krugman, who is unabashedly liberal, is a columnist our conservative readers love to hate. But he has been consistent over the last few years in criticizing subprime mortgage loans and predicting a housing bust.

Krugman didn't win for his column but for his “analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.” Usually the prize is given to two or three individuals, but this year it – and $1.4 million – went to Krugman alone.

Here's an AP story on the award:

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Paul Krugman, the Princeton University scholar, New York Times columnist and unabashed liberal, won the Nobel prize in economics Monday for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect international trade patterns.

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Tired of all those ads urging you to vote? Los Angeles Times humor columnist Joel Stein takes a perversely opposite position.

"Casting a ballot tricks you into believing you have as equal a stake in the power structure as the rich and connected," he writes.

Here's the rest of his column.

Still Undecided? Then Just Don’t Vote
By Joel Stein
The Los Angeles Times

Don’t vote. People will try to guilt you into it, but stay strong and resist. I’m talking to all of you who don’t feel strongly about either presidential candidate, not just those 80 undecided idiots seated at Tuesday’s town hall-style debate. Those people just crave attention and are way too proud of skimming enough Google News headlines to formulate a question. Give each a hug and a Debate Attendee diploma and I bet they’ll pick a candidate real fast.

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This editorial will appear in Monday's paper.

This year’s race for Pierce County assessor-treasurer lends itself well to the county’s new ranked choice ballot.

Voters don’t want for choices in the six-way contest. And any partisan considerations that may discourage ranking in other county races don’t apply to the newly nonpartisan assessor-treasurer position.

The News Tribune editorial board sees one clear front-runner in the race and two other candidates who would be up to the task. We’ll discuss them in the order we suggest voters rank them.

First choice: Terry Lee
Lee, elected to the Pierce County Council in 2002 and its current chairman, has a reputation as a principled consensus builder, a voice of reason and an accessible elected official.

It is a measure of the trust and respect Lee engenders among colleagues that he often ends up chairing the boards he joins. His chairmanship of the Pierce County Planning Commission spanned seven years – years in which the commission developed the county’s comprehensive land use plan and several community plans.

Lee, a former construction project manager, has considerable private sector experience managing large staffs and budgets. That makes him a good fit for the assessor-treasurer’s office. So does his work on the Pierce County Council to create a county ombudsman who helps property owners sort through their assessments and his ideas for fine-tuning tax collections.

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TNT business columnist Dan Voelpel seems to assign a major share of the blame for today's financial meltdown to the Clinton administration, judging from his column today.

That's a far too simplistic view of the factors behind America's greatest financial crisis since the Depression.

It is true that Congressional Democrats and perhaps the Clinton White House spurred Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac to help make home ownership more available to low-income Americans who, almost by definition, were poor credit risks.

The Wall Street Journal's editorial page and other conservative critics have repeatedly blamed much of the subprime mortgage crisis on the actions of the two mortgage finance giants, explicitly fingering Democrats for causing today's mess.

For a factual rebuttal, see this excellent McClatchy Newspapers analysis that appeared in the TNT's print edition today. Bottom line:

Federal housing data reveal that the charges aren't true, and the private sector, not the government or government-backed companies, was behind the soaring subprime lending at the core of the crisis.

In retirement, I've had time to absorb the daily coverage and commentary on the crisis from both The New York Times and the Journal as well as other news sources.

What strikes me is how seldom the conservative camp acknowledges that simple greed -- or at best a heedless pursuit of greater profit, unchecked by adequate regulation -- got us into this mess.

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This editorial will appear in Sunday's print edition.

Four years ago, we endorsed Dino Rossi for governor. This year, we are endorsing his then-and-now opponent, Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Both are excellent candidates. Gregoire has demonstrated her ability as governor, and Rossi is a very plausible alternative.

We liked Rossi in 2004 (and still do) for several reasons. One was the fact that he would have been the state’s first Republican governor in the 20 years since John Spellman left the office.

