The Flag of the World

As Stefan just noted, the Everett Herald reported yesterday, Snohomish County Auditor “Sideshow” Bob Terwilliger has canceled the registration of former independent county council candidate Greg Stephens. Why? He didn’t live in Snohomish County–and thus was an ineligible candidate, despite recieving 8% of the vote–larger than the gap between Democrat Dave Somers, the victor, and the incumbent, Republican Jeff Sax. Oops!

The article highlights the three groups who seriously messed up in allowing Stephens’ candidate to go forward. First, obviously, is Sideshow Bob himself, though he defends himself by saying that “No one ever called me or e-mailed” about Stephens, though he never outright says he did not know Stephens was ineligible.

It would be surprising if he had not heard it somewhere, though–both Sax and Somers, and apparently many others had heard the allegations well before the end of the election. It is understandable why Sax and the Democrats didn’t do anything, as Stephens was going around telling people he was a Republican, despite the fact that he had supported Somers in the last election.

The inaction and Sax or the Republican Party is a bit more puzzling to me. Sax claims that “he did nothing because he didn’t want his inquiry perceived as dirty politics,” and heaven knows it would have been. But I also wonder if it might be that the party hoped that Stephens would pull more from Somers. Jerry Cornfield has more on that in an article today

But that leads us to the final culpable party in this mess, one the Herald doesn’t mention–that’s no surprise, though, because the Herald is that culpable party. The fact that the Herald, which styles itself the paper of record for Snohomish county, let a council candidate go through an entire campaign without even noticing that he doesn’t even live in the county is a black, black mark. Not, unfortunately, a surprising black mark. The Herald had something of a love affair going with Greg Stephens, treating him as a legitimate candidate with a shot to win, and credulously referring to him as a Republican running as an independent with no evidence that he was anything of the kind.

The auditor, the politicians and the press all screwed up on this one. They should all learn a lesson from it, but somehow I think that only one of them will. Care to guess which one?

It was in Snohomish County.

Sort of.

In the past few elections, when Democrats on the national level have gotten shellacked, they have looked to the lower level elections to soothe themselves. Now, it’s my turn. Yesterday was unequivocally a bad day for Snohomish County Republicans, and thus a bad one for the county in general, if you ask me. Losing the County Council to the Democrats means we’re in line for tax hikes, land grabs and who knows what else. But there is something of a silver lining, if you glance down the ballot a bit.

First off, there’s the Charter Review Commission. Things didn’t go as well for Republicans as they should have. Three commissioners were elected from each council district, and unfortunately, more than three Republicans ran in two of the districts, diluting the Republican vote and meaning fewer were elected than could have been. Even so, the GOP-endorsed candidates did quite well, especially when compared to the Democrat-endorsed ones. Six Republican-endorsed candidates are taking commissioner spots, compared to only three Democrat-endorsed ones. (Results are here, in PDF format, because the Snohomish County Website, despite going down yesterday, is apparently trying to increase their bandwith even further). This gives Republicans 40% of the commission, to 20% Democrats and 40% people not endorsed by either party. Not too shabby. (Congrats, in particular, to friend Eric Earling.)

City Council races went even better for Republicans. 13 of 16 Republican endorsed county council candidates are winning their race, nine of them with actual opponents. Of the three who are losing, two of them are doing so by barely 100 votes or less. Additionally, both Republican candidates up against Democrat opponents won their race. Democrats endorsed fewer candidates, and have stricter rules about who they endorse (they didn’t endorse Mark Smith, who was clearly a Democrat–and won his Lynnwood City Council race), so you would think that they would do better, percentage-wise. But that is not the case. Only two of six endorsed Democrats in contested races won. Even including unopposed races, only 50% of them won.

This hardly makes last night a good night for Republicans. But it eases the sting quite a bit. It says good things about the clout of the county party, and implies that it’s doing a good job of building a “bench.” And that’s something.

Additionally, though it’s not in Snohomish County, I would be remiss in not mentioning another bright spot. Randy Eastwood served admirably as the GOP’s sacrificial lamb against Congressman Jay Inslee last year. Yesterday he demolished his opponent in his race for Kenmore City Council. I suspect that’s not the last we’ll hear from him. Congrats, Randy.

