Questions abound on the Internet about Barack Obama's citizenship and whether he's eligible to be president. On Monday, a King County judge threw out a challenge to Obama's placement on Washington's ballot that was based on that claim.

Today, Hawaiian officials said there's no doubt Obama was born in the Aloha State.

From The Associated Press:

Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said Friday she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama’s original birth certificate.

Fukino says that no state official, including Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, ever instructed that Obama’s certificate be handled differently.

She says state law bars release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible interest.

Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy says her staff may run the ranked-choice voting computer program on election night.

If they do, it would provide a glimpse of how candidates for county executive, assessor-treasurer, sheriff and County Council District 2 are fairing in early returns under the new voting system.

McCarthy said there’s no guarantee her office will run the computer program that redistributes votes under the new system. She said if there are glitches on election night – like a broken tabulating machine – she’ll stick with her original plan, which is to run the program for the first time on Friday.

But if things go smoothly, the auditor’s office could run the program and have results by 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Ranked-choice voting advocates and our editorial page have been pressuring McCarthy to run the computer program sooner than Friday. McCarthy has resisted, saying the workload from a big-turnout election – combined with the extra ballot cards required by ranked choice voting – means her staff will be working 24 hours a day just processing ballots. She said running the program will require her staff to stop counting ballots for two to three hours.

She’s also expressed concern that confusion could result from running the program too early and with too few ballots in hand. That could lead to big changes in results from report to report. That’s why she wanted to wait until Friday, when most mail ballots would be in hand.

McCarthy said she’s changed her mind because she believes the integrity of her staff has been questioned. “They have worked so darn hard,” McCarthy said. “I don’t want them to have unwarranted attention.”

If all goes smoothly, the auditor’s office also will release the raw data from ranked-choice ballots on election night, along with the results of the computer program.

Even if the office runs the computer program in election night, they would not run it again until Friday, McCarthy said.

Pierce County voters approved ranked-choice voting in 2006 but are using it for the first time in this election.

The new system does away with the primary election for most county offices, and all candidates advance to the general election. Voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no one gets a majority of first-place votes, candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated.

If your first choice is eliminated, election officials give your vote to your second choice. If your second choice is eliminated, your third choice gets your vote. The process of eliminating candidates and redistributing votes continues until someone has a majority of votes.

Of course, it’s possible someone will get a majority of votes and a clear winner will emerge on election night. In that case, running the computer program would be unnecessary.

But not one is predicting that, especially in the hotly contested county executive’s race.

Curious about how a few folks in Greenland or Burkina Faso would vote in the U.S. presidential election?

I thought so.

A Web site called theworldfor lets people with Internet access all over the world express their preference between Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain.

It probably should not come as a surprise that "the world" is favoring Obama. Europe is a sea of blue. North and South America, too.

But a few countries are favoring McCain, including Iran, Senegal, Honduras and one dude in the aforementioned Burkina Faso.

Check it out. If you hang out on the site for a few minutes, you might even see a pop-up when someone new weighs in.

Both Rep. Dave Reichert and Democratic challenger Darcy Burner agree that voters in Washington’s 8th District are “tech-savvy” individuals.

But which of them is the most tech-savvy candidate?

One might think Burner had this one sewn up – she worked at Microsoft for four years, has a computer science degree and has raised hundreds of thousands from liberal blog-o-philes.

But Reichert, the Republican incumbent, also wants a shot at the title.

Taking a page out of Obama’s book, he’s been creating YouTube responses to Burner’s negative ads and posting “video testimonials” on his campaign Web site.

Each testimonial features an everyday person talking about how they’ve worked with Reichert to address a different legislative issue. The fourth one went up yesterday.

Reichert campaign spokeswoman Amanda Halligan has sent a press release accompanying each testimonial:

"Because Dave represents one of the most tech-savvy districts in the nation, he understands that the web is a wonderful tool he can use to educate voters," Halligan says in each release.

Looking back, Reichert’s campaign poked fun at Burner’s rampant use of the term “tech-savvy” in early October. At a debate October 8, Reichert’s campaign workers passed out “Burner Bingo” cards with various phrases they expected her to use while speaking. “Most tech-savvy” was one of them.

The instructions on the bingo card? “Grab your partisan chips and play along!”

One week, later, Reichert’s campaign began using the term in press releases promoting the “video testimonials” on his Web site.

I guess “tech-savvy” is no longer a dirty word – or has become an acceptable compound, made-up word for both sides.

EDIT: Amanda Halligan just called me and told me that the Reichert campaign has been using "tech-savvy" to refer to the voters of the 8th district in various press releases since August. She says the difference between Burner and Reichert's use of the term is that Reichert uses it to describe the voters he represents; Burner uses it to describe herself, like when she says she'll be one of "the most tech-saavy members of Congress."

The folks at FiveThirtyEight.com – one of the myriad web sites that compile and analyze presidential polling results – have being examining the presidential race state by state. Today they made it to Washington, or, as they refer to us, “Worshington.”

Making expected but annoying appearances are clichés about Starbucks, hipsters, etc. They throw in polite nods to military vets and Mormons.

Judge for yourself. You can read it here.

Everyone wants to know: who’s posting these signs? They appeared on local streets in the last few days.

They seem to be a reference to the Master Builders Association’s support of county executive candidate Pat McCarthy. Earlier this month fellow exec candidate Calvin Goings accused the MBA of trying to buy the executive’s office through independent spending on her behalf. According to its latest campaign report, the group (through the committee Better Pierce County) has spent more than $85,000 to support McCarthy.

Of course, McCarthy can’t “return” the independent expenditure bucks, which she didn’t receive. And McCarthy says the attacks against her are hypocritical in light of donations from the building industry her opponents have received.

Speculation about the signs has been rampant. They feature no attribution, like “paid for by …” The Shawn Bunney, Calvin Goings and Mike Lonergan camps deny any involvement. Anyone want to confess?

For the record, I checked with the Public Disclosure Commission. Signs that are smaller than 8 feet by 4 feet are not required to state who’s behind them.

In today’s article about campaign contributions to county executive candidates, I reported the Master Builders Association of Tacoma-Pierce County has spent nearly $49,000 on an independent campaign to support Pat McCarthy. That’s an old figure.

According to a report filed Monday with the state Public Disclosure Commission, the MBA and its allies (through a committee called Better Pierce County) have spent more than $85,000 for McCarthy.

Thanks to John Wyble of the Calvin Goings campaign for pointing it out. We’re running a correction in tomorrow’s paper.

Update: Some folks have asked where I got the $85,000 figure. Here's a copy of the latest C6 report from Better Pierce County. It shows the cumulative total spent on McCarthy: $85,287.15.

Over on our Lights & Sirens blog, Ian Demsky has this gem:

Came across this interesting tidbit among my prison mail today.

A McNeil Island inmate writes:

Tonight we roared when Obama sent my $5 donation back saying, "We accept no money from prisoners!"

Update: After a commenter said he suspected the story might be a hoax, we contacted a spokesman with the local Obama campaign and asked whether they accepted donations from inmates.

After that e-mail last Wednesday, spokesman Joshua Field said he'd look into it. By Friday afternoon we still hadn't received an answer and e-mailed him again. It's now Monday afternoon and we're still waiting.

Auditor Pat McCarthy has taken her name off voter surveys that will be distributed at Pierce County polling places next Tuesday.

McCarthy said today that she took the action last week after her fellow county executive candidates and state Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser complained she had violated the sanctity of the ballot and perhaps given herself an unfair advantage by distributing the survey in mail ballots. State law bars officeholders from using public resources to promote their campaigns.

McCarthy, a Democrat and one of four candidates for county executive, argued the survey (here’s a copy) on ranked choice voting is part of her normal duties as auditor, and state officials said they saw nothing illegal about it.

But after people started complaining, she had her staff cut off the tops of the surveys that will be distributed at the polls, removing her name. McCarthy said the move didn't cost taxpayers anything.

McCarthy said she took the action before County Council Chairman Terry Lee yesterday sent her a letter requesting that she refrain from distributing surveys at the that contained her name.

In the letter, Lee, a Republican, cited a County Council budget proviso that prohibits the auditor’s office from using the name, image or likeness of any Pierce County official on ranked choice voting education materials. McCarthy claims she didn't violate the proviso because she paid for the survey out of another pot of money. Lee disagreed.

“While the distribution of an RCV survey with the general election ballots may very well be an usual and ordinary function of the auditor’s office, it is my position that the deliberate inclusion of your name and signature on the survey constitutes a clear violation of the spirit and intent of the budget proviso,” Lee wrote.

You can download a copy of Lee’s letter here.

Update: Last week Nick Handy of the Secretary of State's office praised McCarthy for a 2004 survey similar to the one now in question. He also said it was within McCarthy's prerogative to conduct the new survey.

On Wednesday, communications director Dave Ammons clarified the office's position. He said Handy and Secretary of State Sam Reed aren't saying there's nothing wrong with McCarthy's actions. He said they're just saying there's no state law to prohibit it.

Ammons said neither Reed nor Handy contacted McCarthy about the survey. He added:

When this first broke, Sam requested hard copies of the materials, including the stuffer she did in the 2004 pick-a-party primary ballot packet. After reviewing the materials, his comment was that he hadn't signed materials inside the voting packets when he was county auditor, but that she hadn't broken any laws that he knew of. So any criticism from him or Handy was implicit only. They are fully aware, of course, of the campaign that is underway for County Executive and really wanted to be circumspect about the situation. In this instance, it really is for the voters to weigh.

There's an interesting debate over on our Inside the Editorial Page blog. At issue: why do we have to wait until Nov. 7 or 8 to learn who's leading or winning Pierce County races?

The dispute involves county Auditor Pat McCarthy's handling of the new ranked-choice voting system. Voters can rank up to three candidates in order of preference. But on election night and for at least the next two days, McCarthy plans to release only the first-choice results. That is, we likely won't really know who's leading in the county executive's race, for example, because some voters' second- and/or third-choices haven't been distributed. McCarthy, one of four candidates for county executive, expects to run the algorithm that distributes those votes on Nov. 7 or possibly Nov. 8, after most of the ballots have been received.

Dave Seago, the TNT's former editorial page editor, published a post yesterday calling on McCarthy to release the returns as they're counted, just as she will in "traditional" elections like the governor's race. Seago included arguments in favor of his position by state Auditor Brian Sonntag; former state Rep. Toby Nixon, now the president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government; and Richard Anderson-Connolly, a local college professor and ranked-choice advocate who argues that McCarthy's position might even violate state code. Fellow RCV advocate Kelly Haughton makes his own pitch here.

Today, in a reply posted on the ed-page blog, McCarthy said it's not as simple as it sounds.

Her August complaint to the Public Disclosure Commission hasn't been resolved and probably won't be by election day. So Judith Lonnquist has asked the attorney general to block an independent expenditure campaign from spending money to beat up on schools chief Terry Bergeson.

Lonnquist said that if the state waits until after the election to act, the harm will be done.

She accuses challenger Randy Dorn, the Service Employees International Union and the CFW of violating laws regulating so-called independent expenditure campaigns. Because Dorn is the president of the SEIU-affiliated Public School Employees Union, and the union has already given directly to the Dorn campaign, Lonnquist said it cannot also fund an independent campaign.

SEIU has given nearly $400,000 to CFW which is using it for a radio and internet ads critical of Bergeson.

CFW treasurer Mike Moran said this: “We have no comment other than CFW believes it is in compliance with (state law) and has cooperated with the Staff and Investigators of the Public Disclosure Commission.”

Dorn's campaign has said it has no knowledge of the CFW campaign and has not consulted them.

Janelle Guthrie, spokeswoman for AG Rob McKenna, said the office is considering Lonnquist's request.

Think you can roll into work two hours late or take off early on Tuesday in order to hit the polls?

Sorry.

Except under the rarest of circumstances (read the RCW and tell me if you can think of a scenario where it might work), Washington law has relegated paid time off work for voting to the same dust bin as the three-martini lunch.

The bloggers over at Lifehacker recently wrote about voting as a nice way to get some time away from work and included a link to an employment law blogger (yes, there really is one) who compiled a round-up of laws by state.

Washington law requires employers to give workers "reasonable time up to two hours" in which to vote. But there's one big catch: If you know in advance that work hours will conflict with voting, you're required to get an absentee ballot.

Oh, well.

But if you really want some time off, blogger John Phillips thinks it might not hurt to go for it. He writes:

There are two reasons for my opinion on this. Every state’s public policy is to encourage voting in elections. If you deny an employee’s request to take time off to vote (even if there’s a technical basis for doing this given the specific language in your state statute), you could violate your state’s public policy. And even if you don’t, you probably don’t want to become, particularly this year, the poster child for employers who make it difficult for their employees to vote. Voting is a hot button issue, and the media would likely give a lot of publicity to this kind of situation.

Let me know if you need a little publicity.

As part of his NBA season preview, staff writer Eric Williams published a story today that updates Seattle's effort to secure $75 million in public money to renovate KeyArena.

The city plans to ask the Legislature to consider restoring the city’s ability to raise money through the city-only, hotel-motel tax that funds the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.

The tax rate in Seattle is 7 percent, but only about 6 percent is needed to pay off the remaining bonds. So the city is asking the Legislature to reduce the Convention Center tax to 6 percent and restore the remaining authority for the city to extend 1 percent of that tax as part of its overall finance package to remodel KeyArena. The city still is negotiating with the hotel industry and state convention center officials on the proposal.

“We have a proposal, so now the first step obviously is to go to the Legislature now,” said Robert Mak, spokesperson for Seattle mayor Greg Nickels. “We’re hopeful they will give Seattle access to the same capacity that other cities have, and allow us to take this very important first step.”

The city will present its proposal on Dec. 1 to a task force created by the Legislature, co-chaired by Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, and Sen. Tracey Eide, D-Federal Way. The seven-member group is charged with evaluating options for using King County taxes, some of which are being used to pay off debt on Safeco Field, Qwest Field and the demolished Kingdome.

Here's a link to Eric's story.

Several of you have asked me about what's going on in the newspaper industry, in light of the departures of several members of the Capital (Capitol) Press Corps.

Former state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt said he's worried politics won't be covered as much. Retiring state Rep. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, was worried about our dwindling ranks.

Washington isn't the only state that is losing journalists, but we're certainly well represented given layoffs at The News Tribune, Seattle Times, Spokesman Review, Olympian and TriCity Herald.

Some of my colleagues are keeping track of the layoffs and buyouts nationwide, as I discovered when I did a Google search using key words "newspapers layoffs buyouts."

Here is the layoffs link I found over the weekend.

With companies like Afterglow Beach, Blue Mountain Vineyards and Windsong Ranch contributing generously to Pierce County executive candidates, you might think the tourism industry has taken an interest in local politics.

You’d never know a major developer – Investco – contributed the money. But that may be the point.

State records show prominent builders and developers have sunk big bucks into the hotly contested county executive race. Sometimes, they’re doing it through affiliates with names that offer no clue where the money is coming from.

Aiding them is a loophole in state law that allows companies to circumvent campaign contribution limits.

Under state law, any single person or company is limited to contributing $800 to a Pierce County campaign. But some companies are able to get around that by contributing through their various affiliates, each with its own $800 limit. It's a loophole the Legislature tried and failed to address in 2007.

State records show many local companies have taken advantage of the loophole. But three stand out.

• Sumner-based Investco and its executives have given more than $18,000 to county executive candidates.

• Corliss Resources, a separate company owned by relatives of Mike Corliss, who owns Investco, has pitched in about $14,000.

• Companies and executives affiliated with Tacoma-based Tucci & Sons contractors have given more than $20,000.

Together, these three companies have contributed at least $52,550 to executive candidates (here’s an Excel spreadsheet with details).

The primary beneficiaries: candidates Shawn Bunney and Calvin Goings.

Bunney, a Lake Tapps Republican, has accepted more than $31,000 from companies and executives affiliated with those three firms. That includes money they donated to his 2006 County Council campaign that he apparently transferred to his executive’s campaign. I have an appointment with Bunney’s campaign this morning to confirm the 2006 contributions from these companies were transferred to his 2008 campaign.

Goings, a Puyallup Democrat, has received nearly $20,000 from the three companies and their executives.

The other county executive candidates have received little or no money from those companies. Tacoma Democrat Pat McCarthy has accepted $1,600 from Investco-related companies. Independent Mike Lonergan of Tacoma has received none.

Representatives of Investco and Tucci have confirmed the information in the spreadsheet. I’m still waiting to hear from Corliss Resources and from the executive candidates.

Look for more on this in tomorrow's News Tribune.

Meanwhile, Tucci & Sons President Michael F. Tucci issues this statement in response to questions:

David,

Thank you for sending me the fax version of the excel spreadsheet; the numbers appear to be correct. We are pleased to have the opportunity to comment on the article you intend to run about our families’ contributions to the Goings and Bunney campaigns for County Executive.

=> Read more!

By the looks of absentee ballot statistics, a bunch of y'all were busy over the weekend.

The Pierce County auditor's office reported receiving 24,252 ballots in Monday's mail.

Of the 322,758 ballots sent to county voters, 70,045 have been turned in. That's a return rate of 21.7 percent.

That's slightly ahead of the 20.5 percent of ballots returned at this point in the 2004 cycle, and well ahead of the 14.1 percent rate in 2006.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi will give testimony some time before the Nov. 4 election in a deposition that's part of a lawsuit against one of his biggest financial backers.

King County Superior Court Judge Paris Kallas on Monday denied Rossi's request to delay giving a deposition in the case between two former state Supreme Court justices and the Building Industry Association of Washington after the election.

Plaintiff attorney Knoll Lowney called the ruling a "big win for voters."

"Dino Rossi will have to tell the whole story about his role in the BIAW's illegal fundraising campaign -- before the election," Lowney said in a statement.

Rossi is not a party to the lawsuit, which was brought against the BIAW by former state Supreme Court justices Robert Utter and Faith Ireland. They claim Rossi improperly worked with the group to help raise money for a campaign war chest.

Rossi and the BIAW have both said they did nothing wrong.

Rossi's campaign spokeswoman issued a statement Monday saying Rossi would have to cancel campaign appearances, but he would "of course" comply with the judge's order.

"Whenever Christine Gregoire gets into political trouble, she sends her friends to court to try to win what she is losing with voters," spokeswoman Jill Strait said in the statement.

The time and date of the deposition have not been set, but it will occur before the election Strait said.

The county council members are proposing to forego 2 percent of the 3 percent automatic pay raises they are scheduled to get in 2009, in sympathy with the employees they are asking to take off two weeks next year without pay.

Since council members are paid $120,413 this year, that means they would "give back" $2,372 of the $3,612 pay raise they are supposed to get next year.

Of course, they also get two weeks off.

"We believe that as elected officials we need to make the same personal sacrifices that we are asking of our valued County employees."

Hmmmm. The same personal sacrifices?

By my calculations, two weeks' pay at a 2009 salary of $124,025 a year works out to $4,770. That seems a bit more than the $2,372 that they would giving up.

Not a bad deal for the council members. But then, it might not be such a bad deal for citizens either. After all, the "legislative branch would close for 10 days" and that might be good for the King County citizenry in general.

Statement from County Council leadership on unpaid employee furlough

Councilmembers to reduce their COLA; legislative branch to close ten days without pay

We are proud of the willingness of our represented employees to sacrifice ten days of wages in order to help prevent additional cuts in public safety and public health services and further loss of service to the public. The legislative branch is committed to making similar sacrifices and ensure that every agency does its part to preserve core services.

=> Read more!

Scott Blonien, assistant secretary of the Washington Department of Corrections, said a few minutes ago that his staff estimates 70 to 75 ex-convicts were released from community supervision too early.

An undetermined number of additional inmates -- that could be several hundred or more -- also were classified incorrectly. That means they were given lower risk scores than they should have had and therefore were not monitored as closely when they got out of prison.

Blonien blamed the classification errors on a new "risk assessment tool" that was developed by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy.

No one was released from prison too early, he said.

=> Read more!

Gov. Chris Gregoire is leading Republican challenger Dino Rossi 51 percent to 45 percent with 4 percent undecided according to The Washington Poll.

The just-released data show that Gregoire is "greatly benefiting from the coattails" of the Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, said Matt Barreto, an assistant professor of political science at the Univerity of Washington.

In 2004, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry won in Washington state by seven percentage points over President George Bush, yet the governor's race that year was a virtual tie between Gregoire and Rossi.

This time around, Democrat Gregoire still is "under-performing" the presidential advantage, but the presidential advantage is larger, Barreto said. Obama is leading Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain 55 pecent to 34 percent, according to the poll.

Gregoire's decision to endorse Obama back in February is paying diviends, Barreto said. It may have had something to do with Obama running mate Sen. Joe Biden's Oct. 19 visit to Tacoma, too.

It's the second poll in less than a week showing Gregoire with a significant lead over Rossi. Last week, Seattle pollster Stuart Elway released data showing Gregoire leading Rossi 51 percent to 39 percent in his company's polling.

Barreto cautions, "However, we need to remember that there is still over a week left in this election and Dino Rossi has run a very effective campaign, so we could still see the race tighten down the stretch."

