Ridenbaugh Press

The cautionary note from Republican blogger I Am Coyote - that something significant appears about to break on the subject of state Representative Wayne Scott, R-Canby - appears to be breaking as predicted.

The aura of scandal is attaching to an unusual business operation: 4th of July fireworks.

Scott is president of Western Fireworks Inc., a firm based in Aurora (which is near Canby); apart from a person serving as registered agent, he’s the only named officer. His ownership interest isn’t clear. The firm’s website describes it as “Oregon’s oldest and largest fireworks company,” established in 1948.

Willamette Week describes it: “Whether you stock up on sparklers this Fourth of July or snag a seat at bigger-boom displays, the company supplying the fireworks will probably be Scott’s, which claims to be Oregon’s largest.”

So far, so good - but then WW comes up with this: “In the 2003 Legislature, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 667-A, a seemingly innocuous bill dealing with nonagricultural operations on land zoned for exclusive farm use. The bill included an amendment from Scott that lets his aerial fireworks company, which puts on Fourth of July shows at venues such as the Blues Festival on the Willamette and Oaks Park, operate regularly on farmland instead of needing to get temporary-use permits each year from local authorities. Typical fireworks operations on farmland that require permits include storing fireworks as well as testing, shipping or directly selling them. But the bill applied only to aerial fireworks companies in continuous operation on land zoned for exclusive farm use since Dec. 31, 1986. And Western was the only business that met that standard, according to at least two legislators who voted for SB667-A, Sen. Gary George (R-McMinnville) and Rep. Gary Hansen (D-Portland).”

Where the story goes from here is unclear. But it dosn’t sound done yet.

Mike McGavick may take some hits as he runs his campaign for the Senate based on the nature of his last job: CEO of an insurance company, SafeCo. Some of it may come from the nature of the beast, since his recent life experience is generally a whole lot different than that of most of us. His world view and perspective is necessarily a lot different.

Still, a pertinent question in the Washington Senate race: What exactly was the record of Mike McGavick as CEO at SafeCo? What sort of a job did he do there?

McGavick’s web site is getting out on top of this, putting a good deal of the record out there. There’s a good review of this just out at the Seattle Times, in a place political watchers might not ordinarily look: the column of business writer Bill Virgin. He takes a different perspective on McGavick - neither especially praising or critical, just something that resembles a reasonable review.

There should be more of this, and we’ll revisit the subject here. But Virgin’s column is a useful opening shot.

One wouldn’t have thought that there would have been any question at this point that organizations which engaged in contracts with Enron Corporation - contracts for purchases executed at times when Enron’s activities were outright unethical at best - would be held to payments to the corrupt company.

But just that has been hanging over the head of the Snohomish County Public Utility District, which has been on the hook for more than $120 million to Enron.

No longer. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled, in one of a long string of Enron-related cases this week (one of them covered some of the fallout from the Portland General Electric spinoff) that Enron could not collect.

What lessons exactly we may draw from this, however, are less clear.

The oldest town in Idaho has apparently just become the hottest - in percentages, anyway.

Franklin, so close to the border with Utah that its first settlers - the creators of the first town in the state - thought they still were in Utah, is getting a new subdivision. Its population currently is a little above 600 (and actually growing a bit in recent years, unusual for small rural towns away from metro centers). Now, with a big new subdivision in the works, it looks likely to roughly double in size. (Credit to the namers of the development: Legacy Ranch.)

Think of another small town outside a metro or resort area doing that.

On his website Butch Otter, the Republican nominee for governor of Idaho, has an intriguing internal link which raises at least one question, maybe two, for this notably philosophical candidate.

The link is to an essay on “The Proper Role of Government,” which as it turns out is not written by Otter - which would be worth his writing and our reading - but by Ezra Taft Benson, former leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The web site notes that it was reposted “In response to popular demand,” though it may have been intended as well to build bridges to Mormon eastern Idaho. Its positioning in the site suggests that Otter endorses its views, though the site doesn’t specifically say so. (Note that we don’t ordinarily get into matters of church doctrine - the subject comes up here because Otter’s campaign has injected it so prominently.)

