In this election season, perhaps the only thing lengthier and more ridiculous than the campaign for U.S. President was the ballot we residents in King County received. My ballot has 39 candidates and issues on which to vote,
only four of which are uncontested. So if you were to spend just 10 short minutes (which really isn’t enough time) researching candidates and issues for the 35 contested races, you’d be mulling over your ballot for nearly six hours!
Fortunately you don’t have to. You have DOUG’S VOTER’S GUIDE.
This year the nation has been captivated and nauseated by the race at the top of the ballot, but it’s always been my contention that what’s down-ballot is the stuff that can really affect your life day-to-day. This year is no exception.
With the retirement of Jim McDermott, Wallingford has its first legitimate U.S. Congressional contest in nearly 30 years. We also have an open seat in the State House. Yes, both races are liberal-on-liberal combat, but I want to see if my liberal can beat up yours.
We’ve also got transportation, carbon taxes, fair wages, gun safety, judges (so many judges), and much, much more. With 39 things on the ballot, there’s something for just about everyone. Enjoy the ride. It will be over soon.
I’m with you on the court positions, and the initiatives with the exception of Sound Transit where I have lost the taste for the Kool-Aid. But some of the choices for positions seem capricious or poorly informed.
– Whatever Jaypal may have said or founded, her performance as a legislator has been scandalously ineffectual, particularly compared to Walkinshaw.
– To read your “analysis”, one would think superintendent candidate Reykdal supported charter schools and was weak on full funding, but it’s the opposite – he’s the stronger candidate on both; charter school people appear to be hoping for Jones. I don’t follow this stuff, so correct me if wrong.
– Seattle is doing a terrible job on homelessness, so we should send the deputy director of Downtown Emergency Services to Olympia so she could be replaced by someone more effective? I guess this makes sense. Seriously, I’m conflicted here – I don’t think it makes any difference who we send to Olympia, and I’d kind of like to keep Shih here and talk to him about running for mayor or something.
You’re right Donn. Erin Jones is quite fond of charter schools and their public money grabbing machine. I’d advocate for Chris Reykdale instead.
Want to learn more about why Charter Schools can be so troublesome and get a good laugh at the same time? Enjoy a little Jon Oliver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_htSPGAY7I
I’d love to see your source for Erin Jones’ fondness for charter schools.
Erin Jones was a very vocal public advocate for Rainier Prep, a charter school in the Highline School District.
She is a vocal supporter (and recipient of campaign contributions from) Teach for America, a pro-charter school/anti-teachers union organization that puts “educators” in the classroom with just five weeks of training. She also gets money from organizations and individuals that represent the likes of Stand for Children, K12, Pearson, LEV and Green Dot = all in the charter school constituency.
Unlike Chris Reykdale, who has unequivocally stated his opposition to charter schools, Erin Jones has made statements on her Facebook page that she would be open to all options:
“My stance has always been – I do not believe charter schools are THE answer to closing the opportunity gap. I was concerned that in this season of incredible gaps in funding, we should not be having conversations about funding another system. I have said I believe all schools should answer to the public. With that being said, we can’t just say “HELL, NO” to charter schools without a willingness to address the ever-growing achievement/opportunity gap and the school-to-prison pipeline, which are ravaging communities of color in Washington state.
Communities should be intentionally engaged in the schooling process. ”
I hate to pile on, because this obviously took a lot of work, but I too am left perplexed by the Jaypal endorsement. This is the race I feel like I need the most help with making but the content of your endorsement for her is very weak — bordering on silly:
Hey he’s abandoning district, she’s abandoning someone else’s. I choose her.
Perhaps that’s a reason to choose Walkinshaw. If there were more of a reason to vote Jaypal I’m assuming it would be made by you and many of her other supporters.
Yes, the part about Jayapal abandoning another district is silly. I only included it because not doing so would’ve been hypocritical when I rag on Walkinshaw for doing the same thing. The fact is, they’re both pursuing higher office very early in their tenure.
But that’s not why I’m choosing her. I’m wondering what the next wave of immigration will look like. Are we going to have a worldwide Syrian refugee crises on our hands? What about other nations in that region? Even if we have a Democrat in the presidency, there’s going to be a ton of pushback on allowing refugees from countries where “THEY’RE ALL TRYING TO KILL US.” It’s already happening. Fighting for immigrant rights (especially for people from the Middle East) is in Jayapal’s wheelhouse.
Furthermore, I do not like the way Walkinshaw got into the political arena. It was via backdoor machinations, manufactured by Ed Murray and Jamie Pedersen, who filled a bunch of vacant PCO positions with Walkinshaw people, who then disappeared as soon as those PCOs voted him into office to fill Pedersen’s seat when Pedersen filled Murray’s seat in the Senate when Murray was elected Mayor. It felt dirty and contrived.
