Morning Fizz
Rep. Norm Dicks Won't Seek Reelection
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1. US Rep. Norm Dicks (D-6, WA), the highest-ranking Democrat on house appropriations committee, who's held the Tacoma and Olympic Peninsula seat since Jimmy Carter was President, announced today that he will not seek reelection.
Gushy statements are already out from both US Sens., Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, and Gov. Chris Gregoire—and the Republican gubernatorial candidate, state attorney general Rob McKenna.
And, of course, speculation on who'll throw their hat in the ring has already begun as well. The word on campus in Olympia: Moderate state Sen. Derek Kilmer (D-26, Gig Harbor).
2. Mayor Mike McGinn's big arena plans aren't moving forward as quickly as he may have hoped—the news out of Sacramento and Phoenix complicates things—but McGinn still sounds optimistic that the city, with the help of San Francisco investor Chris Hansen, can make a "self-financed" NBA and NHL arena happen.
"The way I look at it is, let's compare the situation today to a year ago. Today we have an investor who's stepped forward with real, substantial financial resources. … He's committed to approaching the NBA and NHL regarding teams. So we're a lot further along than we were a year ago."
We also asked McGinn whether he's concerned that the chosen site for the potential arena, at three-quarters of a mile from the nearest light-rail station, will make it a car-dependent facility. (The rail line includes two stops designed, in large part, to carry Seahawks and Mariners fans to the stadiums from points south. But the new arena (as was first pointed out here) will require train riders to cross the state's massive new SR-519 ramps and traverse a confusing street grid to get to the games. In most cases, we said, people will probably just drive.
McGinn disagreed. "It is within walking distance," he said. "People walk a lot further [from their jobs downtown] to get to Mariners and Seahawks games. People walk. It's still pretty centrally located."
3. Sate Sen. Steve Hobbs (D-44, Lake Stevens), a key member of the Roadkill Caucus, an ad hoc group of conservative Democrats, talked to Fizz about the story we ran yesterday which reported that the Republicans were courting Roadkill Democrats to bypass the majority Democrats' budget and go with a Republican budget that would make deeper cuts instead.[pullquote]One Republican, Sen. Cheryl Pflug (R-5), voted for the Obama health care bill.[/pullquote]
Hobbs said he had not been personally approached by the Republicans, but that other members of Roadkill probably had. He said he's personally inclined to go with the Democrats' budget if more reforms are incorporated into it. He would not elaborate on his list of reforms, but says he has given the list to Gregoire and Democratic budget author Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle), majority leader Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane), and house speaker Rep. Frank Chopp (D-43, Seattle). "Lisa and Frank are committed to working with us on reforms," Hobbs said.
"Reforms" have also been the watchword for Republicans—who have called for scaling back state employee pensions and changing the gaming compacts with the tribes. Hobbs says his list of reforms is "a different list than the Republicans" speculating that they may go further on pension reform and adding definitively that he Roadkillers don't go after tribal gambling. "Our list is different," he says, "we're Democrats."
His list is likely to include more on education reform—perhaps a quasi and limited charter school bill—Fizz guesses. Ed reform has been a key issue for Hobbs. However, he would not confirm that.
Asked if a Roadkill defection to a GOP budget would hurt Hobbs' run for the Democratic nomination in the 1st Congressional District race, where he's running against a pack of more liberal Democrats, Hobbs says he couldn't be blamed. "No, I don't control them. There's no mind control. These are all individuals."
He hyped the Roadkill's Party bona fides, pointing out that they helped deliver gay marriage and last night's vote to establish the Obama health exchange—which had been in danger of going down. "We are Democrats," Hobbs concluded.
4. Speaking of the health care exchange vote: Hobbs is right—the bill to institute the President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act at the state level passed the state senate yesterday 27-22 with the support of the Roadkill Caucus. Only one Democrat, Sen. Tim Sheldon (D-35, Potlatch), voted against it. One Republican, Sen. Cheryl Pflug (R-5), voted for it. (Pflug also broke ranks earlier this session to vote for the same-sex marriage bill.)
Liberal Democrats such as Sen. David Frockt (D-46, N. Seattle), a lead on the issue, was "not prepared to vote for it," he tells Fizz, as recently as Wednesday night after insurance companies Regence and Primera had "watered down" the exchange to create an uneven playing field between the regulated government exchange—where consumers can get government subsidized care—and the private market, which would given an advantage to the private market to cherry pick healthier people.
Specifically, a provision to allow 18-30 year olds to purchase low-end catastrophic care policies had been taken out of the exchange—leaving that healthy pool exclusively to the private market. "You can't have a functioning market," Frock says, "when both aren't equal and the regulated exchange would have collapsed." Frock put the 18-30 year old group back in the exchange and voted for the bill, bringing liberals back into the fold while also keeping the Roadkill on board.
