Sound Politics: Last night's I-25 panel

May 18, 2007

Last night's I-25 panel

Last night's Downtown Seattle Republican Club panel discussion on I-25 was quite interesting.

The program, moderated by Phil Bevis, featured four Republican elected officials: Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman, Secretary of State Sam Reed, State Rep. Glen Anderson, King County Councilman Reagan Dunn; three Democrat elected officials: Spokane County Auditor Vicki Dalton, State Auditor Brian Sonntag and State Senator Eric Oemig; and King County Citizens Election Oversight Committee member Paul Guppy.

Reed, Sonntag, Anderson and Dunn enthusiastically endorsed I-25. The other panelists expressed support for the policy of having a separately-elected Elections Director who is directly accountable to the voters. None of the panelists expressed opposition to I-25 or advanced any arguments for having an appointed elections director.

Ron Sims declined to appear or to send a representative. Elections Director-nominee Sherril Huff had initially agreed to participate, but backed out yesterday afternoon without cause. Her best move would have been to appear, decline to take a specific position on the initiative, but acknowledge the legitimate concerns that have motivated many people to seek a change in governance of the elections office, and articulate in an honest and factual way her own track record and plan for restoring credibility to the elections office. But you have to wonder why she didn't do that.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 18, 2007 09:17 AM | Email This

Comments

1. Boy, you guys are sure giving legs to Oemig.

On topic or off topic, what happened at the session you attended that John McKay was main speaker? Wasn't that a mainstream republican event?

Good comment on Sherril Huff. What was her reason? Sims said no or afraid of FOIA e-mail questions or fear for her job or just because it was a Republican event?

Posted by: swatter on May 18, 2007 09:16 AM

2. Well, exposing just the paltry few emails that Huff coughed up must have stung fiercely, and she must have feared being held accountable for anything she might say at the I-25 forum. After all, she's not elected - she's appointed - and it may well be that her boss Ron Sims embargoed her appearance because ultimately it would be he who'd be found accountable for her statements.

Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on May 18, 2007 09:39 AM

3. Sonntag is my guaranteed democrat vote. (Used to be Owens as well, until he made up a job for his boy Brian and jacked up his office budget 37% in one year back in 05 to pay for it and the outrageous pay raises needed to keep his staff from mutiny)

Good outcome, Shark.

Posted by: Hinton on May 18, 2007 10:04 AM

4. Was there any discussion of why most counties as large as ours appoint their election directors rather than electing them? Or any discussion of what the experience has been elsewhere?

Posted by: Bruce on May 18, 2007 10:04 AM

5. The myopic arrogance of the leftist elite, knows no bounds.

Posted by: Jeff B. on May 18, 2007 10:06 AM

6. Swatter, I believe the conference is this weekend in Wenatchee. May 18-20.
Good choice with the proximity of Dusty's In-N-Out nearby.

Posted by: Don Ward on May 18, 2007 12:29 PM

7. I bet my mid70s stories are better than yours, Don.

Listening to my podcast of one of the national talk show hosts discussing immigaration and the word I have been looking for popped out of nowhere.

Tone deaf.

Our local politicians are tone deaf regarding the election fiascos in King County.

Posted by: swatter on May 18, 2007 01:30 PM

8. Stefan--
It must be gratifying to know that our King County Executive and/or his goons read Sound Politics.
Obviously Huff was pulled because of our discussion about those 2 paltry e-mails she produced and the fact that you had another e-mail from a different source that she failed to produce.
Have you considered suing her for the $5-100/day penalty for failing to fully & completely respond to a Public Records Request??

Posted by: Mr. Cynical on May 19, 2007 06:34 AM

9. Yea, Sims and his goons read Sound Politics. They also probably get counsel for a fee from fellow Dems - the Clinton Machine on how to stonewall effectively whenever something comes their way that they don't like and if all else fails, resort to the politics of personal destruction (i.e. the scorched earth policy). .

Posted by: KS on May 19, 2007 06:26 PM

10. For those of you who are interested in I-25 or the current state of elections in King County and Washington State, this show will run on TVW this coming Wednesday, May 23rd, from 7pm to 9:30pm.

It will also be running on Seattle Channel (TBA).

Posted by: ReaganROCKS!!! on May 20, 2007 12:33 PM