Eagle-eyed Ian Morrison, Gov. Chris Gregoire's liaison guy in Pierce County, alerted Political Buzz that there is a 253 connection for Sean Parnell, who will be sworn in as Alaska's new governor July 26.

Here's his bio.

Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell arrived in Alaska in 1973 at the age of 10. He inherited his love of our vast state from his father, Pat Parnell, who decided to move his wife and two sons to Alaska after being stationed at Fort Richardson. Sean graduated from East Anchorage High School in 1980, going on to earn a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Pacific Lutheran University, as well as a doctorate of jurisprudence from University of Puget Sound School of Law (now known as Seattle University School of Law). He has been an attorney since 1987 and is admitted to practice in Alaska and Washington, D.C. Like his father before him, Sean owned his own business for many years, a small law practice located in downtown Anchorage.

Sean's father, Pat, served Alaska honorably as an Anchorage Assembly Member and as a member of the Alaska House of Representatives, modeling ethical political leadership for both his sons and birthing a dream in his eldest. Sean pursued his childhood dream, and in 1992 he was elected to the Alaska State House of Representatives. While serving in the House, Sean was active as a member of the House Finance Committee and chaired numerous budget subcommittees. After serving two terms in the House, Sean ran for, and won, a seat in the Alaska State Senate in 1996. In the Senate, Sean was a dynamic leader who served on the Senate Finance Committee during his first two years, and he later co-chaired the Senate's Finance Committee during a financially difficult time in our state's history. Oil was at $9 per barrel, state revenues were down dramatically, and Sean lead the way with his Caucus in cutting the budget while maintaining priorities like education, public safety, and transportation. He was also a member of the Energy Council.

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Joe Turner is on vacation this week. So here's our colleague Brad Shannon's take on Initiative Day at the Secretary of State's office in Olympia.

It was a full house at the University of Puget Sound rotunda Wednesday night for the second debate in the Tacoma mayor's race. The CityClub was the sponsor and the League of Women Voters was the moderator.

No fireworks on the cusp of the Fourth of July. But it is starting to become clear how the candidates are positioning themselves for the one-on-one race to replace term-limited incumbent Bill Baarsma.

City Councilwoman Marilyn Strickland repeated speaks of her experience in the private sector, non-profit sector and as an elected official – with emphasis on the elected official part. Sure, she has just two years on the council but that's two years more than Jim Merritt who has never held public office.

But that forces Strickland to defend nearly all policies and decisions made by the city including the large pay raises given many workers and the proposal to ask voters for money to repair streets and roads. In a year when voters seem uneasy over the economy, that has its perils.

Merritt pounces on it, using Strickland as a foil for his message that city hall isn't listening to the voters. While many are losing their jobs and absorbing pay cuts, the council gives raises. Rather than talk to voters first about what to do about roads, the city creates a top-down solution.

But Merritt has his own problems when he seems to overpromise what a mayor can do. Under the city charter, the mayor is part of the legislative branch – a council member with a gavel. The council hires a city manager who is the chief executive of the city.

But Merritt referenced "my administration" and even complained that the city manager was overstepping his bounds by developing policy such as the proposed downtown parking plan. In Merritt's worldview – or perhaps cityview – the mayor should be doing that and the manager should carry out the work.

That might work under a strong-mayor form of government but not so well in the council-manager form Tacoma has.

At first Alex Hays didn't think the e-mail was out of the ordinary. Given that Hays will manage the campaign to approve three amendments to the Pierce County Charter, he expects to get questions about the measures such as this:

Mr. Hays,

I recently heard from a friend that you were going to be the campaign manager for the efforts in favor of Pierce County Charter Amendments 1, 2, & 3. I was wondering if you could provide me with more information on the amendments. I know they have to do with term limits, moving county elections to odd years, and ranked choice voting, but which one does what? Do you guys have a website yet? Where would I go about donating if I decide I agree with your positions?

Scott Mateyka
Tacoma, WA

But then Hays noticed that the message signed by Scott Mateyka came from the e-mail account of Erik Connell. A little web search found an Erik Connell who should probably know a bit about ranked choice voting. He is a "democracy fellow" with FairVote, the leading national advocate of ranked choice voting.

And Connell was described as a University of Puget Sound graduate whose focus at FairVote is instant runoff voting.

"In the coming weeks you’ll see that these guys will say anything to preserve their experiment," Hays wrote of IRV advocates.

I sent an e-mail to Connell and asked if the Scott Mateyka e-mail, in fact, came from him. If so, why hadn't he identified himself as an advocate for IRV?

Here's what he wrote:

Yes, that was me. I just was curious as to what was going on with the opposition and came up with this approach spur of the moment. Kind of boneheaded, I realize. I certainly didn't mean to be underhanded, but just to get answers to some elementary questions.

He then offered to brief me on the virtues of IRV and the No on 3 campaign.

I guess this all means he isn't going to be donating to Hays' campaign.

Don't panic, but a glitch in the state's liquor distribution system is leaving store shelves bare just in time for the Fourth of July holiday, this morning's Seattle Times reports. State officials blame a problem with a new software system for the backlog of orders. (The bureaucratic equivalent of "the dog ate my homework.")

"For us, the timing is really brutal," said Anthony Anton, president and CEO of the Washington Restaurant Association, who said some restaurants have been unable to get key ingredients for their most popular cocktails. "For a small-margin industry like ours, where every sale counts, that's an issue."

Dozens of "temporarily out of stock" signs dot the shelves of some state liquor stores, and store managers say they're not sure when their complete product line will again be available.

There is a bit of good news for those of us who imbibe: For the first time, state-run liquor stores will be open on the Fourth of July - a product of the budget crisis.

Here's a link to the full story.

A public records request made by Timothy Smith – a spokesman for the local Bill of Rights Defense Committee, which has been fighting the expansion (and existence) of the Northwest Detention Center on the Tideflats – shook loose several years worth of Homeland Security meeting minutes from the Tacoma Police Department.

The .pdf file is 256-pages long and too big to post here. And, honestly, I only read through the last 50 pages or so, which cover 2007 and 2008.

The meeting minutes note various events and situations that caught the interest of the cops. What they don't say is what they did with that information – a subject for another reporter (as this is my last day at the paper).

Take this entry from September 2007:

"On September 18, there was a derogatory article published on the Seattle Indymedia website that summarized some of the complaint findings against TPD personnel stemming from the Port of Tacoma protests. The article mentions that in each case, the police were exonerated.

The article listed the phone number to TPD Internal Affairs and the e-mail address of City Manager Eric Anderson, so citizens can 'let them know how happy you are that we have a rubber stamp committee to oversee the police and approve of everything they do!' '...tell [Eric Anderson] how proud you are to live in a city where the police can get away with anything.'"

Maybe I'm paranoid (or not paranoid enough), but last time I checked it was still legal to write (non-threatening) derogatory statements about the police and their internal affairs process on a Web site; to republish the phone number of a subsection of a local government agency (253-591-5283 – according to CityofTacoma.org); and to send e-mails to the city manager expressing your grievances or disagreements (and/or encouraging others to do so).

Maybe Tacoma Police were simply making note of the article, but again, it begs the question: to what end.

More excerpts after the jump.

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"I thought I had an original thought, but I didn't."

– Councilman Rick Talbert during joint study session with planning commissioners on changes to the mixed use centers regulations.