The daily newspapers are reporting today on Bill Huennekens' demotion from Superintendent of Elections. In the P-I -- "County election manager demoted" and in the Times -- "King County elections official demoted"
Two things strike me as not quite right about Huennekens demotion/"reassignment" and Dean Logan's search for a new Superintendent of Elections.
1. Huennekens had a complete meltdown on the witness stand in Wenatchee last month. At every point he claimed he was not aware of what his staff knew about the massive discrepancies and irregularities; He also claimed he didn't understand any of the reconciliation reports his staff produced. The only way for him not to have been perjuring himself was if he were a genuine idiot. It's an insult to the public to keep somebody like that on the public payroll in a position of any kind of responsibility. Nevertheless, Sims and Logan are singing Huennekens' praises and retaining him for an 18 month project with an $80,000 annual salary. This appears to be less of a demotion than a $120,000 payoff for playing the fool on the witness stand and not implicating anybody in the unlawful certification of the election.
2. And why is Logan trying to recruit a new Superintendent now? We may well have a new County Executive in January. It's hard to imagine that David Irons would keep any Superintendent hired by Sims and Logan. Nobody with their wits about them would take the Superintendent's job under that kind of uncertainty. For a lot of reasons, the county should wait until after the Executive race is settled before hiring a new Superintendent.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 15, 2005 10:33 AM | Email ThisWow, brilliant deduction Stefan. You're right; this is really just a golden parachute for Huennekens! Outrageous.
After all the property tax checks I sent these people two months ago, I'm outraged at all ways they find to abuse my money!
Posted by: Michele on June 15, 2005 10:44 AMHello?
Posted by: Bostonian on June 15, 2005 10:55 AMWashington State desperately needed to break the stranglehold of LEFTIST rule after 20 awful years. One major reason was to break-up the entrenched bureaucracy. Didn't happen. Now Gregoire plays "musical chairs" with the Locke gang.
KingCo is in the same situation. They desperately need Sims and his thugs and incompetents out of there. They are entrenched and totally out of touch with taxpayers. In the real world, a pencil-necked geek like Huennekens would have been canned long ago. Here he gets a sugar-coated parachute at taxpayer expense.
People get the government they deserve. It's very difficult to get Washington Republicans to get off their A$$ES on recruit top-notch candidates, accurate and detailed voter databases and field troops that will go door-to-door. I've done plenty of grunt work on the phone, setting up e-mail chains and pounding on doors. Over the past 7 years I've seen Republicans come up with every excuse in the book why they couldn't follow thru and do productive work. But they go to the meetings and complain and love to strategize about what SHOULD BE done!! But disappear when it's time to work.
If this election fiasco does move people to ACTION nothing will.
Where is Chris Vance????
The momentum is losing steam...
We should have teams out there in Dem Precindts right now verifying voter registration lists and challenging folks that don't live where they say they do.
We are going to do it in several LEFTIST precindts in our little town. Get busy.
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on June 15, 2005 11:06 AMMaybe we need to clip peoples' cable TV lines, jam their cell phones and confiscate their video games to get their attention. Or--maybe the drunken voter REALLY IS content to sit there and buzz.
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on June 15, 2005 11:21 AMDo you really need me to tell you how to think?
Personally, I have no oppinion on this. Unlike the minnow and others on this board, I don't think that anyone in King Co. Elections is the spawn of Satan, so the move makes sense (Huenneken had previously been in charge of HAVA for the Sam Reed, and did not do a great job as Superintendent). Of course, if he had been a Bush appointee, he would have received the Medal of Freedom.
But perhaps we can both agree that the minnow's suggestion to not hire a new Superintendent is kind of foolish. You have been crying out for corrections in the elections department, but you don't want anyone to do it? Lets face it, if Sims had not moved to find a new Superintendent, the minnow would be complaining about a rudderless elections deparment that will make all the same mistakes in the next election. Since Sims can't win here, you and I might as well be happy that he is not listening to this blog and doing the right thing, no?
Cynical:
The GOP had some momentum when it looked like Rossi was wronged in the election. However, that was blown out when the election showed that there was no there there. Then the embarrasment for the GOP of not even being able to run a 500 person election at its own convention correctly blew out any chance of regaining momentum.
