None of these are a general budget supermarket for those without money to burn. None of them are drugstores or hardware stores.

Except that some people voted for one of the others thinking Nicks was sure to get the other slot, and they could choose between them in November when the choice might be clearer. So not every vote for another candidate was a vote against Nickels.

I do understand wanting to get some clarification about where both McGinn and Mallahan stand since neither has a long track record or much in the way of public statements to point to.

I suppose the editors (with help from the readers) could put together a questionnaire for the remaining candidates in local races. Who chose to respond could be as instructive as what their answers are.

There are also the various questionnaires and interviews used by organizations like Friends of Seattle for their endorsement process.

Vancouver does have amenities in the West End; that’s what Belltown/Denny/SLU lack. I’m not sure about schools and libraries, but there are several supermarkets and drugstores on Davie Street. Parks are around the edge of the district if not in it, and the main library is just a mile away (well, Seattle has that too). Some intersections are cut off, with plants and maybe a bench making a pleasant park-ette. Jobs may be a problem, but my friends ran small businesses in the neighborhood. They could easily spend weeks without leaving the neighborhood.

Most of what’s been written in the comments is accurate, but here’s a summary of the legislation:

1. Appointments are made by each county exec and must be confirmed by the county council. Membership is based on the population of the portion of the county that’s in the service area.
2. Boardmembers must be (a) an elected official who serves on the legislative authority of a city or as a mayor of a city within the district boundaries, or (b) on the legislative of the county, or (c) a county executive.
3. Appointments have to include an elected city official representing the largest city in the county, proportional representation from other cities, and representation from unincorporated areas of the county.
4. They serve staggered four-year terms.
5. At least one-half of all appointees from each county must serve on the governing authority of a public transportation system.
6. The State transportation secretary must serve.

And a clarification about officers. Selection is dictated by the Board’s rules and operating procedures, not state law. A chair and two vice chairs are elected by majority vote of the full Board, must be from different counties, and serve two-year terms coincident with calendar years. They can be elected for more than one term; vice chairs do not automatically become chair.

I can’t speak for the whole ed board, but on Mayor I have to think McGinn is a strong favorite for our endorsement. However, there’s enough unknown about the two candidates that I can imagine it turning out the other way.

I think everyone is getting too sidetracked on the whole McGinn vs. Mallahan thing. The King County Executive race is far more critical. Worried about the I-90 alignment or governance reform? Then you really don’t want someone who’s been a member of the Discovery Institute’s board or who is getting money and independent campaign expenditures from some of the parties to the I-90 lawsuit to become King County Executive.

It is critically important we get everyone we can throughout the whole county to vote for Constantine rather than Hutchison. If she gets elected she can do a tremendous amount of damage to Metro and Sound Transit in only one term. Damage neither agency may ever recover from.

I would add that your understandable concern about people who like rail in concept but fight the specifics doesn’t necessarily match McGinn – any more than it doesn’t, if that makes sense. And as Mayor, given the majority of the system in Seattle is already approved and will be getting built during his first term, how much do you really care? It’s been said repeatedly above there’s no guarantee he gets a seat on the ST Board; even if he turned out to be virulently anti-rail, which I seriously doubt, what other damage could he do?

I still think that Seattle voters will come to regret Mayor Nickles not being in the November election. For the record, the mayor declined to be compared to Churchill!

Can you point to any examples of him doing something concrete to support the I-90 alignment or against governance reform? My recollection of his relationship with ST is that he was against their agenda in 2007, which worked out well, then in 2008 went off to run the Parks Campaign.

Which is fine; there’s more to life than rail. But it doesn’t give us much of a track record for him going to the mat for ST.

I also don’t doubt that he’s for light rail in the abstract; the problem is that there are far too many people in this region that like rail but find a reason to oppose everything that ST plans. I’m not saying McGinn is one of those people; I honestly don’t know.

There’s no question that he would fight to preserve transit funding, support transit agencies like ST, and wants to work towards changing Olympia’s views on transportation in the Puget Sound.

By 1945, having not had a general election in 10 years because of the war, Britons were ripe for a change. Churchill lead the nation during WWII as head of a multi-party government of national unity. But for the 1945 election, he ran as leader of the Conservative Party. The Labour leader, Clement Attlee, was a member of Churchill’s War Cabinet, but for the 1945 election ran as head of the Labour Party. So Britons’ vote for change put Attlee in Number 10.

Winston Churchill was still the most popular man in Britain, and deservedly so. If they had a presidential system, he would have been re-elected overwhelmingly. (A Churchill anecdote: He once called Clement Attlee “a very modest man, with much to be modest about.”)

Sorry for the OT, but I too find this history interesting, Tim.