The STB Editorial Board is gearing up for primary endorsements. We’re only going to look at races with more than two candidates, and as always only consider positions on transit and land use. Anyhow, if you have any recommendations, particularly on state legislative candidates, that we should take a careful look at for the August Primary, please say so in the comments. Links are much appreciated.

42 Replies to “Call for Endorsements”

  1. Someone should look into the race for the 7th congressional district (basically Seattle’s district). Right now the primary is between Brady Walkinshaw (I think he represents capitol hill in the state legislature), Pramila Jayapal (supporter of $15 living wage) and Joe McDermott (king county council member, on the ST board?).

    1. Brady Walkinshaw also supports a $15 living wage. Brady and Pramila are very similar; they agree on nearly every issue. The differences are 1) Brady’s top priority is environmental / climate change while Pramila’s top priority are social justice issues. 2) Pramila was quick to announce her support for Bernie Sanders, which earned her an endorsement from Sanders himself and all of his followers. Meanwhile, Brady hesitated to endorse either Clinton or Sanders. I’m not sure why; when you look at what Brady stands for its nearly identical to Sanders’ platform. I’m guessing he didn’t want to alienate either side.

    2. The Stranger calls Jaypal “the next Elizabeth Warren”. I would vote for Warren or Sanders for the senate but I hesitate with Jaypal as I would with Sawant. I’ve seen Warren and Sanders address pocketbook issues affecting all America and have a well-rounded platform, but I’m concerned whether Jaypal or Sawant would do the same, or whether they’d just stick with a niche of social issues and $15 wage/union type things that’s too narrow for what we need now. (It’s not that we don’t need them, but we need a lot of other things too, and we mustn’t get bogged down in a culture war on the left like the right has done.) However, when I’ve heard Sawant speak she’s been more well-rounded and reasonable than the news reports and protest demonstrations suggest, so I’ve started tentatively trusting her for some things, but not the keys to the house yet. I don’t know much about Jaypal so I’ll be looking to see how well she addresses this wider range of issues, and of course transit. If Walkinshaw is the same and is effective (and he’s at least said he pursues bipartisan relations), then that’s good as a backup if I end up hesitating on Jaypal.

      McDermott is on the ST board; I’ve seen him at meetings. I haven’t seen him enough to have any particular impression of him or his transit views.

    3. Brady Walkinshaw is focused on Seattle area issues and national issues that are of particular concern to us in Seattle, including transit, climate, and social justice issues. As evidenced in Olympia, he works (successfully) to get legislation passed even when democrats aren’t in a safe majority. Pramila Jayapal is a strong advocate and vocal leader that works hard and successfully to rally liberals around the base’s issues. If we want liberal cities around the country to start talking more (like we do) about $15 wage, paid parental leave, and predictable scheduling, Pramila will be pushing for that (not that Brady doesn’t advocate strongly for these issues, too, but rallying the base in liberal cities would be Pramila’s focus). If we want our congressperson to work to change legislation — at the national level — that will be supportive of things like transit, climate change, and fair labor practices, your person in Brady. Basically, if you’re interested in this blog, it’s a no-brainer.

  2. OK, my favourite time of the year…

    a) Governor: I think neither Jay Inslee nor Bill Bryant deserve the gold-plated STB endorsement. One passed a highway tax w/o voter approval and the other is BRT-only. So check out the other candidates.

    b) US Congress WA 2nd District: Ask Marc Henemann in a crowded field where he stands on transit: http://www.marc4congress.com/

    c) US Senate: Ask Chris Vance at https://chrisvanceforsenate.com/issues/infrastructure/ if he’s pro-transit grants because Patty Murray is torquing off everybody. Weak on TPP, useless on Paine Field Commercial Field, and more. Just be ready for the worm to turn on Patty… and give Vance a chance.

    d) State Legislative Candidates – keep the incumbents in the 10th LD as all are solidly pro-transit. Barbara Bailey has delivered on Island Transit County Connectors.

    Stopping there.

    1. Republicans are better on our issues than Democrats? Really? Does history bear that out? The legislature is a partisan body, and in both houses, the GOP caucuses are rigidly controlled by conservative members from east of the mountains. Better to have urban D’s in charge than rural R’s.

      1. Could be correct in past tense, Roger. Wasn’t Jim Ellis, the founder of Metro, a Republican? Know Governor Dan Evans was.

        I’m encouraging intelligent young people of sound mind, good character, and able to read a balance sheet to become grass-roots Republicans, and help them regain the party from the kind of Democrats who wear sheets and pillows with eye-holes for business suits.

