King County has a Primary Election on September 16. The voters' pamphlet should appear on the King County website sometime after the election is over. In the meantime, here are the highlights from the printed version [indented text is from the candidates' own statements]:
Clarke Fletcher is running for Port of Seattle Commission on the Anti-Vampirism ticket:
Like most of you I have spent my adult life toiling as a beast of burden, while the fat cat developers and corporations suck our blood.Jean Godden is running for Seattle City Council as "that zesty old lady"
I'm a widow, a mom of two terrific sons, and a mature woman who still manages to get to aerobic classes each week.Godden asks the question that matters most in this election:
Have the neighborhoods lost their pizzazz?Incumbent City Councilwoman Judy Nicastro promises to give away other people's money to low-income seniors, low-income disabled people, vulnerable seniors, low-income families, the firefighters union, the neediest seniors and low-income people from other cities whom she wants to pay to move to Seattle. But unlike a saleswoman who would go out of her way to make her customers feel special, Nicastro tells her clients: "everybody else is special, but you're nothing special":
Judy is not afraid to stand up to entrenched special interests when Seattle's citizens are not being served.Seattle City Council candidate Mike Thompson is fighting to ensure that his fellow Washingtonians will have their credit cards taken away from them:
I am sponsoring and paying for state initiative 291, which would cap credit card interest rates at 12%Seattle City Council candidate Angel Bolanos wants us to know that
Angel holds a Masters of Public Administration, International Affairs, from the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington.Some free business advice, Angel: If you're going to spend $20,000 and two years of your life to have your head filled with styrofoam, you might not want to brag about it.
Socialist David Ferguson is running for Seattle City Council in order to help the world's criminals. He is for
restoring voting rights to those who have been convicted of feloniesand he
opposes threats against Iran, North Korea and CubaFinally, Seattle City Council candidate Robert Rosencrantz shoots himself in the foot by advocating a position that won't find many takers here in taxaholic Seattle:
Robert will make sure Seattle taxpayers receive value for their dollars. It's your money. Let's spend it wisely.Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 28, 2003 07:01 AM
taxaholic seattle?! only if you're poor. seattle has the most regressive taxes in the nation! it's a great place to be rich!
Posted by: c. on August 28, 2003 12:00 AMThat is pretty sad.
I hope you have more candidates to choose from and that those are just a sample of silly ones.
Less complaining, you guys. These small fry are paragons of virtue by comparison to our Representative Jim McDermott.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on August 28, 2003 07:05 AM> [Mike Thompson] I am sponsoring and paying for state initiative 291
I'll bet that he actually isn't paying even 20% of the expenses.
The intelligence test is whether he's actually getting some financial benefit from this "sponsoring".
Posted by: Andy Freeman on August 28, 2003 09:07 AMnot knowing the details of mike thompson's initiative, i suggest he hire a credit card lawyer to explain to him certain u.s. supreme court cases which hold that federal law preempts state law usury caps and allows national banks to export the interest rate of their home state. so, in the case of national banks headquartered in south dakota or new hampshire, two states which have no usury cap, those banks can 'export' any rate the market will bear to their customers residing in other states.
perhaps thompson could spend 'his money' paying for another initiative that might survive judicial review.
Posted by: dinesh on August 28, 2003 09:43 AM