At some point, you have to realize that Chris Vance is a pretty poor party leader. I hate to give good advise to the GOP, but replace Vance and you will do better; God knows you can't do worse.
Posted by: JDB on June 15, 2005 11:34 AMJDB: Thanks for showing up and demonstrating your commitment to the voters of WA state. It's nice to see how you care.
Posted by: Bostonian on June 15, 2005 11:46 AMGarth Fell, Bill Huennekins, and Dean Logan ALL need to be fired! It should have happened yesterday, last week, last month, or when they figured out what a disaster King County Elections has been for the last 10 years! They were told by many to change repeatedly and failed to correct anything. The problems there aren't the "culture", the problem is gutless spineless leaders who blame their subordinates instead of taking responsibility for their actions.........
Why is he being allowed to screw up and move up???????
Posted by: sgmmac on June 15, 2005 11:58 AMYou've mentioned the KCGOP convention in every comment you've made since it happened.
1. Were you there?
2. How did it affect your life?
3. Did the person with the most votes win?
4. Were illegal votes proven in a court of law?
Now let's compare to King County Elections Commission. Heavens to Betsy - they're not the same situations at all! It's JDB's daily 'Apples to Oranges' show!
Thanks for continuing your comic relief. We Republicans do have a sense of humor, even if it takes the idiocy of the left to bring it to the surface sometimes.
Posted by: Larry on June 15, 2005 12:16 PMGood to speak to you again.
Why has Bush never held anyone responsible for 9/11? Why is it the people like Paul Bremmer get the Medal of Freedom?
I agree that King County Elections is a mess and needs better leadership. (That being said, I don't think KCE is corrupt, as is the going theory on this site, just incompetent). However, like with the examples of Bush above, this has all become political, and no one wants to admit that they made mistakes. Give credit where it is due, though, they are moving people around. If they make real improvements, do you really need the heads of the above just to make a political point?
Bostonian:
Like any right winger, you do have a great ability to ignore context. I believe that we should make our elections better, I'm just pretty sure that firing a person just so you have a political head on your wall will not make the elections system better. Of course, you don't either, you would just want a little revenge.
Again, if you really care about the voters of this state, lets talk about what can be done to make the elections better (and admit that already, a lot has been done), and stop with the trying to score political points.
Posted by: JDB on June 15, 2005 12:29 PMBut, sir, you are the guy who's completely, utterly oblivious to the subtext. King County and the state of WA did not enforce state law and protect the *legal* votes. This is a subversion of democracy.
If you want to prevent crime, you prosecute criminals. Likewise, if you want to prevent large-scale harmful screw-ups, you identify them and fire the people involved.
You have quite persistently given KC and WA state election officials a GREAT deal of leeway, a great benefit of the doubt, declining even to have an opinion on Huenneken!
Do you apply the same standards to screwups (and/or crime) in the private sector?
Posted by: Bostonian on June 15, 2005 12:42 PMBack to elections...... Dean Logan, Bill Huennekins both lied many times to cover up the mistakes! That is my major problem with them along with their blame shifting. I spent 30 years of my life in the Army and one of the very first things I learned when I was a private, was to always tell the truth, because it will come out eventually and it is much better the truth about mistakes is admitted immediately and corrected. When the truth is covered up, it usually becomes very ugly. I want Nixon Handy fired too! All of those incompetent lying gutless wonders do NOT need to be paid the outrageous salaries for their lies, deceptions and just bad leadership.
The story today in the PI, says that there were 118 absentee ballots lost! Is that an error or have they indeed found 12 more? It was 96 during the trial. When do we get to the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
When Nixon Handy was testifying in court, I kept thinking about the Code of Silence on police forces. There are military units that do almost the same thing.... I have seen many, many leaders in the Army ruined because of their failure to report mistakes or bad or even criminal behaviors. The female General in charge of Abu Graib is an example. She was recently demoted to COL. She tried to shift the blame saying she didn't know. It was HER responsibility to know. She is responsible for her actions and the actions of ALL of the soldiers under her!
Those supervisors in King County need to be gone, they need to be fired and until that happens nothing will change. They need a leader to walk in there and kick ass and take names!
Sound familiar?
How would you know?
My buisness does quite fine, thank you. I do not hold people to impossible standards, treat them right, and find I get good work out of them.
