1. In the latest of a series of campaign gaffes (looking for votes for Seattle mayor outside Seattle ; weird comments by a campaign consultant about "you freaking liberals ;" a press release predicting citizens would “take up pitchforks and drive the monster”—Nickels—”from the castle"...), mayoral candidate and former Sonic James Donaldson apparently lifted large chunks of his 134-point agenda for Seattle from Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, another former NBA player.

The SeattleP-I.com has the scoop :

"We definitely had a lot of ideas from Kevin (Johnson). We found some ideas that were really great & we used those," says [Donaldson consultant Cindi] Laws. "If it was a good idea, it was a good idea. It would take all of the campaigns combined, plus Kevin's plan, to equal half our stuff."

When told several of the points were word-for-word, Laws replied "Well they're not word-for-word, but there's some similarities definitely." 15 of Donaldson's 134 points (11%), 3 section intros (25%), and more than 1,000 words were copied exactly as written in Johnson's plan.

One thing they don't mention: Donaldson's plan actually refers explicitly to Sacramento. In a sentence lifted directly from Johnson's plan, it says: "First, if we have great public schools in the city, more families will move to or remain in Sacramento, thereby strengthening our tax base."

2. In a 1996 letter to the New York Times , then-Chicago resident Joe Mallahan argued in favor of building more prisons and imposing longer sentences on inmates.

In the letter, Mallahan—identified as M. Joseph Mallahan—wrote:

I am a liberal Democrat and have, until recently, discounted moves by conservatives to build more prisons as nothing more than pandering to a middle-class electorate by spending money on the wrong end of a problem. Mr. DiIulio's balanced approach has opened my eyes to the rationality of incarceration.

One question I still ponder is what obligation we as fellow human beings have to improve the lives of incarcerated individuals. Have long-term prisoners forfeited their human rights by committing crime?

My Christian ethics would answer no. I will respect the first politician who is brave enough to stand up and advocate longer sentences and improved living conditions for inmates.

DiIulio, the onetime head of George W. Bush's White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, has argued that for every dollar spent to keep a prisoner locked up, "society saves at least $2.80 in the social costs of crimes averted."

3. Longtime City council member and mayoral candidate Jan Drago's new ad is noteworthy for two reasons.



First, the ad—which hypes Drago's opposition to the 20-cent bag fee—omits misleading and inaccurate information that was included in her previous ad. The previous ad had claimed that Wal-Marts were exempt from the fee while food banks were not. Food banks are exempt. And there are no Wal-Marts in Seattle.

And second, the ad doesn't include any live footage of Drago herself. Instead, it's a montage of images (Drago in color, Mallahan and Nickels in black and white) behind a male voiceover.

The choice to keep Drago out of her own ad may have been a strategic move, given that Drago isn't the most polished speaker, but it's a weird one.

4. In a candidate forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters last night, the fringe candidates for King County Executive had their say alongside the mainstream ones. Recently disbarred attorney Stan Lippman and recently renamed space-travel advocate Goodspaceguy argued, respectively, against the "myth" of swine flu ("It's a hoax, and I'll protect you from it") and for investing in the space program and a "series of manmade lakes" in King County.

Serious candidates King County Council Member Dow Constantine and state Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48, Medina) had trouble taking it seriously. Constantine, trying to hold back a laugh, smirked several times. And Hunter almost lost it when Goodspaceguy came out for replacing the crumbling Howard Hanson Dam with a series of lakes "for tourism."

The director of the League of Women Voters is Christal Wood, who ran for "mayoress" against Greg Nickels in 2005 and received 5,800 votes.

5. A Morning Fizz tipster reports receiving an "intrusive" and leading phone call this week from the American Chemistry Council-funded anti-bag-fee campaign. Although the pollster wouldn't reveal who was funding the call, "it progressively became clear that the call was funded by the folks against the bag fee.  And it was not to see what my opinion was, but to change my opinion," our tipster says.