Sound Politics: Important Recount

November 30, 2005

Important Recount

Three local races in King County are close enough to trigger automatic recounts. The closest of these races and the one which is most interesting to me is for District #1 on the Federal Way School Board.

Holding a lead of 11,379 to 11,351 is incumbent Ed Barney. I met Barney last year when he spoke at a community event on behalf of charter schools. Public education could benefit from more leaders like Barney (and his colleague Charles Hoff) who advocate for competition and school choice. Naturally, the Federal Way teachers union has targeted the pro-choice Barney for defeat and supports challenger Grace Rawsthorne. An update on the FWEA web site that was presumably posted before all the votes were counted informs us that "Grace Rawsthorne currently leading in the poles [sic]".

One can only hope that the people conducting the manual recount in this race are more adept with the 3 Rs than those who write for the Federal Way teacher union web site.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 30, 2005 05:03 PM | Email This

Comments

1. At least she locked up that important Polish vote.

Posted by: Timothy on November 30, 2005 05:21 PM

2. Hey everybody,

I am interested in any blogs you guys might know about that are concerned with the Thurston county area, and Olympia in particular. I have written to the Thurston County Republicans four times and recieved not one response! And that was before the last election.

I am some what new to this area and looking to become more involved.

Thanks

Chris Brownell
chris_brownell@yahoo.com
www.tschidand.blog-city.com

Posted by: Chris Brownell on November 30, 2005 06:39 PM

3. Sadly, I"m not sure we can trust KCE to give this close race fair treatment for the non-FWEA candidate. Who knows what connections FWEA has going at KCE.

Posted by: Misty on November 30, 2005 07:49 PM

4. Hmmm...Survey time!

How many folks think that the incumbent is going to lose the recount?

Posted by: timman on November 30, 2005 09:07 PM

5. The FWEA website is a great example of why unions are bad for schools. I suppose I can't be certain of this without knowing the context -- maybe teachers in Federal Way really would be abused by the administration if it were not for the FWEA's efforts. But their website's focus is on constraining the administration in every way possible. I shudder to think how any private business or nonprofit I've worked at would function under such constraints.

And their misspelling of "polls" is just one problem with their writing. Everything is in bureaucratese. And in the FAQ be sure to read about the "Advisory Over site Committee". Ugh.

Posted by: Bruce on November 30, 2005 09:51 PM

6. I think the person conducting "poles" must be the same one who "peals" bananas in my son's English lessons! We have turned this particular lemon into lemonade (not lemonaide - as one of my son's teachers once displayed on a poster; it was a couple of notches above the word "shariff"). My son gets to play editor with the lessons. He's become very good at spelling, punctuation and grammar as a result.

Hmmm. Perhaps a lemonaide is a teacher's assistant (excuse me, paraeducator) who works with a teacher who is a lemon...

Posted by: Peggy U on December 1, 2005 12:08 AM

7. If there's anyone doing abuse to the teachers in FWay, it's the Union. They have been consistently misrepresenting the actions of the board and administration to the teachers and misrepresenting the opinions of the teachers to the board and the administration. Most of the members of the board don't even listen to the union anymore, and instead go directly to the schools to see what is really happening.

This is yet another vote in this town that shows the voters are sick of the union and don't agree with anything they stand for. The teachers we love, we support, and we want to keep. But the union? Blech.

Remember this is the union that showed up at a school board meeting trying to prevent passage of a policy that would prevent teachers from using pornography in the classroom. The union president actually argued that without pornography, teachers can't teach.

Contract negotiations this year. We should see some fireworks.

Posted by: Jonathan Gardner on December 1, 2005 01:12 AM

8. I've come up with a solution to help Rawsthorne get over this mere 28-vote hump. It's a solution that would make Ron Sims and Chris(tine) Gregoire proud.

Instead of having the Teamsters Union conduct the handling of these ballots at KCE, we give them the day off (they work "too hard" anyway) and we let...
the Teacher's Union do it instead.

Posted by: YourGovernorCostsMillion$ on December 1, 2005 02:08 AM

9. Chris, I volunteered on their site and got a auto-reply. They did call me and ask me to help hold up signs for Tim Bowen who they endorsed for North Thurston School Board. They arn't too active down here or if they are -they are hard to find.

Posted by: sgmmac on December 1, 2005 04:07 AM

10. Timans Survey...were you being sarcastic? Because I'm feeling cynical I'll answer anyway...in King County, a democrat or liberal candidate will never loose a recount.

Posted by: dl on December 1, 2005 08:51 AM

11. 15 YEARS AGO I LIVED IN FEDERAL WAY AND MY CHILDREN ATTENDED GREEN GABLE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
AFTER I HAD A RUN IN WITH A "PARAEDUCATOR" I ASKED FOR AN APPOINTMENT WITH THE PRINCIPAL.

WHEN I WALKED INTO HER OFFICE BEHIND HER DESK THERE WAS A SIGN THAT READ "MY HEROS'". UNDER THE SIGN WERE FOUR PICTURES: MAO, BILLY-JEAN KING, ANGELA DAVIS AND MALCOME X. RIGHT THEN AND THERE I KNEW THAT I ONLY HAD TWO CHANCES WITH MY COMPLAINT, SLIM & NONE AND SLIM HAD ALREADY LEFT TOWN!

I PULLED MY CHILDREN OUT OF THE FEDERAL WAY SCHOOL SYSTEM, PUT MY HOME UP FOR SALE AND JOINED A HOME SCHOOL GROUP.

I MOVED TO N.E. TACOMA, OUT OF THE PAN AND INTO THE FIRE!!!

Posted by: TACOMA PHLASH on December 1, 2005 10:38 AM

12. Oh oh! looks like KCE is going to do recounts on several races YIKES!!

Posted by: Laurie on December 1, 2005 05:28 PM

13. recount? You jest. Surely the use of the word "recount" has a meaning we are not familiar with in the conservative camp. Given the last "recount" we experienced, I can only imagine the number of "new votes" that would be counted to assure an overwhelming victory for the choosen one. Hmmm. Determine difference and add a pinch more to assure victory. Suggest that future close races be decided by a coin flip. The odds are better for the non-choosen. The Ron Sims bank is back in business.

Posted by: snuffy on December 1, 2005 05:33 PM