"Life is good," Dino Rossi tells The Associated Press after the Public Disclosure Commission's staff recommended dismissal of the campaign finance complaints lodged by state Democrats.

“It proves we were telling the truth all along and Gregoire’s agents were lying all along to try to smear me and call me sleazy. Christine Gregoire owes us an apology for what they said.”

Gregoire, told of his remarks Thursday night, gave a big belly laugh and said she’ll apologize just as soon as Rossi stops being such a negative campaigner himself.

Here's the rest of the story by The AP's David Ammons:

=> Read more!

Not exactly. But he's close.

Read Aaron Toso's bio. I-745 was Eyman's gig. Eyman was no fan of Proposition 1.

The only two people who are more "anti-Eyman" are Christian Sinderman, who's working for House Speaker Frank Chopp half the time, and state Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle.

Here's the governor's news release:

Gov. Gregoire Names New Press Secretary

OLYMPIA – Governor Chris Gregoire has named Aaron Toso of Tacoma as her press secretary, effective Dec. 10.

Toso comes to the Governor’s Office from Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs, where he is a governmental affairs consultant. At Gordon Thomas Honeywell, he created and implemented communications and public affairs strategies for a diverse group of municipal, business and technology clients on issues ranging from building mapping for first responders, DNA testing programs, economic development projects and efforts to curb predatory lending.

He was the communications director for the recent Yes on Roads and Transit campaign and for the No on I-933 campaign, regarding land use and the protection of farmland.

He was a senior associate at JohnstonWells Public Relations and a senior account executive at Cause Communications, both in Denver. Prior to working in Colorado, he was the media liaison for Citizens for Real Transportation Choices (the No on I-745 campaign) in Washington.

Toso attended the University of Oxford in England and Western Washington University before graduating with his Bachelor of Science degree in his home state, at Minnesota State University Moorhead.

The House and Senate both passed the bill that restores the 1 percent limit to the growth of property tax collections and sent the bill to Gov. Chris Gregoire. The governor is expected to sign it into law in about 20 minutes.

The House vote was 86 to 8. The Senate vote was 39-9.

Both chambers also passed the tax deferral bill. The House vote was 55-39. The Senate vote was 27-21. That measure will allow homeowners with income of less than $57,000 to defer half of their property tax payments, starting next year.

The governor is expected to sign that bill, too.

The House and Senate have basically swapped bills. Now, the Senate is taking up the 1 percent limit bill that was passed by the House, and the House will be debating the Senate tax deferral bill.

Gov. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign both bills tonight if they reach her desk, as expected.

Here's how South Sound senators voted on Senate Bill 6178, which would allow households with incomes up to $57,000 to defer half of their property tax payments:

YES
Tracy Eide, D-Federal Way
Rosa Franklin, D-Tacoma
Karen Fraser, D-Olympia
Claudia Kauffman, D-Kent
Karen Keiser, D-Kent
Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor
Joe McDermott, D-West Seattle
Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville

NO
Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood
Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup
Pam Roach, R-Auburn
Dan Swecker, R-Rochester

EXCUSED
Debbie Regala, D-Tacoma

House Bill 2416 is the measure to reinstate the 1 percent tax limit on the growth of property tax collections that had been in place since 2002. Here's how South Sound representatives voted:

VOTING YES
Gary Alexander, R-Olympia
Tom Campbell, R-Roy
Steve Conway, D-Tacoma
Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma
Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis
Dennis Flannigan, D-Tacoma
Tami Green, D-Lakewood
Chris Hurst, D-Enumclaw
Troy Kelley, D-Tacoma
Steve Kirby, D-Tacoma
Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor
Jim McCune, R-Graham
Joyce McDonald, R-Puyallup
Mark Miloscia, D-Federal Way
Dawn Morrell, D-Puyallup
Skip Priest, R-Federal Way
Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake
Shay Schual-Berke, D-Normandy Park
Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor
Pat Sullivan, D-Covington
David Upthegrove, D-Des Moines
Brendan Williams, D-Olympia

VOTING NO
Sam Hunt, D-Olympia
Sharon Nelson, D-Maury Island
Geoff Simpson, D-Covington

EXCUSED
Eileen Cody, D-West Seattle

The state House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a measure to restore the 1 percent limit on property tax collection increases that was thrown out three weeks ago by the Washington Supreme Court.

The vote was 86 to 8, with three members excused and one vacancy.

All eight of the "no" votes were from the Puget Sound area; five of them from Seattle.

Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, D-Seattle, noted that 62 percent of her constituents voted against Initiative 747 in 2001 and she saw no urgency to pass such a restrictive limit.

The Senate is having problems passing its other proposal, a tax deferral for middle income property owners. It won't take up the 1 percent cap bill until later this afternoon.

Don’t be misled by the overwhelming number of vote in favor of restoring a 1 percent cap on property tax growth. It will happen this afternoon.

Many of the “yes” votes will be pretty unhappy. In fact, word around Olympia is that Senate Democrats didn’t have enough votes to pass its own version of Initiative 747, and some of them didn’t get on board until Gov. Chris Gregoire let them add the tax deferral bill to the special session agenda.

Why? Who knows, really?

Maybe majority Democrats in the House and Senate didn’t want to look as if they were simply reacting to calls from Republicans, GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi and Tim Eyman to quickly reinstate the 1 percent limit. So they had to do something that was their own idea.

“Restore, but do more.” That’s how the Senate Democrats portrayed the special session. Was it so urgent it that the deferral program be passed today? No. In fact, there won’t be any money to pay for it until the Legislature passes a supplemental budget next year. And it will take the counties and the state Department of Revenue time to gear up for the new applicants.

The unhappy yes votes will come from lawmakers who come from city or county councils or who have sympathy for local governments. They’d like to see the locals keep the flexibility to raise property taxes higher than 1 percent.

Expect the Legislature to revisit this whole issue in 2009, AFTER the November 2008 election. They must might set a cap that is pegged to the rate of inflation.

And by January 2009, the housing and construction boom that has generated so much extra sales and real estate taxes for the locals will have dried up some, and they’ll be hurting. And looking for more money.

The Associated Press reports: Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama is scheduled to hold a fundraising event in Seattle on Dec. 11 (at 7:30 p.m. at Showbox SoDo).

Tickets are $100, according to his campaign Web site.

Obama was last in Seattle on June 1 and drew 3,500 to an event at Qwest Field Events Center.

Cheryl Kopec of Tacoma, one of our readers, asks a great question about today's special session of the Legislature, so I thought I would share it, and my answer.

"If the State Supreme Court threw out the tax cap as unconstitutional, how is it that the legislature can implement it?" Cheryl asks. "Wouldn’t it just be challenged in court and thrown out again?"

The short answer is "No."

The Supreme Court threw out the 1 percent tax limit of set by Initiative 747 because the sponsors of the initiative basically followed the wrong process.

The state constitution says if you’re going to amend an existing law, you have to lay out the text of the law you are changing. Tim Eyman and other 747 promoters laid out the text of the wrong law.

It wasn’t their fault. It was just a matter of circumstances. When Eyman started collecting signatures on their I-747 petitions, the law at the time had a 2 percent limit on the annual growth of property taxes collections. That limit was set a couple years earlier when voters passed I-722, another Eyman measure.

But before everyone voted on I-747, the Supreme Court struck down I-722, which restored the previous law. Under previous law, the limit was 6 percent.

So, I-747 said it was changing the limit on property tax growth from 2 percent to 1 percent. But since I-722 was thrown out, what I-747 really was doing was changing the tax growth limit from 6 percent to 1 percent.

Five members of the Supreme Court said voters were misled because I-747 referred to the wrong law. Four of them said it didn’t matter because voters did know they were setting the limit at 1 percent.

Bottom line: The Legislature can pass a new law and set the limit at whatever they want. And, presumably, they will do it right so it will pass muster from the Supreme Court.

In fact, the 6 percent limit comes from a 1986 law.

The Legislature did the same thing with I-695, the Eyman measure that got rid of the state motor vehicle excise tax. A court said basically the same thing then: Eyman didn't do it the right way.

Then, the Legislature turned around and passed I-695 the right way. Well, mostly right. They got a few things wrong. But that's another, much longer story.

State Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, wants to meet with constituents next week to talk about the legislative session that ended earlier this year.

Meeting are set for Dec. 8. The first will be from 10 a.m. to noon at the Community Center Auditorium in Pierce County Meridian Habitat Park, 14425 Meridian E. The second will be 2-4 p.m. in the north meeting room of the Puyallup Public Library, 324 S. Meridian.

The convention won't be held until Aug. 25-28, 2008, but Washington's delegates already have their reservations.

State Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz announced last week the state delegation will be staying at the Regency Denver Tech Center, within 20 minutes of the Pepsi Center. That's one of 27 hotels that will be hosting the delegations.

Some 17,000 hotel rooms will be reserved for delegates who will choose the presidential nominee, as well as their alternates, guests and reporters.

The convention is expected to pump $160 million into the Denver economy and bring 35,000 visitors to the region, according the state Democrats' press release.

On Sunday, Peter Callaghan looks at the impact of last week's state Supreme Court decision on the voter-approved spending limit.

There were two interesting concurrences that could be a preview of controlling opinions in a future case, such as an expected challenge to this year’s Initiative 960, currently passing 51.3 percent to 48.7 percent.

You can find his columns here.

County Executive John Ladenburg takes exception to a recent scorecard on his claims of council wrongdoing when it suspended funding for the Prometa drug-treatment program.

In a Wednesday e-mail to The News Tribune, Ladenburg says the scorecard missed a key point: that the county’s performance auditors overstepped their mandate when they conducted a preliminary investigation of Prometa’s effectiveness. The council used that report as justification for suspending funding for the program.

In a response, Matt Temmel, the county’s performance audit coordinator, disagrees.

Read the full text of Ladenburg’s letter and Temmel’s response below.

=> Read more!

