Morning Fizz
An Impromptu Vote Over Beers
Caffeinated News & Gossip. Your daily Morning Fizz.
1. PubliCola held a crowded arena forum at EVO on Capitol Hill last night. Things got heated—particularly between between 710 ESPN sports radio host Mike Salk and Seattle Port Commissioner Tom Albro (re: coal trains) and Salk and Peter Steinbrueck (re: everything).
Peter Steinbrueck, Mike Salk, Mike O'Brien, Tom Albro
We'll post audio later today. Thanks to everyone for coming out.
One noteworthy piece of news from the event: Seattle Port Commissioner Tom Albro revealed—after being pressed for data re: the Port's calamitous predictions about traffic—that the Port itself is releasing a new traffic study on the arena in the next few days.
The other breaking news: Afterward, the SonicsGate Guys, including Jason Reid and Adam Brown, pictured above, took an impromptu vote over beers and officially endorsed Democrat Bob Ferguson for attorney general over his Republican Reagan Dunn.
Dunn was one of three members of the King County Council yesterday who voted against signing off on the $490 million arena deal.
2. Democratic 46th District State house candidate Sylvester Cann, who's challenging Democratic incumbent Gerry Pollet (D-46, N. Seattle), seized on Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle City Council member Nick Licata's proposal to cap towing rates. Pollet ran a bill to do just that in the legislature, but the bill set higher rates and failed to let individual cities (such as Seattle) negotiate to set its own rates.
The McGinn/Licata proposal caps impounds at $156.75 and storage rates are limited to $15.50 for up to 12 hours.
Pollet pushed legislation last session that capped rates statewide—at a much higher rate, $270—and did not allow cities to negotiate lower rates.
Cann called the new Seattle proposal "a direct effort to fix a failed legislative effort this past session in Olympia, where appointed Representative Gerry Pollet (D-Seattle) pushed a bill that would have allowed for [higher] rates and barred cities from taking action to further protect consumers. The Pollet bill—backed by the towing industry for allowing high rates and preempting cities—failed to pass the democratically controlled legislature, sparking today’s action by the City of Seattle."
However, Pollet sent out a press release of his own praising the McGinn/Licata proposal and said he will reintroduce legislation next year to put a statewide cap in place.
His statement did not address whether his second version would allow cities to set their own rates.
3. A misleading story about Suzan DelBene is making the rounds (again) on liberal blogs. The claim is that DelBene broke election rules by not filing a personal financial disclosure form in 2011 even though she had spent $5,000, the candidate threshold, and indicated she was a candidate by checking a box on her quarterly report.
The story is wrong for several reason, which I explained a couple of months ago when the story first ran (in part, because there are exemptions to the threshold, which DelBene met). But here's the funnier thing: If the story had any veracity, DelBene's rival, progressive Darcy Burner (the choice candidate of the lefty blogs), would be guilty of the exact same thing.
Burner checked the same box in her 2009 Q1, for example, when she was still closing out her 2008 campaign—and spent $7,645 in net operating expenditures ... more than $5,000. (DelBene was doing the same thing in 2011 when she was closing out her 2010 campaign.)
But neither Burner nor DelBene is guilty because it's the only box you can check. DelBene has the same treasurer that Burner had back then, Philip Lloyd. And, as he explained to Fizz:
"The FEC requires, when reporting expenses, to list the period and cycle in which the expenses were incurred, regardless as to what election that they are for. So you can incur expenses in the 2012 period even though you are not a candidate in P2012. If I tried to do otherwise I’d get a testy letter from the FEC."
1. PubliCola held a crowded arena forum at EVO on Capitol Hill last night. Things got heated—particularly between between 710 ESPN sports radio host Mike Salk and Seattle Port Commissioner Tom Albro (re: coal trains) and Salk and Peter Steinbrueck (re: everything).
Peter Steinbrueck, Mike Salk, Mike O'Brien, Tom Albro
We'll post audio later today. Thanks to everyone for coming out.
One noteworthy piece of news from the event: Seattle Port Commissioner Tom Albro revealed—after being pressed for data re: the Port's calamitous predictions about traffic—that the Port itself is releasing a new traffic study on the arena in the next few days.
The other breaking news: Afterward, the SonicsGate Guys, including Jason Reid and Adam Brown, pictured above, took an impromptu vote over beers and officially endorsed Democrat Bob Ferguson for attorney general over his Republican Reagan Dunn.
Dunn was one of three members of the King County Council yesterday who voted against signing off on the $490 million arena deal.
2. Democratic 46th District State house candidate Sylvester Cann, who's challenging Democratic incumbent Gerry Pollet (D-46, N. Seattle), seized on Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle City Council member Nick Licata's proposal to cap towing rates. Pollet ran a bill to do just that in the legislature, but the bill set higher rates and failed to let individual cities (such as Seattle) negotiate to set its own rates.
The McGinn/Licata proposal caps impounds at $156.75 and storage rates are limited to $15.50 for up to 12 hours.
Pollet pushed legislation last session that capped rates statewide—at a much higher rate, $270—and did not allow cities to negotiate lower rates.
Cann called the new Seattle proposal "a direct effort to fix a failed legislative effort this past session in Olympia, where appointed Representative Gerry Pollet (D-Seattle) pushed a bill that would have allowed for [higher] rates and barred cities from taking action to further protect consumers. The Pollet bill—backed by the towing industry for allowing high rates and preempting cities—failed to pass the democratically controlled legislature, sparking today’s action by the City of Seattle."
However, Pollet sent out a press release of his own praising the McGinn/Licata proposal and said he will reintroduce legislation next year to put a statewide cap in place.
His statement did not address whether his second version would allow cities to set their own rates.
3. A misleading story about Suzan DelBene is making the rounds (again) on liberal blogs. The claim is that DelBene broke election rules by not filing a personal financial disclosure form in 2011 even though she had spent $5,000, the candidate threshold, and indicated she was a candidate by checking a box on her quarterly report.
The story is wrong for several reason, which I explained a couple of months ago when the story first ran (in part, because there are exemptions to the threshold, which DelBene met). But here's the funnier thing: If the story had any veracity, DelBene's rival, progressive Darcy Burner (the choice candidate of the lefty blogs), would be guilty of the exact same thing.
Burner checked the same box in her 2009 Q1, for example, when she was still closing out her 2008 campaign—and spent $7,645 in net operating expenditures ... more than $5,000. (DelBene was doing the same thing in 2011 when she was closing out her 2010 campaign.)
But neither Burner nor DelBene is guilty because it's the only box you can check. DelBene has the same treasurer that Burner had back then, Philip Lloyd. And, as he explained to Fizz:
"The FEC requires, when reporting expenses, to list the period and cycle in which the expenses were incurred, regardless as to what election that they are for. So you can incur expenses in the 2012 period even though you are not a candidate in P2012. If I tried to do otherwise I’d get a testy letter from the FEC."
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