The Washington Poll results, which include the governor and presidential races as well as initiatives 985, 1000, 1029 and the Proposition 1 Sound Transit measure, are online here.

Click ahead for the full text of Barreto's analysis.

=> Read more!

This word just in from the Secretary of State Office's Dave Ammons:

A King County judge has dismissed a case challenging Senator Obama’s “native-born” status and thus his right to be on the ballot in Washington state. A federal judge in Philadelphia dismissed a similar lawsuit Friday night. Jeff Even of the state attorney general’s office represented our office. The state election, already underway, continues, with the Obama-Biden ticket listed as the first ticket among the choices, since Senator Kerry won the state four years ago. Ballot order is spelled out in state law. There are eight tickets on the Washington ballot.

UPDATE: Ammons sent the order of dismissal, too.

Chester Earl leaned forward in the middle seat of the front row of the auditorium. He listened to Gov. Chris Gregoire deliver a campaign speech, and each time she said something he agreed with, he beat a drum he held in his left hand.

“Indians support her,” said Earl, a 35-year-old Tacoma man who wore four Barack Obama buttons on his vest. “We support Democrats. And it meant a lot that she would have her campaign come here to talk to us.”

That sentiment likely was the reason the Gregoire campaign stopped Saturday at Columbia Junior High School in Fife on the Puyallup Tribe of Indians reservation. It was the second stop of a 26-city, 11-day tour as the Democrat makes a final push for crucial votes in a tight race for re-election.

And the rally, targeted at the area’s Indian population, was safe territory for Gregoire and other Democrats who spoke to about 200 people.

Influence from Indian tribes has become a flashpoint in the election. The campaign of Republican challenger Dino Rossi ¬ himself one-quarter Tlingit Alaskan native ¬ has criticized Gregoire, saying she received hefty donations from tribes and negotiated a gambling compact that dropped revenue-sharing with the state.

=> Read more!

Both of these will be SATURDAY!

Rob McKenna to rally GOP supporters
Attorney General Rob McKenna will be in Pierce County on Saturday, October 25th at 10:00am to rally an enthusiastic group of Republican supporters.

McKenna will appear at the Pierce County GOTV center to meet with and speak to phone bank volunteers supporting McKenna, Rossi and other GOP candidates.

What: Campaign rally with Rob McKenna
When: Saturday, October 25th at 10:00 a.m.
Where: Lakewood GOTV office
10029 S. Tacoma Way Ste. E-6
Lakewood, WA 98499

The Mass Transit Now folks also will be dropping brochures on doorsteps in Tacoma's North End, trying to drum up support for the $17.9 billion Proposition 1 measure on the ballot in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.
(I live in the North End and it's sorta like preaching to the choir: There are lots of Mass Transit Now! signs up there already.)

NEWS ADVISORY
October 24, 2008
Mass Transit Now
Alex Fryer
Communications Director
alexfryer@masstransitnow.org
206-321-9730

Pierce County Rally for Proposition 1

Seattle—Representatives of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, Sierra Club, Transportation Choices Coalition, Tacoma Streetcar Alliance and the Sound Transit board of directors meet to rally our volunteers before they canvass Tacoma neighborhoods.

WHEN: Saturday, October 25, at 10:00 AM
WHERE: Tacoma Dome Station, Link Light Rail, 424 E. 25th Street, Tacoma

Fryer says somewhere between 10 and 30 people are expected. They'll focus on precincts in the 27th Legislative District because it's "The most amount of doors in a short distance."

The first thing you have to know about this story is that Democrat Debi Srail, a history teacher at Curtis Junior High School, was only 823 votes behind incumbent Republican state Sen. Mike Carrell in the Aug. 19 primary election for the 28th Legislative Distict.

That's with 25,000 people voting. Twice that number probably will vote Nov. 4, so it's really a close race, and everyone knows it. So, that's the context.

Enter Gigi Talcott, a former teacher, and not exactly a disinterested observer in the Srail-Carrell race. Talcott is a former Republican state representative in the 28th Legislative District, wife of former Pierce County Republican Party Chairman Ron Talcott and longtime political ally of Mike Carrell.

Talcott didn't directly accuse Srail of anything. Instead, she just put a bug in the ear of Srail's boss, University Place School Superintendent Patti Banks, by asking a very damning question, based on hearsay:

"Is it true that one of your teachers, Debi Srail, had one or more University Place students make phone calls that encouraged them to lie to
further her political campaign for the WA Senate? I heard that University
Place students have been given telephone scripts that say she is their
favorite teacher, even if the student had never had Ms. Srail as a
teacher."

Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? Serious enough for a school superintendent to look into it right away, right?

To her credit, that's exactly what Banks did. It's like getting a bomb threat at school: 99.99 percent of them turn out to be false, but you have to check them out anyway.

I also looked into it, and here's what I found: There is no evidence that Srail, her campaign staff or the student volunteers did anything that Talcott implied in her e-mail "question" to the UP school superindent.

=> Read more!

This just in from FUSE and their particular take on what they call "Builder-Gate."

I'm posting it because blogs are like radio: Breaking news first.

Keep in mind it's from the vantage point of the folks who are suing the Building Industry Association Washington and the Dino Rossi camp.

I'll update later. There will be a story in our paper on Saturday, too.

For Immediate Release Oct. 24, 2008
Contact: Aaron Ostrom
Email: Aaron@fusewashington.com

Judge Upholds Lawsuit Against BIAW/Rossi, Postpones Decision on Rossi Deposition Until Monday

=> Read more!

When your last election was decided by only 133 votes, you'd probably want to do what Gov. Chris Gregoire is doing and leave everything on the field. Hence, the 26-city, 11-day tour she's starting on Saturday.

I'm sure challenger Dino Rossi will be doing the same. We'll post his schedule when we get it, especially if he spends time in our neck of the wood, Pierce, Thurston, South King and Kitsap counties.

You've got to admire the stamina of both gubernatorial candidates. I get tired just reading their itineraries. Of course, this refresher from state elections on the 2004 finish explains why they're both tireless these days.

For your files, here is a handy recap of the county-by-county tallies in the three tabulations in the 2004 Rossi-Gregoire race. Rossi won the first regular count by 261 votes, the mandatory machine recount by 42 votes and Gregoire prevailed by 129 votes after the hand recount. The judge in the election challenge added to Gregoire’s lead, for a margin of 133 votes out of 2.8 million cast. You will see both 129 and 133 used, and both are correct if stated properly. Gregoire won the office by 129 votes after the three counts were complete and final. Or, she won by 133 votes after three counts and the subsequent court challenge. I prefer the finality of the 133 number. Class dismissed. --David Ammons, Secretary of State's Office.

Here is the county-by-county list that Ammons refers to.

Here's Gregoire's weekend schedule and Rossi's schedule for today and Saturday:

For Immediate Release Media contact: Debra Carnes, 206-669-6559

Release Date: Oct. 24, 2008 Campaign office: 206-382-2008
Governor Gregoire launches “Fighting for Working Families” Tour

Governor welcomes two women governors on Sunday; will connect with voters in 26 cities over 11 days

WASHINGTON STATE – Governor Gregoire will be reaching out to voters across the state on a 26-city, 11-day tour of the state starting on Saturday, Oct. 25 in Tacoma.

=> Read more!

David Ammons, spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, passes on this update on voting in the general election.

It looks as if 10 percent of the ballots statwide -- 300,000 of 3 million -- already are in. That's 10 percent of those who are expected to vote in the Nov. 4 general election.

(Seems strange saying "Nov. 4" election when hundreds of thousands of ballots are in 12 days before the official election date.)

FYI: Here are some mail-back voting stats from the counties we’re monitoring by their Web sites, seven counties with about 65 percent of the population. Also, I learned something new by reading the King County elections site and seeing info about what amounts to another method of early voting. I was reminded that counties are required by federal law to maintain at least one poll site with voting equipment (usually touch-screen) for use by voters with handicaps -- and any voter registered in that county is free to use it. Communications Director Bobbie Egan says they’ve seen modest in-person usage of their machine at county election center at Renton. In-person voters, of course, may not cast a mail ballot as well, and the counties are able to make sure that two votes are not counted for the same person. http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/voting/earlyvoting.aspx

David Ammons
Communications Director
Office of Secretary of State
360) 902-4140

Ammons was forwarding an email from David Motz:

As of this morning, the seven counties that show counts of ballots received on their websites show a total of nearly 298,000 in so far.
(*King, Pierce, Snohomish [with lag of 1 day behind], Spokane, Clark, Yakima, Kittitas. These counties total about 65% of all voters.)

Of our nearly 3,622,000 voters, it looks like about 456,000 – or about 12% - will be poll voters (366,000 in King & 90,000 in Pierce).

As of last night, the percentage of absentee and vote by mail ballots that have come in for the seven counties are:

King................15%
Pierce..............10.5%
Snohomish...........10.5% (without Oct. 23 numbers)
Spokane.............21%
Clark...............16%
Yakima..............22%
Kittitas............23%

CAUTION: almost every number in this email can/will change.

I realize that most voters probably don't care about newspaper endorsements any longer. (If they ever did.)

But just in case you wanted a graphical representation of which papers are endorsing which candidate throughout the country, the folks at 10,000words.net have created an interactive map.

It shows the disembodied head of Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain over the city where a particular newspaper has endorsed Obama or McCain.

You can then click on the "head" to read the endorsement.

The creators said they are showing the top 100 newspapers based on circulation. It's not quite up to date, though. Over Seattle, there's only one Obama head -- for the Seattle P-I endorsement. The Seattle Times' Obama endorsement doesn't show up.

The TNT's Obama endorsement, published yesterday, doesn't show up, either.

(And yes, we are among the 100 biggest papers -- barely.)

UPDATE: TNT columnist Peter Callaghan writes in Sunday's paper that he is not a fan of newspaper endorsements.

Greg Mitchell, editor of the trade publication Editor & Publisher, takes issue with those who scoff at newspaper endorsements.

via 10,000words.net

I ran across an article in the October 2008 edition of Budget & Taxes News. They had someone called CCH Group compile information and put together a map that shows the state gas tax, sales tax and tobacco tax in each of the 50 states.

They say Washington is No. 1. Or, at least, was as of July 1, 2008. That's when the state gas tax went up by the final 1.5 cents of the 9.5-cent-a-gallon increase the Legislature approved in 2005.

I found some seemingly conflicting information. Budget and Taxes says we're No. 1 at 37.5 cents a gallon, but the Tax Foundation shows that Florida had a gas tax of 39 cents a gallon a full six months earlier, on Jan. 1.

I suspect the Tax Foundation was including some local jurisdiction taxes, whereas the Budget & Taxes chart looked only at statewide gas taxes.

UPDATE: WashDOT's Lloyd Brown sends along a June 2008 report that says we're No. 8. But it's as I suspected: The gas tax for other states includes local surcharges, too. We've had proposals to let counties levy a surcharge on the gas tax, but it hasn't happened yet.

Our WashDOT put out a report in December 2007 that said Washington was 7th in gas tax. That report said New York was 45.53 cents, California was 43.5 cents, Connecticut was 42.69 cents, Illinois was 41.56 cents, Hawaii was at 41.53 cents and Michigan was at 36.49 cents.

The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents a gallon.

Here's a link to the Tax Foundation, which compiled its information as of Jan. 1, 2008.

Darcy Burner’s campaign isn’t taking Rep. Dave Reichert’s attacks on her degree lying down.

After Reichert’s campaign raised havoc yesterday about Burner claiming she has a degree in economics, Burner’s campaign fired back this morning with a press release that says Reichert has been lying about having a four-year degree.

The Congressman earned a two-year Associate's Degree from Concordia Lutheran College, not the B.A. listed on the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress Web site.

But it looks like he hasn’t claimed to have a four-year degree anywhere else. He said his degree was an A.A. in the information he provided for The News Tribune’s election guide, and the biographies on his campaign Web site and his U.S. House Web site say only that he “graduated” from Concordia.

Reichert’s campaign spokeswoman, Amanda Halligan, said the B.A. reference on the Congress.gov site is just a mistake.

“This is obviously a distraction technique by the Burner campaign,” Halligan said. “This is the difference between a typo on a Web site that is not ours and a pattern of deception from Darcy Burner, who has consistently touted her ‘degree in economics from Harvard.’”

As I noted in a blog post yesterday, Burner’s degree is actually in computer science with a “special field” in economics, but she has failed to make that distinction on the campaign trail. Unlike Reichert, she's mentioned her degree numerous times at campaign events and debates, especially when talking about her ability to deal with today's problems in the economy.

The latest non-partisan SurveyUSA poll in the race between Rep. Dave Reichert and Democratic challenger Darcy Burner shows Burner ahead by 4 percentage points.

The poll, commissioned by KING 5 in Seattle, showed Burner leading Reichert 50 percent to 46 percent among 700 voters contacted earlier this week.

The last independent poll in the race for Washington’s 8th Congressional District was also a SurveyUSA poll, which showed Reichert leading Burner 54 percent to 44 percent in early September.

Burner’s campaign pollsters have been saying for weeks that she’s taken the lead, but have only been able to cite their internal polls and a poll by the partisan Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

See the detailed poll results here.

Pierce County Democrats have a new video encouraging voters to rank their party’s candidates first and second under the county’s new ranked choice voting system.

“Ranked choice voting. Do you know what to do? Vote one, two blue,” the narrator of the video says. You can watch it here.

Thanks to Kelly Haughton for pointing this out.

Reporter Melissa Santos writes:

Rep. Dave Reichert’s re-election campaign is up in arms today about Democratic opponent Darcy Burner’s claims she earned a degree in economics.

Burner’s Harvard degree is actually in computer science with a special field in economics -- something I noted in my article on the race last weekend.

Reichert’s campaign spokeswoman, Amanda Halligan, today accused Burner of lying to voters about the issue. Burner is challenging Reichert a second time for the chance to represent Washington's Eighth Congressional District, which includes Seattle's Eastside suburbs and East Pierce County.

“She’s played the voters for fools,” Halligan said. “She’s lied on her resume.”

It’s true that Burner has played up having a degree in economics in two
campaign debates this month. Burner’s speech was the same on both Oct. 8 and
October 10: “I loved economics so much that I got a degree in it,” she said.

Burner campaign spokesman Sandeep Kaushik told me shortly afterward that Burner's degree is indeed a computer science degree, but said the “special field” in economics is like a minor.

“It’s a specialization – it’s more than just taking a few classes,” Kaushik said at the time.

=> Read more!

At the City Council meeting last night, Mayor Bill Baarsma interrupted Planning Commissioner David Boe to ask: What's the smell.

For a minute or so, a strong, chemical smell had begun to permeate council chambers. As citizens and city council members sniffed, a security guard reported: It smelled stronger in the chambers than anywhere else.

Baarsma adjourned the meeting swiftly.

I called city spokesman Rob McNair-Huff today to find out what was going on. Turns out, an air intake grate on the roof had either blown off or not been attached properly amid the construction. The smell was roofing sealant.

"They fixed it ... there's work going on on the roof above the third floor to fix that roof, and that's been ongoing for a while. I don't know what caused the cover to get blown off of that intake vent, but that's what caused it."

At least there was no foul play.

I couldn't praise Rep. Pat Lantz when she first announced her retirement from the Legislature this spring -- at least, not until I was sure she really was going to retire and wasn't going to run for re-election.

But now that she's really walking off into the sunset, I'm glad it's with a book in hand, figuratively speaking.

Lantz, who lives on Raft Island, is a rare legislator. I've been covering the Legislature since 1990, and she tops my list of what citizens really want and need in a representative. Smart. Selfless. Almost no ego. I think others had to tell her that she should try to take credit for her work because it probably never occurred to her.

You would not have guessed that she is a lawyer.

All she ever wanted to do, it seemed to me, was apply her substantial intellect to a problem in the hope of solving it. And she approached it all with a kind of girlish exuberance. I can't find a better way to describe her genuine glee over encountering or learning something new.

Many Tacoma Narrows Bridge commuters will complain about the tolls and how much it costs them to drive across the bridge. But few of them realize that Lantz inherited that issue and still managed to save those bridge commuters at least $400 million in tolls. (That's not my figure. That's what state Treasurer Mike Murphy told me a few months ago.)

Lantz, with no small measure of help from House Speaker Frank Chopp, forced their colleagues in the House and Senate through sheer stubbornness to have the state borrow money to pay for the bridge, instead of letting Bechtel and Co. borrow the money at a much higher rate.

Here's the annoucement of Lantz's appointment to the Heritage Center. With apologies to Brian Zylstra, he buried the lead.

McGregor elected chair of Heritage Center Trust’s Board of Trustees

OLYMPIA – Alex McGregor, President and CEO of the McGregor Company in Colfax, has been elected as chair of the Board of Trustees for the Washington State Heritage Center Trust.

=> Read more!

A guy named Steve Marquis (steve.marquis@comcast.net)
has challenged whether Obama should even be on Washington's ballot. He's suggesting that maybe Obama was not "native born." So, he's trying to get Obama disqualified.

The guy's actually going to get a hearing in King County Superior Court, although it's doubtful anything will come from it. It's at 10 a.m. Monday before Judge Erlick, Room W 1060, in the King County Courthouse.

If you want to read a report debunking the notion that Obama shouldn't be on the ballot, check out this entry on Snopes.com.

Steve Excell, the No. 2 guy in Sam Reed's office, sent an e-mail to someone who inquired about the challenge and I'm posting it here to give folks an idea of what's going on -- at least, from the Secretary of State's Office perspective.

Between August 25-28, 2008, The Democratic National Central Committee held their annual convention in Denver and nominated Barack Obama for President.

US Constitution, Article II, Section 1, says: No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.

=> Read more!

I know that Pierce County has become pivotal in the rematch between Gov. Chris Gregoire and GOP challenger Dino Rossi, but this is getting ridiculous.

The guv was in the Proctor District on Saturday, at Cheney Stadium on Sunday...and she's coming up Thursday for something with some locals to shred some documents (to protect against identity theft.)

I sent Aaron Toso, her campaign press secretary, an e-mail, saying if she plans any more trips to Tacoma, I'll have to make up the bed in the spare room..

UPDATE: This just in from Gregoire 2008:

If you include this week and next, we’ll be in Eatonville, Lakewood, Fife and Gig Harbor, as well. We love all of Pierce County.
Aaron Toso
Press Secretary
Gregoire 2008 Campaign

I guess I'd better make up the spare beds for the whole entourage.

=> Read more!

HOT (high occupancy toll) lanes have sometimes been dubbed “Lexus Lanes” because of the belief that only rich drivers would be able to afford them. Poor people would be stuck in traffic because they couldn't afford the tolls.

That's how the thinking goes in some quarters. So, Washington Department of Transportation actually tracked the make of vehicles that used the HOT lanes on Highway 167 for May, June and July. Engineer Patty Rubstello said it was pretty easy to do. When motorists got their transponders, the make and model of their car was put on file. So they just added up how many times the drivers of each kind of car paid a toll to use the HOT lanes.

The most common make was Ford (7,500), followed by Chevrolet (6,800), Toyota (2,500) and Honda (2,400).

Lexus finished way back in the pack, about No. 15 or so by my calculation. Of course, that tracking may have dispelled the literal notion that HOT lanes are 'Lexus Lanes," but that particular study doesn't tell you whether those Fords, Chevys and Toyotas were the $40,000 SUV's or your $400 "beater."

Here's the story I wrote for Thursday's paper:

Motorists driving on Highway 167 were willing to pay $1 to shave 10 minutes off their commute when traffic was most congested.
That’s what state Department of Transportation is reporting after the first five months of operation of the HOT (high occupancy toll) lanes between Auburn and Renton.
DOT engineers Craig Stone and Patty Rubstello gave an update to members of the Washington Transportation Commission on Tuesday. Highlights of their report:

=> Read more!

State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser is calling on Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy to apologize for what he calls a misuse of taxpayers money.

McCarthy wrote a signed note to voters on a survey that accompanies mail-in ballots sent last week. Critics say the note amounts to electioneering; state officials say there’s nothing wrong with it.

In a letter dated today, Esser gives McCarthy until 3 p.m. to make a public apology or “I will be forced to pursue further action.”

Here’s a copy of the letter. Stay tuned.

Update: At 6:06 p.m., we got the following update from Matthew Lundh, the state Republican Party's communications director:

At 3:28 p.m. this afternoon Trish Adams, Assistant to the Auditor, called me on behalf of Auditor McCarthy and informed me that they had just discovered the fax and e-mail I sent to Auditor McCarthy shortly before noon. Ms. Adams told me that Auditor McCarthy had been out of the office since 11 a.m., was not expected back for the rest of the day, and inquired if she could get an extension of my 3:00 p.m. deadline for a response. I said I would consider the request and get back to her. At 4:39 p.m. I left a voicemail for Ms. Adams, allowing Auditor McCarthy until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday) to respond to my letter.

He then went on to note how "startled" he was that McCarthy would miss an afternoon at the office during such a "critical time" before the election.