In re-reading the piece (it has circulated widely since 1968), we were struck by one passage especially, in which Benson quotes a church document, the Doctrine and Covenants:

“(I) believe that all men are bound to sustain and uphold the respective governments in which they reside, which protected in their inherent and inalienable rights by the laws of such governments; and that sedition and rebellion are unbecoming every citizen thus protected, and should be punished accordingly; and that all governments have a right to enact such laws as in their own judgments are best calculated to secure the public interest; at the same time, however, holding sacred the freedom of conscience.” (D&C 134: 1-2,5)

So, a question of the candidate: A couple, actually. Was the American Revolution - a revolt against the established government of English - wrong? And were Iraqis who cooperated with Americans in the overthrow and defeat of Saddam Hussein wrong to do so?

Just wondering.

Single-line quotes are so apt to be taken out of context that you have to be careful with them. But this one by Washington Governor Chris Gregoire was startling: “Washington is more like a small nation than a state.”

The context was the recent spate of visits to the state by foreign leaders: Hu of China, Fox of Mexico and (she was announcing) Rasmussen of Denmark, and the comment was a reference to the latter’s visit.

Also, allowing Stefan Sharkansky’s easy snark, “Yes, but which small nation?
Cuba? Turkmenistan? Honduras?”

But, more substantively, it provides backdrop for the governor’s more recent statements on national security.

She said (to be sure, much as California’s Arnold Schwartznegger has done) that should not send Washington national guard troops to the Mexican border - that Washingtonians need the security help at home.

Then there was the concern expressed over the reports about North Korean rockets, powerful enough to reach the American west coast. That triggered an unusual call for getting out of Iraq.

And then, the Seattle Times David Postman quotes her as saying this:

“I’m disturbed by what we’re hearing. It is not the news that I think any of us should have to hear from North Korea and I want Washingtonians to understand the security risks to the nation and to us, but to understand that we’ve got to remain ever diligent and I ask every Washingtonian to be smart about their own personal security, and again any time they see something that raises a concern they get to law enforcement right away.”

Has all this been just an odd confluence of statements, or are we seeing some new direction in the Gregoire Administration?

The Independent caucus in the Oregon Senate has just doubled in size. And maintained the partisan balance in the process. But all that may be the least of it.

Last winter, Senator Ben Westlund, a Republican from the Bend area, said he switched his party registration to independent. He’s now running for governor under that label.

Friday, another senator joined his bolt from the parties: Senator Avel Gordly, a Portland Democrat.

In some ways her departure is even more striking than Westlund’s. If in a number of respects Westlund seems to have been diverging from the Republican Party in recent years, it’s a lot less surface-obvious in Gordly’s case. Her background could hardly fit a Portland Democratic legislator more tightly: Coordinator of Albina Head Start, member of the Albina Community Bancorp Board, director of the American Friends Service Committee, Youth Director for Urban League of Portland (although she also was a parole and probation officer). Her key areas of interest include social services and education, and she has gotten a 100% rating from the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Her northeast Portland district (23) is solidly Democratic. She’s now in her third Senate term.

There’s no overt evidence of a philosophical break with her party, with which she’s served in the Legislature for 16 years. So why the change?

A short report on the Oregonian’s political blog said that “Gordly has made no secret that she believes extreme partisanship gets in the way of doing what’s best for the people of Oregon. She’s talked for months about switching from Democrat to independent. She stopped going to her party caucus meetings months ago, when Democrats voted to close them to the press.”

In other words, the reason seems to have less to do with differences with her own party (apart, maybe, from the closed caucuses) than it does with the whole idea of partisanship. That may make her a more powerful advocate for the idea even than Westlund.

Might she be the precursor, then, to yet another breaker of the ranks?

Pretty much all daily newspapers across the United States, and some sub-dailies - some twice- or thrice-weekly or larger weekly papers - along with most news-providing broadcasters are members of the Associated Press, which supplies all those stories with the (AP) tag 0n them. The AP has has its own large newsgathering staff, but most of those stories come from the member newspapers. That creates an enormous reservoir of potential news items, but there’s still a large gap: What about all those stories in weekly or other newspapers, stories coming from the smaller communities which aren’t picked up?

Small Town Papers News Service, founded (ironically?) in Seattle, aims to remediate that, spreading news from smaller communities.