I have never said that things should not be corrected in KCE. I just do not see the grand conpiracy that you all do. And I have a strong suspicion that people like Dale Foreman and Stefan Sharkansky don't either. They know that many on their side will not be critical of their pronouncements, and will eat up the red meat thrown to them. It is like the fourth and fifth hand rumors of people interferring with the anti-road repair initiative that John Carlson was talking about yesterday. Always a friend of a friend, never direct testimony (no one ever says I saw someone take the initatives, it is alwasy this one guy told me that he was told that x happen). It is always a great way to raise money or get your supporters fired up to claim you are the victim.
Bostonian:
Well, what are you then. You have told me you are a former Democrat. Heck, you supported Dukais even, although you are apparently embarrased by that for some reason. However, every post I have seen from you is usually an attack on any contrarian thought on this board, and, as pointed above, you took my quote out of context (I have no opinion on Huennekens being fired. I do think a demotion makes sense though. I do know that if the sole basis of your call for his head is what you read on this board, you shouldn't have an opinion either, which is an old right wing trick (listen to Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh or John Carlson to listen to the masters). If you were a moderate or a liberal, you would be getting some other sources of information, so I assume, for whatever reason, that you have gone off the deep end. Correct me if I am wrong. If you are not, I would recommend reading also also or horsesass to get another view on things (although the posts at horsesass tend to be at the same sophmoric level as you find on this blog. I have yet to find a place where you can have a good discussion about Washington politics that doesn't quickly move to the "Commie!" "NAZI!" "Idiot" name calling you find here. OH well.
I agree with you, and have several times, that things need to be made better. I'm not sure that firing Huennekens will do that. And lets not talk about how great the private sector is over the public sector. You screw up at the higher levels of the private sector, you usually get a golden parachute, and hired by someone else (Where is Dogbert? He surely knows Adam's rule that being a total screw up simply makes you "well known" in your industry and worth more).
Tucker:
That is a Strategic Vision pop poll. Not exactly accurate (why do you think that Carlson, et al, aren't making more hay over it?) Let's see what happens when we get an Elway poll. I think you will be awfully surprised where Gregoire is this time next year.
sgmmac:
First of all, just to prove counting is a hard thing, 118 is 22, not 12 more than 96. Hey, I'm not particularly great with numbers either, which is one of the reason I give people a break.
I do appreciate your military perspective. However, I know enough to know that the military can be very, very political (for other's sake, not yours, I don't mean in a Dem v. GOP sort of way). As you said, you have seen similar behavior in the military. You have probably also seen very good commanders refuse to discipline because they felt that it would be admitting fault on their part. As politically charged as the GOP has made the whole situation, I am happy to see changes being made. From what I can find out, proposed changes should take care of about 90% of the problems that occured. Lets be thankful for that.
Again, you have to admit, when it comes to Abu Gharib, no one has taken it up the chain beyond the prision itself. Do you think that the interregators and CIA just showed up there and free lanced?
Of course, as I think is becoming more and more clear, the main problem with Abu Gharib, etc. is that we are asking soilders to do jobs they shouldn't have to do. But are any of the people who totally screwed up the planning for the post war (look to the true smoking gun part of the Downing Street Memos, that the Brits said that the US had absolutely no plans for the aftermath)being sacked?
And I agree, it would be nice to see OBL held responsible. Shouldn't that have been the main focus all along? And wasn't it disapointing when GWB said that he wasn't concerned with him?
1. It's Abu Ghraib.
2. Abu Ghraib has zero, zip, nada, nothing to do with this post, but that's typical of McChimpyBushitlerstein haters such as yourself. Deflect, deflect, deflect.
3. The fools who were responsible for Abu Ghraib have been, are now and will be prosecuted for their actions. I know you think Rummy, Wolfy and all the boys at the Pentagon are responsible for - if not actually condoning the (gasp) 'torture' that occured - and there's nothing I can say to change your mind. However, I would be interested if you'd be willing to fire yourself if your employees screwed up.
4. Back on topic - I do have a question for you: If the governor's election were to be held today, who would win? Your response - whatever it may be - will clearly indicate the location of your noggin.
(Downing Street Memo. Guffaw. Is your Galloway picture framed, blown up on your wall or both?)
