Morning Fizz
What Do Women Want?
Caffeinated News & Gossip. Your daily Morning Fizz.
1. Erica "the C is for Crank" Barnett moderated a panel on women and the economy last night at the Wing Luke museum in the International District. Starring Dana Laurent from Planned Parenthood, Lori Pfingst from the lefty Washington Budget and Policy Center, Marilyn Watkins from the lefty Economic Opportunity Institute, David Ward from Legal Voice (a women's rights legal nonprofit that's on the the Plan B case), and Diane Narasaki from the Asian Counseling and Referral Service, the event drew 100 people, mostly women, to answer the age old question: What do women want?
Erica reports that there was no consensus, but that the crowd was a little miffed at the lack of diversity on the panel (namely—no people of color except for Narasaki or queers), and there were a couple of pointed questions about the fact that minority women and gays were hardest hit by the recession.
In a lighter moment—during a tangent about the 2010's losing high-earners income tax campaign—Watkins acknowledged that the "No" side's scare tactic ... that the 1098 was really a ploy to institute a full blown progressive income tax ... was true. "That was the plan," Watkins joked after Erica asked her how realistic the cause actually is. She quickly added, "Just kidding. That wasn't the plan" before acknowledging that of course EOI supports a progressive income tax.
So there you have it: Women—at least a few white women in Seattle—want a progressive income tax.
2. The latest campaign finance numbers are coming in—and per usual, we'll scour the Jay Inslee and Rob McKenna reports to give you the latest details on who's funding this year's gubernatorial candidates. In the meantime, we've also been obsessed with the hot contest in the 36th Legislative District, where a pack of Democrats is competing to for retiring state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson's (D-36, Ballard) open seat.
Progressive Majority leader Noel Frame boasts that she raised $12,000 in April, bringing her total to $35,000 raised and just about all of it still on hand. Her campaign's spin: "More than one quarter of Noel’s donors in April contributed $25 or less."
3. Tacoma News Tribune veteran political columnist Peter Callaghan had a nice tribute to state Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane), the senate majority leader who surprised everyone last week by announcing that she's not seeking reelection this year.
Adding some context to the conventional wisdom that Brown left because of last session's GOP coup, Callaghan wrote:
1. Erica "the C is for Crank" Barnett moderated a panel on women and the economy last night at the Wing Luke museum in the International District. Starring Dana Laurent from Planned Parenthood, Lori Pfingst from the lefty Washington Budget and Policy Center, Marilyn Watkins from the lefty Economic Opportunity Institute, David Ward from Legal Voice (a women's rights legal nonprofit that's on the the Plan B case), and Diane Narasaki from the Asian Counseling and Referral Service, the event drew 100 people, mostly women, to answer the age old question: What do women want?
Erica reports that there was no consensus, but that the crowd was a little miffed at the lack of diversity on the panel (namely—no people of color except for Narasaki or queers), and there were a couple of pointed questions about the fact that minority women and gays were hardest hit by the recession.
In a lighter moment—during a tangent about the 2010's losing high-earners income tax campaign—Watkins acknowledged that the "No" side's scare tactic ... that the 1098 was really a ploy to institute a full blown progressive income tax ... was true. "That was the plan," Watkins joked after Erica asked her how realistic the cause actually is. She quickly added, "Just kidding. That wasn't the plan" before acknowledging that of course EOI supports a progressive income tax.
So there you have it: Women—at least a few white women in Seattle—want a progressive income tax.
2. The latest campaign finance numbers are coming in—and per usual, we'll scour the Jay Inslee and Rob McKenna reports to give you the latest details on who's funding this year's gubernatorial candidates. In the meantime, we've also been obsessed with the hot contest in the 36th Legislative District, where a pack of Democrats is competing to for retiring state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson's (D-36, Ballard) open seat.
Progressive Majority leader Noel Frame boasts that she raised $12,000 in April, bringing her total to $35,000 raised and just about all of it still on hand. Her campaign's spin: "More than one quarter of Noel’s donors in April contributed $25 or less."
3. Tacoma News Tribune veteran political columnist Peter Callaghan had a nice tribute to state Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane), the senate majority leader who surprised everyone last week by announcing that she's not seeking reelection this year.
Adding some context to the conventional wisdom that Brown left because of last session's GOP coup, Callaghan wrote:
Once she became just the second female majority leader, however, Brown too often placed her own views behind those of the caucus. Perhaps that is necessary to keep the top job, but sometimes she yielded to people with less knowledge than she had and allowed them to define her party as anti-reform – especially on education.
