News
Campaign Fizz: "I Hope You Don't Need A Backup."
Your one-stop shop for today's local campaign news, gossip, and analysis.
• Crocodile Cafe owner Marcus Charles has set up a PAC called the Progressive Conservative Coalition at the city. Although the group has only reported a single $5,000 contribution (from Charles) and has not reported spending any money yet, expect them to support business-friendly candidates who support policies that encourage nightlife (e.g. all-night bar hours), increase police presence downtown, and reduce taxes and regulations on small businesses in general (e.g. lower downtown parking rates?) Charles has not yet returned a call for more information about the organization.
• Why can't we get a race this exciting? The Snohomish County Executive election just got interesting, when a staffer for County Executive Aaron Reardon's reelection campaign forwarded documents to the Seattle Times detailing a 2000 police incident involving Reardon challenger Mike Hope, a Seattle police officer.
Hope, then 25, was a passenger in a car pulled over by Mill Creek police around 2:00 am in March 2000. During the stop, he tried to convince officers to let him, his date, and another passenger walk home, identifying himself as an SPD officer. When the officers refused, he started yelling at them, calling one "small town" and saying he hoped they "did not come to Seattle or need help or a backup" in the future. His date was arrested and taken into custody. Hope was suspended for five days. He told the Times , "I don't think it was a big deal."
• In something of a strange-bedfellows alliance, the Downtown Seattle Association has endorsed Proposition 1, the $60 car-tab fee to pay for street maintenance, transit improvements, and bike and pedestrian projects. (Prop. 1 is backed by Streets for All Seattle, a group closely allied with Mayor Mike McGinn and his Transit Master Plan). "To keep Seattle moving and downtown competitive, now is the time to make investments that will make our buses faster and our roads safer," DSA president Kate Joncas said in a statement.
• Crocodile Cafe owner Marcus Charles has set up a PAC called the Progressive Conservative Coalition at the city. Although the group has only reported a single $5,000 contribution (from Charles) and has not reported spending any money yet, expect them to support business-friendly candidates who support policies that encourage nightlife (e.g. all-night bar hours), increase police presence downtown, and reduce taxes and regulations on small businesses in general (e.g. lower downtown parking rates?) Charles has not yet returned a call for more information about the organization.
• Why can't we get a race this exciting? The Snohomish County Executive election just got interesting, when a staffer for County Executive Aaron Reardon's reelection campaign forwarded documents to the Seattle Times detailing a 2000 police incident involving Reardon challenger Mike Hope, a Seattle police officer.
Hope, then 25, was a passenger in a car pulled over by Mill Creek police around 2:00 am in March 2000. During the stop, he tried to convince officers to let him, his date, and another passenger walk home, identifying himself as an SPD officer. When the officers refused, he started yelling at them, calling one "small town" and saying he hoped they "did not come to Seattle or need help or a backup" in the future. His date was arrested and taken into custody. Hope was suspended for five days. He told the Times , "I don't think it was a big deal."
• In something of a strange-bedfellows alliance, the Downtown Seattle Association has endorsed Proposition 1, the $60 car-tab fee to pay for street maintenance, transit improvements, and bike and pedestrian projects. (Prop. 1 is backed by Streets for All Seattle, a group closely allied with Mayor Mike McGinn and his Transit Master Plan). "To keep Seattle moving and downtown competitive, now is the time to make investments that will make our buses faster and our roads safer," DSA president Kate Joncas said in a statement.