Posted by: jimg on June 15, 2005 05:24 PMI've always been horrible at math, that's why I bank with Bank of America and do online checking!
As for the CIA, yeah, that's exactly what they did and worse, I believe that they corrupted the young junior soldiers there into being their accomplices also. I was in the Kosovo campaign on a airfield in Tirana, Albania and we had to leap out of butts one night to set up a room for several "prisoners." They brought them in and they stayed overnight and we never saw them nor were we allowed near them! The Army nickname for Intelligence guys is "Spooks" and they are spooky.
The after war planning is another political mess. I've been in lots of planning sessions and we've never concerned ourselves with after the war at the lower level. My view is that is State Department stuff coordinated with the Pentagon. The aftermath of WWI and WWII weren't easy either. Reconstruction after a major war takes years and years. There was someone before Bremmer, Bremmer was sent in to fix it. Bush did that, not Rummie!
The female General did not work at the prison. The soldiers at Abu Graib said that they never saw her. When I was in Saudi (First Gulf WAR), my CG, (Commanding General) visited us 3 or 4 times a week. He always asked me tough and direct questions. Why didn't Dean Logan ask Bill Huennekins tough hard questions about the report??? Why didn't the canvassing board do the same?
As for the changes that will fix 90% of the problems....... What good are Washington laws, KC elections broke so many of them, it's disgusting. They were warned about provisionals going into the Accuvote machines almost a year before the election, they did nothing. They were warned about enhancing ballots and obsecuring the marks with whiteout tape, they ignored it and did it again. New laws are NOT going to change anything with the same leaders. We need ENFORCEMENT of the laws and accountability.
Posted by: sgmmac on June 15, 2005 06:04 PMMy experience working for them is that they were nice guys but both seriously lacked the leadership skills necessary to run a department the size of KC elections.
Hunnekens "extensive" knowledge of HAVA requirements is no more extensive then any other manager at the elections office, and nothing that can't be picked up by reading the language of the new requirements. Basically this is just a complete fleece of the taxpayers. You not only have his newly created high paying "project manager" position but you still have to find another superintendent that will also be a near six figure position. Extremely redundant and extremely wasteful... King County citizens should be outraged by this whole situation, and Hunnekens should be ashamed of himself for taking it.
BOTTOM LINE:
The culture that Judge Bridges warned about at KCE is still very much intact. It has just be reshuffled!
I am the one who brought up Abu Ghraib, not JDB and it is related. It is a good example of a leader who blamed those who work for them, refused to take any responsibility and got slammed. (The female Army General who was demoted for not doing anything to stop what was going on there.)
JDB: I wrote you a very long response yesterday, but it erred out! The General didn't work AT the prison, the soldiers interviewed there said that they had never seen her. It was her responsibility to check on them, to find out what they doing, how they are doing, etc. It is a very basic leadership function.
Last night I read in the PI or the Times some quotes from Bill Huennekins, something about he will miss being in the elections division EVERY day and how everything doesn't need to go across his desk now........ If those quotes are true, how could he NOT know about a falsified report???
The truth is going to continue to come out and it's going to be ugly, ugly and fugly!
Thank you for pointing out to Jimg that I didn't just reflexivly go to the Abu Ghraib scandal. I will also point out do Jimg that we both misspelled the name. Apparenlty Jimg doesn't read the thread, but just attacks anyone he doesn't agree with.
I'm sorry that your long post got eaten by the powers that be. I don't think we have ever actually agreed on anything, but I respect your reasoning.
I also don't think that we are that far apart. If this whole thing had not been made into a big political fight, if the apparent basis of the GOP campaigns in King County were not going to be just the election, I would hope for some stronger measures. I do think some house cleaning is necessary. But, since people like Stefan will complain no matter what happens, since this is about winning elections, not election reform, I understand that people on the other side are going to be protective of their own. As such, I am glad to see some movement, and to see Sam Reed and others propose reforms that will take care of many of the problems.
Jimg:
Again, I encourage you to read the entire thread before commenting, I think you will find that helpful.
As to Abu Ghraib: Given the admitted problems with the prision, and the fact that Rummy and Gonzales signed on to torture (as long as it doesn't threaten death or permenant injury), don't you think that we should have an open congressional investigation of the issues, so we know for sure that the fish doesn't rot from the head.