(Cross posted at Sound Politics.)

(Confused by the title? Read this.)

Another local blog, with you may be familiar, has, with typically foul-mouthed aplomb, accused the campaign of Snohomish County Councilman Jeff Sax of gay-baiting. Specifically, his campaign is accused of posting “Gay endorsed” stickers on his opponent, Jeff Somers’ signs, presumably in an effort to turn off those who are turned off by such things. If indeed they did such a thing, that would be despicable. The Sax campaign, though, has told me that they had absolutely anything to do with the signs.

In fact, they suspect the Somers campaign, or someone friendly, of putting it there themselves, noting that over 2,000 yard Sax signs have been stolen over the course of the campaign, plus the defacement of dozens more larger ones. And, even in a rural area such as much of Sax’s district, Washington is still a very tolerant place, and where that tolerance doesn’t extend to homosexuality, it is unlikely to extend to dirty tricks either. I can’t see why someone who supposedly finds nothing wrong with homosexuality would raise such a hue and cry over vandalism that is more likely to garner votes for Somers than his opponent.

Additionally, plastering such stickers over someone else’s signs is far more of a Democratic tactic than a Republican one (despite accusations on yet another blog that Repyblicans are trained in them by the College Republicans, which I am pleased to say was untrue at my chapter). Just a few weeks ago I peeled a very slick looking, professionally-made sticker off of a large sign endorsing Social Security reform put up by the Washington Conservative PAC. The huge bright yellow sticker said “brought to you by your friends the NAZIS!” Charming folk, aren’t they?

We’ll see tommorow if the ugly thing, regardless of who it was performed by, paid off for Somers.

Snohomish County Endorsements
Much attention has been placed on the Sims-Irons race, and rightly so. For those of us in Snohomish County, though, there’s plenty of important races to vote in and watch. I’m happy to provide my two cents on who I think you folk ought to be voting for. Being a partisan sort of fellow, this list will bear some resemblance to the Snohomish County GOP endorsement list, but there will be enough differences to make it worth your while to read both. So, lets get on with it, shall we?
Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve recently been reminded (repeatedly) of just how important it is to elect good judges, and of how frequently we don’t. Snohomish county voters, though, have an opportunity to do just that on November 8.

Due to the tragic death of Justice Faye Kennedy just after the primary, a Snohomish County seat has opened on the State Court of Appeals. The seven-person race is winner take all, and it’s wide open. The choice, however, seems clear to me: Judge David Hulbert.

Judge Hulbert has everything you could ask for in a judge–more judicial experience (12 years as a superior court judge) than any of his opponents, a committment to and record of judicial restraint, and endorsements from all the right people: State Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson, Dino Rossi, Senator Slade Gorton, the county GOP and others. From my short interaction with him, he’s also possesed of a down-to-earth common sense that is sorely lacking in much of our legal system. You can find out a bit more about him here and here.

We’ve all seen how those judicial races that no one pays attention to can have serious consequences. Now we have a chance to pay attention and make a difference–seriously, folks, vote for Judge David Hulbert on November 8.

Cross posted at Sound Politics.

The Everett Herald today reports on the work of, Kurt Kutay, a parent of a Meadowdale High School student, to undermine the military:

A growing number of Snohomish County parents are pointing the finger back at Uncle Sam, telling military recruiters they want them out of their mailboxes, off their phone lines and out of their kids’ lives.

“This is one simple issue,” said Kurt Kutay, who stood on a sidewalk outside Meadowdale High School in Lynnwood early Wednesday, handing out forms to students that would remove their names from military recruiters’ school rolls.

“Should our public schools turn over private contact information of minor children to military recruiters without explicit written permission from parents or the students themselves?” Kutay asked.

Actually, yes they should. If they want the nation to educate their children, then it seems to me they have an obligation to help defend that nation–even if it’s just by letting a military recruiter give their kid a call.

