David Brewster, a founding member of Post Alley, has a long career in publishing, having founded Seattle Weekly, Sasquatch Books, and Crosscut.com. His civic ventures have been Town Hall Seattle and FolioSeattle.
He never could say what he'd do in the next term, so busy was he in finding enemies and boasting. No empathy, as usual. Crazy attacks. The moderator saved him from going on and on, but the frothing personality was there to behold.
In Portland, at least, there are early warnings to incumbents. Embattled, "embaffled" Mayor Ted Wheeler had seemed a shoo-in, but months of nightly demonstrations and violence that he seems powerless to end have now put Wheeler in a tie with his challenger,
The police unions would fight back furiously, counting on rural legislators in state houses, alarmed homeowners, and Congressional tough-on-crime lawmakers to protect their sweet deals.
The Mayor is now tempted by a political strategy of letting the council go around the bend, drawing a firm line of difference (particularly over the Navigation teams), and then watching the council get blamed as backlash sets in.
Harris was waiting for those faux-courtly gestures and trapped him into appearing rude and a clueless mansplainer. Her smiling glares and retorts were lethal: "I will not stand to be lectured."
As for what Inslee has in mind for the third term, he's not saying. That's in part because there's no need to in such a lopsided race, and in part because Inslee is not really a policy guy.
This debate will be remembered as Trump v. Wallace. That takes the focus away from Biden's message and (as usual) makes the evening All About Trump. That's a mistake, since Trump is trying to make it a choice election (Trump or Biden) not about Trump's performance and personality.
Seattle reformers have lost patience with city hall and now are shifting their energies to Olympia. The reason is the long sidelining of true accountability reforms by Seattle politicians.
Seattle will go from being an over-achiever in the arts (measured by our population) to something much closer to other mid-sized cities such as Phoenix, San Diego, Portland, and Milwaukee. Or not.
Howard Schultz put together a group to buy Starbucks in 1987, only to find there was a rival purchaser, who is said to have made an offer of $4 million, no due diligence, and is only referred to as "the titan."
The pandemic has been well managed, textbook-style. Even so, the pandemic has hit hard, notably cratering the province’s tourism industry from cruise ships to wine tourism in the south Okanagan.
Since passage of the Growth Management Act (GMA) in 1990 the state and region have been in the forefront of what came to be know as the Smart Growth movement that sought to shift growth patterns away from the dominant post-World War II model. If we have been leaders, do we have any followers?
The “Berniecrat” wing of the Democratic Party misfired this year with scattershot challengers to Reps. Kilmer and Rick Larsen, candidates who cheered on the Capitol Hill occupied zone in Seattle. Rep. Adam Smith, in the 9th District, blew away left opponents in 2016 and 2018. Running in the 10th, Beth Doglio is the most credible hope of the “blue-green” left of labor and environmental activists.
The book is narrated by Meriwether Lewis’ dog, Seaman, a Newfoundland. As such it is a great introduction to this important chapter in American history. And there really was a “Seaman.”
