Morning Fizz
The Office of Funny Math
1. NARAL Pro-Choice Washington held its annual fancy auction dinner at Bell Harbor on Saturday night. It's billed as a masquerade ball, and while Fizz wore a green feathered mask (to maintain reporting anonymity) not many folks were in costume. The major exception being State Sen. Joe McDermott's table which included state senate candidate Nick Harper and state rep candidate Joe Fitzgibbon. They were all dressed up as pirates.
Among the auction items were a holiday dinner with the governor (who was in attendance); a framed and autographed picture of WNBA champs the Storm (King County deputy executive Fred Jarrett got that for $500, the lucky bastard ... we bid $200); a 16 GB iPad; lots of fancy dinners; wine tours; and getaways to places such as the San Juan Islands, Orcas, Hawaii, Mexico, South Africa. But one prize stayed true the politics at hand: "Fund a first-trimester abortion at Aurora Medical Services for a woman in need," fair market value $530. West Seattle activist Christi Stapleton won that for $550.
There was a vasectomy on the auction block too, fair market value $940. "Girls, buy this for your boyfriend. How about just buying it and giving it so somebody who really should have one?" It went for $100. Only one person bid.
2. Things got pretty heated at PubliCola's liquor privatization debate at Town Hall last night. (Audio here.)
Last night at Town Hall, l-r: Ashley Bach, Charla Neuman, and state Rep. Brendan Williams.
Best one-liners: I-1105 spokeswoman Charla Neuman called the state Office of Financial Management (OFM), the Office of Funny Math, for estimating that 1105 would cost the state $500 million. (She said their numbers didn't factor in increased B&O taxes from higher liquor sales.)
State Rep. Brendan Williams (D-22), who was on stage opposing both initiatives, asked if the state would be "replacing Apple Health Care for children [the state's child health care program] with apple schnapps for children," referring to the revenue cuts. (Liquor sales brought in about $850 million last year for state programs like law enforcement and children's health.)
At the end of the debate, we surveyed the audience (more than 30 folks were on hand) and one audience member said she was moved from "undecided" to seriously considering 1105. (1105 is the one that's funded by distributors and keeps most of the regs in place, but gets rid of the tax).
However, she said she would definitely not vote for 1100 (the Costco-backed measure that gets rid of all market regulations and allows retailers to stock with a volume discount) because the spokesman, Ashley Bach, was "uncivil" (at one point he accused state Rep. Williams of lying.)
3. As we noted in Friday's On Other Blogs Today, the Seattle Times endorsed U.S. Sen. Patty Murray. Here are some more endorsements that came in over the weekend: The Columbian endorses Dino Rossi; the Bellingham Herald endorses U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen in the 2nd; the Columbian endorses Republican state Rep. Jaime Herrera for U.S. congress in the 3rd; and the Tacoma News Tribune endorses Murray.
We've got one more PubliCola "No Brainer" endorsement hitting today before we start rolling out the rest of our endorsements after ballots drop late this week.
(We've already published 31 No Brainers: We urged a 'Yes' vote on the King County sales tax, a vote for Joe Fitzgibbon, 'Yes' on R-52, 'No' on 1053, and a vote for Tami Green.)
4. ICYMI on Friday, we had audio of former TV anchor and King County executive candidate Susan Hutchison, evidently now a spokeswoman against I-1098, the high-earners income tax, making a controversial comment. Something about how someone who makes $200,000 isn't actually rich.
Among the auction items were a holiday dinner with the governor (who was in attendance); a framed and autographed picture of WNBA champs the Storm (King County deputy executive Fred Jarrett got that for $500, the lucky bastard ... we bid $200); a 16 GB iPad; lots of fancy dinners; wine tours; and getaways to places such as the San Juan Islands, Orcas, Hawaii, Mexico, South Africa. But one prize stayed true the politics at hand: "Fund a first-trimester abortion at Aurora Medical Services for a woman in need," fair market value $530. West Seattle activist Christi Stapleton won that for $550.
There was a vasectomy on the auction block too, fair market value $940. "Girls, buy this for your boyfriend. How about just buying it and giving it so somebody who really should have one?" It went for $100. Only one person bid.
2. Things got pretty heated at PubliCola's liquor privatization debate at Town Hall last night. (Audio here.)
Last night at Town Hall, l-r: Ashley Bach, Charla Neuman, and state Rep. Brendan Williams.
Best one-liners: I-1105 spokeswoman Charla Neuman called the state Office of Financial Management (OFM), the Office of Funny Math, for estimating that 1105 would cost the state $500 million. (She said their numbers didn't factor in increased B&O taxes from higher liquor sales.)
State Rep. Brendan Williams (D-22), who was on stage opposing both initiatives, asked if the state would be "replacing Apple Health Care for children [the state's child health care program] with apple schnapps for children," referring to the revenue cuts. (Liquor sales brought in about $850 million last year for state programs like law enforcement and children's health.)
At the end of the debate, we surveyed the audience (more than 30 folks were on hand) and one audience member said she was moved from "undecided" to seriously considering 1105. (1105 is the one that's funded by distributors and keeps most of the regs in place, but gets rid of the tax).
However, she said she would definitely not vote for 1100 (the Costco-backed measure that gets rid of all market regulations and allows retailers to stock with a volume discount) because the spokesman, Ashley Bach, was "uncivil" (at one point he accused state Rep. Williams of lying.)
3. As we noted in Friday's On Other Blogs Today, the Seattle Times endorsed U.S. Sen. Patty Murray. Here are some more endorsements that came in over the weekend: The Columbian endorses Dino Rossi; the Bellingham Herald endorses U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen in the 2nd; the Columbian endorses Republican state Rep. Jaime Herrera for U.S. congress in the 3rd; and the Tacoma News Tribune endorses Murray.
We've got one more PubliCola "No Brainer" endorsement hitting today before we start rolling out the rest of our endorsements after ballots drop late this week.
(We've already published 31 No Brainers: We urged a 'Yes' vote on the King County sales tax, a vote for Joe Fitzgibbon, 'Yes' on R-52, 'No' on 1053, and a vote for Tami Green.)
4. ICYMI on Friday, we had audio of former TV anchor and King County executive candidate Susan Hutchison, evidently now a spokeswoman against I-1098, the high-earners income tax, making a controversial comment. Something about how someone who makes $200,000 isn't actually rich.
