A public opinion poll released yesterday by David Irons shows that the race for County Executive is neck-and-neck
The poll shows that if the vote was held today, Sims of Seattle would get 42 percent, Irons 40 percent and Green Party candidate Gentry Lange 5 percent, with the rest undecided. The poll cost $14,000 and is basically a repeat of one conducted in February.A spokeswoman for Ron Sims dismisses the poll results (naturally) but tellingly won't release the results of Sims own polls which presumably show even worse results. Irons poll also reveals that
* 50 percent of the respondents think the county is headed in the wrong directionSims is going into a tailspin and things are only going to get worse, with news of scandals like Redmond Ridge, incompetence like the failure of the county courts computer system, ongoing revelations of mismanagement at the elections office and news reports of idiotic spending decisions* 31 percent think Sims deserves re-election
* 52 percent would vote for a moderate Republican, as Irons describes himself, while 36 percent favor a liberal Democrat in the office
Blog fraud, ask for it by name.
Posted by: JDB on June 30, 2005 10:45 AMWhich one would assume gives JDB the confidence to declare a 'statistical dead heat' means Ronnie wins. It can't possibly be that he's actually biased.
Posted by: scott158 on June 30, 2005 10:57 AMThe other matter that concerns me greatly is that we have another Rossi/Gregoire situation developing... Who wants to go there again... There's only one way to make sure that doesn't happen and that's to win by a big enough margin to remove any doubt. When your opponent who clearly has no problem in helping to steal elections is the one counting the votes, well we got Trouble, right here in Emerald City... with a captial T and that rhymes with V and that stands for VOTES!
Posted by: Jamie on June 30, 2005 11:00 AMDARK DAY FOR DEMOCRATS: 5 in E. St. Louis convicted of vote fraud, including party chairman...
Posted by: Cheryl on June 30, 2005 11:08 AMIt makes my poor little head spin to try to rectify the above statement with the next:
"Irons poll also reveals that
* 50 percent of the respondents think the county is headed in the wrong direction
* 31 percent think Sims deserves re-election
* 52 percent would vote for a moderate Republican, as Irons describes himself
* 36 percent favor a liberal Democrat in the office..."
If 50% believe the county is going bass-ackward, and 52% would vote for a mod-Rep (and only 30-36 percent like Sims or his party in this position), then how in the name of blessed Buddha could Sims get 42% of the vote?
Of course, the answer is in the inability of polls to truly project election results. Relying on polls is a bad idea, even if you agree with the results of the poll.
Sorry I can't help you King County people get some dead wood out of your gov'mint.
Nice try, you idiot. Either you have never worked a high-profile campaign, or you just don't know what you are talking about.
I suspect the latter.
If Sims' spokeswoman in the article, Rachel Bianchi, had a recent poll commissioned by Sims' campaign showing Sims in the lead by a significant amount (or even a statistically valid slight amount), she would have had copies of that puppy faxed over to the reporter so fast it would have made his head spin. The fact that she did not do so is very telling to political operatives who know how these things work.
Whenever a political spokesperson for an incumbent will not release poll results, the news is bad for their guy. It has nothing to do with filing week, and you know it. Sims is in a tailspin, the numbers from his own most recent poll were even worse for him, as Sims' poll was not weighted to favor Seattle, and the county news this week has been more of the same - terrible, and not just from elections this time. DOT, DDES, ITS, and the courts are all having problems related to poor management.
We just simply need a management change in this county, and it must start at the top.
If Ron were a Democrat who felt responsibility to his party and not just himself, he would step aside and let another D who is better regarded by the public run instead.
However, Ron works for Ron alone, and it sure looks like the R's will be the ones reaping the windfall from his incredible egotism in staying in the race.
Trollboy (or is it droolboy - I get them confused ;'} like many of the leftist toilet-drinkers, will circle the wagons, swallow hard, and vote (probably several times) for a POS like Simms. Not because they respect him, or even like him, but because he's the POS candidate that the dems put up.
Our job is to show that there is an alternative that doesn't reek like last weeks fish....and to keep Simms out in the public eye 'cause he's proving to be one of our best weapons!
Let's let Simms's pride send him on a big ride...outta town, of course!
Posted by: alphabet soup on June 30, 2005 12:08 PMThey're SO lame, they don't even have a web site!
Don't believe me? Check THIS out: http://www.kcgop.org/
Posted by: Who... me? on June 30, 2005 12:08 PMAlso, any of you guys that care about your rights - do not vote for Irons unless he give you reason to. He should come out for changing the King County family court system so that fathers get the respect they deserve. And, he should come out against the hysteria driven domestic violence law enforcement, which tramples all over the liberty and Constitutional rights of men.
Do not just give your vote away just because this guy is a Republican.
Posted by: BananaLand(aka Iguana) on June 30, 2005 12:20 PMHas anyone thought to ask Dave Irons Jr. for specifics as to how he'd clean up DOT, DDES or Elections? I'd certainly get a laugh if he appointed someone like Quadrant's President Peter Orser to head DDES, maybe MurrayFranklyn's president to head DOT, and Chris Vance to head Elections.
Did you know that "former" Quadrant President Steve Dennis was one of the 2 Republican-appointed members to the King County Council redistricting commission? Maybe Irons could combine DOT and DDES together and put Steve Dennis in charge of the whole growth branch of King County? There's a great idea!
