Joel Connelly

I worked for Seattle Post-Intelligencer from 1973 until it ceased print publication in 2009, and SeattlePI.com from 2009 to 6/30/2020. During that time, I wrote about 9 presidential races, 11 Canadian and British Columbia elections‎, four doomed WPPSS nuclear plants, six Washington wilderness battles, creation of two national Monuments (Hanford Reach and San Juan Islands), a 104 million acre Alaska Lands Act, plus the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area.

Speaker Johnson and the Evolution of State GOP Politicians

Republicans in Congress used to be a helpful ally for Washington-based legislation, bur Trump has scared them into ideological opposition.

On the Guestlist: Northwest Leaders (and Wines) at White House State Dinners

The Northwest was well represented at the dinner for Australia's Prime Minister Albanese. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and wife Nancy were on hand. So was Idaho Sen. Jim Risch and spouse Vicki, and Rep. Adam Smith, a former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

Showing Up: Two Quality City Council Candidates for District Three

Both candidates running to replace Sawant in District 3, Joy Hollingsworth and Alex Hudson, pledge to show up for work at City Hall. A second improvement, they promise to work with and for District 3 constituents, where I live. 

Washington’s Olympic Peninsula: A Corner of America Not Used Up

With stunning photography, the book lays out life experiences of the Olympics, two-legged and four-legged creatures as well as creatures of the sea. During huckleberry system, for example, “black bears rule the day in the high country.”

Ferguson Gets Cantwell’s Endorsement for Governor

Ferguson is running in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 1980. The last two open races have been close, however.

All About the Money: House Republicans at War

The implosion of the Republican Party is rooted in several factors. The first is strident media on the right, starting with Rush Limbaugh in the early Clinton years, followed by Fox News in the late 1990s and a proliferation of hosts.

Marty Baron’s Washington Post: Dispatches from the Front Lines

A taciturn, fearless, relentless and old-fashioned newspaper editor, Baron has written a 548-page memoir, Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos and The Washington Post (McMillan).  He came off as humorless as played by Liev Schreiber in the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight but reveals a dry wit in the book and at breakfast.

“Their Own Civil War”: Kim Schrier Talks about the Chaos in the House

“Now Ukraine funding is hanging in the balance, and we have a war thrust on Israel,” lamented Schrier. “Now, at a precarious moment, we have chaos in the House.”

Should Grizzlies be Reintroduced to the North Cascades?

The Park Services proposes to introduce three to seven bears a year to the North Cascades over the period of a decade, to areas with “no confirmed evidence of a grizzly bear presence.”  Careful monitoring is promised.

Much “Up Go”: Remembering Dianne Feinstein

I encountered “DiFi” on a hotel balcony, two weeks into a 1978 fall trek to the base of Cho Oyu and Mt. Everest, on leave from my newspaper job and strengthened by what our Sherpa guides described as “much up go, much down go.”

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