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Morning Fizz: Hiring Edition
Josh is heading back to Seattle today so I'll fill in with Fizz. Yesterday was hiring day in local politics and media:
1) As mentioned in the post below, the King County Council hired acting County Executive and Ron Sims' chief of staff Kurt Triplett as interim Executive. Triplett will serve as Exec until a new Exec takes office after the November election. Declared candidates for Executive include King County Councilmembers Larry Phillips and Dow Constantine [disclosure: I am working on Dow's campaign], as well as state legislators Fred Jarrett and Ross Hunter. Those four Dems are in the mix for the ostensibly non-partisan position with former KIRO news anchor Susan Hutchison, the only Republican in the race.
2) Attorney General Rob McKenna, whose is widely expected to be the Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2012, has hired veteran Republican political operative Randy Pepple as his new cheif of staff. After PubliCola posted on the hire yesterday, Washington State Democratic Party chair Dwight Pelz got in touch to blast the choice as unethical. "Hiring a Republican political consultant with zero legal experience is a clear indication that McKenna intends to assemble his 2012 gubernatorial campaign at the expense of taxpayers for the next 3 years," Pelz wrote in an e-mail. "Past Attorneys General, Republican and Democrat, have run the office in a nonpartisan fashion. McKenna hiring an outspoken Republican operative as his #2 official is a cynical political move that violates the spirit of the office." PubliCola's take on this: Pelz is probably right that Pepple's hire is in part about laying the groundwork for a McKenna run for guv, though as someone who was hired by Ron Sims in part because I was supposed to beef up the political sensibility in an office prone to getting embroiled in controversy and top-heavy with policy wonks, bureaucrats and managers, I can't really get too worked up the Pepple pick.
3) The Seattle Times is staffing up as well! Well, sorta. PubliCola has confirmed that the Times, which had been forced to lay off more than 500 people over the last year as the paper has teetered on the financial brink, has hired former P-I investigative reporter Lewis Kamb to a temporary general assignment reporting position. Kamb will be collected a pay check for the next several months, at which point the paper will reevaluate whether it has the resources to keep Kamb on the payroll. I'm told it is the first hire to the Times' Metro staff in four years, though Times Company spokesperson Jill Mackie cautioned me against reading too much into the move. "We routinely hire people on a temporary basis as needed. Our doing so at this time is, unfortunatley,not a reflection of anything other than our need at this time and of his skill," Mackie wrote in an e-mail. Bottom line: while the future is looking brighter for the Times, the paper is still not in a position to make any permanent hires at present. I'm also told that the Times interviewed several former P-I staffers for the gig, including Kristen Millares Bolt, whose reporting on bad behavior at the Port of Seattle stood out, before settling on Kamb. PubliCola knows Kamb, and has a lot of respect for his reporting chops.
1) As mentioned in the post below, the King County Council hired acting County Executive and Ron Sims' chief of staff Kurt Triplett as interim Executive. Triplett will serve as Exec until a new Exec takes office after the November election. Declared candidates for Executive include King County Councilmembers Larry Phillips and Dow Constantine [disclosure: I am working on Dow's campaign], as well as state legislators Fred Jarrett and Ross Hunter. Those four Dems are in the mix for the ostensibly non-partisan position with former KIRO news anchor Susan Hutchison, the only Republican in the race.
2) Attorney General Rob McKenna, whose is widely expected to be the Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2012, has hired veteran Republican political operative Randy Pepple as his new cheif of staff. After PubliCola posted on the hire yesterday, Washington State Democratic Party chair Dwight Pelz got in touch to blast the choice as unethical. "Hiring a Republican political consultant with zero legal experience is a clear indication that McKenna intends to assemble his 2012 gubernatorial campaign at the expense of taxpayers for the next 3 years," Pelz wrote in an e-mail. "Past Attorneys General, Republican and Democrat, have run the office in a nonpartisan fashion. McKenna hiring an outspoken Republican operative as his #2 official is a cynical political move that violates the spirit of the office." PubliCola's take on this: Pelz is probably right that Pepple's hire is in part about laying the groundwork for a McKenna run for guv, though as someone who was hired by Ron Sims in part because I was supposed to beef up the political sensibility in an office prone to getting embroiled in controversy and top-heavy with policy wonks, bureaucrats and managers, I can't really get too worked up the Pepple pick.
3) The Seattle Times is staffing up as well! Well, sorta. PubliCola has confirmed that the Times, which had been forced to lay off more than 500 people over the last year as the paper has teetered on the financial brink, has hired former P-I investigative reporter Lewis Kamb to a temporary general assignment reporting position. Kamb will be collected a pay check for the next several months, at which point the paper will reevaluate whether it has the resources to keep Kamb on the payroll. I'm told it is the first hire to the Times' Metro staff in four years, though Times Company spokesperson Jill Mackie cautioned me against reading too much into the move. "We routinely hire people on a temporary basis as needed. Our doing so at this time is, unfortunatley,not a reflection of anything other than our need at this time and of his skill," Mackie wrote in an e-mail. Bottom line: while the future is looking brighter for the Times, the paper is still not in a position to make any permanent hires at present. I'm also told that the Times interviewed several former P-I staffers for the gig, including Kristen Millares Bolt, whose reporting on bad behavior at the Port of Seattle stood out, before settling on Kamb. PubliCola knows Kamb, and has a lot of respect for his reporting chops.
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