        Decent Republicans will also help the Democratic Party, by seeing to it that the Democrats need more platform planks than the name of the current Republican candidate.

        Mark

      2. I don’t grasp much of your post, Mark, but I will note that liberal Republicans like Gov. Dan Evans no longer play a role in Republican policy-making. They are truly persona non grata, if they even still identify as Republicans.

      3. I think there are a few good Rs on transit – Dave Hayes & Barbara Bailey come to mind.

        I don’t want to cause too much trouble but having seen Dave’s opponent up close & personal, I may agree with her on transit issues but wonder how effective she’ll be in the State House.

        I’m just saying explore Chris Vance & Marc Henemann. Voting Bryant more as anti-Inslee than anything else.

      4. Wow Mark, did I read that wrong or did you throw a KKK reference in there?

        Regardless, the fact is that while there are Republicans that support transit the Republican caucus in the state legislature is firmly anti transit, anti urban, and has consistently voted to encourage sprawl. Sure, Democrats have also expanded the highways, but they’re also much more likely to be pro transit. If you look just within the Sound Transit area, King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties have among the highest rates of democrats in our state. There’s no doubt that voters within the ST area are far more pro transit than those from the many extremely rural Washington counties, and thus the representatives in Olympia from our area are more likely to be pro transit (since they, you know, have to be elected by our generally pro transit citizenry). Since these three counties are mostly democratic, that means that those pro transit reps are democrats.

        So of course not all dems are as pro transit as we’d like them to be. But since many (most?) of the democrats in the state legislature come from the urban, liberal, pro transit ST district counties that means that giving democrats a majority would more likely lead to pro transit decisions.

        Plus Republicans tend to favor tax cuts that end up hurting transit investments.

      5. I’m kinda sick about only Democrats are the ones who support transit.

        What I find more often is not even Democrats and Republicans and Libertarians equally are not very well educated on transportation issues which I have decided to get involved and change that.

        The one issue voting hasn’t worked well and what did Jay Inslee do? He inserted a poison pill and cost ST $500 million. I believe they’ve had their chances in many legislative sessions and still failed. Yet no one is willing to put forth the let Seattle do what it wants to do without imposing its will on the rest of the state.

      6. As to;

        The one issue voting hasn’t worked well and what did Jay Inslee do? He inserted a poison pill and cost ST $500 million. I believe they’ve had their chances in many legislative sessions and still failed. Yet no one is willing to put forth the let Seattle do what it wants to do without imposing its will on the rest of the state.

        I’m with D H. It’s time to punish Jay and send a message that we’d rather roll the dice with Bill Bryant now that we have ST3 authority, it will likely pass in November and there ain’t a damn thing his donors & rural base can (or should) do about that.

        Furthermore, I find it asinine for the same Republicans who demand “local control” to deny it to Seattle. I’m from Skagit County, ok? I am now a political independent, retroactive to when the Republicans refused to release their delegates the other day.

        I find it asinine the highway expansion tax did not get a referendum and the one state Democrat representative who threatened a referendum decided instead to take the $500 mil and give it to the WEA when a referendum would have forced many of the anti-ST3 campaign to divide resources from fighting US.

        So yeah, I’m independent. Can’t stand either party. Not running for elected office anytime soon, so that helps.

    2. Pierce County Executive, a future ST board seat – Rick Talbert

      Pierce Co Council D2 – Carolyn Edmonds (vs Sen Pam Roach and someone else), could be future ST/PT board seat

      Pierce Co Council D6 – Kurt Erickson, could be future ST/PT board seat

      LD1 Senate – Rep Moscoso (former CT bus driver)

      US Senate – Patty Murray

      2. Reporting from Pierce County:

        I have spoken with Rick, Carolyn, and Kurt. I know that Rick is good on transit, and my guess is that the other two are as well, but I don’t know for sure.

        Also, in the 25th LD, we have Michelle Chatterton, who is much more pro-transit than we have any right to expect from someone who has as good of a chance to win in a suburban district as she does.

    3. “One passed a highway tax w/o voter approval.”

      Erm, Jay Inslee signed a looooooooooong overdue transportation bill that was being held up due to partisan infighting, caused by the Majority Coalition Caucus takeover. It was a bipartisan shit show; Inslee didn’t really do much.

      And on Chris Vance’s front page, he essentially advocates privatizing our transportation infrastructure. Only in some bizarre Ayn Randian alternate reality would this be considered a good idea.