There is real value in shifting party control of a state’s administration from time to time. State agencies develop cultures that, over time, can settle into complacency, stagnation and unexamined assumptions about how to spend public money. These tendencies can perpetuate themselves without occasional shake-ups. The election of a Republican governor would have shaken state government up royally.

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This editorial appeared in the Christian Science Monitor a few days ago. Note the economist's estimate that the real costs of legalized gambling – most of which the City of Lakewood foists on others – outweigh the "benefit" by a ratio of three to one:

Again this election cycle, citizens will decide whether to introduce or expand casino-style gambling in their states. Casino resorts in Maine and Ohio? Slot machines – 15,000 of them – in Maryland? Round-the-clock gambling in Colorado? Backers promise a painless revenue stream for states. It's anything but.

A group of citizens in Lakewood, Wash., knows this only too well. They've collected enough signatures for a local ballot measure to ban "minicasinos" in their community, just south of Tacoma. A successful voter backlash would not just stop the expansion of legalized gambling there, but actually close four card rooms – a first in the state, and perhaps the nation.

The city warns that closing the establishments will cost $2.8 million in lost revenue, hurt social services for the poor, and essentially end neighborhood policing. But the ban's backers have come to the conclusion that the costs of legalized gambling – including gambling addiction, broken families, lost jobs, and drug abuse – aren't worth the revenues.

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We recently lamented the erosion of the school calendar.

Teachers are increasingly demanding more paid time to hone their teaching skills to deliver better student performance. That's leading to a shrinking of the school calendar as school districts, which can't afford to add extra days to the school year, request permission to borrow from classroom time. Last year, more than a fourth of the state’s school districts received waivers to deviate from the standard 180-day school year.

Now Education Week reports that the trend elsewhere is headed in the opposite direction.

Twenty-five years ago, the still-resonant report A Nation at Risk urged schools to add more time — an hour to the usual six-hour day and 20 to 40 days to the typical 180-day year — to ward off a “rising tide of mediocrity” in American education. Today, in city agencies and school district offices, at statehouses and on the national stage, leaders are engaged in a renewed effort to do just that.

It's not cheap. The Center for American Progress found that the annual cost of adding 30 percent more time to a school schedule ranged from $287 to $720 per pupil. But just imagine a state full of schools like this:

At Grove Patterson Academy, a regular public K-8 school in Toledo, Ohio, an eight-hour day and a 192-day year afford time for all 400 children to have 90 minutes of daily, uninterrupted reading, to study Spanish or German, to explore music and art, to engage in sports, and to work with mathematics specialists.

The extra time—the equivalent of 49 more days in the year—makes possible an interdisciplinary-learning approach that Principal Gretchen E. Bueter calls invaluable. Children do math problems in German, boost their Spanish and geography skills in social studies class, and learn graphing and numeric value in music. Teachers have daily planning time together to coordinate coursework across the curriculum.

For faithful readers of this blog, here's advance notice of two soon-to-arrive election endorsements.

In the printed edition Sunday, we will endorse Gov. Chris Gregoire's re-election. We'll post the editorial here tomorrow around 4 p.m.

On Monday, we'll endorse Terry Lee, Barbara Gelman and Jan Shabro – in that order – for Pierce County assessor-treasurer.

The preview of that editorial will be posted here on Sunday, also around 4 p.m.

Political campaigns deluge us with so many requests to run their long pieces on our pages that we've been turning them all down this close to the election – with the exceptions of those we pair with opposing viewpoints. We've got a policy of balance, especially this close to the vote, and space on our printed pages is scarce.

Usually writers can make the same points just as effectively in letters to the editor.

We've got plenty of real estate in this blog, though. So I'm running this piece by Lakewood City Councilman Pad Finnegan, who challenges our dim view of casino gambling.

By Pad Finnegan

If you wanted to eat fewer candy bars, you wouldn’t just “hide” them from yourself in a different drawer.

If you wanted to lower you gas bill, you wouldn’t drive to Oregon for lower pump prices.

The point is that if you want to create a change, you have to take action that will accomplish your goal. There has to be a cause-effect relationship between the action you take and the result you want to achieve. It’s pretty simple.