Update2: On Thursday afternoon Esser sent a letter to County Council Chairman Terry Lee asking him to "take immediate measures to stop Auditor Pat McCarthy from further promoting her name and candidacy with tax dollars."

Yesterday I called Pat McCarthy’s fellow county executive candidates to get their comment on the auditor’s decision to include a signed note to voters in a survey that accompanied mail-in ballots. The responses – or lack of responses – were telling.

Shawn Bunney didn’t return my call. Instead, Bunney campaign spokeswoman Charla Neuman called and offered only this on McCarthy’s correspondence: “I think it’s up to the taxpayers to decide whether it’s a good use for their money.”

But Neuman told the Associated Press: “I don’t know any other candidate who gets to put self-promotional material in a ballot envelope.”

Though I asked the question several times in different ways, Calvin Goings declined to directly criticize McCarthy or to directly question the inclusion of the note with the ballot. The closest he got: “I think it’s very clear voters are hungry for a new direction, not the cronyism of old Pierce County politics.” As to whether the note was appropriate, Goings said: “I’ll let the voters and readers draw their own conclusions.”

However, Goings was more direct when speaking with an Associated Press reporter. “Goings said the mailing smacks of `old school cronyism’ and `people looking out for themselves, not the interests of Pierce County taxpayers,’” AP reported.

Mike Lonergan was the only candidate willing to directly take on McCarthy when he spoke with me. “I don’t know what the rules are, but I know what common sense and fair play are,” Lonergan said. “It doesn’t pass the test.”

Why the reluctance of some candidates to pan McCarthy to the hometown newspaper? Maybe it has something to do with the theory that negative campaigning can backfire in a race decided by ranked choice voting.

For the record, we ran the AP quotes in today’s story.

This from the Associated Press ...

Presidential candidate Ralph Nader says the Puget Sound region has spent too much money building sports stadiums while, he says, schools and hospitals are crumbling.

In a Tuesday night speech in Seattle he criticized the leverage that billionaires like Paul Allen have in local government. And as for the departed Sonics, Nader said “good riddance.”

The Seattle Times reports Nader called for prosecution of those on Wall Street responsible for the current financial crisis. He says the $700 billion bailout package rewards deceivers for looting and swindling.

In his fourth presidential campaign, Nader is on the ballot in 45 states including Washington.

Political rivals say Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy is promoting herself in correspondence accompanying mail-in ballots that began arriving in mailboxes in recent days.

McCarthy, who oversees county elections, is one of four candidates for county executive. In her capacity as auditor she solicited voter feedback on the county’s new ranked-choice voting system in a survey included with mail-in ballots. McCarthy wrote and signed a brief note prefacing the survey.

McCarthy said she’s just doing her job, which includes seeking voter input on a new voting system that allows voters to rank their top three choices.

“I run the auditor’s office with great integrity, transparency and openness,” McCarthy said. “I stand by my record.”

Other candidates for county executive say putting her name on correspondence included with the ballot gives McCarthy an unfair advantage.

“I don’t know what the rules are, but I know what common sense and fair play are,” said executive candidate Mike Lonergan. “It doesn’t pass the test.”

=> Read more!

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels will square off against Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman in a debate over the merits of $17.9 billion Proposition 1.

The debate will be at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow at the University of Washington, Parrington Hall, Room 309. It will be hosted by the Evans School of Public Affairs.

Proposition 1 would add more Express buses, expand commuter rail and build 36 miles of light rail in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties between 2009 and 2023.

King County is first with 1,102,152 registered voters and Snohomish County is third with 371,356.

The state is 100,000 higher than its previous record with 3,609,157 voters.

David Ammons at the state elections office sent out this memo:

Washington has just surpassed the 3.6 million mark for registered voters for the first time in state history. The old mark, set in 2004, was 3,514,078. Today’s fresh numbers, reflecting some, but not all, of the in-person registrations completed by the Oct. 20 deadline, show 3,609,157 … and climbing. The fresh daily number will appear at the top of www.vote.wa.gov , the state’s General Election voter-education page, so check in each day. We are now nearly 100,000 above the previous record, even after numerous registrations were cancelled or put on inactive status as a result of roll review. Since the state launched a computerized database in January of 2006, about 482,000 registrations have been cancelled or made inactive, including about 160,000 duplicate, deceased or felon voters. As of mid-October, about 713,000 new or re-activated registrations were posted during the same time period.

National polls are showing Washington's governor race as a virtual dead heat, but Seattle pollster Stuart Elway continues to show Gov. Chris Gregoire with a lead over challenger Dino Rossi.

The latest Elway Poll shows Gregoire increasing her lead over Rossi to 51 percent to 39 percent, up from 50 percent to 42 percent in September.

By comparison, a Survey USA poll conductd for KING-TV and KATU-TV released last week showed Gregoire with 48 percent and Rossi with 47 percent.

A Rasmussen poll released Oct. 3 showed Gregoire and Rossi both with 48 percent.

The latest Elway results are exactly at the average of the results over the last three months, Elway reports. Ten percent of voters are undecided in the Elway Poll, a figure that's higher than the other polls.

The results are based on telephone interviews with 405 registered voters conducted between Oct. 16-19. The margin of error is 5 percent.

Voters were asked who they intended to vote for, unlike in previous polls where they were asked whether they were inclined to "definitely" or "probably" vote for each candidate.

Gregoire kept all of her "probables" from September and added 1 percent from the undecided column, according to The Elway Poll. Rossi lost 3 percent overall.

Four years ago, none of the polls forecast a 133-vote margin of victory for Gregoire.

In October 2004, Elway's poll was closer to matching with other polls at the time. An Elway poll conducted Oct. 14-16, 2004 put Gregoire ahead of Rossi 45 percent to 38 percent.

Strategic Vision put Gregoire ahead of Rossi 47 percent to 42 percent, while a Mason-Dixon poll put Gregoire ahead 48 percent to 43 percent.

Click ahead for more details from the new Elway poll.

=> Read more!

Stuart Elway's latest poll, which contacted 405 registered voters Oct. 16-19, shows that Tim Eyman's Initiative 985 (traffic congestion) is leading 49-33 with 18 percent undecided.

Elway's poll has a 5 percent margin for error. (If you did the poll 100 times, it would turn out this way 95 times.) Elways said this is his last poll before the election.

Booth Gardner's Initiative 1000 (assisted suicide), is leading 55-37, with 8 percent undecided.

The SEIU's Initiative 1029 (homecare worker training), is leading 72-10, with 18 percent undecided.

(My colleague, Jason Hagey, is posting an item about the governor's race, so I'm looking down the ballot.)

There are so, so many undecideds with only two weeks to go.

"That's what keeps them up at night," Elway said of the other statewide office seekers.

Rob McKenna leads John Ladenburg 48-29 in the attorney general race, with 23 percent undecided.

=> Read more!

By now, many Pierce County residents have received their November ballots in the mail. Those ballots feature a new system for electing candidates to county offices called ranked choice voting. Under that system, voters rank candidates in order of preference. The News Tribune is answering questions about ranked choice voting.

Q: If I rank my favorite candidate first, second and third on my ballot, is the candidate more likely to win?

A: No. Under ranked choice voting, your second and third choices only count if your first choice is eliminated.

Let’s say you picked Candidate A first, second and third. If Candidate A gets a majority of first-place votes, Candidate A wins the election, and your second and third choices never come into play.

If Candidate A is eliminated, then voting officials will turn to your second choice. But your second choice is also Candidate A, who has already been eliminated. So voting officials will look to your third choice. Again, you picked Candidate A, who has been eliminated.

Once Candidate A is eliminated, he or she is gone for good. Getting your second and third-choice votes won’t “revive” the candidate.

Q: What if I choose Candidate A as my first choice but don’t list a second or third choice?

A: It doesn’t make Candidate A more likely to win the election. If Candidate A is eliminated, he or she is gone for good. By not picking a second or third choice, you just cost yourself a chance to pick among the remaining candidates.

Of course, you’re free to choose only one candidate if you just can’t bring yourself to vote for anyone else. But if you can live with other candidates, the smartest thing to do is to rank them in order of preference. Even if your first choice doesn’t win, you’re more likely to wind up with someone you can live with.

Got a question about ranked choice voting? Contact reporter David Wickert at david.wickert@thenewstribune.com.

For more information on ranked choice voting, visit the county auditor's Web site or call the office at 253-798-VOTE.

And after the governor leaves, the legislative candidates will shred your documents, or something like that.

UPDATE: The location changed from the UP Shopping Center to Clover Park Technical College. Read on...

Governor Gregoire rallies with Pierce County Democrats

Join Reps. Troy Kelley, Tami Green, Dennis Flannigan, Steve Kirby, Steve Conway, Jeannie Darneille and Sens. Debbie Regala, Rosa Franklin and 28th LD Senate candidate, Debi Srail. The momentum is building for Democrats in Pierce County – let's send them to Olympia to fight for us!

Please join Governor Gregoire at Clover Park Tech College – Sharon McGavick Center, 4500 Steilacoom Blvd SW, Lakewood, WA 98499. Doors open at 8:00 and the event starts at 9:00 am. Following the event, participants will canvass the county and get-out- the-vote!

Please RSVP to Chuck Rowling at crowling@chrisgregoire.com or 253-683-4187.

Here's the earlier and erroneous release...

State Representatives Troy Kelley and Tami Green, Senate Candidate Debi Srail to Host Governor Gregoire and Event to Stop Identity Theft

University Place, Washington – Please join State Representatives Troy
Kelley and Tami Green, and Senate Candidate Debi Srail in welcoming Governor Gregoire at 9:00 am on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at the University Place Shopping Center (8415 27th St. W- at Grandview Dr.).

Following the visit of Governor Gregoire, there will be a shredding truck available for people from 10:00 am-1:00 pm to destroy personal documents containing sensitive information: old bank records, receipts, bills, binders, floppy disks, cds and other materials to put a stop to identity
theft. All items will be immediately shredded while you wait.

That's what a study by the Washington State Department of Transportation concluded after interviewing trucking companies. And that doesn't include the lost wages.

All of that loss was from 8 days of closures: 4 days on Interstate 5 around Chehalis when it flooded Dec. 3-7, 2007 and 4 days on Interstate 90, when Snoqualmie Pass was blocked Jan. 29-Feb. 2 by two avalanches.

Naturally, DOT says is makes the case for finishing I-90 project, which would route the freeway further away from the avalanche chutes.

From the study:

A total of 2,758 surveys from the trucking industry and freight-dependent sectors were received and analyzed. The results of the surveys showed that last winter’s I-5 and I-90 road closures cost freight-dependent businesses nearly $75 million. More than $47 million of the total loss is attributable to the I-5 closure, with almost $28 million attributable to the I-90 closure. The closures were the result of severe weather that overwhelmed the roadways and disrupted freight and passenger movements across the state and West Coast. In all, the highways were closed for eight days—four days for I-5 and four days for I-90.

Here's the report by DOT.

And here's the news release from last week.

Report confirms WSDOT roads are key to freight economics
Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008
Contact: Tonia Buell, WSDOT Communications, 360.705.7439
Barb Ivanov, WSDOT Freight Systems Division Director, 206.716.1166

OLYMPIA – A new report released this week by the Washington State Department of Transportation shows just how important road maintenance and operations are to the state’s economy.

=> Read more!

Washington gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi is the guest speaker tomorrow at the King-Pierce County Farm Bureau annual dinner and banquet.

Rossi has the endorsement of the Washington State Farm Bureau's political action committee, and he had a "near-perfect" voting record with the farm bureau during his tenure as a state senator, according to the group's press release.

"Dino Rossi understands that in order for agriculture to be successful in Washington, it needs a business climate that is favorable and a regulatory climate that is not suffocating for farmers and ranchers," said PAC chairman Bob Stuhlmiller.

Tickets for the carved prime rib and chicken breast dijon buffet cost $25 for farm bureau members, and $35 for non-members. Pay at the door, but call Gerald Sorensen at 253-862-8868 to reserve a seat.

A social hour begins at 6:30 p.m. Dinner is at 7 p.m.

The location: The Liberty Theater, 116 West Main, Puyallup.

U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks and his challenger, Doug Cloud, are scheduled to attend a candidates' forum tonight in Tacoma.

The event, sponsored and conducted by the League of Women Voters of Pierce County, will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at The News Tribune, Baker Rooms, 1950 S State St.

This is Cloud's third consecutive campaign for the seat Dicks has held since 1977. Our sister paper, The Peninsula Gateway, had this piece in July about what motivates Cloud to keep running.

Cloud and two other candidates who were ousted in the primary have been frustrated by the veteran congressman's refusal to meet in candidate forums until after the primary. And even then, he waited until just a couple of days before ballots were mailed before meeting Cloud in a pair of forums last week. Here is an excerpt from the Port Townsend Leader's story from one of those events:

"We have the authority to decide where spending shall occur," said Dicks, who has been in Congress for 32 years, about earmarks. "Every one of those items that I mentioned were requested in Port Townsend and Jefferson County," Dicks said of funding he helped win.

"Earmarks are a cancer," said Cloud, who was critical of Republicans and Democrats who have engaged in it. He called the practice "corrupt."

"I'm a real Republican," said Cloud, naming Milton Friedman, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan as examples of what that means. "Chamber of commerce Republicans have ruined my party," said Cloud.

Cloud said he has opposed President Bush, except for his tax cuts. "He doesn't know any more about economics than my opponent."

"I would remind my opponent he is yet to fill out his application to run for Congress with the Federal Election Commission," said Dicks. Cloud said that comment was "foolish," and that his application was enroute.

"The system rewards seniority, not competence," said Cloud. He accused Dicks and other of voting to "prop up the housing and stock markets for another two weeks to get re-elected." He asserted that anyone in the room could do a better job in Congress than Dicks.

"I agree with the need for change in Congress," said Dicks, saying the change would come with a President Obama. "Give us a chance," he said, if Democrats can win a bigger majority in Congress. "We'll do our best."

"You have a big stake in my seniority," said Dicks. He noted that his position on key Congressional committees enables him to look out for the Olympic National Park, climate change, and other issues of importance to his constituents.

You can read the Leader's full story here.

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign introduced an online tax calculator yesterday that purportedly shows how much a taxpayer will save under Obama's tax plan versus rival presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's tax plan.

It asks for your annual income (within a range), whether you file jointly or single, how many dependents you have, and how much you owe on a mortgage (if you don't itemize), and a couple other questions.

Then you click a button and within seconds you see the results.

Kind of like one of those car insurance Web sites that shows the rates for all its competitors.

You can try it out here.

Obama claims that 95 percent of working families will see a tax reduction under his plan. Anyone save more under the McCain plan according to the calculator?

What struck me was the heavy ballots for Pierce County. The conventional ballot and the Ranked Choice Voting ballot for county executive, council and other county races.

I used to be a go-to-the-polls voter, until one year when I had to work past 8 p.m. and didn't have a chance to vote. So, I signed up for vote-by-mail.

Auditor Pat McCarthy used to send out a "I voted today" sticker, so I could wear it to the office and annoy traditional voters like Peter Callaghan.

On the other hand, at least this time I didn't have to put a stamp on my ballot because the county paid postage. And it was heavy, too. Definitely a 2-stamp ballot, at least.

We've added 28,100 jobs since September 2007.

OLYMPIA – The unemployment rate in Washington took a dip in September to 5.8 percent, down from 6 percent in August. Some 186,810 people (not seasonally adjusted) were unemployed and seeking work in Washington last month.

Year over year, Washington added 28,100 nonfarm jobs from September 2007 to September 2008, a growth rate of 1 percent. By comparison, jobs nationwide shrank by 0.7 percent in the same time period.

=> Read more!

I posted an item on the blog last week about how the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development appeared to be going ahead with a $35,000 personal service contract in spite of a freeze imposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Turns out, that particular contract is under review, said CTED spokeswoman Penny Thomas.

Although Gregoire's budget office "approved" the contract extension, it hasn't been signed yet, Thomas said. As are ALL contracts, she said.

The $35,000 was to extend until the end of December, a contract for a Belgium company to continue promoting tourism in Washington by trying to get citizens of The Netherlands and neighboring countries to come here and spend money.

Budget director Victor Moore said economic development, which includes tourism, is exempt from the freeze.

The state is facing a $3.2 billion budget deficit for 2009-11 and Gregoire has ordered state agencies to find $330 million in savings this year, which should translate into $604 million in savings for the next biennium.

I took a call from a reader who didn't like the article that Dave Wickert and I wrote for today's paper about the Biden rally yesterday in Tacoma.

Among his complaints was the fact that it didn't mention anything about Biden's prediction that Obama, if he is elected president, will quickly be tested by some kind of crisis.

I told the caller that I didn't hear Biden say that. He was astonished that I could have missed it.

So I fired up the Internet and found this blog entry from the New York Times. It says in part:

“Mark my words,” Mr. Biden warned at the Seattle fund-raiser, according to reports from network producers traveling with him, “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember, I said it standing here, if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

The comments attributed to Biden are obviously newsworthy. I would have reported them if I heard them. But they were made in Seattle, not Tacoma.

Pierce County executive candidate Calvin Goings has picked up endorsements from fellow County Councilman Tim Farrell and from Tacoma City Councilwoman Lauren Walker. Here’s the release:

Local Leaders Support Goings Momentum

In the final weeks of the campaign for Pierce County Executive, two key local leaders have given their endorsement to Calvin Goings. Tim Farrell, Pierce County Councilmember, and Lauren Walker, Tacoma City Councilmember, are endorsing Goings' campaign citing his private sector management experience, 18 years of public service, and his bold vision for a more prosperous Pierce County.

=> Read more!

During his appearance yesterday at Cheney Stadium, Joe Biden took note of President John F. Kennedy's 1963 speech at the same ball park.

Biden, who was joined on stage by Gov. Chris Gregoire and U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, also noted that Kennedy was joined by U.S. Sens. Warren Magnuson and Henry "Scoop" Jackson.

For those who missed it, here's the article that the TNT's Cole Cosgrove wrote last month about the Kennedy visit as part of the paper's series commemorating its 125th anniversary.

Cole opened his piece this way:

When President John F. Kennedy arrived at Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium on Sept. 27, 1963, a 14-year-old named John waited with his camera ready.

The ninth-grader gained admittance to the roped-off press area by volunteering to take pictures for his Jason Lee Junior High School newspaper.

Also there, sitting in the front row usually reserved for the hard-boiled White House press corps, an enthusiastic 21-year-old University of Puget Sound senior named Bill held his notepad ready as he awaited the president’s entrance.

I saw John the "photographer" at the stadium yesterday. He's running for Attorney General now and spoke to crowd.

I didn't notice Bill the "reporter," but I'm guessing he was somewhere in the crowd, as well.

UPDATE: From the comments section, confirmation that Bill was there.

I’m catching up on my reading this morning and found three interesting takes on Pierce County issues in local publications.

• On his blog, ranked choice voting advocate Kelly Haughton speculates that executive candidate Calvin Goings’ recent attacks on fellow Democrat Pat McCarthy will backfire.

Haughton holds to the notion that ranked choice voting penalizes negative campaigning. According to that theory, unless you can win a majority of first-place votes, you’re going to need the second-choice votes of your opponents to win the election. If you’ve alienated the supporters of your rivals, you’re not going to get their votes.

Or so the theory goes. Read more of Haughton’s thoughts here.

• The Weekly Volcano takes a critical look at Pierce County’s enforcement of wetlands regulations in an article here.

• The Tacoma Weekly profiles the candidates for the County Council’s District 4 seat, which pits incumbent Tim Farrell against challenger Ken Paulson. Read it here.

I found two Republicans on NARAL's list of endorsements: Marcia McCraw, who is running against incumbent Lt. Gov. Brad Owen. Owen did not get an endorsement. And Steve Litzow, a Republican running for the state House seat being vacated by Rep. Fred Jarrett, D-Mercer Island. Jarrett is running for Senate.

The abortion rights organization gave a dual endorsement in the 41st Legislative District race: Litzow and Democrat Marcie Maxwell.

NARAL also endorsed Initiative 1000, the Death With Dignity ballot measure. I suppose that's consistent for a group that advocates for "choice."

2008 Federal Candidates

U.S. President
Barack Obama (D)

=> Read more!

The Pierce County volunteers for John McCain's campaign say they have a bunch of signs, if you want one.

Team McCain

A surprise shipment of over 200 4'x4' McCain/Palin signs arrived in Washington this week and we need help getting them up. If you have/know of a location where a bright blue and yellow McCain/Palin sign needs to go; let me know. We need these signs put up in the highest traffic areas across Pierce County this week. If you know of a place, please email me (wavolunteer@johnmccain.com) with a brief description of where you think it should go.

=> Read more!

Biden just finished. He spoke for 42 minutes.

Posted by David Wickert

Biden scored big points with the crowd by rebutting a comment he said Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin made yesterday in North Carolina. Apparently she said she was glad to visit a "pro-American" part of the country.

Biden said that's an example of the kind of divisive politics the Republicans have resorted to in this campaign.

"North Carolina is pro-American, but Tacoma is not?" Biden said.

