The Seattle Times endorsed somebody named Kathleen for Mercer Island city council. Anybody know who he/she is? I'm sure that these editorial boards have a thorough vetting of each candidate before doing their endorsements, which is of course why I trust every single word of their editorials. So who's Kathleen? Are the other names right too?
17 comments:
I believe they meant Maureen Judge (since that's the last name that was used).
Reminds me of the "those who live in glass houses..." parable...
I clicked the link. It says they have endorsed Maureen Judge, not anybody named Kathleen. Is your information old?
Yup, looks like they changed the link. I wonder if they want to correct anything else in the endorsement? :-)
I see you are back to your prejudices....at least you are up front with them in this comment instead of pretending to be an objective observer who hasn't endorsed anyone.
The MI Reporter has now endorsed Maureen. Pretty hard to come up with a scenario that the MI Reporter is a tool of regional politican influence.
What's amazing about this race is every single group endorsement (each one!) who has interviewed both, has chosen Maureen.
And bi-partisan locally elected officials to state government have endorsed her exclusively.
And the majority of remaining city council members have endorsed her.
You think there may be something behind her candidacy and a lot of hot air behind the conspiracy theories about her reasons for running? After all, wouldn't at least one of the many groups who dug into this race exposed such a consipracy?
Hey, check out Cero's latest PDC posting...an updated C1 showing when/where his books will be open.
Interesting that it's an off-island location to see his books (unlike Maureen's books who are open on the Island).
Hmmmm.....seems perfect for your blog (with all your off-Mercer Island concerns). No worries on the work involved, here's some help on the digging:
The further digging (which you seem to love!) shows that Cero's treasurer is also Steve Litzow's treasurer -- and, more interestingly, the treasurer for a number of republican (and only republican) candidates. Further checking gets even more interesting...her treasurer has been the chair of Chair, GOP Lincoln Birthday Party.
So, with all your analysis of Marueen's campaign (which, unlike her opponent, she not only admits but makes part of her public campaign), and your analysis of Cero's campaign which gives him a pass on the fact that virtually all top Republican donors have financed his campaign, we now see the orgnaization behind has GOP operatives.
Can't wait for your big post bringing all this to light!
PS...a little googling will show Steve Litzow was on the King County GOP leadership team as well.
Thanks for the tip on the C1. But I don't understand your point about party affiliations of supporters, something I think is irrelevant. Why does an individual's political background matter in a local election? I'm concerned when national and off-island enttities provide money and organization for a local campaign. Is the candidate's support driven top-down or bottom-up?
Thanks for the note.
It's the same game..just different tactics..the effect and affiliation is exactly the same (surely you see that). If one looks objectively at the situation, one sees only 2 approaches to the same end.
You need only look back 2 years to the race between Grady and Finkenbinder. A fellow MI blogger (Island Republican), to his credit, was open about it rather than try to use his prejudices to make it look like only one side was doing it. With research, you'll see the *exact same* parallels here as with that race...SAME DONORS!, same donor profiles between the two. And he had the honesty to call it what is was (and also to be honest about his leanings...check out the title to his blog):
"Brenda Finkenbinder is running for an open seat on the Mercer Island City Council, Position 6. Her opponent for this “non-partisan” position is Mike Grady. While this is a “non-partisan” race, Ms. Finkenbinder has Republican support and Mr. Grady has Democrat support."
See http://islandrepublican.blogspot.com/2005/08/brenda-finkenbinder-for-mercer-island.html for the quote.
I suggest your blog would be much more believable if you were to follow in this MI-blogger footsteps -- 1) as he did, with the exact same circumstances, admit that it's a D running against an R even though it's officially "non-partisan" and 2) admit you are for Cero as he admitted he was for Finkenbinder.
I wonder why Island Republican (or any other openly-R group) doesn't endorse Mike, if he's really one of them. Why do they need to "hide" behind their individual one-at-a-time endorsements? Seems like they'd be much better off organizing the way Maureen has.
For the same tactical reasons explained in the Goldstein post a little while back.
Mercer Island votes 60-70% democratic.
For a candidate (or party )to be *upfront* about republican support would be a death-knell to this left-leaning place.
That's where -independent- blogs fit in..look past the tactics, past the hype and right to the data (which you do so well on the Maureen campaign....and for some (hmmmm) reason, not so much on the Cero side).
Bottom line: Island Republican and the party learned that their endorsements backfire...Finkendbinder went down signficantly. So they hide behind individuals as a change in tactics to try and get theirs elected.
This is blogger fodder of the first order...go with the facts here...make bloggers everywhere proud...and expose it!
Ah, those sneaky Republicans! Trying to pull a fast one on us, huh? So, if somehow their little conspiracy works, and Mike wins, what does that mean for Mercer Island? No more reproductive choice? School prayer, maybe? Another disastrous war? Seriously I just don’t see how it helps the Republicans to have "one of their own" if he's only interested in pothole issues.
The pro-Maureen argument that makes most sense to me is that, since she's sponsored by state- and national interests, she's more likely to bring us long-term off-island goodies, especially if she uses this as a stepping stone to launch a bigger political career.
Richard,
I suggest you go back through the city council minutes from the past few years and see just what the republicans on the council have been pushing for (and against). I believe, if you do so, your response will be less flippant. Quite a bit so, actually. In summary -- it's a lot to do with more development, less investment, etc. Lowering taxes is big - along with services, etc. that go with that. There's a pretty good distinction between the folks (which is why there are quite a few non unanimous votes out there.
On the sneaky side, no, just campaign tacticts. You've taken their spin at face value without fully researching. I've done that for you to show you the real lay of the land. Much better than believing what one side says about the other, etc.
PS...only interested in pothole issues? not hardly...another good way to get elected...but look deeper at who supports him, what he's said at the various fora, etc.
By the way, did you notice all the letter for Mike Cero don't talk as much about why he's good as why they think Maureen is bad?
Isn't it sad that folks who say they care so much about Mercer Island have introduced negative campaigning into our local elections.
If nothing else, I presume you'll give kudos to all the candidates that ran positive campaigns and publicly call out those who focused on the negative (and only Cero was negative - in his ads, pieces, mailings and letter-supporters).
Negativity doesn't portend good council decision making....
so -- there is robo calling for cero from outside MI forces (some heavily developer funded PAC making the calls)...why no big postings on that? Why would huge developers around king county be interested in a little old MI race so much? Why does Maureen earn your rage but not cero when he doesn't just take money..but does the deep political robo calling effort? A bit of a double standard from a Cero supporter perhaps?
I hate those robo calls; I haven't received anything from Mike, though (so far). How about a post that promises I'll vote AGAINST anybody who robocalls me?
Do you have the audio? email it to me and I'll be happy to post it.
sorry...deleted upon listening....
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