It’s a national service, but Washington seems to be one of its strong points. Its list of participating titles there includes the Edmonds Beacon, the Mattawa Area News, the Mukilteo Beacon, the Bonney Lake & Lake Tapps Courier-Herald at Enumclaw, the Boomerang at Palouse, the Enumclaw Courier Herald and the South County Sun at Royal City.

Oregon papers are the McKenzie River Reflections at McKenzie Bridge, the Clatskanie Chief and the Elgin Times. In Idaho there’s the Latah Eagle at Moscow, the Aberdeen Times and the Power County Press at American Falls.

Now assuming the news reports on this are correct (and please do alert us if they’re not), here’s the situation in Boise:

Somehow, at some point in the past, an ordinance was put on the books in Boise banning businesses from allowing customers to use sidewalk cafes after dark. Why they did this, no one seems to know. The ordinance has been obscure enough that numerous businesses around town have allowed such cafes to operate extensively, and they’re often integral to those businesses. There have been, apparently, no complaints about the practice. The ordinance has not been enforced for years at least, if ever. The facts of the situation recently were brought to the attention of Boise Mayor David Bieter.

There are several ways this could have been handled. Two, primarily.

One is the slam dunk. Since there’s no civic controversy here - just about everyone interested is on one side of the matter - the solution seems simple: Draft and pass a new ordinance reflecting an existing reality which is apparently fully acceptable around town. If anyone has a problem with it, they can surface during the ordinance hearing process to say their piece. Most likely, the issue would have been over with already, and Bieter would have gotten points for decisiveness.

The other is what Bieter actually did. He appointed a task force to consider the matter. It plans to deliver a report to the city council on Tuesday. The council will then consider what to do. In the meantime, a lot of people will be on pins and needles over an issue that needn’t have been.

There’s a lesson in the subtleties of governance here.

UPDATE: As hoped for, a reader brings forth more information (a tip of the hat) which suggests the issue is a little different than the news report had it. (We’re not shocked by that.) At the same time, we’re not sure our conclusion is much changed - other than that the city’s, as it turns out, is closer to it than we thought. Regardless, anyone reading the previous also needs to know the following. (more…)

There’s such a thing as blurring the lines between government and private interests to the point that a government supported by all of us might operate to the benefit of some. It’s a reasonable ethical issue.

But there’s also such a thing as shutting government off from from people and the world around it - of shutting down interaction and communication in the interest of ethical purity. And that’s hardly any better.

Credit the Legislative Administration Committee, meeting Friday at Salem, with seeing as much. (more…)

Idaho Democrats peel off a really strong shot at Idaho Republicans so seldom it’s worth notice when they do. And notwithstanding that the speaker in this case, Boise attorney Grant Burgoyne, is a friend of long standing, it should be noted too because it could carry some resonance.

The target was a proposal adopted last weekend by the Idaho Republican Party, then as the Democrats are now meeting in convention at Idaho Falls. That party chose to adopt a voting system much that like used in Oregon and a number of other states, a party registration system: Voters declare which if any party they declare, and then vote only for those candidates for nomination. Idaho’s current system allows people to enter the voting booth and vote for the candidates of any (single) party they choose.

In years past, Republicans have been wary of such approaches, because Idaho has so many voters who consider themselves independent but ordinarily vote for Republican candidates. If you force them to define themselves more closely, the logic has gone, they might take that independent tag more seriously, and start splitting their votes instead of voting straight Republican. That’s the viewpoint that exudes confidence. The alternative, where the Idaho Republicans went last week, was to worry about Democrats and others crossing over to weaken the Republican position. In truth, there’s seldom been much evidence that’s been a significant factor in Republican primary results. But the Republicans opted for the party-registration approach.

Burgoyne’s riposte: “There are a lot of people in this state that refuse to identify with a specific party. … What the Republicans are really proposing is to take away the rights of people to vote.”

Try coming up with a positive-sounding response to that one.

When a committee of experienced financiers this fall examines the financial options available for rebuilding or replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle, it probalby will slow down a groan a bit when it gets the proposal offered today by Mayor Greg Nickles.

Not because it’s irrational or unfeasible. But there’s an uncomfortable amount of betting on the come involved in it, and for that reason we suspect the search for a winning formula probably will go on.