It's not local, but I'm fascinated by the continuing story about the Yakima City councilman-elect who's wife hosted a nasty, anonymous blog that helped get her husband elected.

Now the mayor and a majority of the council say they hope that Rick Ensey will resign instead of taking office in January.

Here's the latest from the Yakima Herald-Republic.

It wasn’t much of a surprise when Pierce County Councilwoman Barbara Gelman changed her vote on a 3.5 percent sewer rate hike during Tuesday’s five-hour council budget marathon.

Initially the rate hike failed on a 4-3 vote. But after a recess of nearly two hours, Gelman moved to reconsider the measure and – with her vote – it passed 4-3.

The three other council members who supported the rate increase – Tim Farrell, Terry Lee and Dick Muri – were looking for a fourth vote, and Gelman was a logical target.

Two other council members – Shawn Bunney and Calvin Goings – are running against each other for county executive next year. A “yes” vote by either would have been ammunition for his opponent. Councilman Roger Bush faces a re-election challenge from Democrat Bruce Lachney.

Gelman may run for assessor-treasurer against Lee next year. But with Lee supporting the rate hike, Gelman had little to lose by changing her vote.

With all seven members of the County Council running for various offices next year, look for political considerations to play a role in future votes.

Karen Larkin, an assistant Tacoma public works director, will retire Jan. 1 after 30 years with the city, according to a news release. She's moving on to the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development as assistant director for local government.

Larkin is the third high-level public works official to leave or announce plans to leave in the last few months. Bill Pugh, the department's director and assistant city manager, announced in September that he plans to leave sometime next year. Craig Sivley, an assistant public work director, was ousted in September after some embarrassing mistakes regarding the city's controversial plans to fund downtown improvements with a Local Improvement District.

Larkin has played a key role in some high-profile efforts, including the planned Urban Waters laboratory along the Thea Foss Waterway, and the city's troubled computer system conversion.

CTED is led by Juli Wilkerson, the former director of Tacoma's economic development department. Councilwoman Julie Anderson works for the department as a senior policy adviser.

Tucked amid dozens of County Council budget amendments was this gem restricting the auditor’s voter education efforts for instant-runoff voting (or “rank choice voting” – RCV):

“Provided, the RCV Voter Education Program plan implementation shall use no name, image or likeness of any Pierce County official, shall not utilize paid radio or TV advertising and shall focus its efforts solely on print and written means of communication to educate Pierce County voter on Rank Choice Voting.”

There’s a lot going on here, but what jumps out is the prohibition on the use of the name and image of public officials in the education campaign. It’s squarely aimed at Auditor Pat McCarthy, a likely opponent to Councilmen Shawn Bunney and Calvin Goings in next year’s county executive race.

County Executive John Ladenburg’s last-ditch effort to save funding for the Prometa drug-treatment program did not sway the County Council.

Instead of setting aside $400,000 for Prometa in the 2008 budget, the council Tuesday designated the money for “decreasing the Pierce County jail population or evidence-based programs that are directed towards breaking the cycle of drug addiction.”

The council also set aside the $175,000 in unspent 2007 Prometa funding for the same purpose, bringing the total to $575,000.

The council took no action on Ladenburg’s proposal to spend the money on Prometa.
Council Chairman Terry Lee, R-Gig Harbor, said Prometa could qualify for the funds “if it becomes a program based on evidence-based results.”

Councilman Shawn Bunney, R-Lake Tapps, said the council will ask the Performance Audit Committee to devise performance measures that will be applied to programs like Prometa, with the ultimate goal of reducing the jail population.

“We need to do a much better job of measuring and holding people accountable for outcomes,” Bunney said.

The council last month suspended 2007 funding for Prometa – used to treat addicts in county drug court – after a performance auditors report found little evidence the program is effective.
On Tuesday Ladenburg made a last effort to revive Prometa funding by offering budget language addressing several council concerns.

The executive’s plan would have prohibited managers and board members of the nonprofit Pierce County Alliance – which administers Prometa for the county – from owning stock in Hythiam Inc., the company that licenses the treatment. The plan also would have removed language from the alliance’s contract with Hythiam that required it to market Prometa.

The Spokesman-Review reports today that Spokane was chosen to host the vice-presidential debate next year but lost the bid when Washington State University decided not to be the sponsor.

Apparently WSU and Spokane were too cool to take a debate of second-bananas and were holding out for one of the three presidential debates.

The vice presidential candidates will now debate at Washington University. That's the one in St. Louis.

Independent candidate for Pierce County Executive Mike Lonergan has this reaction to word that rival Calvin Goings has already begun blanketing public rights of way with campaign signs:

"Out of respect for the public's right to enjoy the beauty of Pierce County, I pledge to put up no campaign yard signs before the Fourth of July, 2008."

The election is just over a year away but Goings apparently feels that year-around yard signs are key to his victory. That creates pressure on the other candidates to follow suit, something Lonergan wanted to put an end to.

How about Shawn Bunney and Pat McCarthy, both considered candidates for the county's top office? Your No-Sign-Until-It's-Time pledges will be featured prominently here just as soon as you send them in.

David Ammons of The Associated Press interviewed Gov. Chris Gregoire today about her decision to call a one-day special session next week.

Gregoire shrugged off criticism that she waited too long and bowed only when pressure mounted.

“Talk is cheap, but when you’re the one responsible to deliver results, you’d better do it right,” the governor said.

“This isn’t about political gain or shooting one’s mouth off. This is about results.”

Gregoire said her series of community visits this fall made it clear that people are worried about getting taxed out of their homes.

“I know local government has a compelling argument, but we have citizens dealing with dramatic increases and I can’t see standing by and letting them get run out of their home.”

Gregoire said she decided only on Monday to call the session, after meeting with House and Senate Democratic leaders and getting assurances that both chambers have majority support for passing a new 1 percent bill. Leaders from all four caucuses agreed to limit the session to the single subject and to wrap up in one day, she said.

“I don’t want a three-ring circus. Let’s get in and get out,” she said, adding later, “This will not be a free-for-all.”

Gregoire said some local governments also forced the issue by refusing to rule out big tax hikes.

This is one of those situations where the governor can't please anybody.

From the right, Dino Rossi and Tim Eyman are criticizing how long it took for her to call a session. The state Republican Party accuses her of flip-flopping on the issue.

From the left, Democratic partisans are plenty angry. The Northwest Progress Institute blog calls her decision "stupid, idiotic and cowardly." David Goldstein calls it "ill-conceived and irresponsible."

As promised last week, Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg is making a final pitch to keep funding for the Prometa drug-treatment program in the 2008 budget.

The council is set to adopt the budget later today.

Today, Ladenburg sent a proposal to the council that he says addresses the council's concerns about the program. "The issues are effectively resolved by this proposal and I urge you to adopt it today along with the full appropriation for this important program," he said in a letter accompanying the proposal.

Here is the proposal:

Proviso to the Superior Court Appropriation for 2008

PROVIDED: That no funds may be expended on the Prometa Protocol treatment unless the following conditions are met:

1. No member of the Board of Directors of Pierce County Alliance or management staff has equity ownership in Hythiam, Inc.

2. The Pierce County Alliance contract with Hythiam is amended to remove all provisions which purport to require Pierce County Alliance to engage in marketing or promotional activities for the benefits of, or at the direction of Hythiam, Inc. Further, all provisions purporting to give Hythiam control over statements, communications, publications or other form of information dissemination must be removed, except such provisions as may be necessary to protect trademark, intellectual property and licensed technology rights of Hythiam.

3. To the extent that Hythiam includes references to the Pierce County Alliance Prometa Program in any advertising or promotional materials, it will alter or remove such references if Pierce County concludes they are inappropriate for a program which receives public funds, and notifies Hythiam of such determination.

4. State funding continues for 2008 with state money matching county money at a minimum of a one to one ratio.

5. The University of Washington study of Prometa is included in the state funding and is progressing on schedule.

PROVIDED FURTHER: The Council will review the Prometa program and results to date in June 2008.

Check back here for an update later today.

As we reported on Friday (with the help of The Olympian's Brad Shannon), it's looking more and more likely that the Legislature will convene a special session next week to reinstate the property tax limit recently struck down by the Washington Supreme Court.

The AP's Rachel La Corte talked to House Speaker Frank Chopp about it today. From her report:

Before going into a meeting with Gov. Chris Gregoire, Chopp said he expected the governor to call a special session. In preparation, Chopp told The Associated Press he’s been polling majority House Democrats about keeping the property tax cap at 1 percent and “generally, people were supportive.”

“Our intent is to go in there and reinstate it,” he said. “I believe the voters knew what they were doing. The voters were clear about their decision. We should respect that.”

Gregoire has kept open the possibility of a special session to deal with the 1 percent property tax cap, which she supports. On Monday morning, Gregoire’s legislative director said no decision had been made about calling lawmakers into a special session.

And in case you missed it, Peter Callaghan's Sunday column explained what's going on.

Dino Rossi's campaign apologized today for a misleading fundraising report.

The campaign had implied that Rossi raised more than $570,000 in the nine days after kicking off his 2008 campaign for governor last month.

In reality, Rossi had been collecting campaign donations for nearly two weeks before he formally announced his second run against Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire. It's an impressive start, but not as impressive as the campaign was happy to let everyone believe.

The problems with Rossi’s Nov. 8 fundraising statement were first raised today by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Without specifically saying so, Rossi left the impression last week that he raised money more quickly following his announcement than he actually had.

The AP pursued that today.

=> Read more!

Earlier this month Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg leveled a series of charges against the County Council, saying certain members were playing politics with Prometa (read his full comments here).

Here’s a scorecard on the executive’s claims. His complaints about the council’s failure to give public notice about its decision to suspend Prometa funding are on target. But his most inflammatory accusation is demonstrably false.

=> Read more!

The courts have ruled that government cannot regulate the placement of campaign signs in public rights of way. That means the only restraint on the use of yard signs is the judgment of the candidates themselves.

