This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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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.
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.
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:
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.)
The question: On what issue are you and your opponent farthest apart?
The question: What's wrong with your opponent's approach to transportation?