After criticizing his opponents at length, he added, "We're all Americans."

Posted by David Wickert

Biden couldn't resist mentioning Joe the Plumber, who dominated campaign news this week. But he says he's more worried about Joe the teacher, Joe the salesman and Joe the clerk, among others. He said an Obama-Biden administration would work to raise the minimum wage.

Posted by David Wickert

Seen on a sweatshirt at the Biden rally: "Cute girls love Obama."

Posted by David Wickert

One of the purposes of the Biden appearance at Cheney Stadium today was to boost Chris Gregoire's re-election campaign. While Obama has a good lead in most polls, Gregoire is running either even or only slightly ahead of GOP challenger Dino Rossi.

To that end he tried to connect Gregoire to the change message that has been the center of the national campaign.

"The kind of change that Barack Obama and I and trying to bring will be lost here in the state of Washington if you don't reelect Chris Gregoire."

He also warned against relying on polls.

"Polls don't determine the outcome of elections. Votes do," Biden said. And Gregoire, he said, knows that better than any governor in the nation.

"Every vote counts," Biden said.

Biden got a big response by mentioning today's news that former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Obama today. Biden said the endorsement of "one of the most respected men to ever wear the uniform" belies Republican arguments that Obama is not ready to be commander in chief.

"Barack Obama will be a commander in chief we can all respect," Biden said.

Posted by David Wickert

Biden just started speaking, getting a huge ovation from a crows that we figure is about 12,000.

"This is as close as I've come to playing pro baseball," Biden told the crowd.

He left the microphone and put his arm around Gregoire and pointed to Sen.s Murray and Cantwell and said: "I'll tell you why you're here. Where I come from, this is called power."

And he joked that the stadium was temporarily renamed from Cheney Stadium to "Obama-Biden Stadium."

"If it was Cheney Stadium, you'd never be able to find it. It would be at an undisclosed location."

Gov. Chris Gregoire is speaking now. But not everyone is hanging on these politicians' every word. My heart goes out to the two young boys playing with Hot Wheels cars while the crowd shouts "Yes we can!" around them.

Posted by David Wickert

Patty Murray is taking her shots now.

"We can't just sit back and hope they're going to win on Nov. 4. There's simply too much at stake," Murray said.

Her biggest applause line: "We are going to say yes to ending this war and brining our troops home."

Posted by David Wickert

Sen. Maria Cantwell took the stage a few minutes ago. She's scoring some big points with the crowd by comparing Joe Biden to Vice President Dick Cheney.

"Joe Biden will be a different vice president than the one we just had," she said.

Another applause line:

"If you want to keep your job, vote for Barack and Joe."

Posted by David Wickert

Not that there's much doubt about who the folks attending today's Joe Biden rally support for president. But Sheilia Bachler of Tacoma wears her choices on here sleeve, her hat, here necklace and her ponytail.

Bachler came to the rally with three Barack Obama pins braided in her long ponytail. She wound up with five more waiting for the rally to begin.

"I never thought I would see the day where we could have a black president in my lifetime," said Bachler, who is African American.

But Bachler said her choice isn't simply about skin color. She wants change, and she doesn't think John McCain - who she described as angry - can deliver.

As for Biden, she likes the experience he brings to the Democratic ticket.

"He's quite handsome, too," she added.

Posted by David Wickert

The downside of not allowing home-made signs into a political rally seems to be boring signs.

Amid all the "Pierce County 'hearts' Obama" and "Yes Hope" signs, I've only noticed a few that are mildly interesting:

"This Joe's for Real"

"Barack my world"

and "Barack 'n Roll"

It's almost 2:20 and folks are still coming into the stadium. The thousands who have been here for a while broke out in the wave a few minutes ago.

Now they're chanting "Let's go Joe!"

No sign of Biden yet.

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith told those gathering at the Biden rally that they should ignore any news about a big lead in the presidential race.

"We all have to be paranoid for 16 more days," the Tacoma Democrat said. "Someone wrote a book called 'Only the Paranoid Survive.' I don't know if it's that bad but we have to act as though we're two votes behind."

State and local Democratic politicians took advantage of the big crowd at Cheney Stadium this afternoon to press the flesh.

County Councilman and executive candidate Calvin Goings seemed determined to shake the hands of everyone in line. Councilman Tim Farrell sought votes for his re-election and pitched Barbara Gelman for assessor-treasurer.

Inside, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks and others warmed up the crowd. As of 2:11 p.m., folks were still waiting and clamoring for Joe Biden. Keep checking back for updates.

Posted by David Wickert

Waiting in line to see Joe Biden, Sue Richardson of Burley remembered seeing another Democrat at Cheney Stadium: John F. Kennedy.

Richardson said she saw Kennedy speak here when he was running for president in 1960. She was a teen-ager.

"There was an electricity in the air," she remembered. "I remember exactly where I was standing, looking up at him."

"It was a bright day and it just seemed like he was the center of the brightness," Richardson said.

She sees similar qualities in Barack Obama. She likes his energy and positive outlook.

Posted by David Wickert

Cheney Stadium is nearly full and the crowd is waiting for Joe Biden. Norm Dicks and other Democratic luminaries have been warming up the crowd, which filled the parking line before it filled the stadium.

Shortly after the gates opened at noon, thousands crowded a line that snaked around the Cheney Stadium parking lot. Barack Obama buttons and t-shirts were nearly as common as shoes on feet.

Derrek Berkompus of Sumner wore an "NEA for Obama" t-shirt. That's NEA as in National Education Association, the teacher's union. He's taught school in Sumner for 12 years.

"I don't need eight more years of the same," Berkompus said as he waited in line.

Further up the line, Dan Herman of University Place bragged of being "Dan the Plumber." He owns Paradise Environmental Plumbing and supports Obama.

"I started working in '76. Most of what I installed was American made," Herman said. "Now it's mostly not."

Posted by David Wickert

The New York Times has an interesting story today that involves Federal Way-based World Vision. At issue is a grant that was issued even though federal law prohibits giving money to religious groups that only hire people who share the same faith. In this case, World Vision only hires Christians.

What do you think? Here is the story:

BUSH AIDES SAY FAITH-BASED HIRING DOESN’T BAR U.S. AID

By CHARLIE SAVAGE
New York Times News Service

WASHINGTON — In a newly disclosed legal memorandum, the Bush administration says it can bypass laws that forbid giving taxpayer money to religious groups that only hire staff members who share their faith.

The administration, which has sought to lower barriers between church and state through its religion-based initiative offices, made the claim in a 2007 Justice Department memorandum from the Office of Legal Counsel. It was quietly posted on the department’s Web site this week.

The statutes for some grant programs do not impose antidiscrimination conditions on their financing, and the administration had previously allowed such programs to give taxpayer money to groups that only hire people of a particular religion.

But the memorandum goes further, drawing a sweeping conclusion that even federal programs subject to antidiscrimination laws can give money to groups that discriminate.

The document signed off on a $1.5 million grant to World Vision, a group that hires only Christians, for salaries of staff members running a program that helps “at-risk youth” avoid gangs. The grant was from a Justice Department program created by a statute that forbids discriminatory hiring for the positions it is financing.

But the memorandum said the government could bypass those provisions because of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It permits exceptions to a federal law if obeying it would impose a “substantial burden” on people’s ability to freely exercise their religion. The memorandum concluded that requiring World Vision to hire non-Christians as a condition of the grant would create such a burden.

But several law professors who specialize in religious issues criticized the administration’s argument as legally dubious. Among them, Ira C. Lupu, the co-director of the Project on Law and Religious Institutions at George Washington University Law School, said the memorandum’s reasoning is “a very big stretch.”

=> Read more!

A colleague reports that the 7-Eleven down the street from The News Tribune has run out of Obama coffee cups. It reportedly has "scads" of McCain cups but nobody is filling.

This data is consistent with the "7-Election '08" Web site, which reports Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain 62-38 percent in Washington state.

Obama is leading 60-40 percent nationwide.

McCain only appears to lead in two states -- North Carolina and New Hampshire.

But there are a whole bunch of states on the 7-Election electoral map that aren't in the Obama or McCain column. Are there really states that don't have 7-Eleven?

The two candidates for Pierce County Council District 3 cited traffic congestion as a top priority at a public forum this afternoon.

Incumbent Roger Bush, R-Graham, and challenger Bruce Lachney, an Eatonville Democrat, spoke to the Puyallup-Sumner Chamber of Commerce at the Best Western Park Plaza in South Hill.

Bush said he was elected to the council four years ago on a pledge to improve public safety, traffic congestion and recreational facilities. He cited improvements in all three areas.

In transportation, Bush cited new road construction throughout the district. He also cited the installation of street lights on county roads, which he said have improved the safety of kids walking to school.

“We’ve been left in the dark too long,” Bush said of a former lack of traffic lights.

You can listen to Bush’s full comments here.

Lachney said Pierce County needs a new comprehensive transportation plan. He said a new plan should focus on getting workers to jobs closer to home instead of to King County.

“Let’s get people to Frederickson,” he said. “Let’s get people to DuPont.”

You can listen to Lachney’s full comments here.

Bush and Lachney are competing to represent a district that includes South Hill, Frederickson, Graham, Eatonville and other communities.

Bush, 59, is a former elementary school teacher who spent four terms in the state House of Representatives. He has a bachelor’s degree from Seattle Pacific University and a master’s degree from George Fox University.

He is a member of the Frederickson-Clover Creek Community Council and the Graham Business Association.

Lachney, 48, is an airline pilot and cranberry farmer. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and is a former captain in the United States Marine Corps.

He is a member of the Eatonville School Board and previously spent four years on the county planning commission.

For more information on these candidates, you can read about them on our online voter guide. The printed guide will be in Sunday’s paper.

Les Blumenthal in our D.C. bureau filed this report:

Sen. Joe Biden’s visit to Tacoma on Sunday is another in a long line of appearances by Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates in the closing days of their campaigns, as John Kerry, Al Gore, Michael Dukakis and Geraldine Ferraro all held rallies.

It’s an opportunity to target a largely working-class county that has become a pivotal battleground in statewide elections.

And in Biden’s case, it’s an opportunity to provide a boost to Gov. Chris Gregoire’s campaign in a county she lost by 12,000 or so votes in her razor-thin 2004 win.

Gregoire, locked in a tight rematch with Republican Dino Rossi, will introduce the Delaware senator at the afternoon rally at Cheney Stadium.

Biden’s campaign staff didn’t shed much light on the decision except to say that Democrats would fight for “every vote, everywhere,” and that Tacoma and Pierce County residents have been among those hurt by the economic downturn.

“We intend to speak to them, and an Obama-Biden administration looks forward to having a partner in Gov. Christine Gregoire because she understands the need to turn this country around,” David Wade, Biden’s press secretary, said in an e-mail.

Local Democratic strategists say there was a clear strategy behind the decision for Barack Obama’s running mate to appear in Tacoma rather than Seattle.

“It’s a toss-up race in a toss-up county,” Ron Dotzauer, a longtime political strategist who has run statewide campaigns, said of the governor’s campaign. “Of course I would put Biden there.”

Rick Desimone, a former chief of staff to Sen. Patty Murray who helped engineer her 2002 re-election, said Pierce County is “territory fought over inch by inch” in recent elections.

“Pierce County is a classic swing county,” Desimone said. “It’s not a foregone conclusion that if you win Pierce County you win the state, but if you don’t it’s a lot harder.”

=> Read more!

Aaron Toso, who sometimes breakfasts on weekends at Knapp's in the Proctor District, says his boss is coming to Tacoma on Saturday and plans to tour our neighborhood.

Bill Evans, by the way, owns the Northwest Shop. Toso sent this to Jason Hagey and me.

Joe/Jason-

Gov. Gregoire is coming to the neighborhood tomorrow to tour small businesses and the farmer’s market in Proctor. She will be with Mayor Baarsma and Bill Evans. Details are below.

She will also be kicking off a canvas from our Tacoma office at 10:15am and stopping by the Labor Walk Rally! at the IBEW hall later in the afternoon.

Of course we will be back in Tacoma on Sunday for the Biden event. Gov. Gregoire will be introducing Sen. Biden.

=> Read more!

I know I'm getting ahead of myself, and ahead of Speaker Frank Chopp, but I'm wondering who is going to replace state Rep. Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, as chair of House Appropriations Committee in 2009.

Sommers didn't run for reelection. She's taking her 36 years of institutional legislative memory and keen insights into the state budget into retirement.

That leaves Rep. Hans Dunshee of Snohomish

and Kelli Linville of Bellingham in the running for chair of the budget committee. Dunshee is vice chair of Approps right now. Linville is chair of the Approps subcommittee on General Government and Audit Review.

Linville has seniority. She was appointed in December '95. Dunshee was elected November '96. (Both had previous terms in the House, but lost in the Republican Revolution of 1994.) But the line of ascendency already has been established.

Rumor is, Frank will have to put Linville in as chair of Capital Budget as a consolation prize for not getting the top spot on Approps -- Dunshee gets that -- which means Spokane's Timm Ormsby won't be moving up from vice chair of Capital Budget to the top job.

Bill Fromhold, former chair of Capital Budget, created a vacancy there by taking another job outside the Legislature.

House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, took umbrage when I posted a blog item that said he wanted his Democrats to have a 98-0 advantage over Republicans in the House.

(Actually, he said "all," and I translated that into "98." It's something I learned from the Teachers Union: "All means all 98," or something like that.)

Anyway, Frank's got 63 members already, and he's actually hoping to pick up a few more this election. Where is he going to put them? Democrats had to create a bunch more committees when they got 62 members. I think we've got 22 or so now. All the senior people want to be chairmen or chairwomen. That's how we got the Appropriations subcommittees on General Government and Education, so Kelli Linville and Kathy Haig could have a chairpersonship.

This summer, we got a third Approps subcommittee: Health and Human Services. The chairmanship went to Eric Pettigrew of Seattle, which probably explains why Jeannie Darneille of Tacoma has been so cranky lately.

If Frank's caucus picks up several more members, he'll either have to create even more committees to keep people happpy, or risk having a lot more cranky members in his SuperMajority. (But with 67 members, the D's could pass all the bills by themselves, with no R votes at all. And Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown needs just one more seat, from 32 to 33, for a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Make that 34. She'd need one more to offset maverick Tim Sheldon.)

Back in May, the Christian Businessmen's Connection barred my colleague Niki Sullivan from covering a Dino Rossi appearance at the Fircrest Golf Club.

Today it was my turn. I drove down to Lacey to hear Gov. Chris Gregoire talk to residents of Jubilee at Hawks Prairie, a so-called "adult master planned community."

I haven't heard Gregoire's stump speech as much as I've heard Rossi's, so I thought it would be a good place to drop in.

Wrong.

I cleared everything first with the Gregoire campaign -- in fact, it was the campaign spokesman who told me about the event.

But the kind folks at Jubilee are extremely serious about enforcing their rule that prohibits outsiders from entering their lodge building.

So now I feel the same sting of rejection that Niki felt last May.

And that Gov. Gregoire must have felt when she couldn't get past the bouncer at an Olympia bar because she forgot her ID.

The Washington Department of Transportation is advising folks to plan for snow now, even though it's only mid-October. You can't used studded tires until Nov. 1, but the DOT folks want you to be prepared now.

WSDOT NEWS: Trucks and cars should prepare now for winter driving; Big rigs need chains onboard by Nov. 1

OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and Washington State Patrol (WSP) advise drivers to plan now for winter driving.

“Our employees work hard to keep the roads safe and open for business, but we need drivers’ help,” said WSDOT Secretary Paula Hammond. “After the floods, wind and snowstorms from last year, we all learned it’s important to be ready for anything. Get your vehicle ready now and plan more time to get to your destination. Don't be caught off guard. Having a four-wheel or all-wheel drive isn’t enough to prepare you for winter driving.”

=> Read more!

The Obama/Biden campaign sent an announcement that supporters are gathering at the campaign's Seattle office this afternoon to make signs for Sunday's rally with Sen. Joe Biden in Tacoma.

WHO: Grassroots supporters of Senator Obama and Senator Biden
WHAT: Gathering to make signs for Sunday’s rally
WHEN: Today (Friday, October 17)
TIME: 2:30 PM
WHERE: Obama/Biden Campaign for Change Office, 1310 Mercer St, Seattle, WA 98109

The Change We Need Rally with Senator Joe Biden is on Sunday, October 19 at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, WA. Doors open to the Public at 12:00 pm and the program begins at 2:00 pm. The rally is free and open to the public. Tickets are NOT required but an RSVP is strongly encouraged. Space is available on a first come first serve basis. To RSVP, the public should click here.

For security reasons, do not bring bags and please limit personal items. No signs or banners permitted.
###

From the folks who brought you such videos as "Kiddie Kouncil" and "John Curley is god," comes a new episode of The Tacoma Diaries, ripped from the headlines:

For a low/no-budget production, the writing is pretty darned clever: "Hey, I watched the debate. She was looking at me. She winked at me like four times."

If you haven't seen the series before, here's an introduction from the producers:

Tacoma Diaries is a unique window into the lives of 2 downwardly mobile males who reside in The City of Destiny. Steve, a 43 year-old divorced father of 12 year old daughter Lisa, is now attempting to make a new life following an ugly divorce. Mike, a 42 year old many times divorced father of many kid’s remains in constant search of intimate female companionship. ... Each episode offers an up close and personal glimpse into the world view of "the most wired city in America”, Tacoma, Washington. Nestled neatly within the bowels of the Puget Sound is a town that Bing Crosby, Ivan the Gorilla and yes, even Earl Anthony have at one time called home. This series will display the best and worst of humanity. What more could one want from a stupid little video short?

Check out the entire collection.

The (Everett) Herald wrote about how state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, is upset about a flyer that shows her pictured with (now dead) former Soviet Union leader and KGB director Yuri Andropov and U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle.

Somethign about "new leadership" because Mary Margaret and Yuri both got their jobs in 1982. Haugen says her patriotism is being challenged.

When I first saw the three pictures -- McDermott, Haugen and Andropov -- in the paper, I'll admit I thought Haugen was complaining about being linked to McDermott. I mean, I'll bet his voting record is more liberal than Andropov's, although I'd have to look that up. (Did the Soviet Union even have rollcall votes?)

Here's the story that tells more about why Haugen is angry.

I think what's really upsetting Haugen is that the Senate Republicans have spent about $350,000 trying to unseat her.

Snohomish County Council chairman Gary Nelson, one of the three people who wrote the opposition statement to $17.9 billion Proposition 1 for the voter guide, called me after reading the story I wrote for Tuesday's paper.

He wanted to elaborate on the concept of "subarea equity," the Sound Transit policy that says all the money collected from a subarea (Pierce is one subarea) will be spent to "benefit" that area. Not spent "in" the subarea, but to benefit. The board, which includes Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, Tacoma City Councilwoman Julie Anderson, Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow and Lakewood City Councilwoman Claudia Thomas, decides exactly what benefits an area.

UPDATE: Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick said opponents are wrong about a couple things: First, Pierce County got the 9 Sounder commuter rail roundtrips they were promised in the 1996 ballot measure. (They said Pierce was promised 15 trips, but will get only 13 with the addition of ST2.)

The Sound Transit board has decided that the entire cost of all 20 regional express bus routes that start outside King County benefit only that county. For instance, the full cost of the Tacoma-Seattle Express benefits only Pierce County, not King County. And the entire cost of building and operating Sounder commuter trains from Lakewood and Tacoma to downtown Seattle benefits only Pierce County. (UPDATE: Patrick said this is mostly true. He points out that Pierce transit riders also will "benefit" when the ride on 55 miles of light rail that they didn't pay to build.)

Nelson wanted to point out that his county is getting the short end of the stick from the combined Sound Transit measures, the 1996 measure, plus the one on the Nov. 4 ballot. But Pierce County is even worse off, he said.

Snohomish pays 13 percent of the local taxes and gets back only 8 percent of the benefits, Nelson said.

Pierce County contributes about 17 percent of the taxes to pay for Sound Transit, but gets back only 6 percent of the benefits if you look at boardings. That is, if you look at how many people get onto a regional bus, Sounder commuter rail or Link light rail in 2030, when it's all built.
The chart supports opponents' contention that "We're all paying to build light rail for Seattle." (UPDATE: Patrick said Pierce paid nothing for the first segment of light rail and in ST2 is paying only for right of way purchases and engineering for the portion from Federal Way south.)

Here's the chart that Proposition 1 opponents Jim MacIsaac and Emory Bundy sent me. I've asked Sound Transit to respond.

King County pays 60 percent of the taxes and gets 85 percent of the benefit.

And here is McIsaac's explanation of how he put the chart together.

Joe --
This was a preliminary exercise to express User Benefits by subarea in terms of systems boardings locations. For example, a Sounder boarding from Tacoma to Seattle is returned the same day by a boarding in Seattle to Tacoma. I contend that system benefit for that round trip goes 50% to Tacoma (Pierce) and 50% to Seattle (North King).

=> Read more!