To back up: The Viaduct is a roadway roughly paralleling the shoreline of Elliot Bay in Puget Sound, between the water and the downtown hillside. the roadway is raised and limited-access. For some , it is a visual abomination; for us (and we fit mainly into this camp). It’s a great piece of transportation workmanship, because it actually allows drivers to swiftly (most of the time) cross from one side of downtown to the other. The problem is that it is unstable. A single serious geologic jolt could bring it crashing down.

Dealing with it somehow is going to be expensive, and there’s no way around that. Maybe the least expensive way would be eliminating it and throwing traffic onto the surface streets, but in this already traffic-clogged city, few have the stomach for that. The other options: Rebuild it more sturdily more or less where it is, or build a tunnel underneath. The former now has an estimated price tag of up to $2.4 billion, the latter about $3.6 billion. You can reasonably expect both numbers to rise with time. (more…)

Mostly when new state parks arrive, they arrive as a fait accompli - such as when a donor offers lands and, after some quiet negotiations, the state agrees to take it over and turn it into a park.

Something a little different will be happening when the East Idaho State Park Site Selection Committee convenes on July 18 - it will actually consider original suggestions from Idahoans about what they would like to see in a new park, to be considered further by the Department of Parks & Recreation. the department notes that “Traditionally, the parks we have developed fall into four categories” - recreation, natural, heritage and recreation trailway - which leads us to wonder: Can someone come up with a useful idea that busts the boundaries?

David Frazier’s Boise Guardian web site has been collection and passing on the ideas. none so far look like boundary-busters, but a number seem like nifty ideas. (Frazier’s favorite is “A living history park where agricultural and pioneer skills from an earlier time could be demonstrated.”) He’s posted quite a few so far, and they’re worth a look.

What might happen, one wonders, if the Oregonian were to run a story about how Portland’s conservative talk icon, Lars Larson, had been muzzled by management at his station - on request on the ad sales department?

Would it be that “should listeners get a whiff of censorship, you’ll have an outcry of epic proportions”? Maybe. And just such a report might be not far off.

That quote just above came from Brian Maloney of Inside Radio, who reported that at a recent industry seminar, “KXL Program Director James Derby stunned many in the audience by admitting outright that Lars Larson was prohibited from further criticism of a local hospital’s practices, after it complained to the station. … Making matters far, far worse, Derby admitted that it was pressure from the sales department that led to Larson’s muzzling. According to him, the hospital in question had finally signed an advertising contract after a long period of lobbying by the station. As a result, account executives weren’t happy to hear it criticized on the air.” (A hat tip to Oregon Media Insiders for the link.)

There was no immediate response from Larson, and no, there appears to be no reference to it on his web site.

Maybe, back in Portland, everyone still is trying to figure out their next move. But you can bet that someone will make one before long, and it could result in an entertaining counterpart to the Independence Day fireworks.

Our first thought about this year’s fire season was that it should be a little lighter than most of those in recent years. After all, there’s more water up in the hills, more water moving around, even a little flooding in spots. And so far it hasn’t been an especially hot or dry summer.

But all that water is generating a lot more plants. (Our garden is doing much better this year than last, thanks.) And those plants seem to be generating a lot more fires.

Here’s the national fire picture, from the National Interagency Fire Center at Boise, year to date, comparing the last few years.

2006 (1/1/06 - 6/22/06) Fires: 53,563 Acres: 3,187,940
2005 (1/1/05 - 6/22/05) Fires: 27,906 Acres: 745,959
2004 (1/1/04 - 6/22/04) Fires: 35,889 Acres: 790,941
2003 (1/1/03 - 6/22/03) Fires: 25,338 Acres: 520,384
2002 (1/1/02 - 6/22/02) Fires: 42,846 Acres: 2,283,493
2001 (1/1/01 - 6/22/01) Fires: 38,742 Acres: 861,714

The average through that period is 38,914 to this point in the year; you’ll notice we’re considerably exceeding it this year. In fact, on the averages so far, this is shaping up as possibly the worst fire year for a long time.