But what if they show bad judgment and no restraint? What if they decide to put them up not months before the election but a full year? Then they start a competition among other candidates to do the same and test the patience of voters who aren't thrilled by what many call litter on a stick.

So what is Calvin Goings thinking when he puts signs up in the rights of way 11 1/2 months before the next election? I saw them on Schuster Parkway, Union Avenue and N. 21st Street under the power lines.

Do we really have to put up with year-round yard signs?

Before Goings' rivals for Pierce County Executive get an idea to match Goings sign-for-sign, Goings needs to show some restraint and show some respect for voters and neighbors and take down his signs until summer at least.

Our DC reporter, Les Blumenthal, interviewed U.S. Reps. Adam Smith and Norm Dicks about the situation in Iraq. Smith made his third trip to Iraq last week.

Both say that Congress needs to keep the pressure on President Bush to change his Iraq policy. They warn that the administration’s single-minded attention on Iraq is allowing an al-Qaeda resurgence in such places as Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“There is no question in terms of achieving greater stability in Iraq, progress is being made,” Smith said. “But we cannot afford to keep spending $200 billion a year and keep 100,000 troops there indefinitely.”

Smith was also critical of Democratic activists who he says should be focused on winning the White House and defeating Republicans, rather than blaming congressional Democrats for failing to end the war.

“People who want to end the war in Iraq have the temerity to attack those who voted to end the war in Iraq,” Smith said. “If we are going to ratchet up the pressure on Republicans and the White House, it doesn’t help if the base of our party brutally attacks Democrats.”

Read more on our home page on Monday.

Aides to Gov. Chris Gregoire say she hasn't ruled out calling a brief special session for later this month.

The pressure is building to call a session to re-enact the state's 1 percent limit on property tax increases. The state Supreme Court struck down the voter-approved limit last week.

Our sister paper, The Olympian, has published a brief story on the issue. We plan to publish that paper's full story on Saturday.

And Peter Callaghan explores the topic in his Sunday column. He writes:

...to escape the wrath of the body political, everyone apparently has to agree not just what to do but also when to do it. That’s the message being spread by Republicans who think they’ve found an issue that could prove embarrassing for Gov. Chris Gregoire and her fellow Democrats.

Perhaps disappointed that the governor so quickly jumped on the 747 bandwagon, they now have been trying to build pressure to adopt it sooner, not later.

This just in from reporter Kris Sherman:

A statewide measure making it easier to pass school levies gained today, moving nearly 15,000 votes ahead.

Supporters of the simple majority amendment to the state Constitution declared victory Wednesday, eight days after the Nov. 6 election. Tonight, the lead was about 11,200 votes. Thursday evening, the statewide count for EHJR 4204 showed a 14,896-vote lead, 50.47 percent yes and 49.52 percent no.

The measure would lower the bar for passing school levies from a 60-percent supermajority to the 50-percent-plus-one simple majority. It would not apply to school bond issues.

Mail-in votes couted this week from King County, where the measure received a 59-percent favorable vote, sealed the win.

Voters in Pierce County rejected the measure, with about 52 percent voting no, according to totals released Thursday. It was ahead in Thurston County.

As reported on our home page, the Pierce County Council has prevailed in its bid to suspend funding for the Prometa drug-treatment program.

Ladenburg had been considering a veto of the budget ordinance the council passed last month that included the Prometa proviso. But he decided today to sign the measure, though he's not giving up on restoring full funding for next year.

Ladenburg said he will present a compromise proposal to the council by Monday that aims to address some concerns about the program. Here's the letter:

November 15, 2007

Terry Lee, Chair
Pierce County Council
930 Tacoma Ave South, Room 1046
Tacoma, WA 98402

Dear Chairman Lee:

I am returning Ordinance 2007-81s with my approval.

However, this does not signal my abandonment of the Prometa Protocol treatment program for methamphetamine addiction. I am firmly committed to pursuing full funding for the program as contained in my 2008 proposed budget. The issues which caused the Council to freeze the funding for the remainder of 2007 are not insurmountable. I will be presenting a compromise proposal to you no later than Monday, November 19, 2007 which will rectify the Hythiam stock ownership by Pierce County Alliance personnel issue and remove language from the Alliance/Hythiam contract, which purports to require the Alliance to engage in questionable business promotion activities. Further, the Alliance will commit to providing continuing demonstrations of the superior effectiveness of Prometa over other methamphetamine addiction treatment methods available to the Alliance.

I look forward to working with you between now and next Tuesday to reach a solution on this matter. The stakes in the dollars saved and lives turned around if we stay the course are too great to abandon now.

Sincerely,

John W. Ladenburg
Pierce County Executive

As reported today, the council held a hearing yesterday. The discussion didn't appear to change any minds.

Have you been following the tale of the sleazy city council campaign in Yakima?

Challenger Rick Ensey defeated Councilman Ron Bonlender last week. Throughout the campaign, an anonymous blogger repeatedly criticized Bonlender and Democrats on the Internet site InsideYakima.com.

The blogger also referred to “rumors” that Bonlender had been arrested several times for investigation of drunken driving and that the arrest reports had been covered up by the police, city manager and local newspaper. The newspaper could find no such evidence.

After the election, Ensey admitted that the blogger was his wife Diane.

On Wednesday, Bonlender sued Diane Ensey for defamation.

Read the Yakima Herald-Republic's full story here.

Democratic Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg is considering a run for state attorney general in 2008, county communications director Ron Klein confirmed this morning. But Klein says Ladenburg, who's out of town, has not made a decision and probably won't until the end of the year. Incumbent Attorney General Rob McKenna, a Republican, launched his own re-election campaign Wednesday.

There's been a lot of speculation in Pierce County political circles over the past year about the next career move for county Executive John Ladenburg. He's prohibited by term limits from seeking a third term next year.

The latest theory is that Ladenburg, a Democrat and former Pierce County prosecutor, will challenge Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna. We've been asking around and checking with Public Disclosure Commission filings, but nothing confirmed so far.

Still, Ladenburg's name came up today in an Associated Press report on McKenna's campaign kickoff this morning in Bellevue.

No one is officially running against McKenna yet. But Democrats are touting Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, who must retire due to term limits.
Ladenburg is on vacation and couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The Olympian's political editor, Brad Shannon, reports that backers of the school levy measure on the Nov. 6 ballot expect to declare victory today.

Recent vote counts on Substitute House Joint Resolution 4204 have reversed the Election Night result, reversing an initial deficit and taking the lead as of Tuesday. The People for Our Public Schools campaign committee plans an announcement at 1:30 today at campaign headquarters, celebrating an end to the 60 percent supermajority requirement for passage of special levies for school operations.

SHJR 4204 reduces the vote requirement to a simple majority, or 50 percent plus one vote.

"We’ve been looking at the votes all night," campaign spokesman Bill Monto said, eying a 6,952-vote advantage that makes it probable the campaign will declare victory despite nearly 69,000 votes uncounted.

"I think that is rather likely,” Monto said. "If trends continue our lead will grow from here on out."

Read more on Shannon's Notes from the Campaign Trail blog.

UPDATE: Backers did indeed declare victory today. Here's an updated story on our home page.

Another day of counting has provided a surge of votes for EHJR 4204, better known as the simple majority measure. It's now passing by more than 7,000 votes.

As of 5 p.m. the state had the measure ahead 755,061 to 747,863. Since election night, when it was failing by more than 55,000, the measure has gained ground. That's because the biggest bottleneck of outstanding votes is coming from King County, where the measure is easily passing.

According to the state election Web site, King still has 32,000 ballots to plow through. But this isn't over: other counties have 40,600 left to count, many of those smaller counties where the measure is far behind.

The constitutional amendment was championed by the school lobby and teacher unions, who wanted to do away with the required 60 percent supermajority to pass local education levies.

Shawn Bunney is making his 2008 bid for Pierce County executive official.

The Republican county councilman from Lake Tapps has scheduled a campaign kickoff luncheon on Dec. 5 at noon at the Landmark Convention Center, 47 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma.

To RSVP, call 253-446-9798 or send an e-mail to andreainnes@msn.com. The deadline is Nov. 28.

Bunney says in the invitation that he'll be joined by Attorney General Rob McKenna, Secretary of State Sam Reed, Public Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland and former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton.

Two-term Executive John Ladenburg is prohibited from running again due to term limits.

Tacoma City Councilman Mike Lonergan announced his bid for the seat last Tuesday, running as an independent. County Councilman Calvin Goings, D-Puyallup, has been running for months. County Auditor Pat McCarthy, a Democrat, has said she'll announce a decision soon.

Secretary of State Sam Reed unveiled the list of candidates who will appear on the state's presidential primary ballot Feb. 19.

Unlike other states – and unlike other Washington state elections – candidates don't file to be on the ballot. Instead, the secretary of state decides which candidates have been "generally advocated" or "recognized by national media."

Here's the list:
Democrats – Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson.

Republicans – Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo and Fred Thompson.

Alan Keyes? He's not a declared candidate that we can tell, although there is a draft Keyes movement. His last campaign was in 2004 when he lost the Illinois U.S. Senate race to Barack Obama.

State Democrats will ignore the primary results, instead using precinct caucuses to begin a long delegate distribution process. Republicans will use both, with half of their delegates chosen by the primary results and half by the caucuses.

Not on the ballot? State law allows candidates to petition Reed by Dec. 21. To qualify, they must submit the signatures of 1,000 registered voters.

Straggler mail ballots may put House Joint Resolution 4204 over the top.

On election night, the so-called simple majority looked to have been defeated. When we went home, it was behind by more than 55,000 votes - a 53 percent-47 percent margin. But the measure has gained ground as more ballots are counted from big counties, notably from King and Snohomish, where the measure is passing.

As of this morning, the measure was failing by only 2,620 votes. If this holds up, the measure will pass. As my colleague Peter Callaghan points out, this case is a reminder that in the future, we'll need to look closely at how major counties are voting before calling results on election night.

