Political Buzz

A team of experienced reporters keep you updated on what's happening in political arenas at the city, county, state and federal levels. From presidential campaign visits to who's running for city council, we've got it covered.

Contributors

Peter Callaghan is a local columnist. He’s covered the statehouse and state politics since 1981. Before joining The News Tribune in 1985, the Stadium High grad worked for newspapers in Everett and Lewiston, Idaho, and for The Associated Press in Olympia and Seattle. Email Peter

Joe Turner has covered state government and transportation issues since 1990. Since the Bellarmine grad’s arrival in the newsroom in 1978, he’s covered police, suburban cities, Tacoma City Hall, Federal Way City Hall and the Pierce and King county governments. Email Joe

David Wickert covers Pierce County government. Before coming to The News Tribune in 1998, he covered local government for newspapers in Illinois, Virginia and Tennessee. Email David

Ian Demsky is a general assignment reporter who specializes in database-driven reporting. He's been at the News Tribune since 2007 and has previously worked in Nashville, Tenn. and Portland, Ore. When he's not at work, he enjoys hiking and science fiction. Email Ian
Les Blumenthal has been covering Washington, D.C. for The News Tribune since 1990, focusing on issues and politicians involving the state. Before joining The News Tribune, he spent 13 years working for The Associated Press in Seattle, Illinois and Washington, D.C. Email Les

John Henrikson is a local news editor who oversees political coverage. He's worked as a journalist in the Northwest for 19 years, supervising coverage and reporting on local and state government, the environment and growth. Email John

Local politics links
Brad Shannon's The Politics Blog (The Olympian)
Adam Wilson (The Olympian)
Politics Northwest (Seattle Times)
Sound Politics
Horse's Ass
Richard Roesler's Eye on Olympia (Spokesman Review)
P-I's Strange Bedfellows (Seattle PI)
Crosscut
SoundInfo Databases
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Statewide School Employee Pay
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Metro Parks Employee Pay
City of Lakewood Employee Pay
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Pierce Transit Employee Pay
Other Resources
Washington Legislature Bill Lookup
How your lawmaker voted: WashingtonVotes.org

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Let's talk politics.
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
Posted by Melissa Santos @ 03:17:27 pm

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."

Categories: Congress
Posted by David Wickert @ 01:07:04 pm

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.