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 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2009 7:36 am |
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| RECENT POSTS: | |
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• State high court upholds school funding formula November 12 • High court to consider if you have a right to honk your horn November 11 • Edmonds Councilwoman Pritchard-Olson dies November 9 • Pastor Fuiten skewers strategy of R-71 opponents November 9 • House Speaker Pelosi visits Seattle today November 9 |
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Local • Island County • Snohomish County State • Governor • Legislature • Secretary of State U.S. • House of Representatives • Senate • White House Useful Resources • Federal Election Commission • Public Disclosure Commission • Thomas (federal legislation tracking) • TVW |
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| RECENT COLUMNS: | |
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• Unions want Hans Dunshee to replace Steve Hobbs in state senate November 15 • Its mind made up, Boeing's talks with Sen. Murray were for appearances October 31 • It's mind made up early, Boeing's talks with Murray were for appearances October 30 • Courtroom detours in Referendum 71 fight may prove costly to foes October 25 |
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State high court upholds school funding formula It looks like a big win for the state this morning in a legal challenge to how it allocates money to publc schools. On a 9-0 vote, the state Supreme Court ruled the state's formulas for distributing dollars for pay of teachers, staff and administrators is constitutional. Here's the decision in Federal Way School District No. 210 v. State of Washington Justice James Johnson authored the opinion which concludes: The legislature's use of the staff unit allocation system to fund education with differing salary allocations to school districts with historically disparate average salaries does not violate article IX, section 2, although there remains a slight gap between the highest and lowest salary funding statewide. There is no showing that the legislature's funding allocations, including those for Federal Way School District, do not constitute "ample provision for the education of all children" as required under article IX, section 1. The legislature has acted well within its constitutional authority and its duty to make ample provision for the education of children and to provide for a general and uniform system of education under article IX. The individual respondents' claims do not meet requirements for justiciability and should be dismissed. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
High court to consider if you have a right to honk your horn Helen Immell is no lawyer. Yet, in in a few months, she'll be in front of the state Supreme Court arguing for her right to speak freely with her car honk. Reporter Diana Hefley writes in today's Herald: Helen Immelt contends that the county trampled on her First Amendment rights when she was arrested in 2006 for honking her horn at her Monroe-area neighbors. Immelt was sentenced to 10 days in jail for violating the county's noise ordinance after a three-day trial in Evergreen District Court. She fought the conviction but the state Court of Appeals in June upheld the decision. The court ruled that the First Amendment didn't given Immelt the right to lay on her car horn for 10 minutes on a Saturday morning in front of a neighbor's house or honk at another neighbor after she was warned by police she was out of line. Immelt was accused of honking at neighbors because she was ticked off that they complained to the homeowner's association about the chickens she had roosting in her back yard. Here's the full story. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Edmonds Councilwoman Pritchard-Olson dies Sad news today with the passing of Peggy Pritchard-Olson, an Edmonds councilwoman and daughter of the late Republican legislator Joel Pritchard. She was 59. From our online edition. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment Pastor Fuiten skewers strategy of R-71 opponents Pastor Joe Fuiten, one of the state's better known conservative Christian political activists, didn't have a lot of compliments today about the tactics of those behind Referendum 71. Writing online, Fuiten takes aim at Protect Marriage Washington and Faith and Freedom Network (translated as Larry Stickney and Gary Randall, respectively) for not having a strategy to win. He writes: "From my viewpoint, the outcome would have been difficult under the best of circumstances. But our loss was made certain by three failures on our part: We failed in our message. We failed in our methods. We failed in our money. Furthermore, I still have to wonder if God was in the effort." A bit farther down he says: Maybe the main lesson to be learned from our loss is to question those who want to lead us into similar efforts in the future. We have a right to know that they have a plan that involves enough money and the plan to raise the money. Even more than the plan, there should be some evidence of. seed money. If you are going to claim to be the leader you have to actually have a strategy for victory. Without the definitive plan our side has nothing to rally around. And while Fuiten insisted he backed the effort once it qualified, he wondered if God was on their side. We clearly lost ground with some. Did we gain offsetting ground with others? I don't know. Only eternity will tell. I do know we all worked hard for what we hoped was the will of God. We did it mostly for the right reasons. In our best motives we might have done it for God's glory. Unfortunately, it appears we have fallen short of the glory of God. