Morning Fizz
"Looks Like State Rep. Gerry Pollet."
Caffeinated news & gossip. Your daily Morning Fizz.
1. Last night, 105 precinct committee officers (PCOs) from the 46th District Democrats in North Seattle chose Gerry Pollet as their new state representative. (Former 46th district state Rep. David Frockt moved over to the senate last month to fill Scott White's seat after White died suddenly in October.)
Pollet, the director of Heart of the Northwest, an organization leading the fight to clean up the Hanford nuclear site, is the long-time vice chairman of the 46th and ran against White for an open state house seat in 2008.
Pollet brought 30 supporters up to the podium with him when he addressed the crowd.
Cann spoke solo.
After several rounds of voting had whittled the field of eight candidates down to two, Pollet, who came in first during every round, won a head-to-head vote against Sylvester Cann, a former White aide, 57-47. (Cann had been endorsed by White's wife, Alison White.) In the previous round, Pollet beat out Cann and a third candidate, longtime Democrat activist and former 46th District chair Javier Valdez, 48-38-19. Valdez had been endorsed by US Rep. Jim McDermott.
Heading into the final vote, Fizz got this text from a 46th member on the scene: "So is it the young upstart Scott White LA [legislative aide] or the old dog lefty?!?"
And then, moments later: "Looks like state rep Gerry Pollet." (You can read Pollet's responses to the King County Democrat's questionnaire here.)
However, the best lines of the night came from Gabe Meyer, who got just one vote. During his speech Meyer, a former CityClub and Municipal League guy who is currently the director of marketing for a nonprofit that connects disadvantaged kids with art, said he "had a ten-point plan on how not to sell out" and joked that one thing he'd learned during the campaign was that "PCOs don't call you back."
Pollet's name will be forwarded to the King County Council as the district's top choice (along with the two runners up as a formality) for approval.
2. State Sen. Paull Shin (D-21) will take Gov. Gregoire's half-penny sales tax and raise her a penny.[pullquote]State Sen. Paull Shin will take Gov. Gregoire's half-penny sales tax and raise her a penny.[/pullquote]
Yesterday, Shin---joined by colleagues Sens. Maralyn Chase (D-32) and Debbie Regala (D-27)---proposed legislation that would place a measure raising the state sales tax one percentage point "to provide funding for essential government services" on the statewide ballot. The additional tax, which would drop to half a percentage point if statewide unemployment drops to 6.5 percent for four consecutive months, would expire in 2015, like Gregoire's proposal.
"If we are going raise revenue, let’s make it count," Shin said in a statement. "It’s time we got serious about education, public safety and social services.”
Shinn called for a temporary one-percent sales tax increase earlier this year.
3. Speaking of the sales tax, the wildest rumor Josh heard down in Olympia yesterday (and then confirmed with Democratic sources working on a revenue plan) was this two-step bank shot plan to raise revenue: Pass a sales tax increase proposal soon—during the special session (not gonna happen) or quickly in January to get it on the ballot in April as a sort of first pass.
Meanwhile, pass a second, more progressive option in February (such as a loophole equalizer that sunsets tax breaks and makes renewal part of the budget process like any expenditure) and send that to the voters in November as a way of saying, "Well, you didn't like the sales tax, but now we've got no money and people are dying and we've gotta stop these corporate tax breaks to get some cash!"
4. More rumors of a lawsuit against Initiative 1183, the liquor privatization initiative, surfaced yesterday. The latest purported plaintiff: The Washington Association for Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention, which was part of the coalition behind the "No on 1183" campaign.
As we reported in Fizz yesterday, the Washington Public Employees Association wrote on its web site that it is "possible that lawsuits will be filed to throw out 1183, on the grounds that no initiative may cover more than one subject." Jim Cooper, president of the group, did not return a call for comment yesterday.
5. Fizz spoke with Garfield High School teacher and Occupy Olympia hero Jesse Hagopian yesterday about his recent brush with fame. (Hagopian, who showed up at the Capitol this week and told state troopers they should arrest legislators, not protesters, for violating the state constitution's mandate that they fund education, has been all over the news---most recently on Keith Olbermann's "Countdown").
Hagopian tries to make a citizens arrest of legislators in the state capitol on Monday.
We asked him what the kids thought about him being on the news:
"I get out of the car on the first day back and someone yells 'free Mr. Hagopian!'" He also says he's been getting lots of high-fives from kids.
