Republicans in the state legislature are, in spite of their numerical minority, doing an impressive job of formulating an agenda and reaching out to the public. They've inagurated a series of conference calls for bloggers and professional journalists. In last week's call they introduced their agenda, which they're giving the acronym B.E.S.T.
Balance between responsive and limited governmentMore on the website here and here.Empowering people
Strengthening Washington families
Trust and transparency in government
In today's call, Reps. Erickson, Chandler and Condotta discussed election reform and tribal compacts. Quotes:
Felon voting bill is "insult to victims"
Same day registration "doesn't pass the straight face test"
R caucus opposes the ban on per-signature compensation for initiatives, and opposes publicly financed campaigns; supports open access to the ballot.
The focus of D gambling laws is "preserving the monopoly for tribes"
That's the best the republicans can do?
Get ready for a long hiatus from meaningful election results if BEST is any indication....
SNOOZEVILLE
Posted by: StefanisWrong on January 24, 2007 12:45 PMWhat exactly does this mean? You feeding them steroids or something?
Boy, the religious fundies are going to be all over that one. I'm sure they all secretly want gambling establishments setting up in their neighborhood bars.
What next repealing zoning laws for strip joints?
I thought the gambling vote we took and which you referred to was the most disengenous campaign I had ever seen. And Slade was part of it, too, but many think he is a Democrat anyways.
But, Cato, isn't the gambling laws exactly what the Rs are claiming? The tribes donate big time to Ds. It was said during Gorton-Cantwell that Gorton was lost a year before the election because of Indian money and lies.
Posted by: swatter on January 24, 2007 01:44 PMI couldn't be involved because they did it at 10:30 on a Tuesday morning, and I have a job.
I'm just wondering if they thought of involving regular folks with regular jobs. Only Dem activists are free at 10:30am on a weekday. (No offense to any retirees out there.)
Posted by: Heartless Libertarian on January 24, 2007 02:17 PMRepublicans will illustrate their priorities through the eyes of a fictional suburban soccer mom named Beth, whose concerns include the Budget, Education, Transportation and Health care.
What would Beth do?
Dear, God!
You would like to bring gambling to neighborhood bars so you can take money away from the Democrats? Hopefully the GOP has a better rationale than that for wanting to ease the ban.
Posted by: Cato on January 25, 2007 09:50 AMI suppose this crowd is doing their best. It just doesn't appear good enough.
I followed the links and discovered the cause of the problem - the House GOP logo has a giant elephant covering up most of Western Washington that makes it impossible to see the state's population center.
I think they forgot about the place covered up by that elephant.
Posted by: thor on January 25, 2007 09:44 PMI checked out the link and I think I discovered why this type of lame stuff might keep popping up.
On the House GOP web site there is a map of the state with a giant elephant that covers up where most voters live.
Maybe they forgot about all of those voters? They may want to move that big elephant and look at the whole map.
Posted by: thor on January 25, 2007 09:49 PM"Well if Linda thinks its all right, well of course it MUST be."
Posted by: huckleberry on January 26, 2007 10:19 AM