1. Yesterday, we asked: Why does Speaker of the House, Rep. Frank Chopp (D-43, Wallingford) hate Seattle?  Chopp was pushing an unprecedented amendment to the Viaduct tunnel legislation that would make  Seattle property owners liable for any cost overruns on the state road project. 

(The amendment and the bill itself passed last night—see the post below this one—with six emasculated Seattle reps voting for the provision.)

We're not surprised that Chopp and a gaggle of Seattle reps supported the measure. It's SOP in Olympia—even for Seattle legislators—to hate on Seattle. 

But we are surprised in Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, who also weighed in as a cuckold. Yesterday, before the vote, Andrew Garber at the Seattle Times reported: 

Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis said he doesn't like the requirement, but the city won't oppose the bill.

"I'm not going to put a happy face on it, but I'm also not going to jeopardize the project over what I see as a fairly petty gesture, a negative gesture, towards the city of Seattle," Ceis said earlier this week.

Gee, thanks Eeyore.   

In a press release issued yesterday, Nickels opponent Mike McGinn trashed the deal.

2. State Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48, Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland) has recently told people in Olympia that he's decided, yes, he's going to jump into the race for King County Executive. I asked Hunter point blank yesterday to confirm the rumor. Hunter, heading onto the House floor, asked me how many days were left in the session ("Four," I said), and with a big smile on his face, he told me to come talk to him then: "I can't do two things at once."  He added that "he's flattered" people think he should run.

The field currently includes: King County Council Members Dow Constantine and Larry Phillips; State Senator Fred Jarrett (D-41, Mercer Island), and former conservative KIRO TV personality Susan Hutchison.

3. Yesterday night, the state Senate passed Rep. Sharon Nelson's (D-34, W. Seattle, Vashon) payday lending bill. The bill, which would make lenders set up an installment plan—rather than rolling unpaid loans over into new excruciating terms—is a first. Democrats have been trying for several years to pass legislation that regulates the controversial payday loan industry, but they haven't even been able to get a bill out of either house.

Not only did Rep. Nelson pass her bill out of the House 84-10 in March, but after the Senate gutted it, she got the House to stand by her version of the bill, forcing the Senate to "recede from its amendments," and send Nelson's bill to the governor.