Yes, that would really fix things. Take the middle man right out of the system altogether.
We'd all be in great shape then. ;-)
Posted by: Mike on June 30, 2005 12:20 PM[Oversight-committee member Ellen Hansen, former King County elections director and former consultant to the County Council, said the administration squandered an opportunity last year to improve the elections after top managers lost their jobs in the wake of the flawed mailing of absentee ballots in 2002 and 2003.]
"Elections could have gotten anything it wanted," Hansen said, "given how much of an embarrassment it's been for the executive and the County Council."
That's exactly the point; KC Elections DID get exactly what Sims wanted - a malleable, inexperienced director, Logan, who would do as he was told.
Posted by: ewaggin on June 30, 2005 12:52 PMThat's funny.
Posted by: CandrewB on June 30, 2005 12:59 PMWhile I agree in principle, that candidates should present solutions to the problems they are criticizing, unfortunately, the problems you named are not under the oversight of the King County Executive. We need to make sure that we are focusing on issues under the exec's responsibilities.
Family courts are part of the Superior court system, overseen by elected judges, and actually part of the state court system, not the county at all. (King County is the division)
Law enforcement policy falls under the King County Sheriff's office (headed by a seperately elected official that the County Exec does not oversee), local police departments and city attorneys, and the county Prosecutor's office, also headed by an independently elected official.
The only reason that Sims bears blame for the problems with the KC court records meltdown is that King County Executive Services Dept. oversees and provides the computer support for the courts. It is a customer-vendor relationship, more than anything.
And Ron Sims and his gang that couldn't shoot straight, in this case, is an underperforming vendor.
Posted by: debunkgirl on June 30, 2005 12:59 PMI can understand how someone who is looking in at the county ITS (systems) problems from the outside of the county would see it that way, without benefit of the backstory on this particular problem. Also, you are right, hardware problems can strike even competent people, but in this case, the problem is directly related to Sims' mismanagement.
Ron "centralized" computer services in the late 90's as allegedly a "cost-cutting" measure, although no FTE's were cut and no savings whatsoever achieved. Indeed, the county ITS budget grew after this "cost-cutting".
What really happened was that it put all of the tech people under one departmental roof, reporting to a division manager very loyal to Ron, so he could pull technical and computer teams for his pet projects without the appearance of any additional expenditures for new projects, and without having to go through the Council.
Circumventing the council on budgetary issues in this way is essentially defrauding the people's elected representatives tasked with the fiduciary responsibility to oversee appropriate distribution of county resources.
Departments and divisions had always had in-house systems support, folks who both understood the technical systems, as well as having a
grounding in the business needs of the agency, as is appropriate. Many agencies lost their permanent, full-time, in-house support. Elections was one of these agencies, and the problems in 2002 and 2003 can be directly traced to this poor planning on the part of the executive's office.
The county systems that used to be regularly well-maintained on an ongoing basis were plunged into a morass of "call us when something breaks", at which point, a generic "computer person" would be sent over from county ITS to possibly fix the problem if they could, and to possibly create a greater problem if they could not, or if they misunderstood the business needs through lack of familiarity with the agency's business.
This court system meltdown is a direct result of this idiotic policy, and of failure to maintain a redundant fail-safe system for the courts as used to be maintained when they had permanent, internal, full-time systems support staff.
My question: If Sims is only NOW hitting sand bars at low tide, what's been going on for his illustrious career? What is it--30 years?
No TV/newspaper inquiries or investigations? He could not have started to 'stumble' just now. Where are the skeletons? Where is the timeline of 'accomplishments' and balancing 'blunders?'
I'd like to see one as a Sunday story splash--give me the whole story on this guy and let me decide--"Column A and Column B style." The silence is deafening.
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on June 30, 2005 01:37 PMDon’t tread on me (Gadsden) like I fly? Broken chains of oppression? Ron Sim's visage with a big red 'no' line? (just joking--don't launch nukes on me); suggestions? I suggest a flag with WA state silhouette with one (county boundary) patch missing and "liberty" at the top;
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on June 30, 2005 02:23 PMWhat the polls (Irons' and the un-released Sims poll) failed to take into account are the 342 (so far) newly registered voters from precincts in south Seattle; no social security numbers, no driver's licenses, all with signatures similar to mine. They'll likely be provisional voters on election day. Let every vote count.
Posted by: YourGovernorCostsMillion$ on June 30, 2005 02:30 PMi know all this cause i went to high school with her daughter (she didn't live in the district but its not hard to transfer if your mom is a lawsuit-happy state attorney general)
Posted by: D on June 30, 2005 05:43 PMI would not be able live without the constant pressure to make me feel helpless and powerless and generally told what to do and how to live (and Give).
Or to do anything to resist or standup to his constant barrage against us/we his subjects or lesser types.
Posted by: Bend-a-little-more on June 30, 2005 09:34 PMEveryone outside of Seattle - within King County, who hasn't voted before...will be voting NOW just to get rid of him by a huge (fraud-proof) margin!
Posted by: Deborah on June 30, 2005 11:57 PMThe courts do have a dedicated IT staff for their systems and I know some of these people through colleagues. They are not incompetents nor do they only show up when something goes wrong - they are full time resources. So I'm not sure where you are getting that information from...
As for the fail-safe system backup, I also know that this was in place in this instance but also did not perform properly. Some of that could be the IT staff's fault, some of it could be vendor hardware, don't know.