Yet it’s a point the Save Lakewood group doesn’t seem to understand. The so-called “solution” to the negative effects of gambling that they propose in their gambling initiative – they want to ban casinos in Lakewood in order to eliminate problems habitual Lakewood gamblers get themselves into – won’t stop Lakewood gamblers from betting and losing money.

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Tom McCabe, the Mr. Hardball of Washington state politics, doesn't exactly toss rose petals in his letter to the editor published today in the Wall Street Journal.

For your reading enjoyment, I have lifted it in its entirety. I'm sure the Journal won't mind.

Washington State and Free Speech

Your editorial calling Washington State "scoundrel country" ("Money and Speech," Sept. 26) is spot on. As a conservative, pro-small business association in a state run by labor unions, Indian tribes and environmental extremists, the Building Industry Association of Washington has battled for years to protect our right to champion conservative causes in the political arena.

These left-leaning groups unapologetically flex their political muscle to influence state policy while fighting tooth and nail to deny BIAW the same. Not content to enjoy the inordinate power they enjoy in this liberal, anti-small business state, these groups have worked relentlessly over the past ten years to defund BIAW in an effort to silence the association's lone conservative political voice. After failing in the executive and legislative branches, this most recent attempt to abuse the court system in an effort to do their dirty work also failed.

The judge hearing the case, as did the Journal, saw through the bogus lawsuit and upheld BIAW's free speech rights. Now BIAW is free to continue exercising our First Amendment right to spend money to replace Washington State's anti-small business, pro-big government governor with Dino Rossi. BIAW will vigorously exercise this right until our political foes throw up the next roadblock. But when that happens, we'll beat it back too.

Tom McCabe
Executive Vice President
Building Industry Association of Washington
Olympia, Wash.

Note that neither the Journal nor McCabe mentioned that Washington's Republican (sorry, I mean GOP) attorney general has filed suit against the BIAW for public-disclosure violations involving its independent, big-bucks campaign against Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire. Does that make Rob McKenna a scoundrel, too?

Don't take The News Tribune's word for it. Even professional transportation experts say Tim Eyman's lame-brained Initiative 985 is a bad idea.

This from Crosscut:

Washington members of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) voted Wednesday to oppose I-985. "The best professional judgment of these engineers is that I-985 contains significant flaws that will likely, on net, increase congestion and possibly impact safety on the roads and highways of metropolitan Puget Sound," the ITE reported Tuesday on its Web site.

The ITE is most concerned with I-985's mandated hours and rules for carpool lanes, which the society said could result in increased accidents, slower emergency response, poorer transit service, and even increased drive-alone trips.

See the engineers' full statement here. To me, I-985 is another example of Tim Eyman needing something, anything, to keep his perpetual initiative machine in motion. Otherwise he can't make a living.

George Will's Sunday column moved today, and Tacoma's term limits for City Council figures prominently. Will mentions a Sept. 9 New York Times article about efforts nationwide to repeal term limits, which include a Nov. 4 ballot measure, Proposition 1, to repeal term limits for Tacoma City Council members. They currently are limited to 10 consecutive years.

The article quoted Councilwoman Connie Ladenburg on why she favors abolishing Tacoma's term limits:

Some officials pushing the changes say the turnover created by term limits robs an elected body of valuable institutional memory. In Tacoma, four of the city’s nine council members will be forced from office by January 2010 after completion of their second four-year terms. That worries Councilwoman Connie Ladenburg, who has spent years pushing for a $2 million pedestrian and bike trail, among other projects.

“That is when I thought, ‘This is crazy.’ If I go away, and it’s not completed, what will happen?” she said.

As a result, Ms. Ladenburg shepherded a November referendum to overturn term limits. “The public wonders why we don’t get things done. Well, you have to be there awhile to get things done.”

Will doesn't have much sympathy for Ladenburg's reasoning. Read his column Sunday to learn why.

Something had to give in the ongoing fight over a mold-ridden apartment complex in Puyallup. That something will likely be aggrieved tenants' day in court.