In case you missed it, check out Ian Demsky’s Thursday story about Jesse Hill’s claim to have spent more than $28,000 on his campaign for Pierce County sheriff.

If true (and there is reason to doubt some of the expenditures are campaign related), Hill is outspending incumbent Sheriff Paul Pastor in the sheriff’s race. It would be a remarkable feat for a man – also known as Robert `The Traveller’ Hill – who previously was best known for his antics at public meetings and his numerous run-ins with the law.

Judge for yourself. Here's a copy of three forms Hill has filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission. One is a form showing he’s given $28,060 to his own campaign. Another is a personal financial affairs statement in which he claims to be indigent. The third is an itemized list of his campaign expenses, including $222 for beer and several trips to McDonalds and Subway.

Lots of attention focused on Sen. John McCain's David Letterman appearance. But did you see his hysterical bit from the Alfred E. Smith benefit roast last night? Witty, relaxed, barbed, self-depreciating, gracious, articulate - not the candidate we've been seeing much of lately.

It wasn't a debate, but hands-down, McCain bested Barack Obama. Obama had some good lines - likening his ears to Alfred E. Newman - but suffered from having to follow Johnny Mac.

Here's a sampler of McCain from the transcript.

Events are moving fast in my campaign. And, yes, it's true that this morning I dismissed my entire team of senior advisers. All of their positions will now be held by a man named "Joe the Plumber."

Already...my friends, my opponents have been subjecting Joe to their vicious attack machines. His veracity has been questioned by Barack Obama's running mate Joe the six term senator.

He claims that this honest, hardworking small businessman could not possibly have enough income to face a tax increase under the Obama plan. ...What they don't know is "Joe the Plumber" recently signed a very lucrative contract with a wealthy couple to handle all the work on all seven of their houses.

=> Read more!

After watching last night's presidential debate, which may become known as the "Joe the Plumber" debate, we decided it would be fun to track down some plumbers named Joe who live in Pierce County.

It wasn't exactly an original idea. Based on a couple posts I read on a journalism listserv, it appeared reporters across the country spent part of their day tracking down plumbers named Joe.

It wasn't easy, either. But after a few false starts, I successfully tracked down one plumber named Joe who lives in Pierce County: Joe Barnhart, 28, of Puyallup.

Barnhart called me after he got home from work. He knew why I was calling, even though he didn't see the debate. He got a text message from a friend during the debate saying, "Hey, they're talking about you in the debate."

And he got some ribbing from his co-workers today.

Barnhart has been a plumber for five years. He has three boys, ages 2, 7, and 10. He said times are tough at work. His company, which mainly does new construction, has been laying off because of the downturn in the housing market.

He's paying attention to the presidential race partly because he hopes the next president can help turn around the economy.

So who does he like for president? Unlike the more famous plumber named Joe, Barnhart is leaning toward Barack Obama.

"He seems to have it together a little more," Barnhart said.

UPDATE: There's been a torrent of media coverage of the Ohio plumber named Joe. In case you aren't up to date, we ran this Chicago Tribune story today, which reports that Joe isn't really a plumber and Obama's tax plan may not hurt him.

Joe Wurzelbacher talks to a reporter as he walks to a neighbor's home in Holland, Ohio on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 16, 2008. Wurzelbacher is better known as "Joe the Plumber," the nickname Republican John McCain bestowed on him during Wednesday's presidential debate with Democrat Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Madalyn Ruggiero)

Something tells me I'll be seeing more about this come January, when the Legislature convenes for the 2009 session.

I wouldn't expect to see the Legislature give locals more money for health, not when they're facing a $3.2 billion deficit. But giving them more taxing authority or letting them form their own new taxing districts (like the ferry taxing district in King County)? That's quite possible.

Contact: Julia Patterson 206-296-1005
julia.patterson@kingcounty.gov

King County Board of Health identifies 12 ways
state Legislature can create stable funding for Public Health
State and local options would replace funding lost in 2001 from passage of I-695

In the face of a proposed $19 million cut to public health spending, the King County Board of Health today proposed 12 ways that the Washington State Legislature can provide public health programs with the long-term, stable funding source they need to operate.

=> Read more!

I asked David Ammons about the KIRO report after the Evergreen Freedom Foundation and others forwarded links to the TV station's report.

Purging the rolls of felons is done "prospectively" -- that is, when they get a report from the state prison system every three months, they check against the voter registration rolls to see whether a felon should be there or not.

But elections folks didn't purge the rolls retroactively, not from before 2006.

Check out KIRO TV's report at this link, and then read the rest of the news release from the Secretary of State's office.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Election officials hard at work cleaning voter rolls; felons a `work in progress’

OLYMPIA – Washington is making dramatic and steady progress on cleaning up the state’s voter registration rolls, particularly in removing duplicate or deceased voters from the lists, but the difficult task of culling ineligible felons remains a challenge, the state Elections Division says.

=> Read more!

A student called us earlier in the week to give us a heads-up on the forum, and teacher George Rother sent me this follow-up e-mail.

"We have received confirmation from candidates for the 3rd Congressional District, representatives of our gubernatorial and presidential races, State Insurance Commissioner, Thurston County commissioner as well as local legislative races," Rother said.

It's open to the public, he said.

Here's his full e-mail:

Since our school first opened we have sponsored a Presidential Election Year Candidate Forum. In 2004 we hosted the largest forum in the county and had candidates for state and local offices in attendance as well as representatives for the presidential campaigns.

We expect this year’s candidate forum to again be the largest in the county. In the past we have had several venues for candidates and enlisted the assistance of local Olympia dignitaries and personalities to introduce them to the students. We also combine a mock election with the event that we coordinate with the Auditors Office.

=> Read more!

Sen. Joe Biden is scheduled to appear at Cheney Stadium at 2 p.m. Sunday, according to Nathe Lawver, Pierce County Democratic Party chairman.

The gates open at noon. There is no cost to attend, but the Obama campaign asks visitors to RSVP at www.wa.barackobama.com. The stadium holds about 7,500 people in the grandstands and right field bleachers, said Mike Combs, public assembly facilities director for the City of Tacoma.

Biden, Barack Obama's running mate, is also appearing in Seattle on Sunday, according to this item from The Seattle Times' Politics Northwest blog.

Gov. Chris Gregoire, who is locked in a tight race with Republican challenger Dino Rossi, also will be at the Cheney Stadium event, Gregoire spokesman Aaron Toso said.

Pierce County Council candidate Joyce McDonald is the latest beneficiary of a new political committee established by local builders.

Records filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission show McDonald has benefited from nearly $13,000 in spending by Better Pierce County, a committee established by the Master Builders Association of Pierce County and its political allies. Records show the political committee spent the money on a campaign mailing for McDonald.

McDonald, a Republican, is running for the 2nd District county council seat against two Democrats, Carolyn Merrival and Al Rose.

Better Pierce County is the same group that has spent nearly $49,000 to assist county executive candidate Pat McCarthy, a Democrat. That spending drew criticism last week from executive candidate and fellow Demoract Calvin Goings, who says builders are trying to buy the election.

By law, Better Pierce County’s expenditures are independent of the campaigns it supports.

It’s official: Pierce County politics is a million-dollar industry.

That’s according to the latest reports that candidates for county offices have filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission.

According to the PDC, the 22 candidates for Pierce County executive, council, assessor-treasurer and sheriff have raised a combined $1,048,882. The four candidates for county executive – Shawn Bunney ($323,106), Calvin Goings ($290,628), Mike Lonergan ($41,470) and Pat McCarthy ($106,731) – account for nearly three-quarters of the total raised to date.

Collectively, all county candidates have spent $859,330 to win public office.

Want more detail? Here’s an Excel spreadsheet showing contributions to and spending by all of the candidates.

Periodically, people send me e-mails to point out what they consider ironic, or hypocritical, or nonsense. The Washington Policy Center and Evergreen Freedom Foundation are among the regulars.

This one comes from someone else, who asked not to be identified. He questions how Gov. Chris Gregoire can be freezing all personal service contracts when the state Department of Community Trade and Economic Development can spend $35,000 to extend a contract with a Dutch firm to encourage tourists from The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg to visit Washington and spend money.

CTED got to extend the contract to include the final four months of this year.

I don't have time to look into all these things, so I'll just post it here.

I do know that both the Policy Center and EFF and pleased as punch that there is now a Web site that shows all this stuff, part of the transparency of government. The governor and Legislature made it easy for people to see what's going on.

UPDATE: Victor Moore, the governor's budget director, just called to point out that "economic development" is one of the exemptions to the contract freeze. "We want people to come here and spend money, (and pay taxes)" he said.

WASHINGTON STATE
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY, TRADE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

CONTRACT AMENDMENT 4

The purpose of this Fourth Amendment to contract number 05-71600-003 between the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (DEPARTMENT) and BuroSix Communications, a Dutch Corporation (CONTRACTOR), is to extend the contract for an additional 4 months, 9/1/08 through 12/31/08, add $35,000, and provide additional services.

=> Read more!

For Larry Faulk's campaign manager, that is.

Faulk is running as a Republican in the 27th Legislative District against incumbent state Sen. Debbie (aka Diane) Regala, D-Tacoma. This is a district where Democrats are elected for life and if they get less than 70 percent of the vote, they did something wrong.

Micheal J. Howard, Faulk's campaign manager, is trying to make the case that Regala is taking voters for granted by, well, sitting on her duff.

"She has placed no signs in the district, she has not been out knocking on doors, and most importantly of all, she has not been getting any free ink in the papers or on blogs. Senator Regala, seems to be taking for granted that the 70% will just wake up and vote for her like always."

Well, here's some free blog "ink" for both of them, Michael. (By the way, I'd suggest you move the Faulk sign that's now near the traffic circle over by the seminary to a location that gets more traffic. But that's just me. I see it every morning and I think I'm the only one who does.)

Tell me, is Larry just positioning himself for another run four years from now, when Regala steps down and Ryan Mello runs?

Good Afternoon:

Let me begin by thanking you all for the effort and time you have put into working for Larry. We feel very good about the election in 20 days.

=> Read more!

And I say that because I know Tom Geiger won't take offense at the label. He's been pushing the enviro agenda down here in Olympia for many, many years. And as the news release from the United Food and Commercial Workers International Local 21 indicates, Tom somehow convinced us reporters to write or broadcast more than 1,000 stories about environmental issues over those years.

Here's a link to Geiger's new employer's Web site.

UFCW Local 21 Adds Two Senior Staff – building the movement for the 21st Century

We are proud to make the following announcement. In a move to further develop the senior staff capacities at our local union, last month we hired Tom Geiger as Communications Director and Sharon Maeda as Special Projects Director. We are excited to have these two veteran professionals join our team.

=> Read more!

The focus here on the open seat created by the retirement of Rep. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, the one that pits Democrat Kim Abel against Republican Jan Angel.

The Gig Harbor Unit of League of Women Voters, the Gig Harbor Branch of American Association of University Women, and the United Methodist Church of Gig Harbor are sponsoring a candidate forum for the legislative candidates of the 26th District. It will be held on Thursday, October 23rd, from 6:30 till 9:00 p.m., at the United methodist Church, 7400 Pioneer Way in Gig Harbor. The public is invited.

Before then, there will be another candidate faceoff before the Kitsap League of Women Voters Thursday at 7 p.m. in Port Orchard at the Given's Community Center.

Abel is trying to make an issue out of Angel getting money from the BIAW. You can read about that here.

UPDATE: Elliot Swaney, political director of the Building Industry Association Washington, called Thursday morning to say that, contrary to what Abel is saying, BIAW has not contributed to Angel's campaign.

"She apparently is 'un-Abel' to figure out a PDC form," Swaney said. "Neither the BIAW nor the Washington Affordable Housing Council (BIAW's PAC) have contributed to the Angel race."

Swaney said local building organization affiliates may have, but they make their own decisions.

=> Read more!

State Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, sponsored the bill that set up this program. It's also for businesses owned by active duty military. He says there are 320 businesses signed up so far.

Here's the link to Veterans Affairs business registry. And here is Kilmer's e-mail to The News Tribune.

Hey guys-
I hope this note finds you all well. I wasn't sure who to send this to, so I'm passing it along to all three of you.

I know the News Tribune works hard to let area businesses know about resources that may help their bottom lines. With that in mind, I wanted to give you a heads up regarding the new Veteran/Servicemember Business Registry that's been kicked off by the Department of Veteran Affairs (based on SB 5253 which I sponsored back in 2007).

=> Read more!

Democrat Ron Weigelt, who's running against incumbent state Rep. Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake, for a 31st District House seat, says he's filed a complaint against Roach.

Weigelt says Roach ran ads in the Enumclaw Courier Herald and other papers, that included the official seal of Washinton. Weigelt cites the following Revised Code of Washington chapters:

RCW 43.04.050 Use of state seal -Prohibitions -Imitations.
(1) Except as otherwise provided in RCW 43.04.040, the state seal shall not be used on or in connection with any advertising or promotion for any product, business, organization, service, or article whether offered for sale for profit or offered without charge.
(2) The state seal shall never be used in a political campaign to assist or defeat any candidate for elective office.
(3) It is a violation of this chapter to use any symbol that imitates the seal or that is deceptively similar in appearance to the seal, in any manner that would be an improper use of the official seal itself.

The complaint was filed with the Secretary of State's office. Weigelt FAXed me the ad, and there does appear to be an official seal it in. But I don't make the call on these things. I'll let Sam Reed to that.

Most of the time I get stuff from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, it is castigating the governor, Democrats, state government or state government employee unions. You can include the teachers' union, the Washington Education Association, in that list, too.

So this will come as no surprise.

Earlier this week, I got an e-mail from EFF with a list of all the people (by job title only) who make more than $100,000 a year working for the ferry systems. They are, by and large, union members and engineers.

Today, I got this notice about EFF president Bob Williams and company handing out flyers at Coleman Dock in Seattle tomorrow.

I don't have time to go into all of EFF's findings or allegations, but I will bring your attention to the video that EFF produced on the history of the state ferry system. You'll probably recognize some of the footage. It looks like stuff you'd see on the History Channel, interspersed with video of Gov. Chris Gregoire and Auditor Brian Sonntag.

The "serious" voice-over was done by EFF's Tom Henry.

The ferry system was in the news quite a bit over the past year. The steel ferries were taken out of commission. The state is borrowing Pierce County's new ferry. Construction of 4 new ferries for about $300 million is about 4 years behind schedule. And there's a stinging audit on the ferry system.

Here's a link to the EFF's "ferry tales." Click to play the videos. They are stacked on top of each other.

Scroll down to read the news release.

=> Read more!

Elizabeth Hummel, an aide to state Rep. Zack Hudgins, D-Tukwila, passed on the latest work done by herself and Brian Castillo.

Hummel and Castillo teamed up earlier this year to produce a little ditty for Sine Die, the last day of the 2008 Legislature. You can search this blog for that earlier posting by using her name in the search tool in the far right hand column. (Scroll way down!)

Here is the link to "Sandman the Rapping Cowboy says Show Obama Love."

Sandman, by the way, is Chris Sand.

DISCLAIMER: This item is posted for pure entertainment value and should not be construed as an endorsement of Barack Obama, Chris Sand, Elizabeth Hummel, Brian Castillo, Zack Hudgins or any other entertainer.)

In our neck of the woods, they are:

Chihuahua’s Mexican Restaurant
4202 Auburn Way North
Auburn, WA 98002

AND

Varsity Grill
1114 Broadway
Tacoma, WA 98402

For Planning Purposes Only: October 15, 2008
Contact: Josh Field: (206) 624-9511

* Media Advisory *

TONIGHT: OBAMA SUPPORTERS TO GATHER ACROSS WASHINGTON STATE TO WATCH FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

=> Read more!

While perusing other blogs and looking at the electronic version of newspapers clips, I ran across this item about House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam. Her car was rear-ended on I-5 last week.

Here's a link to the story about Kessler's accident.

I certainly don't mean to make light of the accident or Kessler's injuries. I've been there myself. And I know I risk alienating Kessler by dredging up old wounds. But I couldn't help but remember what Rep. Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake, said last year in a floor speech about a bill that Republicans portrayed as the Full Employment Act for Lawyers, something about the "Keith Kessler Express."

(Lynn, in my defense, I did contribute $5 to state parks when I renewed my license tabs this year, which is what you wanted everyone to do, right?)

By the way, Kessler's husband is a lawyer.

I saw the "doctor-daughter" ad on TV last night, but I had to go to the Web site to see the Oregon govenor ad.

The Yes on 1000 campaign has two new ads on the air today.

The first fights back against the opposition’s outrageous attempts to deceive voters – responding to their lies with facts, independent studies, and Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts, who knows that none of the opponent's worst case scenarios ever actually happened. The second features a doctor whose mother chose to use a law that is identical to I-1000 - the Death with Dignity Act in Oregon.

Anne Martens

Here's the Web site for Death with Dignity campaign.

I can't believe I have gone all this time without ever reading Pam Roach's blog.

But here is it. Scroll down to the Oct. 7 item. I think that gives the background.

Here's a link to the senator's blog.

That's what John Niles, a transportation consultant, tells me in the e-mail below.

Niles declares that he is a volunteer advisor to the campaign that is opposing Proposition 1, the $17.9 billion ballot measure for Sound Transit.

I offer up Niles' observations and a couple of attachments for your perusal because I don't have time to go investigate how much Portland, Denver and all those other cities spend on their light rail vs. buses.

Here are a couple pdf's that Niles sent.

One is a spreadsheet,

the other is the Washington Policy Center's take on things.

Joe, thanks for your new story on Prop 1. I'm a volunteer advisor to the No campaign, with a day job as a transportation policy analyst.

I noticed these words in your new story: "Light rail is expensive to build but cheaper to operate than a fleet of buses." The second part is simply wrong as a generalization, despite being mouthed continuously by the Yes campaign and by Sound Transit.

This claim of light rail being cheaper to operate per passenger than buses is true in some cities, like Portland, but not in others, like San Francisco and Los Angeles.

=> Read more!

As one might expect, looking at the housing bubble burst, the stock market plunge and all the talk of recession, every state is worried about its own economy.

When the National Conference of State Legislatures published its report in mid-December, we'll see just how much company Washington has.

Washington is facing a $3.2 billion deficit for 2009-11 now. Budget cuts will make it better. But who knows how much revenue projections will drop by mid-November, when the next forecast comes out?

UPDATE: Amber Gunn of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation forwarded this article she wrote for Budget& Taxes News. Her conclusion is that the cause of most state budget problems are caused by their spending, not lack of revenue.

Keep reading to see her article, as well as the NCSL news release that prompted her to e-mail me.

States, Localities Are Spending Themselves into Trouble, Reports Show

Costs are rising three times as fast as revenues
Written By: Amber Gunn
Published In: Budget & Tax News > October 2008
Publication date: 10/08/2008
Publisher: The Heartland Institute

State and local spending has been outpacing revenue growth three to one, according to figures reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Second quarter spending jumped 7.8 percent compared to 2007, while revenue rose just 2.5 percent in the same period.

=> Read more!

Wednesday's third and final debate is the occassion for GOPers to get together to watch their guy, John McCain, debate Democrat Barack Obama.

The McCain-Palin Victory Headquarters is at 11711 101st Ave. E., Puyallup. The get-together is 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

We'll let you know as soon as we get word on Democratic debate parties.

UPDATE: The 25th Legislative District Democrats will be holding their own debate party at the Boilermakers Hall, Local 502, 16621 110th Ave. E., Puyallup. (You'll notice that the Democrats party in CAPITAL letters.)

DOORS WILL OPEN AT 5:30 PM WITH THE DEBATE STARTING AT 6:00 PM. THE BOILERMAKERS ARE GRACIOUSLY ALLOWING US TO HOST THIS EVENT IN THEIR FACILITY. THEY HAVE CABLE TV AND A PROJECTOR SO ALL WILL HAVE A GREAT VIEW OF THE EVENT. THE 25TH WILL PROVIDE COFFEE, WATER AND (A FEW) SNACKS.

PLEASE BRING A SNACK, DISH OR TREAT TO SHARE WITH FELLOW DEMOCRATS AND OTHER ATTENDEES. FEEL FREE TO PASS THIS INVITATION ALONG TO OTHER 25TH LD DEMS, FAMILY, FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS.

Team McCain,

The 3rd and final debate is happening this Wednesday October 15th at 6:00pm. Its also our final opportunity to create an event where we get free media exposure to showcase our support for John McCain and Sarah Palin to the community and State. Come out to the Victory Headquarters on Wednesday night, enjoy the debate, show your support for John McCain, and learn about upcoming volunteer opportunities.

=> Read more!

It's basically, "Vote Republican," with a couple notable exceptions: State Auditor Brian Sonntag and Schools Superintendent Terry Bergeson.

I didn't look at all of the recommendations, just those for statewide, Congressional, Tacoma-area and South King County offices, but it's pretty much what you'd expect of the Moral Majority, Christian Coalition kinda group.

Joseph Fuiten is a Bothell pastor who leads the conservative group Positive Christian Agenda. He also was a spokesman for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee campaign for president in Washington. Huckabee is a Republican.