But the concerns about privacy are just a facade for a nationwide campaign to undermine, not just the war in Iraq, but the military itself. Kutay is affiliated with the organization “Leave My Child Alone,” a radical group sposored by such extremist organizations as Code Pink, the Underground Action Alliance and other far left groups, along the lines of the the punks and thugs who chased recruiters away from Seattle Central Community College earlier this year. The Herald article, mysteriously, failed to mention these ties.

Ironically, many of these same organizations criticized Bush for not doing more to respond to Hurricane Katrina–presumably using the same military they’re trying to keep “out of their kids’ lives.” Until, of course, they need it for something.

Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon, despite being a Democrat, has proved that he is certainly not a democrat, calling government of the people, by the people and for the people an “elected posse,” and suggesting that life would be much easier if he could just be in charge of everything:

D.J. Wilson, an economics instructor at the college who interviewed Reardon, pointedly asked him what elected offices might be done away with, if possible.

Reardon spent most of the time alleging that the sheriff’s office — Bart in particular — has been unprofessional.

“We need professional law enforcement,” Reardon said. “We don’t want an elected posse running the county.”

Reardon also suggested the county treasurer and clerk of courts should be appointed positions.

That’s funny, Aaron–most of us call that elected posse “a democratically elected government.” Does that ring a bell?

Of course, the reason that Reardon spent most of his time railing on the sheriff is that Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart is running against him in 2007. Bart and Reardon have long clashed over budgeting priorities–Bart thinks that providing a well trained, well-equipped, high-morale police force is the most important function of local government, while Reardon prefers spending money on other things. I think the events in Louisiana have made it clear who is in the right in that argument.

What’s really odd is that Reardon is trying to make Snohomish County government less accountable, just as King County is taking steps to become more accountable.

The only way Reardon will be able to enact this plan is by changing the County Charter–and the only way he can do that is by getting easily led people elected to the County Charter Review Commission, which will make changes to the Charter and then present them to the voters for approval. Three commissioners will be elected from each council district, and it is very important that we elect only commissioners who are committed to ensuring that our government is comprised of elected officials accountable to the public, not appointed bureaucrats.

(Cross Posted at Sound Politics.)

Two months ago, I posted about LST1126.com, a website devoted to the ship named after my county, the USS Snohomish County. I noted then that the site’s proprietor, Calhoun C. Benton, who served onboard the Snohomish County, was trying to get the Snohomish County government site to link to him, and urged people to help convince them. Unfortunately, it is the policy of the County not to link to anything outside their own website. As I told them when they informed me of this policy, that policy means that any county website will make poor use of the medium of the Internet.

While the antiquated policy remains in place, the County has worked with Mr. Benton to write up a history of the USS Snohohomish County that has been put on the site, along with other historical pieces about the county. Thanks to the County for doing that, and you should go take advantage of it. It’s worth a read.

Sound Politics noted the other day that, though what appeared to be a hate crime turned out to be a hoax, the usual suspects were insisting on still calling it a hate crime.

There’s a bit more to the story, though. Immediately after the initial burglary, a couple of politicians immediately jumped to condemn the crime. Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon, never one to avoid the limelight, sent out an email declaring:

Wednesday’s vandalism of an Everett family’s home was shameful. Regardless of the motive, the perpetrators deserve to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The investigation into whether or not this is a hate crime is on-going. However, there are very deeply rooted meanings in the symbols painted on the family’s property, which historically has conjured images of divisiveness, intimidation, fear and crimes against humanity.

I continue my commitment that, in general, hate crimes will not be tolerated, nor do they reflect the values of our community.

Now, really, there’s nothing wrong with that sort of thing. Politicians jump on that sort of bandwagon all the time. One little problem, though:

Police suspected it wasn’t a hate crime from the start, Bryant said. While the house was ransacked, certain things were untouched — such as Kitchell’s diamond earrings and a china cabinet…

During a news conference yesterday, Police Chief Jim Scharf scolded the media, politicians and others because he said they refused to listen when police warned that officers didn’t think it was a hate crime. It would be the second time in a year that an Everett resident is accused of staging a hate crime…

“It’s again the rush of judgment that concerns us and concerns me,” Scharf said yesterday. “Our people do a good job investigating these cases.”

