A reader in Maple Valley e-mails with some very good points:
Dear Sound Politics,We can elect the stand-up politicians we want, as long as we're willing to stand-up for them. Too much is at stake here to let theYou guys have a great website. It has been wonderful to catch sight of issues that the TV news, radio to a lesser extent, and print media have neglected to follow.
One thing that I haven't seen much discussion of is the "favors" that will now be owed to Ron Sims for his helping put Christine Gregoire in office. He now owns her for practical political purposes. I seriously doubt that he will blackmail her with information about how he appointed someone that wouldn't see the problems occurring in the elections office, but she will be beholden to him.
Standing behind Gary Locke, Gregoire has pretty much taken her marching orders from her political mentors and handlers... the budget, sin taxes and all, will be rammed through. I am guessing that the words, "Income Tax" will be shortly sprouting from Gregoire's pursed-lips.One thing that I do predict is that President Bush will have no reason to honor the income tax recognition of our state sales tax now. He has no reason to and Washington state is just ripe for some political punishment for voting for the likes of Patty Murray. Even when we do elect some one that the citizens want to turn things around, the King County political machine kicks into action and ignores the voter's wishes. I guess it starts with stadiums, then morphs into light rail -- after a few elections like that, the machine in King Country doesn't care how it changes the results.
Keep up the good work, maybe someday we can have some honest, competent, stand-up politicians.
First of all, Texas and Florida don't have state income taxes either, and their taxpayers benefit heavily from being able to deduct the sales tax. Other GOP leaning states, such as Tennessee and Alaska, just to think of two more of the ten or so, don't have state income taxes either. (Well, Alaska doesn't have a sales tax also, but you know where I am going.)
Secondly, sales tax deductions benefit the middle class who itemize. The middle class supports the GOP most heavily. The lower class favors the Democrats heavily. The upper class is almost evenly split between the GOP and Democrats these days, and either (a) doesn't get benefit of itemized deductions due to alternative minimum tax, or (b) while they buy more, they spend a lower percentage of their income on sales-taxable goods.
Also, I don't see Gregoire extending any favors to Ron Sims. While there is a tremendous amount of incompetency in King County Elections, and possibly fraud by someone (admissible relevant evidence remains to be seen), I don't see any conspiracy or organized effort by Ron Sims to steal the election for Gregoire. In fact, Ron Sims went out of his way to personally attack Gregoire in the primary, and gave her only a lukewarm endorsement in the general. Rumor has it, that if Gregoire ends up losing, she will move to King County to take on Ron Sims for County Executive next fall. (If these were the top two candidates making it to the general election under I-872, I would vote for Gregoire.)
I don't see Gregoire backing an income tax. She may be uninspiring, and may prove to be a terrible people person and administrator, but she knows how to play her cards right when picking her positions for political purposes. Look for more of the same proposals that Gary Locke made -- no income tax, no increase in general state sales tax, various proposals to increase miscellaneous taxes, some cutback in the more helpful and useful government programs, no cutback whatsoever in bureaucratic fat and waste.
Posted by: Richard Pope on December 26, 2004 06:30 PMOf course there would be some sort of patronage payoff to the Ukraine County machine if Gregoire prevails. Who else produced the vote for her like they did?
If she loses, she can move to Seattle and run for Mayor. She can tell herself it's only a small step down from being Governor of Seattle, which is all she'd be known as anyway.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on December 26, 2004 07:29 PMDidn't the Rs bring out 91 or so affidavits of people who didn't think their votes had been counted because their absentee ballots had come in too late?
One encouraging thing about this race seems to be that the Rs have learned to play some of the tricks the Ds have been playing regularly.
What I wonder is, how long will Americans put up with these tricks before they start cleaning house at the local level? It never ceases to amaze me that so many people think the only important vote they cast is the one for U.S. President and, maybe, for US Senator.
Other more serious voters will go down the ballot and vote for US Congress people. What is the undervote for County Supervisor or Commissioner, as we call them here in Oregon?
I'm with Stefan - we need to defend our right to self-government. I can assure you I do in my city and county! [Can't do much about the state or Portland, sorry to say.]
Posted by: Mac on December 26, 2004 08:09 PMWhat reason does Washington DC have to kick down favors to Washington State if Gregoire gets in now? The politicians on Capitol Hill are smart enough to know what happened out here. Most of them will not consider her as legitimate.
Meanwhile, Maria Cantwell is unspectacular at best, Patty Murray is considered the village idiot (the annual choice of Congressional Staffers as 'Least likely to be a rocket scientist), and the areas that are most responsible for manufacturing the Gregoire steal are represented by, oh, yeah....Jim McDermott.
We're all screwed out here on the left coast. What federal monies have these clowns brought to Washington? They're going to get a lot less now. How many businesses will move out of the state?
Posted by: Lost in Seattle on December 26, 2004 08:59 PMGood point, I already do! I by books and DVDs on the internet from Overstock.com - no sales tax! I wish Amazon.com did not charge us tax, but their corporate headquarters are in WA state.
I go to the local liberal bookstore, look for the books that I want to buy, then walk home and make my purchase. I save not only the sales tax but also about $5-8 per book.
I built my PC from components purchased on the internet - no tax, free shipping - and given the choice I will always choose to save the sales tax by waiting a few days.
We can all take our money elsewhere with the click of a mouse!
Posted by: Lost in Seattle on December 26, 2004 09:41 PMI bought all my gifts in Oregon this year.
There is one thing that irked me more than anything else about this election, and even the Democrat trolls on this blog can't ignore this one.
King County gamed the election during all three counts by waiting until they knew the numbers they needed to report. This was particularly true in the second machine count and the hand recount. If all counties were required to report results at the same time, then King County would not have known how many votes they needed to give them the lead.
No proof on how they managed to pull this off, but it would have been much harder for them to bring up a crying Paul Berendt, a crying Larry Phillips, etc. with piles of "every vote must count ballots" if they did not know whether they were winning or losing.
And I'll bet that Sam Reed's "sweeping" new rules for elections that he will unveil with pomp in January won't address the timing of county reporting at all.
Posted by: Jeff B. on December 26, 2004 09:48 PMLook back at how aggressively Dean Logan wanted these new found ballots counted. WHY? So they could be co-mingled with all the other ballots and not retrievable when contested.
"Errors", "neglect" & "fraud"...all of the above will likely be shown in the next week. The Courts should set this election aside. Will they?? I doubt it...they seem to be making up new rules as they go.
Posted by: motorhomeman on December 26, 2004 10:35 PMReed is a Mainstream Republican, 'nuff said?
Posted by: Robert Knight on December 27, 2004 12:16 PM