Here is a link to Pastor Picks.

That would be the highest since 1944, according to Secretary of State Sam Reed and his staff.

Turnout that year was 84.5 percent.

“Voters are clearly captivated by the rematch for governor between Chris Gregoire and Dino Rossi, and we are seeing record-level spending for this crucial campaign, which looks like a dead heat in some of the polls," Reed said.

Reed predicts 83 percent voter turnout; ballots heading out soon

OLYMPIA – Secretary of State Sam Reed is predicting a strong 83 percent voter turnout for the General Election, the best showing in more than 60 years. His forecast comes just days before mail ballots are sent to most of Washington’s 3.5 million registered voters.

The better-than-average turnout is based on a high degree of interest in the top races and assorted state and local ballot measures, the recent surge in registrations, increasingly heavy use of convenient vote-by-mail, and strong forecasts from the County Auditors, Reed said Monday. Six counties say their vote should be 90 percent or higher.

=> Read more!

The Pierce County Council may aid some South Hill mobile home park residents who stand to be evicted to make way for a Home Depot.

By a vote of 3-0, the council’s Rules Committee this morning approved a resolution asking County Executive John Ladenburg to look for county land where the residents can store their mobile homes on a temporary basis. The idea is to give the residents some time to find permanent locations for their homes.

However, supporters of the residents say the move won’t prevent them from losing their current home, the Country Aire Manor mobile home park on Meridian Avenue.

“It doesn’t really do anything for the people who are being evicted,” Don Charnley of Renton said Monday.

About 70 Country Aire residents learned the park had been sold when they received eviction notices earlier this year. The notices gave them a year to move.

Since then, park residents have been pleading with the County Council to save their homes.

Council members say there’s not much they can do for the Country Aire residents. But Councilman Roger Bush, R-Graham, proposed the resolution to find county land where park residents can store their homes temporarily.

The resolution asks the county executive to recommend by Nov. 17 parcels that might be suitable for storage. However, that date likely will be pushed back when the measure goes to the full council. It was not immediately clear when the resolution would go to the full council.

None of the Country Aire residents attended Monday’s meeting. But Charnley said the county should consider buying and preserving the property. He lives in a mobile home park that King County bought after it was threatened with closure and redevelopment.

Meanwhile, two council members – Calvin Goings, D-Puyallup, and Tim Farrell, D-Tacoma – may propose a moratorium on converting mobile home parks to other uses.

Goings said Monday the proposed six-month moratorium would provide some protection to other Pierce County mobile home park residents while the county considers zoning regulations that could protect mobile homes in the long run. The new zoning regulations would come in the form of a comprehensive land-use plan amendment Goings said would be considered next year.

Washington state tax collections for the month from Sept. 11 through Oct. 10, 2008 were $48.3 million lower than expected, according to the state Department of Revenue.

There actually was a slight spike in collection last month, but it turns out that was an aberration. That means in the past four months, three were down, one was up. Overall, we're down.

The worst sector: Auto dealers. Tax collections have dropped for 9 consecutive months.

That's not good for a budget deficit that already is projected to reach $3.2 billion for 2009-11.

Here is a link to the state Department of Revenue report.

Bruce Lachney, a Democrat seeking to unseat Republican incumbent Roger Bush on the Pierce County Council, has taken his campaign to television.

Lachney is running this spot on Comcast and Rainier Connect cable in certain zip codes in East Pierce County. It’s part of a recent proliferation of cable ads for Pierce County races. I’ve counted at least two Shawn Bunney county executive ads, plus the independent ad for exec candidate Pat McCarthy sponsored by Better Pierce County.

Anyone else spotted TV ads for Pierce County races? Let me know.

Eleven states are electing governors next month. According to this article by the Associated Press and posted on the New York Times Web site, the economy is ''going to be the No. 1 reason someone keeps their job or loses it,'' said Del Ali, who has conducted polls in several governors' races.

The article mentions our very own grudge match between Gov. Chris Gregoire and Dino Rossi.

In Washington, GOP challenger Dino Rossi is criticizing Gov. Christine Gregoire over the state's projected budget deficit of as much as $3.2 billion. The two are locked in a rematch of their razor-thin 2004 race, which Gregoire won by 133 votes after two recounts and a lawsuit. The economy was a top issue at two debates this month, and both candidates are scrambling to take advantage of the crisis.

''In the past four years of Gregoire's administration, she has left us with piles of debt, higher taxes and rising unemployment,'' Rossi said.

Responds Gregoire: ''I saw this national economic crisis brewing and fought for the rainy day fund and a budget surplus.'' Earlier this week, Gregoire announced cuts that she says could cut the deficit to $1.7 billion.

As tough as it may be for Gregoire to counter Rossi's drumbeat of criticism for a projected $3.2 billion shortfall, at least she didn't use estimates from investment bank Lehman Brothers to propose leasing the state lottery to a private entity, as Vermont's Republican Gov. Jim Douglas did last year.

Before Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.

The state Public Disclosure Commission sends out periodic "flash" reports on campaign news, generally on Friday. Former Washington Gov. Booth Gardner, who sponsored I-1000, and his supporters have better than a 3-1 advantage over opponents in fundraising.

Lots of interesting historical facts, too. Like the $6 million for the sports stadium. (That was mostly Paul Allen's money.)

Here's the latest one:

Money has flooded the campaign for Initiative 1000 this year. The committees’ next reporting deadline is Tuesday, October 14. Tuesday is also the start of the final three weeks leading up to the election – contributions are limited to $5,000 from one source in the last three weeks and the each committee must report within 48 hours if anyone gives $1,000 or more.

Here are the latest amounts received by all 2008 initiative campaigns:

PRO
Yes on I-1000............................$2,647,377
Compassion & Choices WA Initiative PAC......627,500
TOTAL....................................$3,274,877

CON
Coalition Against Assisted Suicide......$874,448

=> Read more!

The Pierce County voter's guide arrived in my mailbox Thursday. The state will be sending out its pamphlet starting Monday.

There are now a record 3,548,474 active registered voters in the state, as of today.

Some voter's pamphlets will be in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Korean.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 10, 2008

State Voters’ Pamphlet to be mailed soon

OLYMPIA – Secretary of State Sam Reed today announced that the 2008 State General Election Voters’ Pamphlet, Washington’s most complete elections guide, soon will arrive in mailboxes across the state.

“The Voters’ Pamphlet is a useful and valuable tool for our state’s voters as they get ready to take part in this very important and highly anticipated election,” Reed said. “This year, 37 of Washington’s 39 counties are voting entirely by mail. The Voters’ Pamphlet helps people to make an informed choice as they mark their ballots.”

=> Read more!

The Republican Governors Association apparently wasn't fazed by the group of prosecutors and law enforcement types who denounced their attack ads yesterday.

The group, led by Pierce County deputy prosecutor Mark Lindquist, said the ads accusing Gov. Chris Gregoire of losing track of 1,300 sex offenders are false and misleading, and are aimed at scaring people. They called on gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi to ask the RGA to pull the ads (if you haven't seen one, they're avaialbe at www.onherwatch.com) from the air.

Not only is the RGA not pulling its TV ads, but now it's mailing fliers to voters with the names and faces of six sex offenders they say are "lost."

At least one Pierce County man is on the list: Leon Robert Harshman.

I checked The News Tribune archives and found that we last wrote about Harshman on Dec. 25, 2007. He was one of three sex offenders mentioned in an article under the headline "Sex felons register in Pierce County." Here's an excerpt of what we published:

Leon R. Harshman

Age: 46.

Description: 5 feet 11 inches tall, 200 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

Where registered to live: Transient in Tacoma.

Criminal history: Convicted in 1988 of second-degree rape in Pierce County after he sexually assaulted a woman he knew.

Sex offender treatment: Participated in the treatment program while in prison.

Other information: Because he's homeless, Harshman must check in with the Sheriff's Department every week until he finds a fixed address.

For more information: Call Tacoma police detective Fuller at 253-591-5989.

According to the RGA press release, the other names on the flier are:

=> Read more!

The Family Policy Institute of Washington says it's going to hand out its voter guides at churches and other places to let people know "where the candidates stand on issues like abortion on demand, gay marriage, the estate tax, off-shore drilling and embryonic stem cell research."

Off-shore drilling? The estate tax?

I can see how the other issues would fall under the broad category of "the values that honor families and promote life," but drilling for oil doesn't seem to fit in. The estate tax also seems to be a bit of an outlier.

All of which makes the bold-faced sentence below pretty ironic.

"Corporate Responsibility: McDonald's has notified the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce that they will resign their board membership and stay "neutral" on the gay-marriage issue. In a recent email that was sent out by McDonald's corporate officials, they finally admitted that they "needed to stick with serving good food products in a convenient way, at a good price." What a novel idea! McDonald's should stay in the business of fast-food and stay out of the business of family values."

Dear Joe,

COMING TO A CHURCH NEAR YOU: FPIW 2008 VOTER GUIDES!
Next week the 2008 voter guides will be complete and ready for distribution. If you have not already signed up to get copies for your church, then today is your day.

=> Read more!

I just got this e-mail from Team McCain. Since the Pierce County field coordinator for McCain has a 425 prefix on her cell phone, I asked for a local phone number for those of you who still have 253 prefixes on your land lines. So, the campaign gave me Jane Milhans' number. She's chair of the McCain campaign in Pierce County. Her number is 253-279-4245.

Team McCain

In 26 days, Americans will elect our next president, and the choice we face is clear. John McCain brings a lifetime of service to our country, a deep and bi-partisan record of fighting for the American people, and the experience necessary to lead in times of domestic and international challenge.

=> Read more!

Contrary to what you may have heard, or what Tim Eyman tries to imply in his seemingly endless stream of e-mails to supporters and reporters, State Auditor Brian Sonntag is not endorsing Eyman's Initiative 985.

"I am not endorsing or opposing Initiative 985, or any initiative," Sonntag told me about 10 minutes ago.

I caught him driving to Vancouver for a speech.

Eyman has been portraying I-985 as largely an implementation of the performance audit that Sonntag's office did about a year or so back. So I asked Sonntag point blank: "Do you consider I-985 an implementation of your audit?"

His answer: "No."

=> Read more!

Michael Amato, who's formal title is "communications director" for Congressman Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, came by the press house at the state capital to introduce himself.

I guess I've been out of touch because I can't even remember who Adam's last press secretary was.

Smith is our go-to guy on terrorism issues. That is, if you get strip-searched by those minimum-wage security people the airports, Smith is the guy you'd call. Or if they take your laptop computer.

You can start with Amato. Phone: 202-225-8901, e-mail: michael.amato@mail.house.gov

Mike Reitz, lawyer for the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, sent out an e-mail today, disputing the Secretary of State's assertion that "aggressive screening" has solved the problem of letting under-age teenagers register to vote.

Reitz even sent out a list of under-age voters as of Sept. 26.

Here is a link to the Evergreen Freedom Foundation blog that shows underage voters.

As today’s story about Master Builders Association funding of the county executive’s race illustrates, the builders group is a force to be reckoned with in Pierce County government. Some folks think it has too much influence.

I recently asked the four county executive candidates if they thought the building and real estate industry has too much influence on county government. Here’s what they said.

• Republican Shawn Bunney: “In my office as county executive, everyone will have equal and good access to any ear of the county executive.” You can listen to Bunney’s response here.

• Democrat Calvin Goings said there is too much influence by various interest groups on county government. He wants to improve the ethics legislation the county council approved earlier this year. You can listen to his full response here.

• Executive Excellence candidate Mike Lonergan said the building industry shouldn’t be faulted for trying to speed up projects and minimize their costs. The question, he said, is how elected and appointed officials respond to that pressure. You can listen to his full response here.

• Democrat Pat McCarthy said there are folks who want to pigeonhole developers as the Evil Empire and those who want to label environmental groups Nazis or wackos. McCarthy said that's not constructive. She said she wants everyone to have a seat at the table. You can listen to her full responses here.

This week, Goings portrayed Master Builders Association spending on behalf of McCarthy as an attempt to buy the election. McCarthy said it's an attempt by Goings to divert attention from questions about his resume. You can read more bout Goings work experience here.

The Senate Democratic caucus has sent out "talking points" to its members, basically telling them how they should handle any questions they get from constituents about the governor's budget cuts.

Gov. Chris Gregoire has told her budget office and state agencies to make more cuts, enough to shave $330 million off the current 2007-09 budget and to cut in half the projected $3.2 billion deficit for 2009-11.

But even if she cuts it in half, the state still will be facing a shortfall of at least $1.7 billion when the Legislature writes the next budget and that begs the question: Will the Democratic governor and Democrat-controlled House and Senate raise taxes to balance the next budget?

Here's what you're supposed to say: "The governor has said no."

Not, "No way in heck!" Not, "No, I'm a state senator and I don't want to raise your taxes." Not, "Maybe, because I might have to raise your taxes to keep from laying off Federation union members and to give teachers the 5 percent pay raise they're expecting."

No, they're supposed to duck the question. Because it's very much an option for a Senate whose Democrats currently outnumber Republicans 32-17. Oh, yeah. Members also are supposed to be noncommittal about spending the rainy day fund, too.

Here, read for yourself:

Governor Gregoire’s Budget Savings Plan
October 7, 2008

Background
Governor Christine Gregoire announced October 7 that she has taken additional steps to save $330 million in the current biennium. The cuts, which impact state agencies and some programs, are necessary to compensate for a projected shortfall of $3.2 billion in 2011.

=> Read more!

At first, I thought I would be getting a list of bus routes and times, but turns out a "guide" is really an ostensibly neutral explanation of what Proposition 1 will do for me.

Apparently, state law allows Sound Transit to "guide" me on the ballot measure.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — October 8, 2008

Mass transit guides start arriving in mailboxes today

Today, registered voters across the Sound Transit District will start receiving mailers explaining the mass transit expansion proposal they will consider as part of the Nov. 4 general election. This Mass Transit Guide mailer provides voters with detailed information about the expansions, as required by state law [RCW 81.104.140(8)].

=> Read more!

That's nice, Alex. But I would suggest you lose the Seattle dateline on your news releases. Just reinforced the Seattle-centric feel of Proposition One.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mass Transit Now!
Alex Fryer
Communications Director
alexfryer@masstransitnow.org
206-321-9730

Prop. 1 Endorsement-Palooza

Seattle—The cities of Redmond and Issaquah endorsed Proposition 1 on Tuesday, joining Kirkland and a host of other government, business, labor, environmental and community groups around the region.

=> Read more!

Finally!

Rebuilding the Nalley Valley Viaduct has been on the books for decades, at least all 18 years that I've been writing about transportation issues. But it kept getting pushed back by events.

a. the years-long dispute between Democrats and Republicans over raising the gas tax.

b. Tim Eyman's successful Initiative 695, which repealed the state motor vehicle excise tax and took away $800 million a year in state funding, part of which went to transportation projects.

c. Even after the Legislature increased the gas tax by 5 cents in 2003 and by 9.5 cents in 2005, it took some fighting by the Pierce County delegation to get money earmarked for Nalley Valley. (As it is, some parts of the viaduct are not going to be built without additional money because the cost of all the projects went up so high and because the state is getting less money from the feds and less purchasing power from the gas tax collections. The carpool off-ramps and out for now.)

Here is a link to a story my colleague, Paul Sand, wrote last year.

With the completion of the second Narrows Bridge, the new bottleneck in Tacoma is Nalley Valley. It's only two lanes in each direction, and the westbound portion gives drivers only 600 feet to get on or off at Sprague Avenue.

The Washington Department of Transportation made the announcement today.
First, they will rebuild the westbound portion, so it will be easier to get off of Interstate 5 and west across the Narrows Bridge into Gig Harbor and beyond.

I drive across Nalley Valley Viaduct every day. I also drive past the Highway 512 interchange with Interstate 5 every day. I'd have to give the nod to 512 as the worst bottleneck, especially from southbound I-5 trying to head east on 512 in the afternoon. That backup generally is longer even than the westbound Nalley Valley traffic from the I-5 northbound offramp.

(Although that new offramp that lets you bypass the viaduct and get off downtown was built just for me. Gets me to 705 and the North End faster than the viaduct.)

=> Read more!

Sounds terrible at first. I mean, 16,000 illegal voter registrations! How could they? But read the fine print.

"Over the last eight years, more than 16,000 registrations have been accepted by election officials from underage teens, and dozens have received ballots and cast votes."

Even if it's true -- and we don't know that -- that's still only 2,000 a year. And "dozens" received and cast ballots. That would work out to 1 or 2 or 3 a year.

I'm not sure why the Evergreen Freedom Foundation got involved in any of this, but here's part of what state Elections Superintendent Nick Handy had to say,

“We were pleased that out of nearly 1.5 million ballots cast in the primary, we had no instances of underage voters and we don’t expect any problems in the upcoming General Election. There were no problems reported in the 2007 election and four cases of human error that allowed four 17 year olds to vote in the presidential primary this year. Since that time, we have tightened our procedures further and stepped up our monitoring.”

EFF files lawsuit against Secretary of State for allowing improper voter registrations

More than 16,000 registrations from underage voters
have been accepted since 2000

OLYMPIA—Today the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF) filed a complaint against Secretary of State Sam Reed in Thurston County Superior Court, alleging the Secretary is violating his obligation to prevent ineligible voters from registering.

=> Read more!

I don't much care about the rock 'em, sock 'em nature of the political ads, but I prefer the local ones. I mean, the Republican Governors Assocation is paying for the TV ad about how Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire is responsible for losing track of 1,300 sex offenders.

I don't know where they get that info. At least the locals will sorta footnote their hit pieces, so you can look up the often slim bit of truth that supports the allegation. The outta state guys don't back it up with bill numbers or anything.

So, I feel compelled to point out that the so-called "Rossi budget" was able to erase part of the $3 billion deficit in 2003 by cuts to the Department of Corrections.

Remember, the Rossi budget actually was then-Gov. Gary Locke's budget before it became Rossi's. And one of the ways Locke wanted to save money was embodied in Senate Bill 5990, also in the 2003 session. It shortened prison sentences for drug offenders and residential burglars and cut the community supervision (parole officers') budget by having them watch fewer ex-cons.

To their credit, Senate Republicans, including Rossi, wanted to take the $7 million in savings from not supervising about 20,000-plus ex-cons and plow it into more rigorous supervision of the offenders who were considered more likely to commit new crimes. But the House amended that to take the $7 million out. (I don't know what finally happened to the $7 million. I know Sens. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, and Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, wanted to plow it into more drug treatment, but I think it just got cut period.)

But when the bill got back to the Senate, Rossi voted for it, too.

Here is a link to WashingtonVotes, which gives a summary of what Senate Bill 5990 did after it was amended, followed by the RGA news release about its attack ads on Gregoire.

Chris Gregoire Has Been a Nightmare for Washington

On Gregoire’s watch the state lost track of 1,300 convicted sex offenders

The Washington State RGA PAC released two ads today that show how Chris Gregoire has put Washington families at risk by losing track of 1,300 convicted sex offenders. The ads can be viewed at www.onherwatch.com.

=> Read more!

Here is a link to the anti Proposition One Web site. Click on one of the three Radio ad links to hear their ads.

Here is the e-mail I just got from the No To Proposition 1 campaign.

You have been waiting too long, so now the new NoToProp1.Org radio messages with the big ka-chings are on the air and at http://www.notoprop1.org/Voter_Message.html



Text of NoToProp1.Org Radio

Both presidential candidates, both candidates for governor, and most economists agree- this is the wrong time to raise taxes on working families. But Sound Transit simply won't listen.

Prop 1 is the biggest local tax increase in Washington State, ever.

=> Read more!

State Sen. Rosa Franklin, D-Tacoma, is organizing a forum on civic engagement later this month at The Evergreen State College Tacoma Campus.

Franklin said she was encouraged by the passion she's seen this political season, but she she's dismayed at the erosion of civic engagement and how little people really know about government.

"There was huge participation in the precinct caucuses, however people don't understand the political process," Franklin said.

She wants to start a discussion about what civic engagement is and how to sustain it. Franklin has been working with three Evergreen students to put together the event.

"It's not a candidate forum," Franklin said. "It's civic engagement."

Representatives from the Secretary of State's office, the Pierce County Auditor's Office, and the League of Women Voters are expected to participate.

Young people can learn about the political process in general, and also get their questions answered about Pierce County's ranked-choice voting system.

"Civic Engagement: Understanding the Political Process" is scheduled to run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at The Evergreen State College – Tacoma Campus, 1210 Sixth Avenue, Tacoma.

At the City of Tacoma's afternoon study session today, Tacoma Water, Rail and Power presented their budgets.

The good news: There's no increase in rates for power.

The bad news: Water rates could go up about 8 percent.

The other news: Each utility added 17 percent or more for their labor budgets over the 2009-2010 biennium.

While the city has been mum about the results (to be released at the end of the month) of the "classification and compensation study," the budget increases might hold some clue.

For starters: The class & comp study is an effort by the city to ensure employees are being paid fairly. They city is paying an outside firm to analyze comparable employers and determine whether Tacoma is paying a fair amount for the same positions. Tacoma will then make adjustments based on those findings (provided that they find no objections with the comparables).