Sound Transit's Proposition 1 offers long-term transportation improvement this region needs.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

We ran a correction for our editorial on the City of DuPont's levy for fire services earlier this week that deserves a fuller discussion here.

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Some day soon we'll be rolling out our endorsement in the governor's race. But for now, we've posted excerpts of our interviews with Gov. Gregoire (Sept. 11) and Dino Rossi (Oct. 2) on YouTube.

Our candidate interviews usually are unscripted, free-flowing exchanges, but in this case we developed a set of six questions we made sure to ask each candidate. We didn't share the questions with either campaign ahead of time – so unless Gregoire was comparing notes with Rossi after her interview, neither candidate had a chance to prep (although they've certainly had plenty of experience answering a few of these questions).

To lead off, here's them answering a question submitted by a reader in response to a call we issued in August. Derek Young of Gig Harbor was the big winner with this query:

"Is it more important for a governor to lead, or to follow popular opinion?" (We added: If you believe the former, give an example of a decision or action that you knew would not be popular but that you thought was important for the greater good).

Our interview of Chris Gregoire came days after Isaac Zamora went on a shooting rampage in Skagit County, killing six. Given Zamora's mother's agonizing tale about her failed attempts to get her son mental help, we asked both Gregoire and Dino Rossi:

"Is the state doing an adequate job with the mentally ill?"

The candidates weigh in after the jump.

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The question: Looking back on your last term in office, is there any issue you wish you had a do-over on? With the benefit of hindsight, how would you handle it today?

Their responses:

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The question: How should the state cover the budget shortfall?

(Consider the timing on this one. Gregoire acknowledged the size of the pending state budget shortfall just this week. When we interviewed her Sept. 11, she was still taking issue with such projections.)

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The question: On what issue are you and your opponent farthest apart?

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The question: What's wrong with your opponent's approach to transportation?

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This editorial will appear Thursday in the print edition:

Two Republicans and two Democrats are the best choices
for Pierce County voters.

The Pierce County executive race may be grabbing the headlines, but several down-ballot contests could prove just as important.

Specifically, the four posts on the Pierce County Council up for grabs could play a pivotal role in the county’s direction during at least the next two years.

DISTRICT 2 (includes Puyallup, East and Northeast Tacoma): Democrat Calvin Goings’ bid for executive leaves his District 2 seat open. If Republican Joyce McDonald replaces him, the GOP will enjoy a veto-proof supermajority.

McDonald, who has served five terms in the state House, faces two relatively unknown Democrats: Pierce County deputy prosecutor Al Rose and Carolyn Merrival, who served on the 2006 Charter Review Commission. All three candidates are solid, thoughtful people; voters can hardly go wrong with any of them. But our choice is Rose, an exceptionally bright new face in county politics.

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This editorial will appear Thursday in the print edition.

Yes on Peninsula park bond

How about more open space and at least six more parks on the Gig Harbor Peninsula?

It can happen – but only if voters in the Peninsula Metropolitan Park District approve a $20 million, 20-year bond measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.

If the bond measure passes, PenMet Parks will be able to buy land for parks, waterfront access and trails; build new playgrounds, ballfields, picnic shelters, a spray park and a dog park; and renovate existing parks and recreational facilities.

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Here's the best line I saw in the online post-debate commentaries Tuesday night, from the Washington Post's Dana Milbank:

John McCain needed a big night at Tuesday's second presidential debate to turn around a race that seems to be getting away from him. So he hit Barack Obama where it hurts: in the overhead projector.

Don't get it? Read Milbank here.

This editorial will appear on Wednesday's editorial page:

Down-ballot races like the state insurance commissioner and lieutenant governor get scant attention, especially in crowded election seasons like this one.

It’s a good thing then that the power of incumbency enjoyed by the sitting state executives is well-deserved.

One challenger – Marcia McCraw, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor – earned our co-endorsement in the primary. But for the general election, our endorsement goes exclusively to Brad Owen.

During his decade presiding over the Senate, Owen has set the tone for decorum and respect. He also has made the most of a job with few specific duties, taking the lead on trade missions and visiting schools across the state to talk about substance abuse and bullying.