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment House Speaker Pelosi visits Seattle today House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA., will be in Seattle today where she will join Democratic Reps. Jay Inslee, Jim McDermott and Norman Dicks in a tour of Swedish Medical Center. Pelosi's visit comes less than 48 hours after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the massive Affordable Health Care for America Act bill by the narrowest of margins, 220-215. Pelosi needed at least 218 votes for passage. Inslee, McDermott and Dicks along with fellow Democrats Rick Larsen and Adam Smith voted for the bill. Republican Reps. Dave Reichert, Doc Hastings and Cathy McMorris-Rogers, and Democrat Brian Baird voted against the bill. Note: The above paragraph was corrected because Baird does not appear to be a Blue Dog Democrat as I wrote earlier. Here's the group's membership list. sent by a a careful reader of my post. A handful of members felt the vote historic enough to ask Pelosi to autograph their copies of the nearly 2,000-page bill. If you're interested in getting her to sign your copy, she'll be touring around 2 p.m. and chatting with reporters (and maybe providing autographs) after that. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Ref 71 sponsors file petition with Supreme Court in signature case The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to decide the case of whether signers of petitions for Referendum 71 have a constitutional right to keep their names secret. James Bopp, attorney for Protect Marriage Washington which gathered the signatures, announced today that he had filed a petition of certiorari with the nation's high court. I've attached the filing as a PDF or you can go here to find all of the documents Bopp has filed in the case. To quickly recap, a federal judge agreed to block release of the names. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision agreeing with the state's argument that the petitions should be treated as public records. Justice Anthony Kennedy blocked the appellate action from taking effect and got the rest of the court to put a hold on release of the names until it could decide whether to accept the case. If the Supreme Court grants a hearing, it would likely not occur until June 2010 at the earliest.. Bopp made the following comments in a press release. “When it ordered the State not to release the personal information of the petition signers before the election, the Supreme Court took the first step in allowing those who support traditional marriage to exercise their First Amendment right to speak freely and not be subject to compelled public disclosure of their identity and beliefs by the government. We are now asking the Supreme Court to take the next step, and put permanent safeguards in place to protect those who wish to support traditional marriage, and all other speakers, from being subject to harassment and intimidation in the future.” TThose who support traditional marriage have seen their personal property destroyed and have been subject to death threats because of their beliefs. The Supreme Court now has the opportunity to prevent this from recurring in future elections by preventing the government from compelling citizens to disclose their identities and beliefs to the public.” ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Boeing's deal with South Carolina is mostly secret I want to direct your attention to this post by my colleague Michelle Dunlop on how details of South Carolina's offer sheet to Boeing may not be made public for awhile. Michelle links to a story in The Post and Courier with interesting comments from Ashley Landess, president of the South Carolina Policy Council, which is described as a political think tank. "There is something fundamentally wrong in a system in which politicians shut the door when making decisions about (taxpayer money) and refuse to tell them what they are," Landess is quoted as saying. Landess said without information on the deal it is not possible to validate the state's estimates that Boeing's new 787 aircraft assembly line will create a $10 billion impact on the economy in the next 15 years. "The lack of transparency leads to a lack of analysis, which leads to a lack of having to prove the arguments they make," she said, referring to state officials who put the incentive package together.. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
