Yesterday evening I attended the annual dinner of the Washington Policy Center. The pre-dinner speaker was the very funny P.J. O'Rourke, with an award acceptance speech by former local TV news anchor Susan Hutchison, and a keynote address by Colorado Gov. Bill Owens. More on the speeches by P.J. O'Rourke and Gov. Owens, here.

First some name-dropping, followed by some gossip. At the event I chatted with many of the state and regions political and opinion leaders, among them: Attorney General candidate Rob McKenna, Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders, Sen. Stephen Johnson, Sen. Jim Horn, Rep. Ross Hunter, King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert, legislative candidates Fawn Spady (R-41) and Mark Griswold (R-43), State Auditor Brian Sonntag. KTTH talk-show host Mike Siegel, Republican Radio hosts Anne-Marie Lake and Jerry Miller, No on I-884 campaign director Jamie Daniels, Dino Rossi campaign press secretary Janelle Guthrie, King County GOP director Ross Marzolf and Monorail Recall campaign leaders Jim Day and Liv Finne (I hope I'm not forgetting anybody) Several of these people are regular readers of Sound Politics and the Shark Blog!

The gossip: Mike Siegel is exploring a run against Maria Cantwell in 2006 ... Kathy Lambert will likely run for governor, succeeding Dino Rossi, and/or challenge Ron Sims for King County Executive in 2005. Either way, she will have Siegel's endorsement ... House Speaker Frank Chopp has postponed his Oct. 11 debate against Mark Griswold until an as yet undetermined time in the third week of October. Perhaps the Speaker needs more time to get up to speed on the issues ... State Auditor Brian Sonntag said that the difficulty he's been having obtaining public records "comes from the top". I interpret this to mean not only Gov. Locke but also the sitting Attorney General/wannabe governor Christine Gregoire, whose job is to advise government agencies on public disclosure and who has a track record of defending executive privilege against public disclosure.