Ack!

For two obviously well-educated men, state Supreme Court justices James Johnson and Richard Sanders are profoundly ignorant.

A related question: After its newsroom's great Justice Sanders scoop today, will the Seattle Times op-ed page double down on its primary endorsement of the guy and back him again in the general?

The business-minded people at BIPAC ("founded in 1963 as the first business PAC with the goal of electing pro-prosperity candidates to higher office") say they want Republican Jaime Herrera for Congress in Washington's 3rd Congressional district. But then you read (click to enlarge) the fine print...

Posted by news intern Matt Luby

Tim Eyman's initiative 1053, the ballot measure that would require a 2/3 majority in the state legislature for any tax increases, is likely to pass. The campaign is being heavily funded by oil companies who did not like the recent attempt to raise taxes on hazardous materials-producing companies like themselves and fear similar proposals will manifest again in the future. We've known this for months.

But just in case it doesn't, big oil companies—BP, Tesoro, and ConocoPhillips—are dumping money on obscure state legislative candidates to grease the wheels against future tax increases. Just looking at Public Disclosure Commission reports on state legislative races in the Puget Sound area, Tesoro has given $13,250, BP $9,500, and ConocoPhillips clocks in at $7,200 in contributions to individual candidates. Brendon Cechovic, the political director of Washington Conservation Voters (WCV), asks, "Why would an oil company have any care in the world about state legislative races. What’s that buying? Those are the questions voters should be asking themselves."

I charted out the contributions and looked for candidates getting the large amounts of cash from two or more of the companies. Two incumbent state senators, Steve Hobbs D-Lake Stevens and Tim Sheldon D-Potlatch, got contributions from all three companies, including top-tier ($800) donations from Tesoro. The other two candidates who got top-tier dollars from Tesoro and contributions from one other company were two state senate challengers, Joe Fain R-Covington and Steve Litzow R-Mercer Island.

It's easy enough to figure out why oil companies love Tim Sheldon. He was named one of WCV's two "Green Duds" this year, thanks to his astoundingly low score of 27 on their legislative scorecard. His lifetime score is scarcely better at 33. Hobbs did better with a 64 for the year and a 78 lifetime, but don't let the 64 fool you—it puts him in a tie for the fourth-lowest score of any Democrat in the state senate.

Litzow and Fain haven't been scored yet. Their opponents have, though. Fain is running against state senator Claudia Kauffman D-Kent, a WCV endorsee. Only 14 state senate candidates got WCV endorsements, so Kauffman's record has to be respected by the environmental community. Litzow is facing state senator Randy Gordon D-Mercer Island, who was only appointed this year to replace Fred Jarrett. Gordon's record is slim, but his WCV score for this year is 80, placing him only slightly below Kauffman.

Call me crazy, but it sure looks like big oil is focusing on the upper house, rewarding old allies and kneecapping opponents to make sure they're not held accountable for petroleum cleanup—which is the number one polluter of Washington waterways. As Cechovic puts it, "Those are hot races and the money’s really pouring in there."

...check this out:

I was going to dress as a spider for Halloween. I know Dominic and Lindy both have a hysterical, unfounded aversion to spiders, but I like them. We have a lot in common—our preference for dark corners, preying on the weak, and drinking alone. Our hairy legs and large, fertile egg sacs. I could go on forever!

Anyway, I was going to be a spider until I saw this ad for Trick or Vote, a political canvassing effort held Halloween night involving hundreds of young people doorbelling in costume alongside kids. It's organized by the Washington Bus. Costumed participants hand out literature on voting, get candy, and remind people to vote days before the November election.

Now I want to be a witch for Halloween.

Trick-or-Voters are meeting at Washington Hall (154 14th Ave) at 3:00 p.m. to canvass their guts out, then returning to Washington Hall for a costume party with booze, candy, and dancing. Trick-or-Vote events are also happening in Vancouver and Spokane. Dress warm. Get candy. Remind people to vote.

(This guest Slog post is by Paul Guppy, vice president of research for the Washington Policy Center. More info about Prop 1 in the voters' guide is here.)

Okay, the sales tax is the most regressive and unfair tax in King County, so let’s make it higher. That’s the position of County Executive Dow Constantine and the majority on the county council in putting Proposition 1 on the ballot. They want people to vote for a tax increase or they threaten to make the county less safe by cutting policing and court services.

Proposition 1 would make the county’s tax system more regressive by increasing the sales tax to 9.7 percent, making everything from overcoats to underpants cost more. That would give Seattle the 7th highest sales tax in the country. The sales tax hits poor people hardest because the poor have to spend more—or all—of their money meeting day-to-day expenses, while the rich spend a tiny fraction of their income on daily needs.

Elected officials say they’ve cut and cut and there’s just no more to cut. But in his latest budget Executive Constantine plans to increase county spending by about 3 percent, to $5.1 billion a year.

Where’s that money going? A lot is going to pay for essential services—grea—but a lot is going to low priority stuff like $368,000 to lobby the federal government, $426,000 for county memberships and dues, $1.7 million on weed (the kind in your lawn) control and $4 million to run the Elliot Bay water taxi.

Sure, a lot of things are nice to have, like spending $1.4 million on staff planning, but are they really more important than keeping neighborhoods safe? Some people don’t like having a lot of cops around. Fair enough. But when you or one of your friends is about to become crime victim, you want a cop to show up fast.

A lot of it is going to nice salaries and benefits to some folks on the county payroll. More than 1,400 county workers make over $100,000 a year. Average pay for Metro drivers is $61,000. Metro salaries have increased 38 percent since 2000, and the County is giving Metro employees a healthy 4 percent raise. At the same time a lot of folks are laid off, or can’t get a job in the first place, but they still have to pay sales tax whenever they buy something.

I could moan all day about how the gummint wastes our money, but the failure of elected officials to set clear priorities and responsibly manage $5.1 billion is not really the point. The real point is this: Proposition 1 hits us with a regressive tax increase in the middle of a recession. Bottom line: Prop. 1 would make people who are unemployed and under-employed pay more, so people who already have good jobs can get a raise, all while adding to the inequity of our tax system.