A couple election measures, a couple election lessons Isn't it nice to wake up in the morning and see the election results are the same as they were when you went to bed? That's the joy of mail-in balloting. The pain, if you're involved in a close race, is waiting out days of counting to get that final result. Here a few random thoughts about the statewide measures based on the first batch of ballots. Referendum 71 may wind up giving folks in all corners of the political spectrum something to crow about although there can only be one winner. Those on the side of Approve 71 are smiling broadly as voters are narrowly affirming the law granting gay couples the same rights and responsibilities of married couples, with the exception of marriage. Looking at the breakdown of voting, it is another case of King County, with its masses of progressives and liberals, setting the state's course on a major social policy. According to Rep. Marko Liias, if this trend holds, it will be the first time in the country that voters will be approving an expansion of rights for gay couples. (In all those other electoral battles you've read about – including Maine – voters are repealing or rejecting rights for gay and lesbian couples, or, in the case of California imposing a barrier to them getting legally married.) Those in the Reject R-71 movement can take heart in knowing they've awakened conservatives from their nearly three-year long electoral slumber. (The state Republican Party will be sending thank-you notes to leaders and lawyers for Protect Marriage Washington.) They may not add up to enough votes in this fight but the energized turnout of conservatives surely played a role in several upsets, from the unseating of an incumbent mayor in Monroe to the dislodging of Democratic state Rep. Laura Grant of Walla Walla. Moreover, this fight was not about legalizing marriage for same-sex couples and the results are close. When it is about marriage for gay and lesbian couples, well…. The pressing political question is whether conservatives who showed up Tuesday will stick around for the 2010 elections? Initiative 1033 appears headed to defeat, which would seem to demonstrate that money talks and complicated anti-government initiatives walk. Tim Eyman should know by now that if he can't fit his idea on a bumper sticker, it's not likely to pass: $30 car tab, pass; performance audits, pass; property tax limits, pass. He overshot his goal in Initiative 1033. Trying to limit revenue growth in every city and county as well as the state was doing so much to so many it gave too many people from too many places a reason to oppose it. It wasn't simple enough and a few probably wondered why only people who owned property would benefit. Eyman can take heart in knowing that it's not cheap to beat one of his initiatives. In 2009 the cost is $3.5 million. That's what opponents raised. Assuming it all gets spent, the No on 1033 campaign will be the fifth most expensive campaign conducted against a statewide initiative. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Reject R-71 forces lock out the press Security guards stood outside the election night party held by Protect Marriage Washington at the Holiday Inn in Everett tonight. Larry Stickney, a leader of the group, did meet with members of the media in a side room at 8:30 p.m. He said the party was made private out of concern for the safety and privacy of those attending. He said he and other leaders of the group had been the target of threats posted online in the past. More recently, a newspaper photo of girls involved in a reject Referendum 71 rally in southwest Washington showed up on a web site run by the same person who posted the threats against the leaders, he said. Stickney said about 200 people did attend tonight and there were no incidents. He did claim they did nab a reporter from The Stranger trying to sneak in as a volunteer. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Gregoire takes sides in county prosecutor's contest The hottest contest in Snohomish County not on Tuesday's ballot is the one for the appointment as county prosecutor. Democrats Mark Roe and Jim Kenny are the front-runners in the competition to succeed Janice Ellis. On Nov. 14, the party's precinct committee officers will vote on their top three choices and send those names to the Snohomish County Council. The council will pick one possibly at its Dec. 9 meeting. Roe and Kenny have been phoning, e-mailing and sending letters to PCOs (attached) in hopes of coralling votes. They've been getting some of their political friends to write letters and make calls on their behalf too. Gov. Chris Gregoire did just that for Roe with a letter (attached). She points out Roe, the chief criminal prosecutor for Snohomish County, helped out in her 2008 re-election campaign by appearing at press conferences and in television commercials. Gregoire's involvement is intended to bolster Roe's credentials as a Democrat with the PCOs who represent the real grass roots activists in the party. They know Kenny as one of them. He is a PCO and in the past has represented the county party at the statewide level. As such, he had the early advantage in lining up support from them. Roe, on the other hand, is working to convince the PCOs he is a true Democrat and is better able to win the seat outright in November 2010. (see attached). It's not without lots of challenges. Recently one uber Democrat e-mailed other Dems to make the case against Roe: The Snohomish County Democratic Party has suffered a disconnect from its elected officials for too many years. Mr. Roe's appointment would continue that disconnect. Prosecutor Janice Ellis, recruited by Mr. Roe, is a particularly egregious example of that disconnect. She has treated the Party with contempt and treachery. The author, Kent Hanson, cites as examples that Ellis spoke at Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna's re-election kick-off, endorsed Republican Dan Satterberg for King County prosecutor and heresy of heresies, Ms. Ellis promotes and supports legislation to make the Prosecutor's offices non-partisan throughout Washington. We need more, not less partisan offices. Roe responded: Kent's email was primarily about things Janice Ellis has done. I am not Janice Ellis, and have disagreed with her on occasion, including the 3 points that Kent wrote about. Roe was particularly direct on the issue of endorsing Republicans: "I reject the notion of an elected Democrat endorsing the Republican candidate. I do not think it is right, or smart, to be on one team, but cheer for the other team. I won't do that, and I didn't do that in the McKenna race.” ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Boeing picks South Carolina for second production line The Boeing Co. announced this afternoon it will build a second line of production for its much delayed Dreamliner 787 in South Carolina. Gov. Chris Gregoire will hold a news conference at 2:45 pm to discuss the news. Meanwhile, Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon said in a television interview, "We have to figure out what went wrong." Here's more from his prepared statement: “What's important moving forward is that we all understand why these two parties could not reach an agreement so that we may play a role in rebuilding this relationship. In addition, we must bring all the necessary parties together in Olympia to reach agreement on removing the barriers that prevent new investment and job creation." And from Sen. Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla: “Although today's announcement was the blow we hoped would not come, it is also a call to action. The next battle starts today, right now. We must do everything we can to retain the 737 line and keep all present and future aerospace jobs in Washington. Today we lost thousands of jobs. We cannot afford to lose thousands more." . ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment Murray trying to get Boeing and union together again U.S. Sen. Patty Murray this morning invited leaders of the Boeing Co. and the Machinists union to her office in hopes of restarting their talks on an agreement to secure a second production line for the Dreamliner 787 in Washington. “The Machinists union has agreed to come. We're waiting to hear back from Boeing,” said Alex Glass, Murray's communications director. Murray spoke with a Boeing executive Tuesday night and was given no indication a decision had been made on the siting of the second line, Glass said. This morning, in a phone interview on KING-5 TV, Murray said she believed the two sides “are within an inch” of an agreement that would satisfy the Boeing Co. desire for a “stable workforce” in Washington. Murray sounded as if she knew intimate details of the union's position though she would not disclose any. “It's too close to turn down,” she said. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
More R-71 news from the 9th Circuit to Colorado Springs Today, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals released its opinion on why it acted last week to allow release of the names of those who signed petitions for Referendum 71. Thanks to the Secretary of State's office for the heads up. Here's the decision. Meanwhile, I want to add info to my earlier blog post about the Family PAC. Turns out this group is an another appendage of the Lynnwood-based Family Policy Institute of Washington. That group dumped $200,000 into the Vote Reject on R-71 committee. This latest move makes you wonder why their deep-pocket donors didn't step up sooner. There may still be other ways to funnel it in. Focus on the Family, the Colorado-based group led by the Rev. James Dobson, is doing its own independent spending in this contest. They're up over $100,000 with mailers and radio ads. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment New PAC against R-71 seeks big money and secrecy Opponents of Referendum 71 are going to court again and this time it's about money. Family Political Action Commttee, a newly formed group urging voters to reject the referendum, wants to collect donations in excess of $5,000 which is the state imposed maximum contribution in the 21 days before an election. The group also wants names of donors kept secret. The group filed an action in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. If you recall, earlier this year, the state Public Disclosure Commission rejected a request from Protect Marriage Washington to keep names of donors secret. From Family PAC's press release: During the twenty-one days preceding an election, Washington law prohibits the Family PAC from receiving donations in excess of $5,000. The Family PAC has donors willing to contribute more than $5,000 to its effort, but is unable to accept the contributions because of the Washington law. This directly limits its ability to fight R-71 and its ability to protect the institution of marriage. Washington also requires the Family PAC to report the name, address, and employer's name of individuals that give as little as $25. At this level, the information is irrelevant to voters and discourages individuals from making contributions. The Family PAC has filed suit in federal court and has asked the court to issue an order allowing it to accept contributions in excess of $5,000. It has also asked the court to exempt it from the reporting requirements. James Bopp, Jr., lead counsel for the Family PAC, stated, “Washington's disclosure thresholds are among the lowest in the nation. After the harassment directed at supporters of Proposition 8 last year in California, no one should have their personal information published on the internet for making a contribution and certainly not at the irrational levels set by the state of Washington. The First Amendment protects citizens engaged in political speech from compelled disclosure. Disclosure thresholds such as these discourage individuals from participating in the political process.” ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment Tick, tock goes the Boeing clock (UPDATED with link to Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon speech.) The waiting is about to end as The Boeing Co.is expected to decide this month if it will build a second production line for the 787 Dreamliner in Washington or South Carolina.. Lobbying is intensifying. Today, Gov. Chris Gregoire released a stack of letters sent to Jim Albaugh, the guy in charge of Boeing's commercial division and a pivotal voice in the process. If you look quickly, there seems to be a few notable absences. I don't see one from the Snohomish County Council. While Executive Aaron Reardon didn't pen a letter, he's been making his pitch in speeches as well as pushing ahead with an aerospace training center at Paine Field. Back to the letters. I don't see one from House Speaker Frank Chopp or from any batch of state lawmakers of either political party. (I understand Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown has sent one.) I'm not saying state lawmakers don't want Boeing to stay. They're probably just not letter writers. Also this morning, political leaders in Washington and in Washington, D.C. are continuing to do their best to get company and union leaders chatting again on a long term labor agreement. That is far and away the issue that will matter most in the upcoming decision. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
“Sweet Mother of Abraham Lincoln, it's time we had some fun around here!” Gov. Chris Gregoire exclaimed today in a prepared statement. What in the world had gotten into the state's leader? The spirit of Jessie, that boot wearing star of Toy Story. See the governor plans to dress up as Jessie this Halloween while her husband, Mike will be Woody, well, an older version with a moustache. A lot of the other characters will be there too. The world is invited to the Gregoire's doorstep next week. Here are the official details announced today: Trick-or-treaters are invited to arrive at the Executive Mansion between 6 and 8 pm, and will receive a chocolate bar. Keeping with tradition, hidden away in five of the bars will be a magic “Golden Ticket.” Recipients of the golden ticket and four of their guests will be invited to the mansion on Dec. 4 for a special holiday reception with the Governor and a sneak preview of the mansion's holiday decorations. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
Is a Canadian firm conducting robo calls on R-71? Monday night I received a phone call in which I was asked a handful of questions including my position on Referendum 71. Did you get such a robo call? Any reaction? The automated voice of the unidentified male said the 60-second survey was being conducted on behalf of "FPIW Watch" which is short for Family Policy Institute of Washington. This group put up $200,000 last week to convince voters to reject the referendum. Some of the money paid for radio ads. It looks they may be separately paying Innovative Research, which I believe is the Canadian company described here. to conduct the phone survey. I hung up thinking it was a poorly done poll then realized it was really about mining data for the organization's use now and in the future. Why? There were no questions on whether I was registered to vote or had already cast a ballot. They knew the answers already. On the referendum there were but two questions - did I know about it and what was my position. Mu choices were approve, reject or skip to the next question. I skipped. (Of course the questions were asked with a tone representative of the FPIW view that the measure is giving homosexuals unprecendented rights etc.) There also were questions on abortion, if I'd vote for a Democrat or Republican or Independent in the next congressional election and did I consider myself liberal, conservative or moderate. Calls will be made this week only to registered voters. This info could very well be used to identify like-minded voters and make sure they cast ballots by the Nov. 3 election. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment
UPDATE: Justice Kennedy blocks release of names of R-71 signers My earlier post is already outdated so I chucked it.. In a flurry of legal activity today, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has essentially reimposed a ban on release of the names of those signed Referendum 71 petitions. Last week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered an injunction against release of the names be stayed thus allowing the state to distribute the information. But Kennedy's ruling lifts that stay, though for how long is uncertain. Jim Bopp, attorney for sponsors of Referendum 71, said the state's Attorney General's Office has filed documents asking Kennedy to reconsider his decision. In related news, Bopp said he'll be among the attorneys representing Tim Eyman in Thurston County Superior Court. Eyman sued to keep names of signers of his past initiatives secret. A hearing in that case is Tuesday. Lots more will be coming out. Here's the latest story by the Associated Press. ... [Read More] E-mail | Print | Comment |
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