The measure would eliminate the 60 percent supermajority requirement for local school levies, allowing them to pass with a 50 percent majority.

Check here for updated results.

This statement just moved out of Gov. Chris Gregoire's press office in Olympia.

Statement from Gov. Gregoire on I-747

“I plan to push for legislation that establishes a one percent cap on annual property tax increases. I am already in discussions with legislative leaders on the best next steps to make sure we can implement this correctly.

“I am urging local leaders and taxing districts to not increase their tax levies, based on the court decision, to give the legislature time to act.

“The voters approved Initiative 747, it has been in place for five years and I think we need to leave it in place.”

That's a change from Thursday when she said she supported some level of cap but wanted to discuss it with legislative leaders.

Pierce County performance auditor coordinator Matt Temmel takes exception to accusations his work on Prometa has been tainted by politics.

County Executive John Ladenburg has accused some on the County Council of ordering auditors to produce a negative report to justify the Oct. 23 suspension of Prometa funding. He also says the report was kept secret until the last minute and the council provided inadequate notice of its vote to suspend funding.

Several council members have dismissed those complaints. Here’s what Temmel had to say in an e-mail:

=> Read more!

Want to know why some Pierce County Council members have been long-time skeptics of Prometa? Check out this February article from MSNBC.com.

The article reports concerns in the medical community that Prometa – used to treat addicts in Pierce County drug court – is more hype than help. Says one doctor: “The marketing is way ahead of the science. It preys on the needs of desperate patients, sets unreasonable hopes and expectations and takes advantage of scarce economic resources.”

The article examines Pierce County’s role in testing and promoting the treatment.

If Dino Rossi has a goal to raise and spend $16 million to defeat Gov. Chris Gregoire next year, it is breaking news to Rossi himself.

Gregoire told Washington, D.C.-based reporters today that she was shocked to hear that her likely Republican rival would spend that much.

Gregoire, who raised roughly $6 million in 2004, says she probably couldn’t raise $16 million, in part because of state regulations that keep her from fundraising for four months starting in December.

“It’s mind boggling to me,” she said. “To suggest we go to $16 million is beyond my comprehension.”

But Rossi spokeswoman Jill Strait said the campaign doesn't know where Gregoire got her numbers.

"I have no clue where Gregoire came up with the idea that we have a fundraising goal of $16 million. It is simply not true. I find it comical that Gregoire is getting worked up over a number that she herself made up."

Initiative 960 is still passing by a 52-48 margin with nearly 1 million ballots counted. In Pierce County, it's passing by a greater margin. It has 55.6 percent of the vote. That's the Tim Eyman measure to require a two-thirds vote by the Legislature to increase taxes.

The Roads and Transit measure, Proposition 1, is failing by a 44-56 margin.

There actually are two measures in Proposition 1, the $7 billion roads component put forth by the Regional Transportation Investment District in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties and the $10.8 billion light rail and transit package offered up by Sound Transit.

Although both measures appear on the ballot in most of all three counties, the boundaries are somewhat different.

The main difference is in Snohmish County. Parts of that county are outside the boundaries of Sound Transit, but inside the boundaries of RTID. So the vote totals are higher for the RTID measure.

The vote for Sound Transit's phase II is 152,436 for and 193,194 against. That's for all three counties.

The vote for RTID's highway and road package is 161,524 for and 207,811 against.

There were more votes against the roads package than the rail package, both in raw numbers and in terms of percentages.

The counties are still counting.

Pierce County Councilman Dick Muri is a bit puzzled by conclusions that this is the last election for the polling place.

A column I wrote last Sunday suggested that Pierce would join the rest of the state in going to all-mail elections by next year. But while all other counties have formally made such a decision, Pierce County has not. And Muri said he doesn't think there is support for such a move.

"Unless something dramatic happens I don't see the votes on the council to close the polls," Muri said.

State law requires agreement between the auditor and the council to shift to all-mail balloting. And McCarthy thinks the complexity of a ballot that would implement Instant Runoff Voting for county offices would require a single voting system – mail.

But Muri said he thinks it would be possible to run such an election with both mail and polling places. He doubts that the county would save much money closing the polls since it has already purchased precinct voting equipment. And while just 25 percent of the electorate remain poll voters, they are a passionate bunch who want to keep it that way, Muri said.

A council majority will block any changes, he said.

"We have our finger in the dam."

Even though cities, counties and other local taxing districts could raise their property tax collections to 6 percent next year, Gov. Chris Gregoire is asking them not to do so.

The Supreme Court earlier today threw out Initiative 747, which had put a 1 percent limit on the growth of local government property tax revenues from year to year.

“I know that voters must be disappointed by the court decision to overturn I-747," Gregoire said today in a news release. "As we know, voters approved I-747 by a wide margin in 2001."

Yes, they did. It was 58 percent in favor and 42 percent against.

“As Governor, I am asking the state, counties, cities and all other taxing districts to assure me that they will not increase property tax levies for their upcoming budgets as a result of the court decision," Gregoire said. "In addition, I will be asking the Legislature, in January, to work with me to thoughtfully reinstate a property tax cap.

“We heard loud and clear on Tuesday evening that voters are concerned about their tax burden. I believe that it is our responsibility to move quickly, recognizing taxpayers’ concerns and reinstating the will of the voters," she said.

You'll notice the governor didn't say she wants the limit restored to 1 percent. She continues to be coy about how much of a limit she wants.

Before this year's legislative session, the governor said she favored a limit somewhere between 1 percent and 6 percent, but never said how much.

And House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, wouldn't let his majority Democrats vote on a Republican proposal to put the 1 percent limit in law before the Supreme Court even ruled on it. Chopp said the Legislature didn't need to do anything because he was convinced the Supremes would uphold Tim Eyman's 2001 ballot measure. He wouldn't let any alternatives be voted on either.

When the governor says "a" property tax cap, she doesn't mean 1 percent.

Look for the governor and Legislature to come up with a cap that's pegged to inflation, maybe the Implicit Price Deflator or the Consumer Price Index.

Incidentally, Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma told me this morning he sees no reason for Tacoma to ask for more than a 1 percent increase for 2008. Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg told reporter David Wickert he won't ask the council for a higher increase. And Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow told reporter Mike Archbold the same thing.

A non-partisan poll conducted by the University of Washington shows that the race between Gov. Chris Gregoire and challenger Dino Rossi is too close to call.

Of course the election is a year away. But still, Gregoire's small lead is within the margin of error.

Of the 601 voters asked about their preferences, 46.8 percent said they would vote for Gregoire and 42.4 percent said they would vote for Rossi. Libertarian Ruth Bennett was named by 2.2 percent of voters sampled.

The poll has a margin of error of 4 percent, making the spread between Gregoire and Rossi statistically insignificant.

Among the important category of voters who describe themselves as independent, Gregoire has a 43 percent to 41 percent advantage, again within the margin or error of the poll.

More from Gov. Gregoire's chat with D.C. reporters, including the News Tribune's Les Blumenthal:

On Tuesday’s election, Gregoire said in defeating an $18 billion road and transit initiative voters were saying they didn’t like the package, but still believed something needed to be done to relieve traffic congestion.

The Legislature will have to revisit the Regional Transportation Investment District approach, but cautioned it is premature for individual counties like Pierce to start talking about going their own way and presenting their own road packages to the voters.

“It isn’t as if traffic has artificial barriers,” she said.

Gregoire said the defeat of the initiative was a “significant” blow for Sound Transit and the transit agency now has to decide whether to proceed with plans to extend light rail first to Tacoma or Everett.

When it came to Sound Transit, Gregoire said some of the voters sounded like they were from Missouri, where the state motto is “show me.”

Though the state’s economy is in good shape, Gregoire said voters were “nervous” about what they are seeing on the national economic front and in Iraq.

From Washington, D.C. reporter Les Blumenthal:

WASHINGTON – Gov. Chris Gregoire sat down with reporters Thursday and discussed her upcoming campaign, among other issues.

Gregoire said she understood Republican challenger Dino Rossi wants to raise $16 million for his campaign to unseat her.

“It’s mind boggling to me,” she said. “To suggest we go to $16 million is beyond my comprehension.”

Gregoire, who raised roughly $6 million in 2004, says she probably couldn’t raise $16 million, in part because of state regulations that keep her from fundraising for four months starting in December.

She also said talk of raising that type of cash is a turn off for voters.

“People think it’s all about money, money, money,” she said.

Gregoire said it appears Rossi is frozen in the place, hammering on the same issues he was in 2004.

“It’s as if he has stood still,” she said, adding the state continues to make strides on everything from health care to education to economic development to transportation.

Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg is threatening to veto a County Council decision to suspend funding for the Prometa drug-treatment program.

The executive says some on the council are playing politics with Prometa, ordering a negative report from county auditors and keeping it secret from Ladenburg, other council members and the public.

The council will meet Wednesday to consider 2008 funding for Prometa. Ladenburg said he has until Thursday to veto the measure under county law.

The executive says he wants to give the council another chance to support Prometa funding.

“I’d rather avoid a veto if I can,” Ladenburg said.

The council suspended funding for Prometa Oct. 23 after a report by county auditors found little evidence the treatment program is effective. Since then Hythiam Inc. – the company that licenses the treatment program – has announced favorable results from a 30-day study of Prometa.

It’s unclear whether the council could overturn a Ladenburg veto. The vote to suspend Prometa funding was 4-3. It would take five votes to overturn a veto.

The executive said some on the council want to use the Prometa issue to demonstrate they are “in charge of the budget” and are capable of serving as county executive. That seemed to be a dig at Councilman Shawn Bunney, R-Lake Tapps, who proposed the Prometa funding suspension and is running for county executive next year.

Ladenburg has come under scrutiny after admitting he bought stock in Hythiam Inc. last year. He says he sold the stock last month and that his shares have not influenced his advocacy for county and state Prometa funding.

The Washington Supreme Court today struck down a Tim Eyman ballot measure that limited the annual growth of local government property tax collections to no more than 1 percent, unless voters approved a larger increase.