Oh, well–as long as Reardon got a chance to make it clear that he hates racism.

There’s another interesting thing about this little story. The above excerpt is from the Seattle Times. The corresponding story in the Everett Herald–the local paper that you would expect to cover such local stories with a careful eye, especially towards local politicians. But if you read the Herald story, you’ll note something very interesting–there’s no mention of Scharf’s condemnation. Why is that? Well, I have my theories, and I’m sure you do too.

Recently, a political lobbying group based out of Vermont called “American Rivers” released a list of what they called the 10 “endangered” rivers in the nation, including the Skykomish River in Snohomish County. This resulted in over 600 emails to the County Council, and a front page, top of the fold article in the Everett Herald entitled “Skykomish River ‘at risk’.”

Of course, there are a few problems with this. First, American Rivers doesn’t apply any scientific criteria to their “endangered” designation–it’s entirely political. In fact, Skykomish is among the most healthy rivers in the region. Second, the vast majority of those emails were from out of state–and many of them were about out of state rivers! Get the whole story over at the Snohomish County GOP site.

Cross posted at Sound Politics.

One of the two flawed bills I mentioned last week has died the death it needed to:

A bill allowing the Tulalip Tribes to retain millions in sales tax revenue collected at its Quil Ceda Village failed Monday to win approval from a key state Senate committee, effectively ending any chance of passage this session.

The bill sought to divert a portion of Snohomish County’s sales tax earnings from the commercial development back to the tribes beginning this year. None of the state share would have been touched.

That fact did not sway Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Margarita Prentice, D-Seattle. She put the kibosh on the legislation by not allowing the measure to be voted on before a Monday deadline for action on fiscal bills not related to the state budget…

Prentice said she was concerned with the projected loss of revenue for Snohomish County. A state estimate predicted a $12 million hit to the county’s budget over the next six years if the bill was passed. She also noted the opposition from the Snohomish County Council.

“They can try again next year, but I think they need to talk to their own county government and work that out first.”

The law could also have set a precedent, and what the effect would be statewide if other tribes followed suit is not fully known, she said.

Prentice said she spoke with Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, following last Friday’s public hearing. “I told him all my reservations,” Prentice said.

McCoy, who is general manager of Quil Ceda Village and has championed the legislation since its inception, could not be reached for comment Monday.

It’s nice to see that there are a few sensible Democrats in the legislature–but Snohomish County Democrats certainly didn’t care much about the blatant pick-pocketing of the county’s coffers. Thanks to the Republicans in the County Council for making enough of a ruckus to convince the Senate to knock it down again.

In other news, “I told him all my reservations” strikes me as a pretty funny way to put it, no?

Two very bad bills are looming in the State Senate that have specific implications for Snohomish County, but that the rest of the state should take notice of as well. One would turn a strip mall into a “city” for the purposes of taking tax money away from the state and county and giving it to a tribe, while the other simply doesn’t do what it is supposed to do–save Snohomish County’s youth playfields.

Why do this? Well, Representative John McCoy, (D - 38), (who is the general manager of Quil Ceda Village) wants this shopping mall to be considered a “city” so the “city” could retain the city portion of the sales tax. This will take money directly away from both the County and the State, at a time when budgets are already tight–and sets a dangerous precedent for the rest of the state. This bill is currently in the ways and means committee. Go to SnoCoGOP.com for more information on how you can help defeat this bill.

Second, we have EHB 2241, the bill that is supposed to save Snohomish County ballfields that were built–with the county’s implicit permission–on lands zoned for agricultural use. However, the bill is written in such a restrictive manner that it does no such thing. But don’t take my word for it–that’s the conclusion of the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s office, who went over the bill with a finetoothed comb at the request of the county council.

The bill needs to be amended, but Hans Dunshee (D-44) is threatening anyone who attempts to amend or stall his version with deletion of their capital line items in his budget. For more information on the bill’s problems, again go to SnoCoGOP.com.

Cross posted at Sound Politics.