1. US Rep. Norm Dicks (D-6, WA), the highest-ranking Democrat on house appropriations committee, who's held the Tacoma and Olympic Peninsula seat since Jimmy Carter was President, announced today that he will not seek reelection.
Gushy statements are already out from both US Sens., Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, and Gov. Chris Gregoire—and the Republican gubernatorial candidate, state attorney general Rob McKenna.
And, of course, speculation on who'll throw their hat in the ring has already begun as well. The word on campus in Olympia: Moderate state Sen. Derek Kilmer (D-26, Gig Harbor).
2. Mayor Mike McGinn's big arena plans aren't moving forward as quickly as he may have hoped—the news out of Sacramento and Phoenix complicates things—but McGinn still sounds optimistic that the city, with the help of San Francisco investor Chris Hansen, can make a "self-financed" NBA and NHL arena happen.
"The way I look at it is, let's compare the situation today to a year ago. Today we have an investor who's stepped forward with real, substantial financial resources. … He's committed to approaching the NBA and NHL regarding teams. So we're a lot further along than we were a year ago."
We also asked McGinn whether he's concerned that the chosen site for the potential arena, at three-quarters of a mile from the nearest light-rail station, will make it a car-dependent facility. (The rail line includes two stops designed, in large part, to carry Seahawks and Mariners fans to the stadiums from points south. But the new arena (as was first pointed out here) will require train riders to cross the state's massive new SR-519 ramps and traverse a confusing street grid to get to the games. In most cases, we said, people will probably just drive.
McGinn disagreed. "It is within walking distance," he said. "People walk a lot further [from their jobs downtown] to get to Mariners and Seahawks games. People walk. It's still pretty centrally located."
3. Sate Sen. Steve Hobbs (D-44, Lake Stevens), a key member of the Roadkill Caucus, an ad hoc group of conservative Democrats, talked to Fizz about the story we ran yesterday which reported that the Republicans were courting Roadkill Democrats to bypass the majority Democrats' budget and go with a Republican budget that would make deeper cuts instead.[pullquote]One Republican, Sen. Cheryl Pflug (R-5), voted for the Obama health care bill.[/pullquote]
Hobbs said he had not been personally approached by the Republicans, but that other members of Roadkill probably had. He said he's personally inclined to go with the Democrats' budget if more reforms are incorporated into it. He would not elaborate on his list of reforms, but says he has given the list to Gregoire and Democratic budget author Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle), majority leader Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane), and house speaker Rep. Frank Chopp (D-43, Seattle). "Lisa and Frank are committed to working with us on reforms," Hobbs said.
"Reforms" have also been the watchword for Republicans—who have called for scaling back state employee pensions and changing the gaming compacts with the tribes. Hobbs says his list of reforms is "a different list than the Republicans" speculating that they may go further on pension reform and adding definitively that he Roadkillers don't go after tribal gambling. "Our list is different," he says, "we're Democrats."
His list is likely to include more on education reform—perhaps a quasi and limited charter school bill—Fizz guesses. Ed reform has been a key issue for Hobbs. However, he would not confirm that.
Asked if a Roadkill defection to a GOP budget would hurt Hobbs' run for the Democratic nomination in the 1st Congressional District race, where he's running against a pack of more liberal Democrats, Hobbs says he couldn't be blamed. "No, I don't control them. There's no mind control. These are all individuals."
He hyped the Roadkill's Party bona fides, pointing out that they helped deliver gay marriage and last night's vote to establish the Obama health exchange—which had been in danger of going down. "We are Democrats," Hobbs concluded.
4. Speaking of the health care exchange vote: Hobbs is right—the bill to institute the President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act at the state level passed the state senate yesterday 27-22 with the support of the Roadkill Caucus. Only one Democrat, Sen. Tim Sheldon (D-35, Potlatch), voted against it. One Republican, Sen. Cheryl Pflug (R-5), voted for it. (Pflug also broke ranks earlier this session to vote for the same-sex marriage bill.)
Liberal Democrats such as Sen. David Frockt (D-46, N. Seattle), a lead on the issue, was "not prepared to vote for it," he tells Fizz, as recently as Wednesday night after insurance companies Regence and Primera had "watered down" the exchange to create an uneven playing field between the regulated government exchange—where consumers can get government subsidized care—and the private market, which would given an advantage to the private market to cherry pick healthier people.
Specifically, a provision to allow 18-30 year olds to purchase low-end catastrophic care policies had been taken out of the exchange—leaving that healthy pool exclusively to the private market. "You can't have a functioning market," Frock says, "when both aren't equal and the regulated exchange would have collapsed." Frock put the 18-30 year old group back in the exchange and voted for the bill, bringing liberals back into the fold while also keeping the Roadkill on board.
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