The ruling was 5-4 to overturn Initiative 747. Two of five judges who agreed to throw out the measure were filling in for Justices Jim Johnson and Mary Fairhurst, both of whom had recused themselves from the case because of some earlier involvement with Eyman or one of his earlier ballot proposals.

Johnson was Eyman’s lawyer on I-747. Fairhurst, a former state deputy attorney general, worked on I-722, another Eyman measure that sought, unsuccessfully, to limit property tax collections.

The court majority said voters were misled.

“At the time of the operative popular vote, the text of I-747 did not accurately set forth the act revised or the section amended and the test of I-747 misled voters as to the substance of its impact on existing law,” Justice Bobbe Bridge wrote.

I-747 said it would reduce the limit on the growth of property tax collections from 2 percent a year, as had been set forth in I-722 the previous year, to 1 percent. But since I-722 had been ruled unconstitutional before voters cast ballots on I-747 in November 2001, the actual property tax collection limit was 6 percent.

The five-justice majority said voters were misled because they weren’t told they would be reducing the tax limit from 6 percent to 1 percent. It didn’t matter that the state Voters Guide explained that I-722 was the subject of a legal challenge, the majority said.

“The Voters’ Pamphlet was ambiguous as to whether the effect of I-747 would generally lower the property tax levy limit by 1 percent or by five percent,” Bridge wrote.

Justice Charles Johnson, who wrote the dissenting opinion, said I-747 never misled voters about what it was trying to do.

“No reasonable argument can be sustained that voters were in any way misled or confused by the effect of I-747, which expressly and was specifically aimed at lowering the tax growth to 1 percent,” Charles Johnson wrote. “The majority seems to suggest that the voters are unable to think or read for themselves, when in fact our democratic process is based on the assumption that voters do in fact read and understand the impact of their votes.”

Today’s court ruling comes just as most local governments are preparing their 2008 budgets and are about to set property tax rates for collection next year. Most cities, counties, fire and library taxing districts have been abiding by the 1 percent limit of I-747 while they awaited ruling from the Supreme Court, even though a King County Superior Court judge originally had said the measure was unconstitutional.

The ruling would allow taxing district to increase their property tax collections by as much as 6 percent over last year without a public vote.

Eyman said he’s afraid some may get even more because the court ruling reinstates a provision that allows local governments to “bank” unused property tax authority. For instance, if a city collected only 1 percent more each year instead of 6 percent, it could bank the difference of 5 percent for each of those years. That means they could eventually ask for a 30 percent increase, Eyman said.

This from Washington, D.C. freelance reporter Amy Doolittle:

Gov. Chris Gregoire arrived here in the District of Columbia Wednesday with plans for working the Hill and attending a small ceremony to accept the "Public Official of the Year Award" from Governing Magazine.

The publication has been giving out these awards – a glass trophy etched with the publication's name, award and date, and free dinner at an upscale D.C. hotel for the recipient and 20 of his or her closest friends – since 1994.

In Gregoire's case, they say the award is largely a nod to the administration's government accountability program. But the governor was quick to bring in the campaign-speak last night, saying it's just proof that she's "moved forward irrespective of partisanship, politics," and "resolved sticky, ugly problems" during her tenure (prime reasons, she added, that she should be reelected come 2008).

Despite the rhetoric, Gregoire said this trip would be reelection campaign-free. She said she plans to spend today making the rounds at the Capitol. While there she'll push the Democratic Governor's Association's No Child Left Behind agenda (short version: education is good, states want more money) with Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. She'll also meet with Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., who, D.C. liaison Mark Rupp said, wants to talk state transportation and judge appointments

According to Rupp (and a little public record digging on my part) Gregoire's invite list didn't include any major campaign contributors. Attending the ceremony with her were daughters Courtney and Michelle, their significant others, husband Mike, two Washington State officials, Arlington, Va. based personal friends from her Attorney General days Douglas and Lynne Ross and her security detail (who spent the event in the back of the room, about as far away from the governor as they could get, eating salmon and crème brulee).

The ceremony itself, attended by about 200 people, was non-eventful. Gregoire was the last in a line of nine local officials (including Fabian Nunez, Speaker of the California State Assembly) to receive the award and made several minutes of remarks, most of which focused on her accountability office.

As a side note: Governing Magazine honors nine public officials, including one governor, each year. Of the 14 governors who have thus far received the award, three have run or are running for President, three have run or are running for the U.S. Senate and one has joined President George W. Bush's cabinet.

Is the publication trying to give Gregoire bigger ideas? They say not.

A pair of City Council races in a Tacoma suburb remained too close to call in the latest Pierce County election results released about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

University Place Mayor Gerald Gehring was trailing challenger Rose Ehart by nearly the same margin as he was on election night. Gehring now has 2,467 votes to Ehart’s 2,555.

Long-time UP Councilwoman Jean Brooks was in a fight to keep her seat against Denise McCluskey, although Brooks now has 2,485 votes to McCluskey’s 2,466. At the end of election night, Brooks trailed by four votes.

The Brooks-McCluskey race could be headed to an automatic recount.

In other close votes, two money measures in the Town of South Prairie were deadlocked. A proposal to raise taxes for fire, police and animal control was tied 21 to 21. And the town’s emergency medical services levy was barely passing 21-20.

Most ballots have been counted, but the Pierce County Auditor’s office is releasing new results at the end of each weekday, except holidays, through Nov. 27.

For tomorrow's edition, Joe Turner is reporting that the defeat of Prop 1 allows Pierce County to break away from King and Snohomish counties and present its own road package to voters.

“I think it is something one would think about,” said Pierce County Councilman Shawn Bunney, chairman of the three-county Regional Transportation Investment District. “But I’m not sure our transportation problems lend themselves to a single-county solution.

“How things get shaped in the future are open to creative approaches, but my preference would be to work as a region,” he added.

The Legislature forced at least two of the three counties to get together to form the RTID when it passed the original law in 2002 and amended it in 2006. But the law allows each county to go it alone if the three-county measure is defeated. The proposition, which would have raises sales and car taxes to pay for $18 billion worth of road and transit projects, is failing in all three counties by a 56-44 margin.

Here's another idea: Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, believes it’s time to take another look at a sort of super agency to coordinate all agencies that have a hand in highway and transit projects.

When Sound Transit and RTID boards got together, “there was nobody at the table whose sole purpose is to look at the big picture,” Haugen said.

As a result, the members were parochial and the size of the ballot measure swelled as money was earmarked for their pet projects all over the three counties, she said.

“I think the package was pretty big,” she said.

Tim Eyman says the Supremes finally are coming out with a decision on Initiative 747 tomorrow.

That's the measure that limited property tax revenue increases by local governments to no more than 1 percent a year. A King Couty judge said it was unconstitutional but local governments have been abiding by the initiative until they hear from Washington's highest court.

The case was argued in May, but has been winding its way through the court system since 2001, when voters passed it.

This is the case: Washington Citizens Action of Washington v. The State of Washington.

Not only will Eyman be hanging on every word in the ruling, so will all the cities, counties, fire districts and others who have been chafing under the 1 percent growth limit.

Expect I-960, approved Tuesday by voters, to follow a similar path.

Most of Eyman's ballot proposals get contested. He lost on I-695, the $30 car tab measure that was thrown out by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. But he won because the Legislature and then-Gov. Gary Locke eliminated the state portion of the motor vehicle excise tax anyway.

Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl has scheduled a meeting today with reporters in Seattle to talk about the outcome of the Proposition 1 election.

Here's the setup from the news release announcing the media gathering:

Following the election, the Sound Transit staff and Board will regroup and reflect on the outcome, looking closely at what factors were behind the vote. While that process moves forward, the agency will continue to work diligently on delivering transit projects and serving approximately 49,000 riders each weekday.

Sound Transit will continue to focus on completing the light rail line between downtown and the airport, now about 80 percent complete and on track to open in 2009 on schedule and within budget. The agency will also continue focusing on moving forward with a 2008 launch of construction on the University Link light rail extension, including service to Capitol Hill.

Today’s media availability coincides with a previously scheduled briefing for University of Washington students and faculty providing information about the University Link light rail extension. Approved by voters in 1996 as part of Sound Move, University Link is not contingent on the outcome of the Nov. 6 ballot measure. The project, scheduled to open in 2016, will increase daily light rail ridership by an estimated 70,000.

Election night didn't go the way Tacoma City Council candidate David Curry had hoped, but this won't be the last time he runs for office.
"I'll definitely be back," Curry said tonight, probably with a 2009 run for Councilman Mike Lonergan's seat.

Marilyn Strickland appears headed to victory over Curry in the Position 8 race.

Strickland and Curry both said nice things about each other tonight. It might be nothing more than good manners. Or it could be a sign that they expect to see more of each other ...

With all three counties voting down the $18 billion roads and transit tax package by healthy margins, even supporters don't see much chance for a Plan B any time soon.

“The No campaign created enough confusion over the cost and that’s how you win,” said Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, chairman of Sound Transit. “They put us on the defensive and we didn’t recover.

He said it’s unlikely anything will happen on the regional transportation front next year or in 2009.

“We’ve basically delayed the solution two to four years and driven up the cost by about $25 billion,” Ladenburg said.

Proposition 1 is losing by a 55-45 margin overall. In Pierce County, the vote is nearly 58 percent against.

“The foundation is still solid for what comes next,” said Pierce County Councilman Shawn Bunney, RTID chairman. He said it’s going to take some time to sort out whether Sound Transit and RTID should be separated in the future, but voters need a transit plan and a road plan.

Tim Eyman declared victory for his Initiative 960 after only a smattering of votes had been tallied.

“It’s going to be impossible for Olympia to go back to business as usual,” Eyman told our own Joe Turner. “Because when you’ve got hundreds of thousands of people voting for it, they can’t just ignore it.”

As with most Eyman measures, it was passing in nearly all of the state’s 39 counties. Only King and Jefferson counties were voting against I-960.

