Last night at Our Redeemer’s Church here in Ballard, the 36th District Democrats gathered to make their endorsements for the August 18th primary.
The general membership meeting voted to endorse Larry Phillips for King County Executive, and they offered a dual endorsement of Mike McGinn and Joe Mallahan for Seattle Mayor. For city council, they endorsed David Bloom (position 4) and Bobby Forch (position 8). They recommended voting no on Tim Eyeman’s Initiative 1033 (November election), but did not recommend one way or another on the City of Seattle’s Referendum No. 1, the disposable bag fee.
More endorsements and details on the 36th’s website here. (Photos provided by request from John Sandifer, 36th District Democrats.)
36th District Democrats hand out endorsements
The 36th district stated loud and clear with their dual endorsement of McGinn and Mallahan last night that they would like to see real change in City Hall (something many of us agree with).
If you don't yet know Mike McGinn, he's been a community leader (President of the Greenwood Community Council – where he fought for more sidewalks and development that fit the character of the neighborhood), a Sierra Club Leader (where he led the charge to defeat some poorly crafted ballot measures), and a City leader (founded the non-profit Great City that brings together neighborhood advocates, environmentalists and business leaders to help make Seattle a model of economic and environmental sustainability – this group helped pass our complete streets legislation and developed and passed the Parks levy last year). He has a real progressive agenda of focusing on improving our schools, bolstering our local transit service and building the next generation of internet infrastructure (yes, the Mayor can have a huge impact on all of these issues if he chooses to focus on them). He's also standing up against the political establishment and saying no to the $4.2 billion tunnel because it's wrong for both our fiscal and environmental future. Probably most importantly, Michael's a real leader who knows how to build-broad based coalitions to affect positive change; that's part of the reason he already has hundreds of dedicated volunteers and continues to build momentum. Please take the time to learn more about McGinn, and if you like what you see, join us in creating a Seattle that we can believe in.
I don't know Joe Mallahan, but he seems like a nice guy with some interesting business experience. Would probably make a great department head at the City, but I don't see him presenting any sort of vision or platform of where he wants to take our City.
Is there freaking anybody/anything BUT democrats in this district? How “inclusive/tolerant” is this? Monochromatic. Boringly predictable. Missing Jimmy Carter. Do we really need meetings to know what they want out and FROM us? Puhleeeeze. A “represenative democracy” in Ballard? Hardly. Are we going to tax ourselves into prosperity soon? Limosine liberals and their little doggies, next on Oprah. Have at it comrades.
Please explain what you mean by limousine liberals. Name calling isn't very helpful – especially if we don't understand what is behind it. thanks
Alonzonian,
Here's a wiki that might help:
http://tinyurl.com/ptxlve
Here's what I found:
Limousine liberal (also limousine leftist, latte liberal, lakefront liberal, Learjet liberal, Lexus liberal, Gucci Marxist, MasterCard Marxist, parlor pink, silk stocking socialist, or white wine socialist) is a pejorative North American political term used to illustrate perceived hypocrisy by a political liberal of upper class or upper middle class status, such as calling for the use of mass transit while frequently using limousines or private jets (ergo 'learjet liberal') [1], claiming to be highly environmentally conscious but driving a gas-hungry sports car or SUV, or ostensibly supporting public education while actually sending their children to private schools.
I was really just trying to get The Norwegian to provide his/her take on it. I think there are very few people who really walk their talk, but there are many who point fingers and name-call at those who are trying to get a dialogue going.
“Is there freaking anybody/anything BUT democrats in this district?”
Agreed – Ballard does lean strongly democratic.
My question: Are we supposed to IMPORT Republicans (bus them in, maybe?) or just insist that a big chunk of existing Democrats switch to the Republican party?
I'm just glad that even the 36th district Dems see no future for Nickels.
As Far as the bag tax, no decision was proper, given it was Nickels petard.
As far as 1033, no decision would have been proper, instead of the
“uh, no.” (shows how much they intend to tax us into prosperity, even though, it has never, and can never work)
As far as a dual endorsement of Mayor, chicken, frankly.
Meh. I don't care about who wins the mayoral election as long as it isn't Greg Nickels or his doppelganger Jan Drago.
As I recall, the bag fee was the brainchild of Richard Conlin and the Seattle City Council, not the mayor.
no the bag fee was Nickel's idea – and a good one.
Uh, you don't really make any sense at all.
Its definitely representative in that they are elected every cycle. If you don't like it, run for office yourself.
After a bit of fact checking I've found that the bag fee was a joint proposal by Nickels and Conlin. And it's a dumb idea — yet another example of local government seeking to punish people into behavior, rather than offering incentive or encouragement.
It's not a 'bag tax' it's a bag FEE. There is a key difference in that the money doesn't go to city hall and that it's not mandatory. You can carry out your purchase in your own hands or in your own bag and avoid the few pennies you'd pay for the bag you use.
You need to get out of the country a bit (or even Ballard) and see that this is SOP for most of the civilized world. Germany was doing this 25 years ago.
I'm all for stores charging for the bags you use. Hopefully that will allow them to reduce costs somewhere else and keep us from having to witness that flying bag scene from American Beauty on every block.
The Libertarian cranks have done a good job of mislabeling it the “bag tax” and you can count on the business lobby to oppose anything for the greater good.
FEE=Tax. Call it what you will, it adds up as real money.
I, for one, was happy the meeting ended under 4 hours. I read what was going on in other LDs and was happy I didn't have to leave my spouse and kids for a 4 hour meeting in a stuffy church basement (the meeting ended in just over 2 hours). So thanks to the Chair (I forget who he is) for running a smooth meeting and keeping it moving.
Poor recommendations. McGinn is a single issue twit, albeit a well-meaning one. He hasn't raised anywhere near enough money to compete and has no more chance of being Seattle's next mayor than he does of sprouting wings and flying.
Mallahan is using all his own money and will likely stay in teh race until near the end but doesn't have the experience necessary for successful public service. Coalition building is not his strength.
There are no good choices for mayor this year. It's going to come down to Nickels or Drago who are essentially two sides of the same coin.
I agree with Chopper that the dual endorsement is damning with faint praise.
And please learn the difference between a fee and a tax people. The proposed surcharge is a TAX, not a fee because the monies raised are going into the general fund, not used for a specific purpose. Even though I always use and recycle my bags thisis a profoundly stupid feel-good accomplish nothing idea that will have no significant effects on the environment. This is just another nickel and dime line item for the City to waste money on. Seattlites love being taxed and never hold their leaders accountable, so I see the bag tax and Nickels re-election as pretty much “in the bag”. Nyuk nyuk nyuk.