My general election ballot is here, ready to be filled out.
I should preface this with my general rule of thumb on initiatives, which is that I vote "no" on almost all "initiatives to the people", and consider the "intiatives to the legislature" on the merits, though with a bias towards voting against them.
Initiative 900. This is a worthless Tim Eyman stunt that forces the government to do more some performance audits, despite the fact that in the past legislative session the Leg enacted strong performance audit requirements. Vote "No" on I-900.
Initiative 901. This is the new super-strength indoor smoking ban, and while it technically bans smoking within 25 feet of doorways, in practice no county health department would ever enforce such a law. Smoking bans clearly reduce the number of smokers, which makes good public health sense, but definitely raise everyones libertarian hackles. Yes, if indoor smoking is banned, smokers are less free to choose where they smoke. But non-smokers who dislike smoke or who don't want their kids exposed to it are more free to go to a wider selection of restaurants and bars. So it's not enough of a problem to raise my libertarian hackles. Still, while I support the indoor smoking ban, I'm going to stick to principle and Vote "No" on I-901.
Initiative 912. This will eliminate funding for a series of safety-oriented road improvements placed in last years state budget, including much needed replacements of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the 520 bridge. Here's the official "Vote No on 912" website. There's no reason to let the Flat-Earth Society continue to hamstring local government through the initative process. Vote "No" on I-912, with extreme prejudice.
Initiative 330. This is the insurance companies' "tort reform" bill, which would put a cap on the punitive damages and damages for pain & suffering one can recover from a malpractice claim. There is no evidence that such laws reduce health care costs in any way. Plus, my girlfriend's mom is with the plaintiff's bar. Vote "No" on I-330, with extreme prejudice.
Initiative 336. This is something of a wonkish initiative that will try to crack down on the small number of lawyers who bring lots of frivolous claims, force the state to take more action to discipline the tiny number of doctors who account for a majority of malpractice claims, and is in general a much more balanced way of dealing with the high cost of malpractice in the United States. Still, it's a special-interest backed bill; it just happens to be backed by special interests I'm more amenable to. While it's not quite as important, Vote "No" on I-336.
State Constitutional Amendment: SJ 8207. See this site for a full explanation. Small towns don't have their own municipal courts; instead, they just have state district court judges who handle all casework for the area. At present, only district court judges are allowed to serve on certain commissions; this amendment opens those commissions to municipal court judges as well. The Senate clearly is just trying to "fix a bug" in the constitution; Vote "Yes" on SJ 8207
King County Proposition 1. The County Council raised property taxes to fund a "veterans and human services levy", which is a very clever way of increasing funding for mental health & housing assistance by forcing "no" voters to appear "tough on veterans". These are the kinds of initiatives & propositions that really chap my hide, as we get nickled and dimed to death with pet projects. There's really no reason why the County council couldn't just raise property taxes by .005%, put the money in the general fund, and use it to fund mental health services. I'm going to withhold judgement on Prop 1 until I find out whether or not the revenue increase will eventually find its way into the general fund.
King County Council. There is no reason to deny him a third term. He's the man. Vote Ron Sims (D).
King County Sheriff. Sue Rahr is part of the Reichert machine, so Vote Greg Schmidt.
King County Council, District 4. It's always fun living in a midnight blue district. I've got a liberal Democrat and an independent to choose from. Vote Larry Phillips.
Court of Appeals, Division 1., District 1., Position 2. She is well qualified and faces no opposition. Vote Susan Randolph Agid.
Port of Seattle, Commissioner 1. Avoid the well-funded business toady John Creighton and stick with the man who's endorsed by the working folks on the waterfront, environmental groups, and almost everyone else you care about. Vote Lawrence Malloy.
Port of Seattle, Comissioner 3. Hmmm .... I just got a piece of mail from "Citizens for a Healthy Economy" [and deregulation and the construction of overpriced condominiums], funded by real estate firms and companies doing business at the port, urging me to vote for Rich Berkowitz over goo-goo policy wonk Lloyd Hara. Suddenly I'm conflicted on this one. I'll put this race to the side, along with Prop 1.
Port of Seattle, Commissioner 4. I'll stick with the P-I endorsed, reformist-minded candidate. Vote Jack Jolley.
Mayor. The man who's "Just Good Enough", Vote Greg Nickels.
City Attorney. Absent any evidence he's doing a bad job, I'll assume he deserves re-election. Vote Thomas A. Carr.
City Council, Position 2. Okay, all you Citizens for a Healthy Economy [and deregulation and the construction of overpriced condominiums] folks, I'll throw you a bone. Richard Conlin's no-growth attitude has gotten in the way of public transit and improvements to Magnusson/Sand Point park, and is in general indicative of the stick-in-the mud belief that Seattle can get by without growing as a city. We can't stop people from moving to the Seattle area, and if we could, why would we want to? People like living here, and there are lots of job opportunities; what's wrong with that? We need a City Council that's willing to move beyond the debate of should the city grow and figure out how the city is going to grow. Vote Paige Miller.
City Council, Position 4. Government in America is adversarial, and if you're not a full-throated supporter of the Nickels agenda, you'll want a City Council that's interested in being a force for constructive opposition. That means not letting Nickels' former communications director, Casey Corr, onto the Council. The incumbent Council President is slowly learning how to be an effective force for opposition; Vote Jan Drago.
City Council, Position 6. We love our lefty gadflies here, right? Is anyone placing bets as to whether or not he'll beat Pete Steinbruck's 2003 vote tally? Vote Nick Licata.
City Council, Position 8. Continuing my desire to see a hard-charging City Council that will keep Nickels honest, Vote Dwight Pelz.
Advisory Measure 1. "Dear Mayor Nickels: please ask Congress to enact some form of universal health insurance. Sincerely, the City of Seattle". I'm all for universal health insurance, and I think the recently leaked Wal-Mart memo will be the starting point in the next serious business push to get it done, but Mayor Nickels doesn't need a bunch of ballots to tell him that we'd all like it out here. Vote "No" on Advisory Measure 1.
Seattle Popular Monorail Authority, Position 8. I have to make this choice again? Beth Goldberg would like to destroy the monorail in order to save it, while Cindi Laws inexplicably decided to trash the Jewish community during her candidate interview. Can I plead the 5th or something?
Seattle Popular Monorail Authority, Position 9. He's done nothing to deserve defeat, and he supports keeping the monorail project going in some form. Vote Cleve Stockmeyer.
SPMA Proposition 1. This modifies the proposed monorail plan by shortening it from the original Ballard-to-West Seattle, to instead become an Interbay-to-West Seattle line, and if there is money left over, to build the full 14-mile line. I need to look at the finances of this one before I make a decision.
SPMA Proposition 2. This changes the composition of the SPMA from a 7-members appointed, 2-members elected board to a 4-members appointed, 5-members elected board. This is possible a pandora's box, since the elected officals might be responsive to whimsical, short-sighted stories about inefficiency in the project by clamoring to shut it down rather than mend it. But, I think I'll put my faith in the newspapers and the voters to do a decent job covering monoral construction, should it, you know, ever happen. Vote "Yes" on Proposition 2.
I'll leave School Board races for another day; I didn't know I was going to have to think about three of them.
Update: It looks like I'm going with Michael DeBell, Mary Bass, and Linda Thompson-Black on the school board races. That leaves the no-win situation on the SPMA Position 8 race, the Hara-Berkowitz race (where I'm now leaning towards Hara), and King County Proposition 1.