Four other state executives have already received our sole endorsement for jobs well done.

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This editorial will appear Wednesday in the print edition.

Panic feeds on itself. When raw fear infects the stock markets, investors can be stampeded as easily as cattle.

That’s now happening throughout the world. In the first two days of this week, the Dow Jones industrials fell more than 875 points, a stampede of historic proportions. Consider it bad karma for the panic Wall Street itself had already foisted on the rest of the world.

Last week’s paroxysms on Wall Street – coming on top of escalating uncertainty about core financial institutions – had sent stocks tumbling across Asia and Europe. Scared U.S. investors have had plenty of company of late. European markets have suffered record plunges since the week began. One Russian market index tracked a loss of nearly 25 percent. Paper wealth has been evaporating by the trillions in countries rich and poor.

One thing the crisis demonstrates is how entangled and interdependent the world’s financial system has become. Globalized investments are subject to globalized panic. Many countries now rue their past faith in American investment banks and other peddlers of such toxic derivatives as credit default swaps. The blame falls squarely on Wall Street, easy money, corrupt mortgage loans and the failure of federal officials to police the above.

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This editorial will appear in the print edition Tuesday.

Eight years ago, Tim Eyman ran an initiative – “Roads First” – that would have forced the state to spend transportation money on roads and highways. It lost, big time.

At the time, Eyman appeared to have learned his lesson – that his supporters wanted him to offer tax cuts, not schemes for micromanaging transportation spending.

But he’s unlearned the lesson. His initiative-of-the-year, I-985, takes micromanagement far beyond the point of absurdity.

The initiative is being sold as a way to implement congestion-relief measures recommended by the state auditor’s office. In reality, it has less to do with the auditor than with attacking traffic and highway programs that Eyman and various grievance-driven citizens don’t like.

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This editorial will appear in the print edition Tuesday.

Doug Sutherland
for lands commissioner
The incumbent has brought a steady and balanced approach
to his management of the Department of Natural Resources.

Doug Sutherland knows something about squeakers. The former Pierce County executive seems to draw close races no matter where he goes.

This year’s commissioner of public lands contest is no different. Although Sutherland, a Republican, emerged from the August primary election on top, recent polls give his Democratic challenger, Peter Goldmark, a slight lead.

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I confess: I voted for Pierce County Superior Court candidate Michael Hecht in August -- not because I thought he was the better candidate, but as a protest.

A protest against all the better-qualified lawyers in Pierce County who were too chicken to take on incumbent Judge Sergio Armijo -- who was a vulnerable target because he finished last in judicial ratings published by the county bar last fall.

I didn't think Hecht would win, going up against a 15-year incumbent who, despite his poor showing in the bar poll and in an earlier one conducted by The News Tribune, was endorsed by nearly all of the sitting judges on the district and superior court benches.

But surprise, surprise: Hecht emerged the winner.

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This editorial will appear on Monday's editorial page.

We have an axiom when making election endorsements: The voters have to decide, so we have to decide.

When The News Tribune's editorial board makes an endorsement decision, we discuss it – and sometimes argue it – until we reach a verdict one way or another.

Exceptions are very rare. But we've arrived at one of those impasses this year in the race for state attorney general. We think that both the incumbent attorney general, Republican Rob McKenna, and his Democratic challenger, Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, are superbly qualified, but in such different ways that it is difficult to compare them directly against each other.

Start with McKenna. And start with the fact that he has run the attorney general's office successfully since he was elected in 2004.

McKenna is ethical and competent. Like his predecessors, including now-Gov. Chris Gregoire, he has kept the office above partisan politics.
Last month, for example, he charged the Building Industry Association of Washington with illegally concealing political money that now being used to attack Gregoire. The BIAW is a major Republican ally.

On Friday, McKenna sued the state Republican Party itself over another alleged violation of campaign law. In some states, it would be unthinkable for an attorney general to file a lawsuit against his own party's interests on the eve of an election.

We also like McKenna's wholehearted devotion to open government. More than any preceding attorney general, he has been a champion of public access to official records and meetings.