Back on topic: I have no idea how an election held today would turn out. I would tend to think if you just said "Everyone, drop everything and vote today," Rossi would win by a few percentage points. I think however, if there was a campaign, it would be close and leaning Gregoire, like last time. I do agree with many of the posts that have poitned out that running the same canidates a second time tends to end up as a blow out for the one in office. I would love to see an Elway poll conducted a few weeks after the decision. Again, I think you might be surprise where Gregoire stands next year this time.
Politically, I think Rossi would be smart to run for Senator, but I think he is genuine that he doesn't want to go back to DC, and having made that clear, it is hard to reverse. Party Chariman would also be a good position for him, as I think he could do a ton for the party in that position, and would force a lot of the foolishness that Vance has done.
Posted by: JDB on June 16, 2005 11:21 AMElection reform won't happen with Sam Reed. The SOS and his workers are just another spin factory. I really resent the fact that once the truth started coming out about King County, Nixon Handy started sending emails to all of the state auditors basically stating that there wasn't anything wrong and I also believe that he tried to get them to sign a letter supporting Dean Logan. Then there was the LA County Auditor's letter to the editor claiming nothing was wrong. It was a very deliberate media campaign to deceive the public into the misconception that crediting has nothing to do with who voted. Almost every press release from King County was on a Friday afternoon. Dean Logan covered up the problems and then lied and I think he is still lying.
Gregoire wants all mail voting - Sam Reed wants all mail voting, Gregoire wants felons to vote - Sam Reed now wants felons to vote. Gregoire wants Washington to be Oregon and California, if they do it, she wants to do it. Her defense for donning a hooded white robe when she was the president of her soriety and not allowing blacks into the soriety was everyone was doing it and she couldn't fight them. Her defense when she missed a deadline was her secretary did it! As for the poll numbers, she is sharp as a fox, she campaigned ON NO GAS TAXES, yet she jumped in the fray on the last day and threatened to bring the legislators back if they failed to pass the tax. She was facing being thrown out of office and she needed to shore-up her democratic base and she did! The only reason she did it was to get more democratic votes if she had to run again!
Sam Reed wrote letters to the editor in many newspapers around our state telling people that mail voting was cheaper. Every county should switch because it was more secure in that the signatures on the mail ballots are checked against the registration. Of course he didn't say that since you can register by mail, request a ballot by mail and vote by mail, there isn't any proof of whose signature is actually being checked. I think my signature is on my driver's license and when I show it at the polls, they can certainly compare those two signatures along with my smiling mug! The editors of the Olympian then wrote a supporting article telling all of the readers that because we use punch cards we should switch to all mail voting rather than spending tax payer dollars, they forgot to say that the federal government provided the dollars to do just that!
How exactly does all mail voting comply with HAVA for handicapped voters? Are all of the counties going to make their ballots in braille for the blind voters???????
There is a very pervasive attitude in our state about not holding anyone accountable and responsible. I disagree with throwing money at the problems in this state. I have a major problem with spending 100 million dollars for animal bridges when I can't drive down I-5 without hour long traffic jams. I have a problem with spending millions on new election buildings and the mindset that it will fix the problems there. I have a problem with spending thousands of dollars on art projects in sex offender houses. I have a problem with Medicare/Medicaid paying for sex changes. I simply don't care if the poor demented things think they need to become the opposite sex. Let them get a job and pay for it. And why are male prisoners getting breast reductions????
I clearly disagree with the torture, but then again I didn't see any evidence of torture! Scaring the hell out of a prisoner or humiliation arn't my definition of torture. I don't agree with what happened there, and it definitely was criminal behavior, but it wasn't torture. The General in charge was punished. Now it's time to punish DEAN LOGAN, BILL HUENNEKINS and GARTH FELL! It is NOT time to have that political meeting and wring our hands and get Huennekins to agree to be the "Fall Guy."
Announce some changes and keep on the same damn status quo.
I've been bad at math my whole life, that's why I bank online! I'm also very passionate about election reform and when I get aggravated, I read too fast and type too fast too! I call it passionate, most men call it being emotional!
Oh, well!
Have a great weekend!