Gonzaga University Law School, ranked as a "Tier 3" school, today awards Secretary of State Sam Reed the Gonzaga University School of Law Medal, the school's highest honor.
"Reed has shown exemplary character and legal judgment during the ongoing political maelstrom involving the state’s gubernatorial election," according to a press release issued by the university earlier this week.As the state's chief election officer, Reed presided over a gubernatorial election that was so badly botched that even he has stated he has no idea who actually won. He continued to downplay reports of severe irregularities in King County, long after it was clear that more ballots were counted than there were voters and that official fraud was apparent. Only recently has he distanced himself from his protege Dean Logan."In a time when public employees are called bureaucrats and elected officials are merely seen as partisan politicians, Sam Reed has demonstrated himself to be the ideal public servant," said Gonzaga Law Professor Steve Sepinuck.
Reed also lobbied the legislature for "election reforms" in order to "Restor[e] public trust in the election process". How? By ignoring the proposals submitted to him by the public, and advocating dumb and unpopular ideas like "all-mail voting", that will only increase the opportunity for vote fraud.
Reed was also fined $15,000 for campaign finance violations.
UPDATE: As an observant reader points out, Former Attorney General Gregoire is also a graduate of Gonzaga's third-rate law school. Perhaps the school should rename itself "Model Election Law School"
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 07, 2005 08:29 AM | Email This"I don't think they're just supporting that legislation out of the goodness of their heart," she said. "It's to expand their voter base."
Don't you just love that woman?!
Of course, that medal and $2.50 will get you a tank of gas, if you hurry out today.
Posted by: Pseudotsuga on May 7, 2005 09:29 AMHere are a few facts for you on why Gregoire lost.
1. In a straight comparison, B. Owen (D) received 70,144 more votes than C. Gregoire.
LT. GOVERNOR
2. In a straight comparison, J. Kerry (D) received 137,759 more votes than C. Gregoire.
PRESIDENT
3. In a straight comparison, P. Murray (D) received 176,347 more votes than C. Gregoire.
U. S. SENATOR
4. In a straight comparison, M. Murphy (D) received 202,138 more votes than C. Gregoire.
STATE TREASURER
5. In a straight comparison, B. Sonntag (D) received 295,214 more votes than C. Gregoire.
STATE AUDITOR
6. King County has found more votes, after the election, than the rest of the state combined
by a factor of 6.
7. King county has found more votes in the 2004 election, than it had found in the last three
prior presidential elections, combined.
8.In a straight comparison Deborah Senn, who received 209,397 fewer votes than C. Gregoire.
Please note that C. Gregoire did not endorse Senn for her old position.
STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL
9. In a straight comparison, Dino Rossi (R) received 68,338 more votes than G. Bush (R).
PRESIDENT
Too bad, you will never see these number printed in a newspaper.
Posted by: Mike P on May 7, 2005 09:33 AMThis guy is a bankruptcy and credit dude. He's an expert on Payday loans!
Posted by: Mr. Cyncial on May 7, 2005 09:39 AMThis is standard operating procedure. The awards are truly meaningless but are there strictly for one liberal organization to support another.
This became clear to me when, I think it was, "Seventeen" Magazine gave an outstanding educational award to The Evergreen State College decades ago.
Guess they all can't be Katherin Harris.
Mike P. those numbers mean nothing ... masterbatory is all.
Posted by: Doc on May 7, 2005 11:39 AMPseudo
Only if you have a 1 gallon tank.
What do I know anyway..
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on May 7, 2005 03:08 PMHuh? The last time I checked, mail-in voting was certainly not "unpopular". In fact, it's wildly popular and will certainly increase voter participation. And it's "dumb" too? It seems to me that the vast majority of questionable ballots in this election came from polling places and provisional ballots.
Stefan, I love this site and I think you're great. But sometimes you're just really, really wrong...
RM
I did not say that vote-by-mail is unpopular, only that a move to voting exclusively by mail is unpopular. And I'm convinced after this election that widespread use of vote by mail is a terrible idea. It's too prone to errors, uncertainty and fraud. A lot of the problems we had in the election with distributed fraud, felon voting, non-citizen voting and double voting were in the mail ballots as were a lot of the ballot-processing and tabulation errors and apparent instances of backroom fraud.
We need to move away from mail voting not institutionalize it as our only option.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on May 7, 2005 05:01 PMFirst, let me disclose that I just graduated from this "third rate law school." Secondly, the students did not decide who received this reward, because, in the grand scheme of things, who really cares about an honorary award? Certainly not those of us who graduated today.
Speaking for myself, I am damn proud of my law degree. If you feel I received a third rate legal education, then I am sorry you feel that way. USN&WR, outside of the elite lawschool's, is mainly a numbers and reporting of numbers game that is easily tweaked. Look closer at our reputation in the rankings from lawyers and judges - its not third rate.
I got a little hot under the collar when I saw my brand new alma mater listed as a Evergreen Law School. We do not harras members of the military. If that ever happened here, we have numerous veterans, myself included, who would conduct some remedial training.
The fact that a law school faculty is liberal should come as no surprise. Attacking politicians is one thing, but I found your posting intellectually lazy in broad brushing an entire school.