So, for example, if the study finds that maintenance workers at the City of Tacoma are paid 60 percent the amount their counterparts at a comparable place, then they'll get a raise.

The goal is not to have the highest-paid employees in the land. In fact, the city, at last check, was aiming for 70 percent of the range. Instead, Eric Anderson has described the survey – and subsequent wage adjustments – as a way to attract and retain talented city employees.

It will also, however, add an unknown amount to city budgets in the 2009-2010 biennium, which will be a tight budgetary cycle. (So tight, in fact, that they'll likely patch the difference between tax revenues and expenses with reserves.)

Today's proposed utility budgets were the first peak I've had at how much the increase might be. That said, no one's saying every city employee is standing to get a 17 percent raise: Because they don't know what the study will say, they're penciling in a guess.

I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, any guesses on what business or government entities constitute "comparables"?

The county council wants a report by January 2010. I suspect they will be very interested to see how Pierce County's elections work. We're using IRV, aka Ranked Choice Voting, this general election, just for the countywide elections.

Contact: Bob Ferguson 206-296-1001/Dow Constantine 206-296-1008

County Council approves study of Instant Runoff Voting

Study recommended by Charter Review Commission

The Metropolitan King County Council approved legislation adopting a recommendation from the King County Charter Review Commission to study instant runoff voting (also known as ranked choice voting). The legislation adopted by the Council on October 6 requests that a written report documenting the advantages and disadvantages of instant runoff voting be presented to the council no later than January 2, 2010.

=> Read more!

You just knew with an open seat that the 25th Legislative District race between Republican Bruce Dammeier and Democrat Rob Cerqui would get nasty.

After all, state Rep. Joyce McDonald, R-Puyallup, is running for the County Council, leaving her House seat wide open. The 25th is a swing district. And both parties are plowing lots of money into the race.

This one could easily top $300,000 combined spending. For 1 of 98 House seats.

Republicans want to hold onto one of the few seats they still have. (OK, they have 35, but Democrats have 63.)

The House Democratic Campaign Committee today filed a complaint with the state Public Disclosure Commission, saying it's not fair that Dammeier can print up mailers and brochures so cheaply. He is part owner of NW Print, which is pretty handy if you're running for office.

=> Read more!

Gov. Chris Gregoire, who is now famous for saying, "We do not have a deficit today," is making sure that statement is true by ordering her budget office and state agencies to make further cuts to their spending.

Gregoire says her directive will result in $330 million in spending cuts for the second year of the two-year state budget cycle. That, in turn, will allow the state to finish the biennium with $850 million in the bank -- about $440 million in savings and $410 million in checking.

As for the projected $3.2 billion deficit for the next biennium, 2009-11, the guv says the cuts she's ordering up now will translate into $605 million in reduced spending in 2009-11.

She claims the projected deficit will be cut in half, if you count (i.e. spend) the entire rainy day savings account. My math may be bad, but I count $712 million in savings and $605 million in cuts for a total of $1.32 billion. I think that leaves a projected deficit of $1.9 billion.

If I did it wrong, I'm sure the governor's budget director, Victor Moore, or deputy budget director, Wolfgang Opitz, will call me on it to correct me.

UPDATE: Sure 'nuff. Got a call from the Guv's budget office. Seems I should have subtracted the $330 million in cuts twice, sortof. According to Glenn Kuper, budget office spokesman, I'm supposed to add the $330 million cuts in this budget cycle to the $605 million in cuts from 2009-11, plus the $712 million in savings for a grand total of $1.6 billion. Subtract that from $3.2 billion and you cut the projected deficit in half.

Of course, none of this would have been necessary if Moore hadn't stopped putting out his 6-year outlook. But I'm sure that will resume, sometime around Nov. 5.

UPDATE No. 2: This just in from Dino Rossi:
“The incumbent cannot honestly claim that she has cut the size of the deficit in half. And I believe the Rainy Day Fund should only be used as a last resort, not to pay for unsustainable spending over the last four years. Christine Gregoire may grab headlines with today’s announcement, but we are still facing a very real and very serious budget deficit. We will not be able to put our state on a fiscally sustainable course until we address the root cause of our budgetary problems and bring spending in line with revenue."

Here are details of the governor's budget cuts.

Looks like the Guv is telling most agencies to cut spending by an additional 1 percent and spend federal money first. The state prison system is exempt because the state is trying to open a larger prison at Coyote Ridge and add room for about 2,400 inmates. Personally, I don't think they'll make it, but we'll find out in mid-December when the governor's budget proposal comes out.

Below are the news releases from Gregoire's budget office and from Rossi's campaign.

Gov. Gregoire announces plans for $330 million in budget savings

Actions will increase surplus to more than $850 million

OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire today announced actions that will save $330 million in the current budget, increasing the budget surplus for the biennium that ends June 30, 2009, to more than $850 million.

=> Read more!

Lori Sotelo, chairwoman of the King County Republican Party (aka GOP Party), sent out this invitation to hear Attorney General Rob McKenna speak.

Dear Joe Turner,

On October 14th at 6pm, the King County Republican Party will kick-off the Chairman’s Circle with our inaugural event at the Arctic Club Hotel in Seattle.

=> Read more!

Dave Ammons, spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, says we have 3,515,393 registered voters now and that number is climbing as state and county election officials process registrations.

We would have had a lot more voters if they hadn't purged felony offenders and dead people from the rolls.

Brand-new voters have until Oct. 20 to register for the Nov. 4 general election, so our record is likely to get even higher.

You know what this means, dontcha? If we have a really big turnout, professional initiative promoter Tim Eyman will have to collect more signatures to validate his next ballot measure.

The number of signatures required for initiatives and refereda is based on how many people vote for governor in the general election every four years. Right now, it's 224,880 for initiatives and half that number for referenda. It's 8 percent and 4 percent of number of people who vote in governor's race.

Washington breaks voter registration record

OLYMPIA – Washington has just set a new record for voter registrations, topping the 3.5 million figure set in the hotly competitive 2004 election year.

=> Read more!

The Washington State Gambling Commission is meeting Thursday and Friday in Spokane.

The poker game betting limit is up for a discussion, not a vote.

Last month, the commission raised the betting limit for Black Jack games at house-banked cardrooms to $300 from $200.

The Recreational Gaming Association wanted the commission to raise both maximum betting limits to $500.

Here is a link to the Gambling Commission. Click on "public meeting agenda" to get more details for Thursday and Friday meetings.

Tim Eyman forwarded this invitation to me. He's so looking forward to debating King County Executive Ron Sims at Seattle City Club next week.

The debate is during the lunch hour on Oct. 16 at the Washington Athletic Club. Eyman said TVW is taping the debate.

I've seen both of them speak. Eyman is the in-your-face, mile-a-minute talker. Sims is your classic southern preacher. Each of them will try to baptize his listeners.

"It will be a Goliath versus Goliath debate where sparks are guaranteed," Eyman said in his e-mail to reporters and supporters.

KIRO TV's Essex Porter is supposed to be the moderator.

Seattle City Club can be reached at (206) 682-7395 or cityclub@seattlecityclub.org. The athletic club is at 1325 Sixth Ave. Seattle.

The luncheon will cost you. It's from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
From Eyman:

You can attend and have lunch: $45 for the general public, $35 for city club members or guests of members. You can attend and have coffee: $8 for the general public, $5 for city club members or guests of members. Members of the media can attend for free.

I put this out there just for the sake of discussion. Keep in mind, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Joel Connelly is a columnist, so he gets to have more opinions than I do.

He's writing about the part of Initiative 985 that would open up carpool lanes during "off-peak" hours. Tim Eyman's ballot measure defines "peak hours" at 6-9 a.m. Monday thru Friday, and 3-6 p.m., also on weekdays.

Saturday and Sunday, carpool lanes would be wide open if I-985 passes.

I was stationed in our downtown Seattle bureau for a year in the early 1990s and had to commute from Tacoma and drive right into the teeth of congestion. Even back then, peak hours were longer. In fact, on Friday, it didn't matter if I left downtown Seattle at 2 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. It was going to take me an hour to an hour and a half to get home.

Anyone who commutes north on Interstate 5 already knows that "peak" commuting times are more like 4 to 5 hours at each end of the work day, not just 3 hours.

Here is a link to Joel's column.

Democrat Rob Cerqui (pronounced, CHAIR-kwee) has bought some television time, too. Last week I wrote about how his opponent, Republican Bruce Dammeier had purchase cable TV time.

You can watch Cerqui's ad by going to his Web site.

Here is a link to Cerqui's home page. Click on his face to run the ad.

Cerqui is focusing on how he's a 4th generation farmer. Dammeier is focusing on how he will be a "year-round" representative.

Here's Cerqui's news release from his campaign.

CONTACT:
Samantha Casne
People to Elect Rob Cerqui
Office number: (253) 845-3506
Samantha@robcerqui.com

PUYALLUP, October 6, 2008 - The campaign to bring the local values and leadership of the 25th district to the State House hits the airwaves today as People to Elect Rob Cerqui releases two television ads, which can be found at www.robcerqui.com.

=> Read more!

Deadline for making reservations is Monday, Oct. 13, at noon. It'll cost you $30 (for lunch) if you're not a member.

The debate is Wednesday, Oct. 15.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Lela Fishe, administrator
253-272-9561
office@cityclubtacoma.org
www.cityclubtacoma.org

City Club of Tacoma to host Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate forum

(Tacoma, Wash.) – The two candidates in the upcoming election for superintendent of public instruction are debating education issues that are critical to the future of public education in Washington: the federal No Child Left Behind law, student achievement, testing, school funding, and dropout rates.

But Education Week newspaper reports that observers question whether the three-term incumbent, Terry Bergeson, and her opponent, Randy Dorn, executive director of Public School Employee’s of Washington, are making much of a dent on the electorate amid the high-voltage presidential campaign and the intense contest for governor.

=> Read more!

Tim Eyman, prime sponsor of I-985, cc'd me an invitation he got from the 28th District Republican Club. They're meeing in Tacoma on Thursday.

Hi Tim,
The 28th District Republican Club is looking forward to hearing from you this Thursday, October 9th at 6:30pm at King Oscar's on Hosmer right off
I-5 just south of Tacoma. We will have a buffet dinner featuring salmon and lemon chicken. Your dinner is on us, of course. Please let me know if you have any questions or need further directions.

Thanks,
Patti Winfrey
Program Chair

Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark claims incumbent Republican Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland has taken care of the people who have contributed $600,000 toward Sutherland's campaign.

For Immediate Release: Monday, October 6, 2008
Contact: Peter Goldmark (206) 447-4169

Goldmark Launches First Television Commercials of Lands Commissioner Campaign

Ads focus on steep slope clear-cut logging and back room land deals; common thread is Republican Sutherland’s rewards to large special interest contributors

Meanwhile, those same special interests have amassed nearly $600,000 in special fund to bail out embattled incumbent

SEATTLE—Okanogan rancher Peter Goldmark, Democratic candidate for Commissioner of Public Lands, today kicked off advertising in the competitive race to serve as manager of Washington’s 5 million acres of forest, shoreline, grazing and aquatic resources.

=> Read more!

Just got this one in my e-mail.

West Nile virus found in two additional western Washington counties — first detections this year in these locations

Dead crows collected in Lewis and Pierce County test positive for the virus

OLYMPIA --Three dead birds — one from Lewis County and two from Pierce County — have tested positive for West Nile virus. The state Department of Health says these are the first positive test results in these west side counties this season; West Nile positive dead birds were previously reported in King and Thurston counties in 2008. The latest test results also detected more positive dead birds in King County (1), and Benton County (5) and two more horse cases.

The virus has already been active in eastern and central Washington this year. Three human cases of West Nile infection have been confirmed so far this season. Health officials believe all three were exposed while traveling in eastern Washington or eastern Oregon.

=> Read more!

Quadrennial (?) presidential candidate Ralph Nader is coming to Seattle later this month to talk about topical issues (Wall Street bailout) and to complain about being left out of the John McCain-Barack Obama debates.

News Advisory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ryan Mehta, 408-348-0681, rmehta@votenader.org (National HQ); Ben Meiklejohn, 207-699-6360 (Local)

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE RALPH NADER TO SPEAK IN SEATTLE
WHO: Ralph Nader
WHAT: Press Conference and Rally
WHEN: Tuesday, October 21 at 7:00pm and 7:30pm, respectively
WHERE: 1119 8th Ave. Seattle, WA 98101

On Tuesday, October 21 at 7:00pm consumer advocate and Presidential candidate Ralph Nader will host a press conference in the Board Room on 1119 8th Ave. Seattle, WA 98101. At 7:30 the rally will begin.. He will speak about the Wall St. Bailout, single-payer health care, the Iraq War, the environment, and the state of the Presidential debates from which he was excluded.

=> Read more!

This is part of Gov. Chris Gregoire's attempts to rein in spending in the face of a projected $3.2 billion deficit for the 2009-11 budget period.

Gregoire expects the "four 10s" to save part of the $290 million she has asked her budget folks to find.

I can help but wonder just how much money is saved by shutting down an office one day a week. Lower lighting and heating bills, I suppose. And the upside is workers get a 3-day weekend.

Another thing I wonder: How helpful is it to provide services to veterans between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.?

This work week change affects 57 of the agency's 630 employees, and only those at its headquarter's office in Olympia. The state VA also has offices at the Orting Soldiers Home.

For Immediate Release
Date: October 3, 2008
Contact: Heidi Audette
Phone: 360-725-2154

Olympia – The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs will participate in the state's trial of a 10-hour-per-day, four-day work week.

=> Read more!

What to make of Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg?

In leading the county for eight years, he’s become the kind of politician who inspires strong feelings, both good and bad. Fair or not, people’s opinions of Ladenburg often boil down to what they think of Chambers Bay Golf Course. Admirers see a visionary whose gamble on Chambers Bay paid off when the county won the right to host the 2015 U.S. Open. Others can’t stand him or the course, which caters to affluent golfers.

The four candidates for county executive take a middle ground. The portrait of Ladenburg that emerges from their comments is of an executive who swung for the fences but neglected the little things. Here’s what they have to say about Ladenburg:

• Republican Shawn Bunney said he’s always respected Ladenburg’s professionalism, even when he’s disagreed with him. But he faulted the executive for a hands-off approach to building permit backlogs at the county planning department.

You can listen to Bunney’s comments here. Of the four candidates, his response is the most guarded. You’ll hear him take more than a minute to respond, and I twice had to remind him he couldn’t answer the question “off the record.”

• Democrat Calvin Goings said Ladenburg has done “a solid job.” But he said he would do things differently. One example: he opposes county investment in hotels and lodging at Chambers Bay, preferring instead to lease the property to a private developer who could develop those amenities. Goings also pledged not to accept the 21 percent pay raise Ladenburg got two years ago. You can listen to his full comments here.

• Executive Excellence candidate Mike Lonergan said he faults not what Ladenburg has done, but what he hasn’t done. He cited the need to pay more attention to clearing blight and to improving services like permitting and animal control. You can listen to his comments here.

• Democrat Pat McCarthy said Ladenburg has “done some terrific things,” including “a huge gamble” on the golf course. But because his “vision has been out, as opposed to in, I think we need some work internally.” She also cited permitting problems. You can listen to her comments here.

Coming Tuesday: do the executive candidates think the building and real estate industries have too much influence on county government?

This is the long version of a story that appears today (Sunday) in our print edition. The print version is about 45 column inches. This one is about 70 inches. That's the great thing about on-line newspapers: Virtually no space limitation.

This version is for you budget junkies.

UPDATE: I got a couple calls from folks who thought it only fair that I point out the Democratic House Speaker Frank Chopp voted FOR what is now called "the Rossi budget" in final passage. True. Chopp was one of 28 House Democrats who voted for the budget. I should also point out that was after the House and Senate had negotiated something of a compromise, although Rossi, Locke and the Senate Republicans did roll the House speaker.

Also, Chopp voted against freezing salaries for teachers and other public school employees for two years.

Joseph Turner
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com
Listening to television ads, you’d think the candidates for governor couldn’t balance their own checkbooks, let alone manage a $70 billion two-year state budget.
The “Rossi budget” and the “Gregoire deficit” are terms that are tossed about routinely in the rematch between incumbent Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire and Republican challenger Dino Rossi.
Neither phrase is a compliment.
The two candidates have each had a shot at writing a state budget and approached it differently. But each of them also was forced to play the hand that was dealt them by the ups and downs of the Washington and national economies.
In short: Rossi proposed and oversaw a budget that radically cut or froze state spending because he was the chief budget-writer for the Republican state Senate in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that sent Washington’s still aircraft-dependent economy into a downward spiral.
Gregoire became governor as the economy was rebounding, giving her administration much more money to spend -- enough, in fact, for her to make up for some of the cuts made in the previous two years.
Now, Washington once again is facing another $3 billion deficit. Job growth, economic activity and state government tax collections have slowed so much that it feels like a recession, and could easily tip into one because of the housing and financial crisis on the national stage.
So, let’s take a look at how we got here.

=> Read more!

Former Vice President Al Gore is scheduled to speak at a fundraiser for Gov. Chris Gregoire.

The event will be held at noon on Oct. 24 at The Sheraton, 1400 Sixth Avenue, Seattle. Donations start at $150.

It's listed on the events page of her Web site.

As I clear out some e-mail, here are other upcoming events on the campaign trail:

Ballot issues: Backers and foes of six ballot measures on the Nov. 4 ballot will discuss their positions during a free community forum on Tuesday, Oct. 7. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. at Tacoma's downtown Main Library, Olympic Room, 1102 Tacoma Ave. S. The event is co-sponsored by the library and the League of Women Voters of Tacoma and Pierce County. News Tribune columnist Peter Callaghan will be the moderator. The ballot measures to be discussed are:
I-985: Tim Eyman's traffic congestion proposal.
I-1000: legalizing assisted suicide.
I-1029: addressing training and certification of home care aides.
Tacoma Proposition 1: repealing term limits for the mayor and city council members.
Regional Proposition 1: Sound Transit's $18 billion expansion proposal.
Pierce County Charter Amend. 1: changing the way the county executive and council submit and approve appointments to boards and commissions.
For more information, call the Tacoma Public Library at 253-591-5666 or check it out here.

Pierce County candidates forum: The public is invited to hear from candidates for county executive, county council, assessor-treasurer and sheriff, as well as candidates for the 2nd Legislative District seats in the state House. The event will be held Thursday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. at Spanaway Jr. High, 15701 “B” St. E., Tacoma. It's sponsored by the Bethel School District. Refreshments will be provided by South Puget Sound Boys & Girls Club Teen Chefs.

Get out the vote: An 8-year-old group called "Concerned Women for Sound Government" is hosting a "ladies-only" luncheon on Thursday, Oct. 9. It begins at 11:30 a.m. at the Tacoma Country and Golf Club in Lakewood. The cost is $20 to cover the lunch. "The event is not a fundraiser but is intended to encourage the ladies in attendance to spread the word to vote for conservative Republican candidates," organizers said in a news release. The guest speaker is Bruce Dammeier, a Republican candidate for the state House in the 25th District. For information, call Linda Stewart at 253-845-1531.

25th Legislative District: Michele Smith, a candidate for state Senate, will be the featured speaker at the Oct. 21 meeting of the 25th District Republican Club. The event, which is open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. at the Puyallup Public Library, 324 S. Meridian, Puyallup. For more information, contact Bob Neilson at 253-845-0038 or rhneilson@earthlink.net

The campaign against Initiative 1000 started airing the ads earlier this week. It's part of a $750,000 broadcast advertising campaign.

I'm told Martin Sheen is volunteering his time, but it will appear on state Public Disclosure Commission reports as an in-kind contribution.

Here's what the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide posted on its Web site, with a link to the site. Click on Sheen's face to see the TV ad. I haven't heard it yet, but one of my colleagues said it's running on radio stations, too.

Initiative 1000 Opponents Debut Actor Martin Sheen in Commercials

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2008

Olympia---Today, the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide announced it has started a $750,000 broadcast advertising campaign, featuring actor Martin Sheen. Sheen agreed to help publicize the dangers of Initiative 1000, the assisted suicide measure on the November ballot in Washington State.

"Martin Sheen is an outstanding actor and a person of impeccable integrity. His tireless efforts to help low income people across the country and his concern for vulnerable populations have earned him the reputation of a man who is compassionate and walks his talk," said Coalition Chair, Chris Carlson. "We are happy to add his distinguished voice to the growing chorus of people opposed to assisted suicide being legalized in Washington."

=> Read more!

Used to be that TV ads for a legislative district race were out of the question. But now cable TV can pinpoint ZIP codes to make if affordable and worthwhile for candidates to advertize.

And the race between Republican Bruce Dammeier and Democrat Ron Cerqui is going to be one of the harder fought ones out there. They're both going after Rep. Joyce McDonald's seat in the 25th Legislative District.

McDonald, a Republican, is running for Pierce County Council. So, Dammeier has to win for the GOP to hold onto the seat.

