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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I’ve been in the business of candidate endorsements since Ronald Reagan was president, and I’ve never run into the dilemma presented this year by the District 5 race for the Tacoma City Council.
It’s the only time our editorial board has ever had to evaluate a fellow News Tribune employee as a candidate for public office. Joe Lonergan, who’s running against Beckie Summers Kirby and John Miles, is a TNT advertising account representative. His desk is literally a 30-second walk from my office. He’s been here for years. We see him all the time. We know, like and respect him.
How do we sort out that familiarity when we’re sizing him up against Summers and Miles? How do we be fair to them? Or to him, if we’re bending over backwards to be fair to them?
We wound up endorsing Miles, but we first did a lot of talking about the Joe-as-co-worker issue.
This editorial will appear in Friday's edition.
No matter who voters pick among the many candidates running for Tacoma City Council this year, the council will look a lot different come January.
That’s the result of the city’s term limits, which are showing three council members and the mayor the door. Voters reaffirmed their support of term limits’ purging power last year when they defeated an attempt to repeal the city’s 10-year limit.
Two of the four Tacoma City Council races this year drew enough candidates to make the August primary ballot. Our choices in those races kick off this year’s election endorsements. We’ll publish other primary election recommendations over the next couple of weeks, and then start working on our general election picks in September.
How and why we endorse:
The editorial board offers its opinions year round on public policy decisions. We don’t think it makes sense – when election season arrives – to suddenly go silent on who ought to hold public office and make those decisions.
Give him credit: Judge Michael Morgan of Federal Way stopped by here for an endorsement interview Wednesday despite a year and a half of receiving less-than-flattering coverage in The News Tribune (and criticism from this page).
Facing five challengers in the Aug. 18 primary, Morgan offered a vigorous defense of his first term in the city’s municipal court.
He created some of his own troubles with intemperate dealings with court staff and other city employees. He was reprimanded on one occasion by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, and he wound up in a long-running battle with this newspapers over a report on his court he didn’t want released. But – as he pointed out – no one’s been questioning his performance in the courtroom.
Being under fire for so long, he said, resulted in “the worst year and a half of my life.”
We plan to make our endorsements in the Tacoma City Council races that will appear on the August primary ballot. Check back here this evening for an early posting of Friday's editorial.
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.