Opponents of I-960 have promised a legal challenge because they believe the measure tries to change the constitution, which cannot be done through the initiative process. They also predict the state will be tied up in red tape because of all the complexities of Eyman’s measure.

Eyman said he isn’t bothered by threats of a lawsuit.

“Initiatives have two kinds of power: legal power and political power,” he said. “It looks like we’re going to have both. The law’s going to require it and the people demand it.”

I just talked to Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy. She held off releasing the second batch of results - these came from poll sites today - because they all came in quickly.

They posted the update at 10:07 p.m. The county's next update is scheduled for Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.

We expect to post a few more observations here tonight. Upcoming: comments from Tim Eyman.

From reporter Debby Abe:

It looks like former Orting High School Principal Gary Walkup won’t get the pleasure of supervising the superintendent who asked the state to investigate him on allegations of unprofessional conduct.

In early returns, Walkup was losing decisively to former school bus driver Laura Fischer for an open seat on the Orting School Board.

Walkup lost his job as principal of Orting High School in March 2005 after the district found he used school district computers to e-mail sexually explicit photos and jokes and included sexual and racially-tinged jokes in a staff newsletter. After he appealed the discharge, he reached a settlement with the district allowing him to resign and receive pay for up to a year while looking for another school job. His supporters believe the district set up the case against him.

Meanwhile, the state suspended his teaching license for 60 days last year for “unprofessional conduct or lack of good moral character.” He’s also appealing that decision.

Had Walkup won a post on the School Board, he would have served on the elected body supervising the superintendent, Jeff Davis, who sought his discharge and who requested the state investigate him.

From reporter Kris Sherman:

Tacoma School Board member Kurt Miller can't understand why EHJR 4204 - the Simple Majority measure - appears headed for a statewide defeat.

It would lower the bar for the passage of school levies to 50 percent. They now require a 60-percent supermajority to pass.

The teachers' union and education lobby lined up in favor of the measure, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising.

But it appears that Washington voters want to retain the supermajority, just
as they have on at least six occasions since the 1930s. The latest statewide count has the measure going down with 54 percent voting no.

"Ever since I saw the first returns, I've been trying to figure out what this means," Miller said. "What it does mean is that it's easier to build prisons than to fund schools."

And school systems and their supporters are likely to expend a lot of money and energy continuing to get over the 60 percent supermajority hurdle.

In 2006, Tacoma passed its levy on the second try, but the second election cost the district about $160,000.

Reporter Mike Archbold notes that one candidate is leading in a fairly obscure fire district race, but he will not serve another day in office, even if he holds on and wins:

It might be name familiarity that's helping stake Roger E. Coleman to a lead in the East
Pierce Fire District 22's board of commissioners.

In early returns the Lake Tapps resident was leading Raymond R. Bunk III, a Bonney Lake resident who works as a Federal Way police officer.

Coleman is a 10-year commission veteran who pleaded guilty to a drug charge in King County this summer. He resigned from the board and withdrew from the election too late to have his name removed from the ballot.

The board appointed Bunk to Coleman’s vacant seat. If Bunk wins, he will serve a regular six year term. If Coleman wins, however, Bunk will remain on the board and serve a two-year appointment.

Got it?

Reporter Rob Tucker writes:
Claudia Thomas, Lakewood's mayor and long-serving councilwoman, has taken a healthy lead over challenger Lisa Ikeda, according to early election returns.
Ikeda, 36, campaigned as a representative of younger residents and got the endorsement of three sitting City Council members, but it appears Thomas, 76, is overcoming those factors. She has served on the council for 12 years.
Incumbent Walter Neary, who also faced opposition from three sitting council members, was leading challenger J. Paul Wagemann by a large margin.
In the open seat on the council, Don Anderson took a big lead over Bruce Banfield.

More updates from The Associated Press:

Dan Satterberg, a career prosecutor named to the high-visibility post of King County prosecutor after Norm Maleng died last spring, held an early lead against a challenge from one of his deputies, Bill Sherman.

The King County prosecutor’s office is a partisan position, although Maleng for years projected a nonpartisan image.

In Spokane, the appointed incumbent mayor, Dennis Hession, faced City Councilwoman Mary Verner. Hession was appointed when Mayor Jim West was recalled after being embroiled in a sex scandal. Early returns showed Verner leading.

In Thurston County, voters were asked to approve a 0.3 percent sales tax increase. The measure would raise the tax from 8.4 cents to 8.7 cents per $1 spent in the county. It was being rejected in early returns.

King County voters were asked to take the first step toward having an elected director of elections. Management of the county elections office became an issue after its ballot handling became an issue in Gov. Chris Gregoire’s narrow victory three years ago. The measure was passing in early returns.

Pierce, King and Snohomish counties have all reported their first round of results, and each is handily rejecting Prop 1. Together, the twin roads and transit measures are failing 56 percent to 44 percent.

That dumps the traffic congestion issue back in the laps of the Legislature and governor. As Brad Shannon reported on his Notes from the Campaign Trail blog today:

It wasn't a great sign Monday when Gov. Chris Gregoire acknowledged that she had discussed the need to start on a Plan B in case the measure fails. She had talked with Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, and Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, as well as her own new transportation secretary, Paula Hammond on Saturday.

Two incumbents on the University Place City Council were struggling against opponents in first returns. Jean Brooks, one of the charter members of the UP council in 1996, was barely ahead of Denise McCluskey. And Mayor Gerald Gehring was trailing newcomer Rose Ehart.

On the other side of the county, in Puyallup, veteran councilwoman and former mayor Kathy Turner was in a dead heat against Rick Hansen for an at-large seat. Even if she loses, Turner will get to complete the final two years in her current seat.

In Bonney Lake, incumbent Phil DeLeo needed to make up some ground against long-time City Hall watchdog Dan Decker.

From reporter Kris Sherman:

Some people wondered whether the "Charlie Milligan" factor might prompt voters to kick Debbie Winskill - the only Tacoma School Board member up for election this year - out of office.

But Winskill, looking for a fourth six-year term on the board, is leading challenger Elly Claus-McGahan in early returns.

Winskill was one of two School Board members to call Milligan's performance as superintendent into question last spring. She refused to participate in his evaluation in March, saying he hadn't been on the job long enough for a full review.

The three board members who said at the time that Milligan's work was satisfactory were persuaded a couple of months later that it was best for the school district that he leave.

Winskill agreed with the rest of the board that Milligan needed to go after a tumultuous year, but she voted against the $418,000 retirement-settlement agreement, saying it was too much.

It was against that backdrop that Claus-McGahan, a math teacher with a Ph.D in the subject, challenged Winskill.

Claus-McGahan ran hard, spending some $5,700 on campaign signs and mailings. In contrast, Winskill ran a quiet campaign, spending so little she didn't need to make routine filings with the state Public Disclosure Commission.

Marilyn Strickland is leading David Curry with nearly 61 percent to almost 39 percent in the race for Position 8. Strickland finished first in the primary and had a big money lead over Curry.

Incumbent Spiro Manthou is leading Harold Moss by almost exactly the same margin, nearly 61 percent to almost 40 percent. I'll ask Moss if he thinks Robert "The Traveller" Hill's apparent assault on Moss' campaign signs was a factor.

Lauren Walker is ahead of Ronnie Allen Warren almost 75 percent to 25 percent in the race to replace Tom Stenger in District 3. Looks as if there won't be any need to re-open the court case challenging Warren's residency.

And Julie Anderson is cruising to a second term with more than 80 percent of the votes cast for the Position 7 seat. Perennial candidate Will Baker has nearly 20 percent of votes cast.

From reporter Debby Abe:

Controversy over a leadership change on the Bethel School Board doesn’t appear to be hurting the incumbents’ efforts to keep their seats.

Board President Brenda Rogers was decisively leading challenger Jon Cronk, a project manager, in the battle to represent District 5 on the south end of the school district.

Meanwhile, Joy Cook, the most veteran of the current board members, was beating David Hamwey, a computer network manager. Cook is seeking her fourth four-year term to represent District 4, which includes Graham.

The Bethel School Board generated controversy recently when the majority voted to change a district policy allowing them to change board officers at any time of the year instead of only after elections. The same night, the board appointed a new vice president to replace Ken Blair, an outspoken critic of Bethel Superintendent Tom Seigel. Last week, Blair filed a claim against the district, alleging the leadership switch and other district actions violated his right to freedom of speech.

Long time Tacoma businessman Don Johnson leads the race for the first open Port of Tacoma Commission in years with almost 64 percent of the votes. His challenger, Bill Casper, a local engineer pushing for more port security, has garnered about 36 percent of the votes, according to the Pierce County Auditor’s Web site.

In the second port race, incumbent commissioner Clare Petrich is the early frontrunner, with 71 percent. Her challenger is Bernard Tuma, owner of the Aroma Café in downtown Tacoma and a former Metro Parks commissioner.

In early election surprises, two South King County incumbents were behind their opponents in the first returns.

Former Auburn city Councilwoman and City Hall watchdog Virginia Haugen was leading incumbent Councilman Roger Thordarson by a healthy margin - 57 percent to 43 percent - in the first returns Tuesday night. They were all all absentee ballots.

Haugen has run for mayor and lost in the past. She has been a constant critic of Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis for his efforts at downtown revitalization. If Haugen is elected, Auburn City Council meetings will never be dull.

On the Federal Way School Board, incumbent Evelyn Castellar, a conservative voice on the board, was trailing challenger Amye Bronson-Doherty in early
returns. Bronson-Doherty was leading Castellar 55 percent to 45 percent.

Pierce County just posted its first round of results. Check them out here.

The first batch of votes on the $18 billion transportation have been posted by King County, and it doesn't look good.

The vote AGAINST the measure is 64,862 to 52,359.

True, that's only early returns. But considering that King County would get about 75 percent of the money spent by Sound Transit and the Regional Transportation Investment District, you'd think they'd do better.