      1. The important thing is what they want to do and what they initiate, not what they sign as a small last step when they only have two limited choices (sign or not sign). The legislature bears 95% responsibility for the transportation package. Inslee is responsible for the policy campaigns he initiates (e.g., his carbon-policy proposals), and for how well the state performs its jobs. If there had been a large portion of the legislature advocating for a public vote on the highway package, then Inslee could be faulted for not joining them, but to complain that he should have stood up on his own and vetoed the bill because it didn’t require a vote on highways is an unrealistic expectation and distorted priority. If you want to move to a policy of voting on highways, then you start by building support in the legislature and governorship and public, and recognizing that it will take years to build up, and you introduce it early in the bill process. You don’t just start with the governor should veto it and he’s a useless governor if he doesn’t.

        As for a poison pill, the only poison pill I know of is one the legislature enacted, and again the governor had to choose between two limited choices with tradeoffs on both sides. It wasn’t the governor’s fault for making a decision; it was the legislature’s fault for putting the poison pill there.

      2. Mike;

        Nice try to defend Jay. I want his butt spanked for not shutting this down. No Republican or Libertarian Governor could have signed this crap sandwich of highway expansion into law without a referendum clause attached to it… yet the way this sandwich went down…

        a) ST locked out of state transit grants – okay, finnnnnnnnnnneeeeee

        b) ST gives $500 mil to education industry – not acceptable. Transit money raised at the ballot box should stay in the transit community and could have easily been used to undo #1

        c) WSDOT gets tax break to build more highways – not acceptable when we can’t maintain & replace the roads & bridges we have now plus the environmental issues

        d) Massive tax increase signed with many conservatives on social media & talkback radio not complaining too loudly, but now they turn their fire on ST3 – bad politics, Democrats & transit advocates should spank Jay for that so the next Governor and the Governor after that insist on a referendum clause that many House Republicans wanted in powerful floor speeches.

        You now see why I’m so mad and since my favourite target of last year is unopposed and endorses ST3 guess who now gets it with both barrels? Jay Inslee. (That is when I’m not opening fire on Glen “STD” Morgan and dueling with officer & gentleman Todd E. Herman.)

      3. b) The state is under court order to fully fund education. This was a step in that direction. To me it’s irrelevent whether it benefits the teachers’ union, what matters is how it affects the people as a whole. Just like it doesn’t bother me that developers make a profit when they build housing, what matters is that the housing is available for the people. And the people need education. Should they have take it out of ST? No, of course not, but that’s just one of many problems in the legislature, and a pretty small one at that.

        c) I don’t like that either but that’s the pro-highway legislators.

        d) It doesn’t surprise me. It’s like the Times and Kemper Freeman: when the issue is light rail they say no BRT is cheaper, but when the issue is light rail they say no it’s too expensive and 80% of voters drive and want more roads. They only approved ST3 to appease the transit fans as a kind of “mitigation” for the highways, but what else is new? The fact remains that highways have a dedicated no-vote funding source through the gas tax and transit has no such source, but the majority of Washingtonians voted for that in the 1930s, and now a majority of the legislature wants to keep it that way.

      4. Mike;

        I believe by spanking Jay outta office, it’ll force Democrats to grow a spine and demand the next Governor never again agree to such a one-sided arrangement. I think frankly putting Democrats in outright opposition for 2-4 years will be good for transit a lot more than us giving free passes, but I’m now a political independent.

        I wish more Republicans than the 10th District would realize the value & importance of transit in their districts however…. a lot more. It can happen, it just takes proper rewarding of those who play ball with us and spanking Democrats who screw us or worse yet use us.

        If the highway expansion gas tax increase went to voters, it would have gone down in flames slagged by the left and the right. ST3 still would be on a likely victory trajectory.

      5. I’m not a huge Inslee fan, but except for an extremely strong governor, no one would be able to do anything with the divided, mostly do-nothing legislature we have in Olympia. Luckily, it’s nowhere near as bad as DC.

  3. I feel bad for complaining when this site generates so much high-quality content for free from people who have full-time jobs doing other things, but I don’t understand why the endorsement article usually isn’t ready for the first day ballots become available to voters.

      2. You’re not. I’m a donor and tried to show my apprecitation for y’all. Just a comment. Thanks for all that you do.

      3. I just got my voter’s pamphlet yesterday (no ballot yet). With the loud presidential primaries I completely forgot about the boatload of state primaries. But as far as STB, what would help me most is not necessarily having the endorsements right now, but knowing that they’re coming and when. If it’s a major election I assume they’re coming but if it’s a minor election I don’t necessarily assume so, and once I almost voted early and missed them.

