Paul Queary, a veteran AP reporter and editor, is founder of The Washington Observer, an independent newsletter on politics, government and the influence thereof in Washington State.
Democracy vouchers were supposed to democratize campaigns and blunt the power of the monied classes, who for many years dominated political fundraising in city races. But it’s possible they’ll help perpetuate the status-quo.
When the bill got to the House, tribal lobbyists got lawmakers to install some teeth. A new subsection required that projects “must be paused or ceased” if a tribe finds it would “adversely impact cultural resources, archaeological sites, or sacred sites.” It was part of a series of changes in the bill designed to win over environmental justice advocates. That spooked Inslee into vetoing this section.
To get the votes for two major climate bills on energy, Democrats had to agree to a future gas-tax increase for roads infrastructure. It was an awkward linkage, and Insleee's veto pen blew up the deal.
As often happens with super-aggressive legislation, HB 1204 got gutted on its way out of the House Transportation Committee, its mandate defanged into a milquetoast nonbinding “goal.”
Constantine, now 59, has never faced a real challenge from the left. Can Joe Nguyen, 37, pull it off? There’s no big scandal dogging Constantine or the county, which is generally considered to be pretty well-run, especially compared to the perpetually flaring dumpster fires down the street at Seattle City Hall. But Nguyen gets to run in the second year of pandemic discontent.
Operatives and lawmakers involved in the passage of the climate proposals this year say that the package was on the brink of collapse at several points during the session. The difference this year: lots of money available to the lawmakers, so no need to cut into sacred cows.
We hadn’t yet seen a day as top-to-bottom newsy as March 29. Here’s a spin through it, with some context and a few illuminating and not-so-illuminating explanations from Inslee’s office.
There have been plans to knock down the press houses for at least 20 years. One of the reasons it didn’t happen in the 2000s was the opposition of David Postman,⁵ who then presided over a three-person statehouse bureau for The Seattle Times in the Blue House’s best space, with a view of the capitol and the fountain.
For opponents, the bill represented the thin end of the wedge of “real” rent control, something that could usher in decades of stagnant rents, tenants who never leave, depressed property values, and a system that would scare away investors in new housing projects.
Because we’re fans of both transparency and of getting to the bottom of things, we were happy to see this pop up at the Public Disclosure Commission a few days after the story ran, in which Clean Fuel Washington reveals that it is neither particularly Washington nor particularly clean.