Pierce and Snohomish have yet to weigh in.

The first batch of returns are in, about 188,000 ballots, and Initiative 960 is passing in five of the six counties that have reported so far.

Clark, Kitsap, Island, Lincoln and Spokane counties show I-960 winning, with as much as 55 percent of the vote in Clark and Spokan counties. Jefferson county is voting 52-48 against it.

I-960 would require a two-thirds vote by the Legislature, or a public vote to raise taxes.

While we await the first results from local elections, here's a look at results coming in from other time zones, courtesy of The Associated Press:

New Jersey voters hit the polls for a tight referendum on whether to borrow $450 million over 10 years to finance stem cell research, one of the most closely watched measures on state ballots. The proposal, which drew opposition from anti-abortion groups and the Roman Catholic Church, trailed by fewer than 10 percentage points with nearly half of precincts reporting.

Utah voters were considering the country’s first statewide school voucher program open to all children, not just those from low- or middle-income families. The program would grant $500 to $3,000, depending on family income, for each child sent to private school. Experts said a green light in Utah could lead to similar programs in Texas, Arizona, Louisiana and elsewhere.

Oregon voters were determining whether to raise the cigarette tax by 84.5 cents a pack — to $2.02 — to fund health insurance for about 100,000 children now lacking coverage. Tobacco companies opposing the measure outspent supporters by a 4-1 margin, contributing nearly $12 million.

Texans authorized up to $3 billion in bonds over 10 years to create a cancer research center. The proposal was pushed by cycling champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong and opposed by some fiscal conservatives.

In Denver, voters were asked whether to make the private use and possession of marijuana the city’s lowest law enforcement priority. Elected officials and police said it would have little effect since state and federal law supersede local law decriminalizing the drug.

Reader "Niner" wonders why the county auditors don't start counting ballots as they arrive in the mail?

With so many more people doing mail-in ballots why no early results? They have had mine for almost two weeks and I can't be the only one who has theirs filled out and in the mail 2-3 days after it arrives. Why not start counting the ones they recieve in the 2 weeks before election day as soon as the polls open?

The answer is, they can't. State law allows them to process ballots - that is, open the outer envelopes, check the signatures and stack the ballots. But no counting is to be done until 8 p.m.

Slow counts will likely renew the debate about when mailed ballots must reach elections officials. Washington allows ballots to be post-marked as late as election day. But other states require that they be delivered by election day. If you want your vote to count in those states, mail early.

Secretary of State Sam Reed told KOMO radio today that folks needn't stay up late hoping for meaningful election results tonight. That's because there probably won't be any.

With most votes being cast via mailed ballots and a slower-than-usual return, only about half of the vote will be counted by the time election workers head home in the early morning. The closer the election, the longer we'll wait for results. How long? Days at best, weeks at worst.

Pierce County is reporting that just 24.63 percent of its mailed ballots were returned by Monday. Two years ago, 31.76 percent had been returned by election eve. In 2003 it was 28.22 percent and in 2001 it was 31.82 percent.

For those odd-year elections, another 10 percent arrives Election Day which means that only about 34 percent of Pierce's mailed ballots will be counted by tonight. If only half or more of the 281,233 absentee ballots are ever cast and mailed - as elections officials predict - that leaves a lot of votes to be counted Wednesday and later.

In case you're curious, here's the plan for releasing election returns tonight from Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy.

After 8:30 p.m., we will release all absentee ballot results that have been processed through Election Day. Polling place results should begin reporting around 9:30 p.m. We will continue reporting until all poll votes are in.

Here's the link for Pierce County results.

Here's the link for state results

While waiting for our polls to close, it might be entertaining to look at results from the rest of the country. That's one of the benefits of different time zones and the curvature of the earth.

To help, here's Stateline.com's look at interesting elections across the country. There's a sidebar on interesting ballot propositions, with Washington's Ref. 67 on insurance claims disputes making the list.

In a word though, there's not much that can be used to predict party strength going in to 2008. While there are partisan races, Stateline suggests that the issues are local and not national.

That won't stop pundits with time to kill tonight to find deep meaning in the results nationwide.

Tacoma City Councilman Mike Lonergan made it official this morning: he’s running for Pierce County executive.

“In the past six years, I’ve helped increase the public’s trust in city government by improving performance, controlling spending and setting high ethical standards,” Lonergan said in a press release announcing his candidacy. “We can do the same at the county level if we put aside partisan differences and recognize that government exists to serve all our citizens.”
Lonergan said he would file as an independent.

Here's the full release:

=> Read more!

County Executive John Ladenburg says the talk about his ownership of stock in Hythiam Inc. is a smokescreen masking what he says is the real story: County Council mischief in suspending funding for the Prometa drug-treatment program.

I’m working on an article about the executive’s accusations, contained in an e-mail he wrote in response to News Tribune questions about his Hythiam stock:

=> Read more!

The polling place may be an endangered species, but not everyone is ready to exchange their "I Voted" sticker for a stamp. (Our own Peter Callaghan for one, as he wrote Tuesday.)

This may be one of the last polling-place elections in Pierce County, or the state for that matter. So today, mobile journalist Scott Fontaine will spend the day at polling places around the county, talking with election workers and voters about why they like the traditional method. Read his live blog posts here and expect a story in Wednesday's paper.

If you want him to check out your polling place or see anything else interesting, drop him a line at scott.fontaine@thenewstribune.com.

This just in:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 5, 2007

ROY, WA – Kim Eldridge, Mayor of the City of Roy, has been temporarily removed from office pending an investigation into activities prior to her election to office. Due to the ongoing law enforcement investigation, no further information is available at this time.

We sent a reporter to a news conference that's set to begin right now. Look for a story on our home page tonight.

UPDATE: Here's the story we published today.

We're working on a story for Tuesday that follows up on the news last month that a pair of local elected officials bought stock in a company that they helped seek funding for.

State Rep. Dennis Flannigan admits he failed to disclose his $20,000-plus holding in Hythiam Inc., the company that licenses the Prometa drug-treatment program. The Tacoma Democrat should have included that on a form filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission that lists his personal holdings.

Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg acknowledges that he owned more Hythiam stock than he previously disclosed. He told the TNT last month that he owned $900 worth of stock. We checked his financial disclosure form, which said he owned at least $3,000 worth. He says the form is in error, though he did own more. The executive now says he bought $2,700 worth of Hythiam stock in May 2006 and sold it last month, taking a small loss.

Read more on Tuesday.

We don't know if this is a first, but we can't remember anyone from Maury Island ever being in the state House or Senate.

But there is now.

Sharon Nelson, whose name hereafter will be followed by D-Maury Island, was chosen by the King County Council to replace state Rep. Joe McDermott, D-West Seattle, in the 34th Legislative District. Nelson was sworn in today.

It's part of the legislative domino process: Sen. Erik Poulsen quits to get a job that pays more than $42,000. McDermott moves from the House to take Poulsen seat. Now, Nelson takes McDermott's seat.

Nelson is chief of staff for King County Councilman Dow Constantine, who used to be the state senator from the 34th, but he, too, left the Senate to take a job that pays more than $42,000 a year. Then Poulsen left the House and got appointed. . . oh, nevermind. You know the rest.

Nelson also is founding president of Preserve Our Islands. We suspect that means she will take up the Poulsen mantle and try to make Maury and Vashon islands aquatic reserves, or do something to try to keep her island from being used as fill dirt for Sea-Tac's 3rd, 4th or 5th runway.

Since they are appointees finishing someone else's term, both Nelson and McDermott will have to stand for election in 2008.

Poulsen, of course, doesn't have to stand for election anymore. He works for the Washington Public Utilities District Association, where, as we said, he makes more than $42,000 a year.

Keep checking here throughout the evening on Tuesday.

We'll be in the newsroom until about midnight posting updates on local and state campaigns, as well as news from elections around the country.

Robert "The Traveller" Hill may be traveling about Tacoma yanking up yard signs today, if a press release we received last week is to be believed.

In a statement entitled "Harold Moss Loses One Small Supporter," Hill claims he revoked his signature on Moss' candidate application because Moss wouldn't answer a 10-item questionnaire Hill sent him. Here's part of the release:

"If I'd have know (sic) back in June, on the last day of filing week, that he was unable or unqualified to answer some simple easy questions for a man of his status and experience, I wouldn't have been his Tenth Person to sign his candidate petition. I never particularly supported Moss' campaing. I'm just a Pro-choice kind of guy and figured it's better for our democracy to have more candidates, rather than less, on the ballot," said Hill.

It wasn't immediately clear how someone would go about revoking a signature on a candidate application, or what it would mean. But the other part of Hill's revenge is much more clear:

"We will continue to remove and destroy, from the public rights-ofway, all of Moss' flags (yard signs,)" said Hill, "until the day after the election."

So, does anyone know whether Moss yard signs are disappearing?

UPDATE: Moss signs have indeed gone missing, and at more than the usual rate, according to Frank Boykin Jr., Moss' campaign manager. It began last week with some vandalism. Moss campaign workers repaired signs that were cut with some kind of a blade and re-planted them. Then they vanished, Boykin said. "It's not just a few of them," he said. "It's all of them." And it's not just signs planted on public property, but private property, too, he said. "I am just livid," Boykin said. "And Harold is even more mad."

I paged Hill (the contact number on the press release is a pager) and left a voice mail for Moss, but haven't heard back from either.

Gov. Chris Gregoire will host a town hall meeting tonight in the Stadium High School commons.

The event is the last in a series of meetings during which the governor responds to questions from residents. Her town hall in Spokane last week drew 600 people.

Tonight's event begins at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:30.

The meetings are designed to seek public comment on the governor’s spending priorities prior to the 2008 session of the state Legislature. Some Republicans have said the meetings instead are taxpayer-funded campaign events.

What questions would you ask her?

Pierce County – the last holdout.

