News
Campaign Fizz: The Tunnel, Classen, and Rasmussen
• Protect Seattle Now, the anti-tunnel campaign, is asking tunnel opponents to weigh in on their Facebook pages why they're opposing Referendum 1—the August 16th vote on the tunnel process, where a 'no' vote is a proxy vote against the tunnel. Check out the responses, which range from "high tolls" to global warming to the threat of imminent seismic disaster, here.
Oh, and someone in Fremont decided to take the campaign off Facebook and into their front yard.
• Jean Godden challenger Maurice Classen, has received $200, and an endorsement, from conservative Democrat state Sen. Margarita Prentice (D-11)—who has only once contributed to a Seattle City Council challenger (fellow Seattle conservative Paige Miller, who ran against Richard Conlin in 2005), at least not as far back as 1996, which is when the online records date back to.
Classen's late mother, Eveann Classen, chaired a group that oversees programs for poor or disabled children and Prentice's own son is disabled. Classen lobbied Prentice for state funding for the agency, which ultimately received $1.9 million from the state.
• We sat down with city council member Tom Rasmussen this afternoon to talk about his reelection campaign (such as it is; his only challenger is an unfunded IT manager named Dale Pusey), the tunnel, road diets, and Mayor McGinn. Here's some of what the two-term incumbent had to say:[pullquote]"McGinn keeps citing things as accomplishments that were started by the Nickels Administration or the city council. What are his accomplishments?"—Tom Rasmussen[/pullquote]
On "road diets" and the city's bike policy: "Road diets have not caused the kind of problems that people predicted. I have been on Nickerson six times now during rush hour, and traffic is moving. I do not see the worst case scenario being realized."
On Mayor McGinn's low approval ratings: "His support in the community has just plummeted since he's been in office. Expectations weren't very high to begin with, and he hasn't lived up to them. ... If he wants to run for reelection successfully, he's got a lot of work to do, and he's got about two years to do it. His support has dropped through the floor."
On the mayor's track record so far: "He keeps citing things as accomplishments that were started by the Nickels Administration or the city council," like the $20 million energy-efficiency grant the city's Office of Sustainability and the Environment received last year from the federal Department of Energy. "What are his accomplishments? I think he's going to have to start showing that he's initiated and he's succeeded. ... His jobs idea [rolled out earlier this week] is just an idea---there's no legislation. There's nothing of substance. It was a press conference."
On the tunnel referendum: "I think that the referendum outcome won't make any difference to the state. If it's a 'no' vote, the state says it's not a vote on the tunnel anyway. If it's 'yes' vote, the state will continue to move forward."
On the city and state's responsibility for any cost overruns on the tunnel: "It's a state project. They're the ones that have the contract. If it does come down to [overruns], the state would be responsible for it, but that is probably something that would be resolved in litigation."
On city council president Richard Conlin: "I think Conlin has been the best council president that I have served with. He consults with us, he checks in. Both Jan [Drago] and Nick [Licata] did not do that. He usually has a more conciliator, mediator type of an approach to working with people that serves us well. I can't imagine what that relationship would have been like with perhaps another council member and mayor McGinn."
On McGinn's proposal to upzone the area around the Roosevelt light-rail system to 85 feet: "I think it's really important for a neighborhood to be able to weigh in and say, here's how we're going to meet our growth and environmental and transportation goals. It's inappropriate for folks on the outside to say, without listening to the community, that it has to be 12 or 16 stories tall. People are really concerned about the light and the transition from a dense neighborhood to a single-family neighborhood. You have to be thoughtful and do that neighborhood by neighborhood."
Oh, and someone in Fremont decided to take the campaign off Facebook and into their front yard.
• Jean Godden challenger Maurice Classen, has received $200, and an endorsement, from conservative Democrat state Sen. Margarita Prentice (D-11)—who has only once contributed to a Seattle City Council challenger (fellow Seattle conservative Paige Miller, who ran against Richard Conlin in 2005), at least not as far back as 1996, which is when the online records date back to.
Classen's late mother, Eveann Classen, chaired a group that oversees programs for poor or disabled children and Prentice's own son is disabled. Classen lobbied Prentice for state funding for the agency, which ultimately received $1.9 million from the state.
• We sat down with city council member Tom Rasmussen this afternoon to talk about his reelection campaign (such as it is; his only challenger is an unfunded IT manager named Dale Pusey), the tunnel, road diets, and Mayor McGinn. Here's some of what the two-term incumbent had to say:[pullquote]"McGinn keeps citing things as accomplishments that were started by the Nickels Administration or the city council. What are his accomplishments?"—Tom Rasmussen[/pullquote]
On "road diets" and the city's bike policy: "Road diets have not caused the kind of problems that people predicted. I have been on Nickerson six times now during rush hour, and traffic is moving. I do not see the worst case scenario being realized."
On Mayor McGinn's low approval ratings: "His support in the community has just plummeted since he's been in office. Expectations weren't very high to begin with, and he hasn't lived up to them. ... If he wants to run for reelection successfully, he's got a lot of work to do, and he's got about two years to do it. His support has dropped through the floor."
On the mayor's track record so far: "He keeps citing things as accomplishments that were started by the Nickels Administration or the city council," like the $20 million energy-efficiency grant the city's Office of Sustainability and the Environment received last year from the federal Department of Energy. "What are his accomplishments? I think he's going to have to start showing that he's initiated and he's succeeded. ... His jobs idea [rolled out earlier this week] is just an idea---there's no legislation. There's nothing of substance. It was a press conference."
On the tunnel referendum: "I think that the referendum outcome won't make any difference to the state. If it's a 'no' vote, the state says it's not a vote on the tunnel anyway. If it's 'yes' vote, the state will continue to move forward."
On the city and state's responsibility for any cost overruns on the tunnel: "It's a state project. They're the ones that have the contract. If it does come down to [overruns], the state would be responsible for it, but that is probably something that would be resolved in litigation."
On city council president Richard Conlin: "I think Conlin has been the best council president that I have served with. He consults with us, he checks in. Both Jan [Drago] and Nick [Licata] did not do that. He usually has a more conciliator, mediator type of an approach to working with people that serves us well. I can't imagine what that relationship would have been like with perhaps another council member and mayor McGinn."
On McGinn's proposal to upzone the area around the Roosevelt light-rail system to 85 feet: "I think it's really important for a neighborhood to be able to weigh in and say, here's how we're going to meet our growth and environmental and transportation goals. It's inappropriate for folks on the outside to say, without listening to the community, that it has to be 12 or 16 stories tall. People are really concerned about the light and the transition from a dense neighborhood to a single-family neighborhood. You have to be thoughtful and do that neighborhood by neighborhood."
