Washblog

I snapped this familiar-looking freaked-out inflated being in a store window after the Seattle Kossaks & Washbloggers get-together.

The event at Elyssian Fields featured our own Kos frontpager McJoan, just returned from her epic election '06 trip across the mountain west States. N will have to dish that conversation because he, Seattle Liberal and LeftyMama secreted her into a dim booth where they had her to themselves for several hours.

Belltowner and seabos were seated next to each other, believe it or not, but no blood was spilled--that I witnessed.

Pictures to come today! But I had to pop this guy onto the front page for your early-morning viewing enjoyment. How about a caption contest for him? Mine is:

"YIIIIIIIIIIIIIKKKKEESSSSS!"

Not content for the last ballot to be counted in the 2006 races, Jerry Cornfield at the Everett Herald has decided it's time to jump right into 2007. Today's story is about 3 `just re-elected' Snohomish County lawmakers who are seriously considering tossing their hats into the ring for new jobs. While it has been pretty widely known within Democratic circles that State Representatives Brian Sullivan (D-21) and John Lovick (D-44) were seriously considering races for County Council and County Sheriff respectively, the recent suggestion that State Senator Jean Berkey (D-38) is also considering a run for the County Council only adds a hint of potential conflict into the mix.

I see where the VFW chose to endorse a Republican candidate who has never served in the military and repudiate Tammy Duckworth, a Democratic candidate who is not only a Vet but lost both legs in the Occupation of Iraq. If the local VFW comes calling to recruit me into membership, they need to send someone like Bill Moyer, a 73-year-old vet who wore the "bullshit protector" in his ear while at the VFW convention. The apparent thinking as voiced by the VFW endorsing entity had to do with the Repug's track record of cheap talk and votes in support of military and or veteran issues ... as if a newly elected Iraq Veteran in Congress would not vote with an even greater wisdom. There is a horrendous naiveté in this action in that VFW veterans who have been there and done that have taken a coward's route perhaps voting more their fear about pensions and health benefits (ironically endangered more under Bushco than any administration) than demonstrating any long-time veteran's genuine desire for national well-being. If so, this in a way makes of the VFW the same corporate capitalists as jokers like Delay, Ney, and Burns  and others who accept money from Abramhoff in exchange for votes and endorsements.

Rick Perlstein of The American Prospect just posted Look Back in Anger detailing two strategies used this last election cycle: robo-calling and phone jamming.

Eridani's post Something to do about nasty robocalls got me thinking about the problem. I'm curious if there are technical tools and approaches we could use. Kind of like having spam filters for our email.

More...

"My Path from Civilian to Veterans & Military Family Political Activist"

My husband Mike joined the Army at 18 and put in 13 years.  When he got out in 2000, he met and married me, moving to Seattle to work in law enforcement. I didn't know anything about military life or being a military spouse. In fact, I was pretty comfortable in my life as a 43rd CD Democrat.

After a year or so, he asked if he could join the local reserve unit in Seattle (in his MOS or Job Description) and I said "Sure, why not?" Well, the whole unit was activated two months after he was in!  Luckily, his main assignment was at Ft. Belvoir (DC area) with only occasional trips to Iraq, so I was able to visit often though it was officially TDY. (Temporary Duty)  

The army put us up in an apartment in Alexandria, VA.  I'll tell you.... I got an eyeful of the kind of sacrifices our country expects not only from our service members, but the family members who love them.  It was so hard....This whole "Mission First" concept was foreign to me.... can you imagine that when Mike was first deployed my initial response was "Why don't you just give the Army your two weeks notice and quit?  :)  He finished his assignment in April 2005 ... for a total of 1 year and 9 months.  

Very interesting. Half of the poll voters in King County oppose eliminating neighborhood poll sites. Here's the link to King Co. exit poll results on transition to vote-by-mail (November 9, 2006). Here's the money quote:

The results indicate that polling place voters are evenly divided on the vote-by-mail issue.  Exactly
one-half of the polling place voters support the move to vote-by-mail, while the other half oppose
the new voting system in King County.

This survey project was conducted by assistant professor Matt Barreto, who is also a member of the non-partisan, academic survey research organization The Washington Poll. (Barreto has done prior research on absentee voting and other election issues.)

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The Institute for Washington's Future
and
Community to Community Development

Invite you to attend a
Community Forum on Immigration
To discuss the impacts of our broken immigration system in Snohomish County

Thursday, November 16

Hosted by The Tulalip Tribes

at

Quilceda Village Conference Center, Suite D
8825 34th Ave., Tulalip, Washington 98271

I asked about upcoming CEOC meetings and got a quick response from Michael Alvine. There's a meeting Tuesday Nov 14th from 12:30pm to 2:00pm. The agenda has not been set yet. Though I have the impression that the CEOC members will visit the Temporary Elections Annex to observe the central count.