      4. Better than The Stranger. Seriously, they endorsed a guy for Congress who had dropped out weeks ago, before backtracking and endorsing the consensus Democratic candidate. This was a race that could determine who controls the U. S. fucking Congress (sorry for The Stranger type language), but really.

        Oh, how the mighty have fallen. They used to have the sharpest editorial staff in town. But Dan is too busy fighting the big fight (and doing quite well — thank you Mr. Savage), Mudede is too busy pretending to be a French intellectual, and everyone else is probably too stoned to give a shit about local politics.

        Take your time, Martin, you could do worse (far worse).

  4. Dan Smith is running on a platform of union jobs to repair our crumbling infrastructure; I think that includes rail and light rail expansion.

  7. Mike Orr, you hit the nail so hard it broke the board. From starter’s gun, this year’s media coverage has blown away any mention at all of Congressional campaigns. With an expanding barrage of information, most of it wrong, each detonation farther than the last for what we the people need to know to steer our country.

    Starting with naming major party Presidential “Front Runners” based on informal opinion polls of a few dozen people each. And then concentrating on where, at this minute, each candidate is in “the race”. If they’d been horses, track vets would have had them mercifully put down.

    And with every broadcast, burying ever deeper the fact that the loss of Congress in 2010 made Barack Obama a half-term President still allowed by law to live in the White House. For governing a giant country, The President of the United States can’t by direct order keep his dog from wetting the sofa leg. Without Congress, a President is nothing but a target for blame for what a Congress that hates him does to him.

    Also, while I think most conspiracies are really attempts to cover up screw-ups, our combined media absolutely avalanched away the information we citizens needed most, at the most critical time, under back-to-back beyond-lifetime honors to a pair of poster children for armed criminal insanity. Guaranteeing another challenger in about three weeks.

    Stay onto it, Mike. And also: could we get some suggestions as to where we can go online to get anything near the information we need to get even close to a good decision?

    Mark

    1. Obama has done a lot more than people recognize by preventing the extreme right-wing ideas in Congress from becoming policy. If Romney or McCain were president they wouldn’t have been able to stand up to it because they’d have been jerked around by their party, and by the way the transit-grant fund would have been zeroed out or transferred to the highway fund, and a couple supreme court justices would have locked their way in for a generation.

      1. Agreed. Obama may go down in history as not only a pretty good goal scorer, but one of the best goalies in history. I shudder to think what even a relatively moderate Republican like Romney would have passed with the reactionary right wing wackos that control Congress right now. Scary. I’m glad he deflected such madness.

    2. “could we get some suggestions as to where we can go online to get anything near the information we need to get even close to a good decision?”

      I don’t know of any great place. I trust STB most of course but it covers only transit issues. My second source is The Stranger because even though it has an irresponsible persona they actually interview people and have a somewhat well-rounded/urban checklist. But their priorities sometimes lead them to the opposite conclusion as me, such as when they favor somebody who’s weak on transit or density because of John Fox-like “preserve cheap old housing” or social issues. This time several of their endorsements are entirely about social issues, which to me is not enough to choose somebody. The country/state critically needs tax reform and infrastructure investment and immigration reform and a better housing policy and on and on, , we can’t just focus solely on ethnic/social issues or unions or smashing capitalism or whatever. The Times is sometimes OK but tends to be in the “highways and parking” mindset. Do the Blethens live in the suburbs? Other sources I haven’t read much but maybe should start to are the Weekly, the League of Women Voters, and the Municipal League. Any others?

  8. Self-plug:
    I’m running for State Representative in the 1st LD, position 2 (the seat vacated by Rep Moscoso). Transport an important issue for our region. I lived for two years in London and fell in love with mass transit. I realized I did not need to rely on a car to get myself around during my time there, since being back in Seattle I’ve sat in the same traffic everyone else has.

    I have always voted with mass-transit. The cost of ST3 is staggering, but it is an investment in our future. We need to invest in the future, we can’t keep building roads to fix our transport needs. We can’t keep building freeways to move people, we need mass transit to allow commuters to cut driving costs and escape road congestion.

    I am also proud that I received a “D” grade from the Stop405tolls.org org. Freeways can’t be free forever and tolling offers a way to pay for mass-transit. If we removed the tolls tomorrow, people would not be encouraged to use mass-transit.
    https://stop405tolls.org/2016/07/13/primaries-candidate-ratings-by-stop405tolls-org/

    You can read more about my positions here: http://www.moreau.us

    Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/voteaaron/
    Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amoreaucook

  9. Roger, and QA, I think a lot of the problem with my references is that I lose track of time. Not time by the clock, but number of years I personally remember. And how these seem to average STB reader.