Still, a TV ad does cost money, so it's an indication of how important the race it.

A note from Bruce:

Yes, it is a cable buy for Pierce County. We will be on a wide variety of cable channels, including ESPN, CNN, FOX, and Discovery.

Here is a link to Dammeier's Web site, if you want to watch his ad.

And here's his news release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Dammeier Releases TV Ad Highlighting Lifetime of Service

Puyallup, WA- On Saturday October 4th, the Bruce Dammeier campaign will begin airing a new television ad emphasizing Bruce’s commitment to community service and his pledge to work hard on behalf of 25th District
residents year-round, not just during session.

=> Read more!

We were puzzling around the newsroom this morning over Gov. Palin's accent. So how does the Woman from Wasilla end up sounding like a character out of Fargo?

It's not a put-on, but a quirk of history, according to this piece in Slate, which explains the connection between the mid-West and the Matnuska-Susitna Valley:

The next town over from Wasilla, Palmer, has a large settlement of Minnesotans — who were moved there by a government relief program in the 1930s—and features of the Minnesotan dialect are thus prominent in the Mat-Su Valley area.

Now, can somebody explain those annoying bangs? Oh, I guess somebody did.

From Les Blumenthal in our D.C. bureau:

In the end, none of them flipped.

The four Washington state House members who voted against the $700 billion Wall Street bailout Monday voted against it again today.

But another of the state’s Democrats, Rep. Jim McDermott of Seattle, switched his vote and opposed the financial rescue plan.

Others voting no were Republicans Reps. Dave Reichert of Auburn, Doc Hastings of Pasco, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Deer Lake and Democratic Rep. Jay Inslee of Bainbridge Island.

All of them had been under increased pressure to switch their votes. But in the end, House leaders had well over the 12 votes they needed to pass the legislation. The final tabulation was 263-171.

“I just couldn’t do it,” said Reichert, adding that nothing had really changed from the earlier version of the bill.

Hastings said he was “mad as hell that the reckless actions of Wall Street created this situation” but that didn’t mean taxpayers should foot the bill for the “risky decisions” the financial community had made.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, who supported the bailout, said “this was not an easy vote, but we are not in easy times. This legislation, while not perfect, is necessary to address the weakness in our economy and protect and help the American people.”

Do developers pay enough to cover the cost of providing public services to new subdivisions? That’s a question Pierce County has wrestled with for years.

Two years ago, the County Council answered that question by approving a 20-year, $488 million spending plan to widen roads, build new ones and rebuild intersections. About 39 percent of the cost was covered by new traffic “impact fees” charged to developers.

But the matter is hardly settled. Some say developers (and the new residents they sell houses to) should pay a greater share of the cost of roads, schools and other services.

I asked the candidates for county executive if they would support raising traffic or school impact fees. Here’s what they had to say.

• Republican Shawn Bunney said he would support raising the fees. He noted he was among the six council members who voted to implement the first program two years ago. “It’s not just about support (for impact fees),” Bunney said. “It’s about leadership to build things and get things done.” That seemed to be a jab at fellow executive candidate Calvin Goings. Goings cast the lone vote against the plan approved two years ago, saying it didn’t charge developers enough. You can listen to Bunney’s full comments here.

• Democrat Goings said he still supports higher impact fees – but not now. “We are in a financial crisis right now,” Goings said. “So the last thing government should do is make it more difficult for people to build homes or businesses.” You can listen to Goings’ full comments here.

• Executive Excellence candidate Mike Lonergan said he might support higher fees. “What we need to do is know what we want, know where we want to go and then pattern both our incentives and our fees and regulations to get us there,” he said. You can listen to Lonergan’s full comments here.

• Democrat Pat McCarthy wouldn’t say “yes” or “no” to higher fees. She said she believes the fees are necessary, and she favors a “balanced approach.” She also wants to ensure the fees are used to compensate the affected communities. You can listen to her full comments here.

In Sunday’s News Tribune, you can read the candidates’ responses to other questions. And next week on Political Buzz you can hear more excerpts from my interviews with them. You’ll hear their take on County Executive John Ladenburg and the influence of builders and developers on county government. And you’ll hear more about why they believe they’re qualified to be county executive.

The folks at the Republican Party debate-watching party in Tacoma loved Sarah Palin before the debate. They loved her during the debate. And they really loved her after the debate.

So if you were looking for objective analysis, you shouldn’t have been at Maxwell’s Speakeasy + Lounge Thursday evening. But if you were looking for a celebration of the Republican vice presidential candidate, you came to the right place.

“She won!” many cheered as the debate ended amid a round of giddy applause.

It was the loudest of many ovations Palin got from scores of Republicans who gathered at Maxwell’s.

Shawn Burpee of Enumclaw was among them. He said Republicans have an “ideology based in principle, based in logic.” The Democrats are “driven by their feelings, rather than what works.”

He’s been a fan of Palin since before John McCain picked her to be his running mate.
Going into the debate, Burpee hoped Palin would just be herself. “I’d like to see Palin make a good showing,” he said.

None who attended the party seemed disappointed.

They gathered in several rooms with big-screen televisions tuned to the Fox News Channel. One was a designated “rowdy” room, where more than 50 people cheered Palin and razzed Democrat Joe Biden throughout the debate.

Among Palin’s biggest applause lines:

• “Patriotism is saying to government, `you’re not always the solution. Sometimes you’re the problem.’”

• “Your plan (on Iraq) is a white flag of surrender.”

• “There is only one man in this race who has ever fought for you, and that’s John McCain.”

Biden’s groan-inducers included:

• He said climate change is “man-made.”

• “We will end this war. For John McCain, there is no end in sight.”

• “Vice President (Dick) Cheney is probably the most dangerous vice president we’ve had in American history.”

Viewers talked back to Biden and cheered Palin on nearly every question. And when it was over, the verdict seemed unanimous.

“I think she pretty well soundly trounced him,” Burpee said. “She did pretty much just what she needed to do.”

From Les Blumenthal in our D.C. bureau:

Just days after they voted against the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, four Washington state lawmakers faced mounting pressure to change their minds as the House prepared to take up the rescue package again Friday.

While the lawmakers – Republican Reps. Dave Reichert, Doc Hastings and Cathy McMorris Rodgers along with Democratic Rep. Jay Inslee – were still hearing from “Joe Public” today, they faced a lobbying blitz from the business community.

None had publicly switched, despite the addition of more than $100 billion in tax breaks and other sweeteners.

“I’m still leaning no, but I haven’t decided yet,” said Reichert, the Auburn resident who faces a strong election challenge from Democrat Darcy Burner. “If you are going to roll the dice, I want it to be in favor of the taxpayer.”

Backers of the bill need to reverse a dozen votes to change the outcome.

Local banks, real estate companies, car dealers and small business owners weighed in. Along with such major corporations as Microsoft, Weyerhaeuser and Alaska Airlines, they were asking lawmakers to support the package when it comes up Friday. Lawmakers were also hearing from such groups as the National Association of Counties, the American Forest and Paper Association, the Aerospace Industries Association and the Information Technology Industry Council.

=> Read more!

During his speech to Tacoma Rotary 8 today, GOP candidate Dino Rossi spoke of his business credentials. Being someone who has signed the front side of a paycheck gives voters a choice between Rossi and Gov. Chris Gregoire, who has spent most of her career in government and none in the private sector.

"That doesn't make her evil. It doesn't make her bad. It's just a very narrow, Olympia-centric view of the world," Rossi said. He then outlined his career as a commercial real estate broker.

"I come from a world of 100 percent commission. I come from a world of no salary, no benefits, if you don't work you don't eat. I'll be the first governor in my lifetime to come from that walk of life. That's a different lens to look through, isn't it?"

If his point was that he'd be the first governor since 1960 who was a 100 percent commission salesman, he's right. But if he was suggesting that he'd be the first since 1960 with private sector experience or who issued checks to employees, he's forgetting someone.

Booth Gardner, a Democratic governor from 1985 to 1993, spent 10 years as president of the Laird Norton Co. and was a member of the board of directors of Weyerhaeuser, the former Puget Sound National Bank and the soon-to-be-former Washington Mutual Savings Bank.

Sure, Gardner was leading a family owned company and representing the stock ownership of that family. But the building materials company wasn't exactly a government agency or a non-profit.

Democrat Chris Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi met last night in the third of five scheduled debates in the governor's race.

From the Yakima Herald-Republic's story:

Rossi, 48, took a lot of his lines from his previous playbook, calling Gregoire fiscally irresponsible, saying she “recklessly gambled the economic boom would never taper off.”

He likened her spending to that of former Gov. Mike Lowry, a Democrat known for big ideas and big social programs.

“She’s outspent Mike Lowry. You’d have to lay awake nights figuring out how to outspend Mike Lowry,” Rossi quipped.

But Gregoire said the state has caught the same cold that’s spread across the nation, which has legislators staring at a projected $3.2 billion budget for the upcoming biennium.

“Our nation is truly facing unprecedented economic challenge,” she said. “No corner of America has escaped the mess created by Wall Street.”

Here's a link to the rest of the Yakima paper's story.

Three of four candidates for Pierce County executive say they don’t favor public funding for lodging or restaurants at Chambers Bay Golf Course.

Depending on who wins the election, that could scuttle an idea floated earlier this summer by current executive John Ladenburg. He proposed the county consider joining with a private developer to build lodging, a clubhouse and a restaurant at the course and share in any profits.

Originally, the county hoped a private investor would pay to build the new facilities. Now KemperSports – which operates the course for the county – wants at least some public investment. The idea is that Pierce County can borrow money more cheaply than the private company.

The county has hired a consultant to study the feasibility of lodging at Chambers Bay. It looks like a final report won’t come until after the election.

Ladenburg has been the primary champion of Chambers Bay, which opened last year. It was his vision to build a high-end course to generate revenue to help pay for the development of other recreation amenities at the county’s Chambers Creek Properties in University Place.

That vision seemed to be validated earlier this year when the course won the right to host the 2015 U.S. Open, which the county estimates will generate tens of millions of dollars in economic activity and tax revenue.

But the course has been controversial from the start. The county borrowed $21 million to build it and pledged golf course, sewer and general fund revenue to repay it. So far, the course is paying its own way, and Ladenburg says it will continue to do so.

But it likely will be up to the next executive and the County Council to decide whether to invest in Chambers Bay lodging, restaurants and a clubhouse. And so far, only Republican candidate Shawn Bunney says he’s keeping an open mind.

“It’s not a yes or a no because it has not been vetted,” Bunney said. He wants to see if such a plan would protect taxpayers and provide a return on the county’s investment. You can listen to his full comments here.

The other candidates – Democrats Calvin Goings and Pat McCarthy and Executive Excellence candidate Mike Lonergan – offered variations of “no” when asked whether they would support public investment in lodging and a restaurant at Chambers Bay.

Goings said he would support a 99-year ground lease for a private firm that would develop lodging and restaurants. You can listen to his full comments here.

Lonergan said it’s time to reap the benefit of the money the county already has invested at the golf course. “If the market bears it out, there should be no difficulty finding private interests to invest” in lodging and a restaurant, he said. You can listen to his full response here.

McCarthy said she’s “not in a position right now to say I would support that … My belief is that it should be done through some other mechanism.” You can listen to her full response here.

Coming tomorrow: the executive candidates give their take on impact fees to offset the cost of providing new services to housing developments.

Jason Hagey reported Monday that Pierce County Republicans are hosting a we-love-Sarah-Palin debate-watch party Thursday evening at Maxwell's Speakeasy + Lounge. Find details here.

I asked Pierce County Democratic Party Chairman Nathe Lawver if he knew of any pro-Biden gatherings.

He said the 27th Legislative District Democrats will be at the Varsity Grill, 1114 Broadway, Tacoma. The 25th Legislative District Democrats will be at the Puyallup Library, 324 S. Meridian, Puyallup.

The Pierce County Council Tuesday voted unanimously to buy the Tacoma Narrows Airport near Gig Harbor for $5 million.

Under an agreement approved at a special meeting at the airport, the county will pay $3 million of the purchase price. The Peninsula Metropolitan Parks District will pay the other $2 million and will get the adjacent Madrona Links Golf Course.

The City of Tacoma has been trying to sell the money-losing airport for two years. County officials say they can break even or better by consolidation operations with the county’s other airport – Thun Field.

County officials see the Narrows airport as an economic development tool. They also want to keep it in public hands to control its development.

County Council Chairman Terry Lee, R-Gig Harbor, said the county will host community meetings to seek public input on an airport business plan.

From Les Blumenthal in our D.C. bureau:

While admitting it's far from a “cure-all” for the nation’s economic ills, Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray says she will support a $700 billion Wall Street bailout package when it comes to the Senate floor this evening.

“It’s an attempt to keep an already bad situation from getting worse,” Murray said in a statement. “This is not the legislation I would have written. It’s not legislation I wanted to support.

“But this is not the time to tell American families ‘Sorry, you are on your own’ and hope for the best.”

Update: Washington state's other senator, Democrat Maria Cantwell, voted against the bill, saying she was not “turning the keys of the U.S. Treasury over to the private sector.”

In a brief but heated speech on the Senate floor, Cantwell said the bailout essentially represented a misuse of federal tax dollars which are traditionally used to leverage private investment in rescuing ailing companies.

“The problem with the legislation before us is we are choosing winners and losers,” she said.

Murray said “I will support this package because the American dream of owning a home or going to college is simply too important to take a back seat to politics or to be put at risk by the misdeeds of Wall Street.”

In a lengthy statement, Murray said she had heard not only from such companies as Weyerhaeuser, Microsoft and Avista but also people who are worried the credit crunch may make it impossible for them to get home mortgages or student loans.

“Across the board there is deep and genuine concern about market collapse and the potential impact on jobs, credit and retirement accounts,” Murray said, adding she too was angry because the situation was preventable. “But the reality is that those who created the problem won’t be those who are hurt most. The hardest hits will be taken by average Americans.”

The bill, which was defeated in the House on Monday, now includes provisions extending major tax breaks, including one allowing the deduction of state and local sales taxes on federal returns. That tax break has saved Washington state residents between $350 million and $500 million annually.

The fact that Sound Transit's ballot measure next month has the same number (Proposition 1) as it had in 2007, and the fact that the dollar amount they are using is the same ($17.8 billion) would make it appear that the same plan is on the ballot this year.

Not so! The one on the ballot this time is actually smaller. (But the tax amount for transit is exactly the same: a 0.5 percent sales tax.)

I'm not sure why Sound Transit decided to describe this year's Proposition 1 as a $17.8 billion package. I guess the Seattle newspapers so browbeat them over the cost last time around that they decided to overstate the cost rather than understate it. They even included the $17.8 billion in the ballot description.

Here's why they aren't the same: The $17.8 billion price tax for the 2007 ballot measure was the cost in current year dollars. That is, if all the light-rail stuff and Sounder stations and buses were bought today, they would have cost $10.8 billion, and if all the highway projects in that package were built today, they would have cost $7 billion. The total: $17.8 billion.

The $17.8 billion price tax for THIS YEAR'S ballot measure is stated in "year of expenditure" dollars. That is, the rail line and stations will be built over a 15-year period and a station built in 2023 is going to cost more than a station built today, because of inflation.

Apples and oranges!

Here's the apples-to-apples comparison: Last year's $17.8 billion is really $9.3 billion in this go-round, for construction. Partly because there are no highway projects in this year's ballot measure. And partly because the $10.8 billion transit component in last year's package has shrunk to $9.3 billion. (That's why light rail is not getting as far as Tacoma in this year's plan.)

If you had used "year of expenditure" to describe the 2007 ballot measure, that $17.8 billion would have been $37.8 billion. The construction timeline was five years longer, through 2028.

There's also a maintenance and operation component of both packages, but that's an item for another blog post.

Yesterday was the last day on the job for Mike Groesch, senior staff coordinator for the state Senate Transportation Committee.

I take note of his departure for the same reason I paid attention to the departure of David Schumacher, who used to have a similar job with the Senate Ways and Means Committee until he left to go work for The Boeing Co. That happened last month, too.

My journalism colleagues are bemoaning the loss of fellow members of the Olympia press corps, and I'll miss them, too. But if you're a statehouse reporter and you're supposed to know how the Legislature is spending public funds, Groesch and Schumacher are the go-to guys. Just ask Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

I first got to know Groesch when he was writing the capital budget for the Senate. He's the guy I would seek out to find where in the budget lawmakers had put money for the University of Washington branch campus in Tacoma.

In fact, Groesch brought the same itemized approach to the state transportation budget as was used to write the capital budget. That is, there now are specific projects in the transportation budget and dollar amounts assigned to them. Used to be, the Legislature just lumped billions of dollars into a category, like "safety" and it was hard to track.

Groesch is also the only Olympia staffer I know who wants the UW Tacoma to get its own football team -- the Amocats.

I'm posting this blog item mainly to give Mike's co-workers and staffers a chance to rag on him by posting their own comments.

It wasn't paid for by the state. The City of Tacoma commissioned and paid the artist $50,000 to put those patterns on the retaining walls around the bend on northbound Interstate 5.

My colleague, Adam Lynn, wrote about that in January 2007.

Tacoma's public art administrator Amy McBride confirmed that yesterday. So did Lloyd Brown, chief spokesman for the Washington Department of Transportation.

Despite what Tim Eyman is trying to imply in Initiative 985, the state doesn't set aside 1/2 percent of highway construction projects for public art. The public art you see generally is paid for by someone else, maybe Sound Transit, which has a 1 percent for art policy, or, in the case of I-5 project, Tacoma.

The next time you see DOT pay for public art probably will be when it the agency gets around to building a new $30 million regional headquarters building for the Olympic Region in Hawks Prairie area. The art set-aside applies to buildings, not highways.

Here's Brown's email to me:

The city and WSDOT negotiated a $50,000 payment for the art texture. The city hired the artist and WSDOT didn't contribute to that. I don't have a copy of the agreement - I've been traveling today to our Northwest and North Central regions today. The walls would have been built anyway, so covering the cost of the concrete forms was appropriate for the city. It was the city's idea and we supported the idea as a good neighbor.

=> Read more!

Pierce County turned down last year's Proposition 1 by a greater margin than either of its sister counties up north, and there's even less for Pierce County (from a light rail standpoint) this time around.

The Sound Transit board designed a plan that puts a lot of light rail in King County and pushes up to Lynnwood in Snohomish County. But the main spine comes only as far south as the northern city limits of Federal Way, and never crosses the border into Pierce County.

Tacoma could get an extension of its downtown Link if the city or someone else ponies up half the money to match Sound Transit. Instead, Pierce gets more regional bus service and Sounder trains and parking at train stations.

Most of the e-mail feedback I've been getting from readers suggests they feel slighted by the plan.

All of which begs the question: Will King and Snohomish counties approve this second $18 billion plan by wide enough margins to overcome a predominantly "no" vote in Pierce County? It's an all-or-nothing proposition, by the way.

Here's a look at last year's results, county by county, for Proposition 1:

Pierce County
YES............54,333....42.61 percent
NO.............73,170....57.39 percent

King County
YES...........170,982....44.75 percent
NO............211,070....55.25 percent

Snohomish County
YES.........41,444......44.36 percent
NO..........51,993......55.64 percent

NOTE: I used only the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority votes, not the Regional Transportation Investment District totals of the combined ballot measure for 2007. For Pierce County, they were identical.
If you'll recall, the last ballot measure had about $11 billion for transit and $7 billion for highways.

I recently interviewed the four candidates for Pierce County executive for profiles that will run in Sunday’s paper. The interviews were wide-ranging. We talked about the candidates’ experience and priorities, of course. But I also sought their opinions on issues like public funding for Chambers Bay Golf Course and impact fees to offset the cost of providing services to new housing developments.

The resulting articles are spread over two pages in Sunday’s paper. But there’s never enough space in print to give the candidates their full say on every topic. So today I begin posting audio excerpts from the interviews. It’s a chance to let you hear what the candidates have to say in their own words.

First up: the candidates weigh in on Sound Transit’s proposed $18 billion regional expansion plan.

Voters in November will consider an $18 billion Sound Transit expansion measure. Do you support the measure?

Republican Shawn Bunney: “No. I think roads and transit are both a priority,” Bunney said. But he said the county’s top priority should be finishing Highway 167 and the Cross Base Highway. Listen to his full response here.

Democrat Calvin Goings: “If I would have been county executive I would have advocated for a different proposal … While not a perfect package, as citizen Calvin Goings, I’m probably going to vote yes.” Listen to his full response here.

Executive Excellence candidate Mike Lonergan: He doesn’t support the measure, citing its effect on sales taxes and its lack of attention to Pierce County needs. Listen to his full response here.

Democrat Pat McCarthy: “I don’t think the time is right to put a measure on the ballot, especially given the economic climate we’re facing.” Listen to her full response here.

Coming tomorrow: the candidates’ take on more public funding at Chambers Bay Golf Course. Future excerpts include their opinions of current Executive John Ladenburg and their thoughts on whether the building and real estate industries have too much influence on county government.