More...

From Ashcroft to Gonzales. From Colin to Condi. From Rumsfeld to Gates? Anybody notice a pattern here?

 While Donald Rumsfeld has been arguably the most disastrous thing to happen to the Department of Defense in modern history, the prospect of replacing him with someone who, through his tenure with the CIA during the Reagan/(HW)Bush  years, may have actually been an active player in creating the circumstance we find ourselves in today does not strike me as an appealing alternative.

[Front paged, NM. Good front-line report from a polling Inspector.]

Zappini has previously stated that it feels to him like King County Elections (along with our political Parties) have abandoned the polling sites. While I concur that the Parties do not live up to their moral obligations to support the conduct of elections, I wasn't ready to pull the trigger on King County Elections quite yet. Our inspector training refresher was conducted well, and hope springs eternal.... then you wake up from the dream.

Here is a list of projected Democratic pickups in the State House Of Representatives:

6th LD #1 - Don Barlow
10th LD #2 - Tim Knue
17th LD #1 - Pat Campbell
23rd LD #2 - Christine Rolfes
24th LD #1 - Kevin Van De Wege
28th LD #1 - Troy Kelley
31st LD #2 - Christopher Hurst
39th LD #1 - Scott Olson (losing by 18 votes)
45th LD #1 - Roger Goodman

Do these pickups mean a 2/3 Democratic Majority in the House? I'm too tired to do the math, but things look very good for the 2007 session for legislation.

As of 10pm, here are my projections on State Senator seat pickups for Democrats:

State Senate:
6th LD - Chris Marr
26th LD - Derek Kilmer
31st LD - Yvonne Ward (currently losing by 13 votes to Pam Roach)
42nd LD - Jesse Solomon (losing by 690 votes)
44th LD - Steve Hobbs
45th LD - Eric Oemig
47th LD - Claudia Kauffman
48th LD - Rodney Tom

Wow. There is a real potential to go from 26-23 to 34-15 in the State Senate. Next up, the House projections.

An amazing number of Repubs are in danger (8:35pm):

2nd LD #1
Jean Marie Christenson    (D)     2,308     50.9155%
Jim McCune            (R)     2,225     49.0845%

2nd LD #2
Jeff Stephan            (D)     2,138     47.5640%
Tom Campbell            (R)     2,357     52.4360%

9th LD #1
Caitlin Ross            (D)     10,071     40.3534%
Steve Hailey            (R)     14,886     59.6466%

10th LD #2
Tim Knue                (D)     10,483     50.3071%
Barbara Bailey          (R)     10,355     49.6929%

20th LD #1
Mike Rechner            (D)     12,438     43.0888%
Richard DeBolt          (R)     16,428     56.9112%

23rd LD #2
Christine Rolfes        (D)     14,826     55.5593%
Beverly Woods           (R)     11,859     44.4407%

31st LD Senator
Yvonne Ward             (D)     1,511     51.4471%
Pam Roach               (R)    1,426     48.5529%

31st LD #1
Karen Willard           (D)     1,463     50.1887%
Dan Roach               (R)     1,452     49.8113%

31st LD #2
Christopher Hurst       (D)     1,740     59.8144%
Jan Shabro              (R)     1,169     40.1856%

39th LD #1
Scott Olson             (D)     9,268     49.9515%
Dan Kristiansen         (R)     9,286     50.0485%

44th LD Senator
Steve Hobbs             (D)     10,734     55.0829%
Dave Schmidt            (R)     8,753     44.9171%

45th LD Senator
Eric Oemig              (D)     5,784     54.8143%
Toby Nixon              (R)     4,768     45.1857%

45th LD #1
Roger E. Goodman        (D)     5,828     56.2494%
Jeffrey Possinger       (R)     4,533     43.7506%

Some exciting early returns (8:19pm):

24th LD #1
Kevin Van De Wege (D)     3575     52.8455%
Jim Buck (R)         3190     47.1545%

17th LD #1
Pat Campbell (D)     13053     51.7094%
Jim Dunn     (R)       12190     48.2906%

18th LD #2
Julie McCord (D)     11904     45.1799%
Ed Orcutt    (R)     14444     54.8201%

6th LD Senator
Chris Marr   (D)     16300     56.8777%
Brad Benson  (R)     12358     43.1223%

6th LD #1
Don A. Barlow  (D)     14810     53.7822%
John W. Serben (R)     12727     46.2178%