    1966 was fifty years ago. I was 21. Between 1964 and the mid-1980’s, these people were being, to the Democrats’ credit, finally made unwelcome in their party. The Republican Party gave them a home. Civil war history- which I think is a lot more pertinent than people realize- carries a some more references.

    Reason I won’t ever call the present Republican Party “conservative”. The Union Army called them “Slavers and Secessionists.” Which fits much better. But they didn’t take the Republican Party by force. Albeit with a lot of money and help, they got it fair and square through the grass roots.

    Remembering what the party used to be- including some of the people that founded Metro- I think it can be restored by the same process it was ruined.To the relief of many real business-people who, however tight-fisted they are, have no use for gamblers. And can balance the Democrats as the counterweight a smooth running machine needs.

    And Mike and Ross, I’m not at all blaming President Obama for the damage the right wing, who now control Congress, has inflicted on him. But I do think a mistake of the President’s close to a character-flaw gave them their early irreversible victory.

    I was a poll-worker in Ballard that election. A position I’d support an amendment to the State Constitution to restore. So in addition to watching, weeks before, enough young people who’d never even voted before show up for our District Caucus it had to be moved to the Nordic Heritage Museum. And help Barack Obama unexpectedly win the nomination.

    I also remember these new members literally dancing in the streets in Pioneer Square. And a lot of fine new people get elected to Congress- giving Mr. Obama an energetic and motivated base of real power.

    Cards were right for him to tell the country that instead of bailing out the banks from their own self-inflicted ruin, he’d put the American people back to work, and let THEM restore the banking system. The President personally- I don’t know. But truly doubt his financial advisors ever in their lives knew anybody who ever turned a wrench.

    The kind of people who responded to continued unemployment two years after the election by removing from employment enough of the people who’d taken office alongside Mr. Obama to take him out of power halfway through his first term. Compromise and concession doubtless helped the Harvard Law Review.

    As they proved a hundred twenty years before, Slavers and Secessionists,who put great store by their traditional culture, view an offer of compromise as cowardice demanding that they humiliate you before they kill you. The last six years, read ’em and puke. But that’s storm-sewage under the bridge now.

    Main thing now is to convince the same stripe of young people- including my 18-year-old voters that after six years understandably out of politics, they can spend the next four organizing the permanent regime change they should have had ten years before.

    Starting with the initiative campaign to get me my job back. Even if it can’t be in Ballard anymore.

    Mark Dublin

  10. Please consider issuing endorsements in the following races:

    Seattle Prop 1 (Housing Levy)
    Seattle I-123 (Alaskan Way Viaduct Park)

    US House WA-7
    US House WA-8
    US House WA-9
    WA Governor
    WA Commissioner of Public Lands
    WA Senate 1
    WA Legislature 34 Position 1
    WA Legistature 43 Position 1

  11. What’s the reason for not endorsing in uncontested races? Is it a fairness issue, or just to limit the workload? I see the endorsements as worthwhile not just to tip the voting scale but as part of STB’s basic mission to inform people on what our leaders and would-be leaders are doing about transit. That’s worth knowing about for all our leaders, even those who have no opponent so they’re 100% certain to win.

  12. Mike Coverdale (CD 6, running against incumbant Kilmer) pointed out that he wants to eliminate tax loopholes for multinational corporations and that this would directly increase revenue that could be used for infrastructure improvement, including transit, among other things. CD 6 has an area that is largely rural Olympic National Park, but includes a nice chunk of Tacoma as well.

  13. Sameer Ranade is running for the open seat in the 43rd district on an environmental platform and is good on transit.

  14. I’d also urge endorsement of Walkinshaw in CD7. He’s earned the sole endorsement of The Urbanist (interview: http://tinyurl.com/jgrqbjt), he is focused on the need for federal partnership with regional transit projects, and he connects commute times, social justice, and climate change in compelling ways. In Olympia he’s been more effective as a legislator than Jayapal, and he helped negotiate increased requirements for housing over Sound Transit surplus land.

    The other candidates are not bad on transit, but their emphasis is elsewhere. Walkinshaw has also worked with republicans to successfully pass law on mental health (http://tinyurl.com/zayk9n2) and criminal justice reform (http://tinyurl.com/z898hl2), and we will need someone with the ability to work across the aisle if we want anything out of our next congressperson in the 7th district.

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