April 15, 2007
Meet Brian Newby
See comment #5 on recent post "Sims claims to have an elections director candidate (again)":
Do you think for a moment, just for the sake of argument, that your I-25 dream is a fantasy? You won't get enough signatures, valid at least...unless you resort to the very thing you claim you detest...fake people voting (or at least signing). That will be stopped by the very office you despise. It's not going to happen. Let me type that again.....IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN...Prove me wrong....not with talk, but with reality. I don't think you will do it. In fact, I'm sure you won't be able to do it. Who will you blame that on?
I have proof it was posted from the home of
Brian Newby,
mentioned recently as Sims' possible appointee to be King County elections director.
That comment is unbefitting an elections official. Hope Sims has better judgment than to appoint Newby.
And prove Newby wrong. Donate to I-25 today.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 15, 2007
12:02 PM | Email This
1. Well we have a lot of empty busses riding around!
The schedules suck and it would take me an hour to get to work when I only live 8 miles away! After all the transfers!!!
It's bad enough with the slow traffic on Willows road it can take up to 25 min or a half hour! If you put in another lane or two the people keeping every one safe would still only slow it down to a crawl!!!
2. So Brian claims it's "NOT GOING TO HAPPEN" because the "very office you despise" will stop it? Excellent. He's off to a fine start as the potential elections director no doubt making Sims very proud. Hey, at least he's coming right out and telling us how he'll squash I-25 before it even gets to his office. No finding votes in a box somewhere after the fact, this guy is willing to be dishonest and tell you about it before hand.
It's business as usual in Ron Sims King County.
3. So Brian claims it's "NOT GOING TO HAPPEN" because the "very office you despise" will stop it? Excellent. He's off to a fine start as the potential elections director no doubt making Sims very proud. Hey, at least he's coming right out and telling us how he'll squash I-25 before it even gets to his office. No finding votes in a box somewhere after the fact, this guy is willing to be dishonest and tell you about it before hand.
It's business as usual in Ron Sims King County.
4. Sounds like grounds for disqualification to me, but since when does, ethics, law, and respect for the electorate matter to Sims & Co.
5. The use of ellipses appears to be similar to the use of ellipses in the #15 post in the second link, from Jim Greiners. In that post, the comment says, "I'm from Johnson County and I can tell you that Newby has been a great election commissioner. He has a strong reputation in our community and is known for his tech savvy, calm demeanor and high ethical standards. Honestly...think about it...if he was under pressure to leave ...how would he be landing a potential position in larger market for likely higher pay?"
6. What, was his IP 76.22.98.briannewbyshouse?
7. Oh gee... just what King County needs, another smug, self-righteous, corrupt, ANGRY liberal... he'll fit right in.
8. The worst part is the blatant stupidity displayed. Does he really imagine he would remain anonymous? Well, I guess that Intellient Quotient level is about par for most of His Majesty Sims' court.
9. Ok, Stefan, post the evidence, prior to me donating anything to the campaign other than my signature.
10. Good detective work, Stefan. That comment is inappropriate for someone who might hold such a sensitive position. On the other hand:
- Stefan doesn't usually make false accusations, but I'd like to see his evidence.
- Although the tone of the comment makes me question Newby's open-mindedness, nothing specific in the comment should disaqualify him.
- Stefan (and other SPers) have ignored the (obvious) questions I have repeatedly asked here about I-25, giving me no reason to support such a change.
11. Oh. my. goodness. THAT is the person Sims wants in the position? SOmeone hostile to the will of the people? Good Lord, help us. This CANNOT STAND. I hope word of this gets out far and wide (we know the Times and PI read SP. They just don't like to admit it.). Note to Sims: WRONG PERSON FOR THE JOB. Try again.
12. Bruce, you're trying way too hard (2nd bullet) to prop up this very-inappropriate-for-the-job candidate. Give it up.
13. Michele, I don't know beans about this candidate and I have no interest in propping him up or down.
14. I'm still curious where Stefan's magic IP-address-to-street-address converter is coming from. Presumably all he has to work off of is the IP logged in comments thread, which doesn't provide any reliable tracking information through standard home residential ISP setups. As a technical point, his claim doesn't make any /sense/.
Hell, if Stefan can figure out which home I'm posting from, I'll donate $100 to I-25.
(Then I'll be calling up my ISP and asking them why the hell they're handing out my account information to bloggers.)
15. Stefan, please show us your evidence (if for no other reason than to shut this obnoxious candidate for the job up).
16. No way can Stefan (legally) trace an IP address to Newby's home, but presumably he has matched it to the IP address from which Newby has made non-anonymous posts in the past. I doubt Stefan would say he's sure of something if he wasn't. (I've sometimes accused him of insinuating things without sufficient cause, but this is different.) Nonetheless I trust he will post his evidence evetually so we don't have to speculate.
17. Here is the simplest and best way to check this out. Monday at 9:00 a.m. someone call Brian Newby's office and ask him directly if he posted as Shark Attack on the afore mentioned thread. If he affirms, we will know. If he denies and Stefan can produce evidence contrary, he would have to realize his job at KCE is toast, not even Ronnie would bring him in then. If he denies and no proof can be supplied ( which I personally doubt), we may have to suffer a fool that actually passed a Ron Sims litmus test. Could this fellow be the new Geoff Simpson?
18. mimi, I think his point was that the I-25 campaign can only succeed if they commit fraud and that the elections office would catch the fraud, not that the election department would commit fraud to stop it. True or not its different from saying the elections department would break the law.
19. Giffy - How do you know what his point was? Have you spoken with him?
And even if that was his intent, if he is about to be nominated for a position at KC Elections it is completely inappropriate for him to be making ANY comment on this initiative
20. Giffy,
It is immaterial as to whether Mr. Newby meant to threaten the many grassroots backers of I-25 with election office skullduggery (as his angry, nasty, posting sounded to be), or whether he meant to clumsily praise the elections office, the scenario you are trying to spin in his defense.
If Mr. Newby is a candidate for the position of either REALS director or Superintendent of Elections, he had no business whatsoever publicly weighing in in any way, shape, or form on the potential viability of a petition, ballot measure, or candidate which may be administered by the elections office.
It's unprofessional and unethical, and it's just plain wrong. If he already had the job, it would be a lapse calling for termination.
Even if Mr. Newby is just the commissioner of elections of Johnson County, Kansas, and is not a King County candidate, he still, as an elections official from another jusrisdiction with no authroity over King County, had no business posting that comment.
What a maroon.
If Mr. Newby is a candidate, given this egregious lapse in professional judgement, Sims had better save face and quietly give Mr. Newby the boot, but good.
Otherwise, he is simply making the case for the I-25 folks - Sims should not be the elected official in charge of elections.
21. Whoops! Looks like I cross-posted with none other than Stefan, himself.
22. How about we just get out there with I-25 petitions and get signatures?
If Shark Attack is Brian Newby, then I-25 will make him a New Millenium Dorothy: "Mr. Sims, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
The Piper