Is he planning to go back to Olympia? "At this point I'm banned for a year." Hagopian says he's meeting a lawyer today.
1. Last night, 105 precinct committee officers (PCOs) from the 46th District Democrats in North Seattle chose Gerry Pollet as their new state representative. (Former 46th district state Rep. David Frockt moved over to the senate last month to fill Scott White's seat after White died suddenly in October.)
Pollet, the director of Heart of the Northwest, an organization leading the fight to clean up the Hanford nuclear site, is the long-time vice chairman of the 46th and ran against White for an open state house seat in 2008.
Pollet brought 30 supporters up to the podium with him when he addressed the crowd.
Cann spoke solo.
After several rounds of voting had whittled the field of eight candidates down to two, Pollet, who came in first during every round, won a head-to-head vote against Sylvester Cann, a former White aide, 57-47. (Cann had been endorsed by White's wife, Alison White.) In the previous round, Pollet beat out Cann and a third candidate, longtime Democrat activist and former 46th District chair Javier Valdez, 48-38-19. Valdez had been endorsed by US Rep. Jim McDermott.
Heading into the final vote, Fizz got this text from a 46th member on the scene: "So is it the young upstart Scott White LA [legislative aide] or the old dog lefty?!?"
And then, moments later: "Looks like state rep Gerry Pollet." (You can read Pollet's responses to the King County Democrat's questionnaire here.)
However, the best lines of the night came from Gabe Meyer, who got just one vote. During his speech Meyer, a former CityClub and Municipal League guy who is currently the director of marketing for a nonprofit that connects disadvantaged kids with art, said he "had a ten-point plan on how not to sell out" and joked that one thing he'd learned during the campaign was that "PCOs don't call you back."
Pollet's name will be forwarded to the King County Council as the district's top choice (along with the two runners up as a formality) for approval.
2. State Sen. Paull Shin (D-21) will take Gov. Gregoire's half-penny sales tax and raise her a penny.[pullquote]State Sen. Paull Shin will take Gov. Gregoire's half-penny sales tax and raise her a penny.[/pullquote]
Yesterday, Shin---joined by colleagues Sens. Maralyn Chase (D-32) and Debbie Regala (D-27)---proposed legislation that would place a measure raising the state sales tax one percentage point "to provide funding for essential government services" on the statewide ballot. The additional tax, which would drop to half a percentage point if statewide unemployment drops to 6.5 percent for four consecutive months, would expire in 2015, like Gregoire's proposal.
"If we are going raise revenue, let’s make it count," Shin said in a statement. "It’s time we got serious about education, public safety and social services.”
Shinn called for a temporary one-percent sales tax increase earlier this year.
3. Speaking of the sales tax, the wildest rumor Josh heard down in Olympia yesterday (and then confirmed with Democratic sources working on a revenue plan) was this two-step bank shot plan to raise revenue: Pass a sales tax increase proposal soon—during the special session (not gonna happen) or quickly in January to get it on the ballot in April as a sort of first pass.
Meanwhile, pass a second, more progressive option in February (such as a loophole equalizer that sunsets tax breaks and makes renewal part of the budget process like any expenditure) and send that to the voters in November as a way of saying, "Well, you didn't like the sales tax, but now we've got no money and people are dying and we've gotta stop these corporate tax breaks to get some cash!"
4. More rumors of a lawsuit against Initiative 1183, the liquor privatization initiative, surfaced yesterday. The latest purported plaintiff: The Washington Association for Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention, which was part of the coalition behind the "No on 1183" campaign.
As we reported in Fizz yesterday, the Washington Public Employees Association wrote on its web site that it is "possible that lawsuits will be filed to throw out 1183, on the grounds that no initiative may cover more than one subject." Jim Cooper, president of the group, did not return a call for comment yesterday.
5. Fizz spoke with Garfield High School teacher and Occupy Olympia hero Jesse Hagopian yesterday about his recent brush with fame. (Hagopian, who showed up at the Capitol this week and told state troopers they should arrest legislators, not protesters, for violating the state constitution's mandate that they fund education, has been all over the news---most recently on Keith Olbermann's "Countdown").
Hagopian tries to make a citizens arrest of legislators in the state capitol on Monday.
We asked him what the kids thought about him being on the news:
"I get out of the car on the first day back and someone yells 'free Mr. Hagopian!'" He also says he's been getting lots of high-fives from kids.
Is he planning to go back to Olympia? "At this point I'm banned for a year." Hagopian says he's meeting a lawyer today.