For these and other reasons, McKenna's re-election would serve the state well. But we think Ladenburg's election would also serve the state well.

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My older daughter, Ainsley (Foss High School grad), is working in Australia as a beetle scientist, but she's doing all she can to keep up with the U.S. campaign news. She did a good job of making her old dad feel out of the loop in this e-mail exchange today:

She:

I wasn't able to watch (the Palin-Biden debate)on tv (it was a workday, and we had a staff meeting :( ) but I read the transcript on the NYT website and watched a few excerpts. You've seen the Sarah Palin Debate Flowchart, right?

Given the astoundingly low expectations, I think she did marginally okay-- but nothing she said actually had any particular substance. I was impressed by Biden, though. I'm pretty much glued to 538 all the time these days.

Me:

What's 538?

Number of votes in the electoral college. See fivethirtyeight.com

Come ON, Old Media! Get in the loop, here! -- It's a massive poll-concatenating site built around a series of weighting algorithms designed by a statistics geek, and the number-one favorite election tracker of science nerds. Also highly addictive, especially if you like graphs.

Elsewhere on the Palin front . . .

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Sunday: What a newspaper sells, ultimately, is its credibility. Sunday’s editorial discusses the core values of trust and integrity, as part of The News Tribune’s 125th anniversary commemoration.

Monday: We make a rare dual endorsement in the attorney general’s race between Rob McKenna and John Ladenburg. (We'll post our reasoning here on Sunday.)

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

This editorial will appear in Friday's paper.

Sen. Joe Biden demonstrated formidable authority. Gov. Sarah Palin stayed in the ring with him.

If you win debates by beating expectations, the Alaska governor and the Delaware senator both won their first and only face-off Thursday night.

Palin won biggest simply by hanging in there. Many of her political opponents were hoping for a meltdown on national television – a Katie Couric Moment that would discredit her candidacy and that of John McCain. She refused to oblige them.

Palin didn't come close to Biden in debating points, but she got her share of jabs in, including – while defending McCain's "all of the above" energy policy – a reminder that the senator had referred to offshore drilling as raping the outer continental shelf.

Embarrassing, now that Barack Obama has changed his mind about such drilling.

She stayed on the offensive throughout. For all his skill and experience, Biden was never able to shut Palin down or visibly shake her. She doggedly kept on defending McCain, denouncing "corruption and greed on Wall Street" and aiming appeals at hockey moms and other "Main Street" Americans.

Even when the debate moved into foreign policy – Biden's great strength – Palin refused to stumble. She also proved as adept as him in fending off potentially embarrassing questions. She frequently retreated into rehearsed talking points, but that's what you'd expect from a first-term Alaskan governor suddenly thrust into the glare of presidential politics.

Two conclusions about Palin: Somebody has been briefing her well. And she is a very quick study.

Then there was Biden's impressive performance. Throughout, he was forceful, articulate and authoritative. And human, as when he choked up while talking about the accidental death of his wife and young daughter in 1972.

The senator may be chiefly famous for his gaffes. A single one of those verbal blunders – his witting or unwitting parroting of a speech by British politician Neil Kinnock – helped put an abrupt end to his 1988 presidential campaign.

But Thursday's Biden made no such gaffes. Those who watched saw a senator who would have been a very credible presidential nominee in his own right. It's a shame the country hasn't seen more of that Joe Biden over the last 20 years.

You'd think the Oscars were on. Nearly everybody I know is in a tizzy over the Palin-Biden vice-presidential debate tonight.

Friends are rearranging social plans and other commitments in order to watch the debate. My wife, Anne, is bemoaning the fact she's obliged to be at the opening of the The Grand Cinema's annual film festival.

We're going to tape the debate. But I'm facing a marital quandary. Do I loyally accompany my loved one, or do I bail and watch the debate with friends? Anne says it's my call. Yikes.

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In a better world, narrow special interest groups with truckloads of money on their hands wouldn't be spending fortunes trying to get their allies into high office. We don't live in that better world, as the governor's race demonstrates.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.