I read SP because I like to read conservative content because I am a conservative. I am not some liberal bedwetter who got his feelings hurt. I've just gotten home from graduation who read this and had my blood pressure spike.
Posted by: Dennis on May 7, 2005 05:11 PMAdmittedly, there seems to be some incompetence in the election process but if that is the problem I would expect a pretty vitriolic attack on George Bush for imcompetency in managing intelligence gathering and running a war. I don't see any attack of George so incompetence can't be the reason for all the vemon. Maybe the attacks are automatic for people that don't do what you want. It's really too bad since this process lowers the quality of discourse.
Posted by: GR on May 7, 2005 05:20 PMSam Reed, through his milquetoast response to what was obviously a fraud on the public, has only contributed to the erosion of public confidence in the elections system. That your professors would bestow an award on Reed for his pathetic performance is an embarrassment for your entire school. They helped devalue your degree by a notch. You have every right to be angry with the dopes who handed out this award.
I wish you well in your career and hope you bring more honor upon Gonzaga than its faculty have today.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on May 7, 2005 05:33 PMGR, you seem to be trying to distract readers from the issue at hand. It doesn't make sense to parallel vitriol at the election problems with vitriol at a non-election set of problems, does it? Perhaps many of the readers here have a bit of spit and vinegar towards Bush, but they reserve it for another forum outside of Sound Politics.
"I don't see any attack of George so incompetence can't be the reason for all the vemon. Maybe the attacks are automatic for people that don't do what you want."
If Bush had anything to do with this election, then perhaps he, too, would be attacked in this forum. And even if the attacks are focused on people who this blog's owners think didn't do what they wanted, does that mean that the actions under discussion were automatically correct?
The knee jerks both ways, after all.
I don't see how counting absentee ballots at the elections office is inherently more open to error than processing poll ballots. As long as we're matching all the signatures on the envelopes, it seems MORE secure than poll voting. To me, the real opportunity for fraud and error seems to be with registration.
This week, our Auditor in Clark County (Greg Kimsey, a Republican) has proposed that we switch to all-mail elections. You can find the news story here:
http://www.columbian.com/05062005/front_pa/273122.cfm
The case he makes seems quite valid, and I plan on supporting it at every step along the way. If there are internal problems with the vote-counting process they should certainly be addressed, but that shouldn't prevent us from modernizing the system.
I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this, won't we? :-)
Randy
Posted by: Randy Mueller on May 7, 2005 07:05 PMNot that it matters, but since SP wants to lower the level of discourse, I'll leave it stand.
A measuerd response to every 4th or 5th post being a stupid politcal cheap shot at sp.
Posted by: Syeve Ramsey on May 7, 2005 07:17 PM"Come to Gonzaga Law, and get some good home training"
Posted by: DeadManVoting (aka Iguana) on May 7, 2005 08:22 PMI'm now watching TVW coverage of the "Governor Election Contest". Years ago I taught mathematics, geometry and chemistry at Bellevue Community College and I'm pleased to say that Jenny Durkan was not my student -- because she stated that the petitioners have "brought us 360 from where we started".
Jenny Durkan would have failed my class by 180 degrees!!!
Maybe she learned her geometry at Gonzaga Law School.
Bye, Keith
Posted by: Keith Biever on May 7, 2005 08:44 PM137,759 liberal cowards.
"9. In a straight comparison, Dino Rossi (R) received 68,338 more votes than G. Bush (R).
PRESIDENT"
68,338 conservative cowards?
Posted by: CandrewB on May 8, 2005 12:52 AM'Cut the root to stop the 'poison'.
These 'pervayers of poison' don't work for free.
Find where 'WE' are wrongfully paying for this (NPR, ACLU, etc.) and 'cut the ROOT!'
Posted by: arky on May 8, 2005 05:09 AMIn reading the budget, as enacted, the Legislature funded a number of great fixes.
The SoS is now required by law to spend about 4.5 million dollars to get a nonprofit organization to provide gavel to gavel coverage of what the Democrats want shown. And $196,000 to standardize elections amonst the counties.
Great! SoS TV!
Posted by: Patches Pal on May 8, 2005 08:02 AMNow you're just going to get 299 frivalous ones from the faculty.
Posted by: MB on May 8, 2005 10:34 AMCouldn't agree more.
Posted by: CandrewB on May 8, 2005 11:34 AMI wonder if the toll system across the REAL Styx is audited--bet you it IS !!! and ACCOUNTABLE !
Medals, medals. Like the Politboro granting awards to each other or the Grammy Awards. Back slapping among clueless incompetents.
As for the quality of the legal education I received, it's what we make of it in the future that counts. Am I proud of the fact that Gonzaga's law faculty is dominated by liberals? No. (There are two or three conservative full-time professors) In fact, I think it's down right pathetic. But, I am proud of the three years I spent listening to liberal professors talk about the evils of the Fox News Channel, or the shame of how there is only one tenured black professor, or the benefits of liberal judicial activism...and I still graduated as a strong conservative.
Posted by: KH on May 8, 2005 11:03 PMOtherwise, if you want to limit your "contributions" to government agencies. Verify how much of your property is wetlands or otherwise restricted due to legislation and management acts. The tax value of your property, like mine, can be reduced.
Posted by: Mark Beyer on May 9, 2005 12:39 AM