This Tuesday, only three counties – Pierce, King and Kittitas – will operate poll sites on election day. The other counties have switched to all-mail voting. And King and Kittitas make the switch next year, leaving Pierce County as the only place where little old ladies (and gentlemen) greet voters at polling places.

Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed issued a report Thursday on the popularity of vote-by-mail. I sent a note to Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy to ask what'll happen here.

Here's her reply:

As you might be aware, I made a recommendation a couple of months ago to the County Council to join me in approving Pierce County going all vote by mail next year. They declined.

I had made the recommendation in part because we have 75% of our voters voting by mail, in part to be consistent and to reduce voter confusion given that the surrounding counties will be all vote-by-mail, and in part to mitigate potential problems with the implementation of rank choice voting (i.e., multiple ballot styles and multiple ballot pages per voter).

I have great poll workers who are well trained, and this recommendation is no reflection on them. This decision is based on providing management efficiencies and streamlining the election process in a complex election year. It is my job to make tough decisions when it is in the best interest of the voters of Pierce County.

There is an interest at the State level to address this issue to provide consistency statewide.

Earlier this year, McCarthy cut the number of polling places from 92 to 58, saying it didn't make sense to operate poll sites with very low turnout.

Peter Callaghan laments the death of poll sites in his Sunday column.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray was set to give the Democratic radio address Saturday. Her office distributed the remarks in advance on Friday. She's accusing President Bush of under-funding and ignoring military veterans' needs.

Here are highlights from the address:

“...We all know that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have stretched our military to the breaking point. More than 3,800 service members have died, thousands upon thousands have suffered physical and mental wounds at war. Yet for all of President Bush’s hollow talk of ‘supporting the troops,’ he has not done nearly enough to provide our veterans with the care and support they need. And that is simply outrageous.

“The President can call on Democrats to follow him in lockstep all he wants, but when it comes to caring for our veterans, we are not about to start taking advice from George Bush. Because he has under-funded and ignored the VA system, thousands of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare and aren’t getting the health care they need. Under President Bush, the number of uninsured veterans has skyrocketed. The personal data of millions of vets was lost. And yet, the President let three months go by before even nominating a new secretary of veterans’ affairs.

“Next week we will send a bill to the President’s desk that does two things: provides funding and support to our veterans, and funds other crucial American priorities, like education and Alzheimer’s’ research. Our bill provides thousands of new VA case workers to help reduce the unconscionable delays that separate vets from the care they need. It improves conditions at VA facilities like Walter Reed, invests in new ways to treat military ailments like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and funds better prosthetics for our thousands of troops who have lost limbs in battle. Unfortunately, President Bush says this bill costs too much.

“Well, that’s just not true. The priorities that we fund are ones that he has neglected for far too long. It’s wrong to ignore these needs and neglect our veterans. Our troops have sacrificed so much. They deserve better than to have the President block this bill to make a political point."

Candidates for public office in Pierce County will soon be required to file financial affairs disclosure forms with the county auditor’s office.

The county’s ethics code already requires candidates and elected officials to submit the forms to the office. But Auditor Pat McCarthy said the office has not required the forms to be submitted locally for at least 14 years. She said she was unaware of the ethics code requirement until asked about it by a News Tribune reporter.

State law requires candidates for public office to disclose certain financial information – including income, real estate holdings, stocks and debts – to the state Public Disclosure Commission. Those forms are public records but are not available on the agency’s web site.

The public can request copies of the financial disclosures via phone or e-mail or view them in person at the commission office in Olympia.

A Pierce County ethics code provision dating to 1982 also requires county candidates and elected officials to file financial disclosure forms at the auditor’s office.

However, McCarthy’s research shows the office has not asked them to file disclosures locally at least since 1993. Instead, the office informs candidates they must file financial disclosures with the state.

McCarthy said the blame should fall on her office, not the candidates.

“We’ve been saying, it goes straight to Olympia,” she said.

Since learning of the oversight, McCarthy’s office has obtained from the Public Disclosure Commission current financial disclosure forms for county executive, assessor-treasurer, county council, auditor and prosecuting attorney. They are available for public viewing at the auditor’s office.

McCarthy said she would also begin informing county elected officials and candidates they must file financial disclosures with her office in addition to the state.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray is scheduled to deliver this week's Democratic radio address on Saturday.

Here's the theme, according to a news release from her office:

After years of this Administration under-funding our veterans, and as Veterans Day approaches, Murray calls on the President to enact Democrats’ effort to provide the largest-ever increase in veterans funding.

Washington prisons chief Harold Clarke is resigning effective Nov. 23 to take a comparable post in Massachusetts.

Clarke announced his departure this morning in a letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire and in an e-mail to Department of Corrections employees.

“Secretary Clarke has made significant contributions to public safety in Washington,” the governor said. “This has not been an easy task for Harold or his family and, on behalf of the people of Washington, I thank him for his service.”

Clarke was among the first members of Gregoire’s cabinet. He was hired Feb. 28, 2005, from Nebraska Department of Corrections, where he also had held the top job.

He is leaving after only two and a half years. His tenure has been tumultuous at times.

It was under Clarke’s watch that three law enforcement officers in King County were killed by recently released inmates late last year. Earlier this year, more than 50 offenders who had violated conditions of their release from prison were let out jail early because of overcrowding.

Both elicited strong criticism, mostly from Republicans who are trying to portray the governor as more concerned about felons than community safety.

=> Read more!

The revelation that Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg owned stock in a company that benefited from county funding has prompted rebukes from some members of the County Council.

Ladenburg says his 100 shares of stock in Hythiam Inc., did not influence his decision to lobby for county and state funding for Hythiam’s Prometa drug-treatment program. He says his efforts to secure public funding predated the stock purchase.

Nonetheless, County Council members have criticized the executive.

Fellow Democrat Calvin Goings called it “incredibly poor judgment” to own stock in the company.

Democrat Tim Farrell, a Prometa supporter, said the financial interests of Ladenburg and others who owned Hythiam stock are distracting attention from the merits of the treatment.

Republican Council Chairman Terry Lee said Ladenburg’s stock appeared to be “small potatoes” and said he considered buying Hythiam stock himself. But he added: “It felt like a conflict to me, to be in a role of benefiting and approving (county) appropriations” for Prometa.

Republican Dick Muri said Ladenburg’s investment simply struck him as odd. “From a financial point of view and from a political point of view, it was nonsensical,” Muri said.

Not one to stay on the defensive, Ladenburg has accused the council’s Republican majority of violating public meeting notice requirements when it suspended county funding for Prometa last week. Stay tuned.

State Rep. Joyce McDonald announced this afternoon she’ll run for Calvin Goings’ seat on the Pierce County Council.

McDonald in 2008 will run to represent council District 2, which stretches from Dash Point to Puyallup. Check out her campaign Web site here.

“Ensuring fiscal responsibility and accountability, along with improving public safety, have always been in my top priorities while serving in the Legislature,” the Puyallup Republican said in a release announcing her candidacy. “I look forward to working on these important issues at the county level and being able to serve my constituency closer to home.”

McDonald is serving her fifth term in the state House of Representatives. If elected to the council, she would more than double her pay. She makes $41,280 as a legislator and would make $95,603 as a council member.

Goings, a two-term Democrat on the council, is running for county executive next year.

One longstanding theory in our newsroom is that weird news often has a Pierce County angle. That was the case during Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate when Dennis Kucinich confirmed he saw a UFO here.

The question stemmed from an account in actress Shirley MacLaine's new book, "Sage-Ing While Age-Ing." From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Kucinich, she writes on page 143-144 of the book, "had a close sighting over my home in Graham, Washington, when I lived there. Dennis found his encounter extremely moving. The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him. It hovered, soundless, for ten minutes or so, and sped away with a speed he couldn't comprehend. He said he felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind."

During Tuesday's debate in Philadelphia, Tim Russert of NBC News asked Kucinich if he saw a UFO. "This is a serious question," Russert said before asking the question. The Chicago Tribune quotes the candidate's reply:

"I did," Kucinich said.

"And the rest of the account -- I didn't -- I -- it was unidentified flying object, okay. It's like -- it's unidentified. I saw something.

"Now, to answer your question," Kucinich said, "I'm moving my -- and I'm also going to move my campaign office to Roswell, New Mexico and another one, an extra, to New Hampshire, okay... And also, you have to keep in mind that more -- that Jimmy Carter saw a UFO, and also that more people in this country have seen UFOs than, I think, approve of George Bush's presidency."

Better yet, watch for yourself.

The Pierce County Auditor’s Office will set up vote-by-mail “express booths” around the county beginning Friday. You can drop off your ballot from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday through Tuesday at the following locations:

• Browns Point Town Center at Browns Point, 1000 Town Center.
• Bonney Lake Fred Meyer, 20901 Highway 410.
• Edgewood/Milton - Surprise Lake Shopping Center, 900 Meridian E.
• Gig Harbor - Purdy Fire Station - 5210 144th St. NW.
• Gig Harbor - Safeway/Big 5, 4811 Point Fosdick Square.
• Lakewood Towne Center, 6000 Main St. SW.
• Parkland/Spanaway - Bethel Station Rite Aid, 22311 Mountain Hwy E.
• Parkland/Spanaway - Sprinker Recreation Center, 14824 South C St.
• Puyallup Fred Meyer, 1100 N Meridian and River Road.
• Puyallup, Thun Field, 16715 Meridian E.
• Sumner Fred Meyer - 1201 Valley Ave.
• Tacoma - Pierce County Annex, 2401 S. 35th St.
• Tacoma - Rite Aid, 1912 North Pearl St.
• Tacoma - Oasis of Hope, 1926 S G St.
• Tacoma - County-City Building (drop box), 2nd Floor Lobby, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• University Place - Green Firs Shopping Center, 40th & Bridgeport.

On election day, you may also drop off your ballot at any polling place (see a listing here) and at the auditor’s office, Room 200, Pierce County Annex, 2401 S. 35th St., Tacoma.

Mailed ballots must be postmarked no later than the day of the election.