Walkinshaw is in the mold of Pedersen and Murray: corporate moderate Democrats. I have enough of those “representing” me already. I don’t need another. Vote Jayapal.
In the context of the US House, it’s hard to see him as “corporate moderate Democrat”, but maybe. I wish I had that kind of info about Nicole Macri – not the details of machinations so much as just the sense of where her money and inside political support is coming from. Is it possible to find out who’s a Sound View Strategies candidate?
I voted for Dan Shih instead of Nicole Macri because Macri is a darling of the density-at-all-costs crowd. And I believe they also favor Brady Walkinshaw, so I voted for Jayapall over him.
And any candidate who has the courage to stand up and go against the city’s ordinance of encouraging more junkies and criminals camping in our parks and public spaces will get my vote.
He stopped by, but the only thing I could connect with state office in that vein was the real estate investment issue – BC foreign investment tax, etc. He didn’t really seem to have anything great up his sleeve there – aware of the issue, but like a lot of politicians leary of statewide action – but did seem very knowledgeable about political strategies around income tax. He seemed like a fine representative to me, for all the difference it would make (so like I say, we might be better off to send someone relatively useless there like Macri, and see if Shih would be willing to run for Seattle office.)
That’s a big “if.” Don’t take that chance with Macri. We’ve got too many of these do-gooder urbanists in office already. We don’t need more of them.
I voted for Jayapal with an “either way we win” attitude, but then I saw Walkinshaw’s negative ad on Monday. That makes me very glad I voted Jayapal.
I think she will be an Elizabeth Warren-type figure in the House. We need that, not someone willing to compromise with the likes of Paul Ryan.
I don’t understand the Walkinshaw “abandonment” argument at all. He was elected in 2014 for a two-year term. He served every minute of that two-year term. His term is up and he’s decided to run for a different office, leaving his House seat open to election. Jayapal, on the other hand, is in the middle of her first term as a senator from the 37th District (and doesn’t live in the 7th District). She’s abandoning a position to which she was elected. Walkinshaw most decidedly is not.
Thanks for endorsing the YES vote on I-732. We need to act on climate change NOW and not in the four years or more that the opposition is suggesting. The reduced sales tax and tax credits will help lower income households. Plus, the revenue-neutral structure of I-732 could be a model to extend to many other states. Not much to dislike really…some folks just think the grass will be greener in four years.
Thanks, DOUG.!
I am not agreeing with you on all races, but I appreciate another perspective.
I don’t agree that a trouncing for the Orange One has to mean a landslide for Clinton. Any non-Trump votes contribute to a trouncing. I can’t support giving Clinton a “mandate” for expanding the corporatocracy and dangerous foreign policy.
I’m surprised that Wallingofrd’s own Thomas Cline didn’t get the nod for Superior Court #53. After that Stranger write-up, i thought he’d get your attention!
Voting for judges is weird. Are we really qualified to do so? Probably not, so I start at votingforjudges.org to see what the King County Bar Association and other professional legal organizations think about candidates.
The Bar found Thomas Cline “Not Qualified” for Position 53. The other legal organizations didn’t bother to rate him. Maybe Thomas and I could meet at Murphy’s someday and discuss why he deserves my endorsement. He can buy.
By the way, Charlie Wiggins, incumbent candidate for Supreme Court Position 6, was one of the people responsible for the implementation of votingforjudges.org because he felt it was “difficult to gather meaningful information about judicial candidates”. Good work, Charlie!
“Insufferably long-winded” isn’t enough to earn your nod for a judge? My god, man, what more do you require?
Thanks for your contribution Doug. I agree with you on most, but disagree regarding Jayapal and Walkinshaw. I was both interested and disappointed in the response and campaign from Pramila Jayapal camp in the last two weeks. Brady’s “attack” ads were anything but “attacking” or smearing. Unfortunately, because I know people who have worked personally with Pramila and commented on her lacking in working with people and on a team, this wasn’t surprising. The concern was always how in the world she would work in congress – where’s she’s been noted as ineffectual in Olympia. Her dogmatism and that of her followers has been incredibly telling and disappointing.
Brady is probably one of the most gutsy politicians I know. Electing to run against Jim McDermott (before Jim announced he wasn’t running for re-election) and standing up to Democratic “royalty” was amazing. Brady will be nobody’s lackey. Not any GOP’r or anyone on the Democratic side. On the other hand, he’s been well noted as a progressive who reaches across the aisle to get things accomplished in congress. Building bridges.
Primilla’s been a great activist. But activism isn’t what we should want in congress. We need accomplishment. We need less “tea-party-ism” and more roll-up your sleeves and get stuff done. This is Brady and it’s not Pramila. People note there are few differences between the candidates, and that we “win” either way. I couldn’t disagree more. We are replacing a very important (and wonderful) congressmen in Jim McDermott. The decision around who replaces him shouldn’t be taken in the least bit lightly.