What’s helped - and the main reason you’ve not been hearing about it much yet - is that most of these fires so far in 2006 have been small and unspectacular, and some have been controlled burns. At the moment no fires are reported in Washington or Oregon, and just one (near Wendell, but good sized at 8,700 acres) in Idaho. But the way the year is progressing, things may not stay that way. Keep a watch.

When Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski hired consultant Jim Ross to run his re-election campaign on Wednesday, he apparently gave little indication why Ross, whose campaigns have centered in the San Francisco area where he lives, was his choice. (His previous manager resigned after the primary election.)

We can only guess what Kulongoski’s reasons were. But after checking into Ross, his background, his campaigns and his views on the subject, we can suggest at least one very good one: He may have concluded that turnout will be the key to winning the November election, and he wants on board one of his party’s top experts in making it happen - and Ross is, and has.

His signature race also has some hallmarks similar to this one. In 2003 Willie Brown was retiring as mayor of San Francisco, and a range of people filed for the job. The general election resulted in a mid-sized win for Gavin Newsom, a businessman who had won elective office in San Francisco a few times. But there would be a runoff, and polling quickly showed a very close race with second-place Matt Gonzalez; both were Board of Supervisors members, but Gonzalez seemed to have energized more of the liberal activist core - a key to winning in The City. (Does the dynamic - a close race as the two-way runoff begins - sound a bit familiar?)

Enter Ross. In a short but influential (certainly much linked-to) article on line, Ross described what happened that gave Newsom a strong runoff win. (more…)

Aquick bit of amusement: Dave Oliveria asks his northern Idaho/eastern Washington readers which towns in either state they would not want to live in. Of course, “Besides Athol?”

The pile of responses are sometimes funny and sometimes surprisingly enlightening.

Who’s the most popular senator in the Northwest (and elsewhere)? SurveyUSA has the answers.

The polling company, which polls state by state in coordination with local organizations (TV stations, in the Northwest), has been doing regular popularity numbers on top elected officials. As of June, here are the numbers for the region’s Senate delegation:

None of them were super-high; Crapo, who ranked highest, was 27th among the 100 senators. Cantwell ranked at 80; poor luck for her that the lowest-ranking of the senators is also the only one in the region up for election this year.

In 2008, however, Idaho’s Craig and Oregon’s Smith return to the ballot (assuming they’re running again - neither has announced). Neither have overwhelming numbers, according to SUSA, and Smith’s in particular seem a little weak. If Democrats fare well in November in Oregon, the partisan knives will be out for Smith before long. An approval rating at 47% isn’t where you want it to be if you’re heading up to an election.

One of the flaws with a lot of “property rights” arguments is that only one type of property interests - one type of rights - tends to be addressed, and complexities of real-world real estate get missed. Consider the case of the owner of a manufactured home park at Wilsomville.

Wilsonville is on the southern edge of the Portland metro area - about as far away from downtown as commuters en masse will live - and it is surrounded by some of the area’s classiest and highest-priced property (million-dollar horse estates and the like). For some years Roger Ash has owned a manufactured housing park called the Thunderbird Mobile Club, which has provided spaces for about 270 of what used to be called “mobile homes.” How, because the property could be much more valuable used for high-end housing or other purposes, he wants to sell. (more…)

It flies in the face of conventional Washington politics, of campaign finance numbers, of the political atmospherics and more. but the polling numbers look consistent: The Washington Senate race keeps getting tighter and tigher.

The latest Rasmussen Reports Poll on the race shows a lead by Democratic incumbent Senator Maria Cantwell over her Republican challenger, insurance company executive Mike McGavick, of 44%-40% - just about at the margin of error.

Apart from the closeness, two aspects here ought to give the Cantwell people big worries. One is that her lead has been diminishing, steadily, since January, from 15% then, to 13% in March, to 8% in April and 5% in May. About the only consolation is that the race may not be tightening quite as fast as it was.

The other, maybe bigger, issue is that since March or so she has fallen below the 50% mark, and an incumbent held to below 50% is an incumbent in high risk. Again, a minor consolation: McGavick’s numbers are up only 3% since the polling started last fall, so he hasn’t been gaining a lot, either. (The counter to that would be that McGavick is still introducing himself to voters, while Cantwell already is well known.)

These results aren’t unqie; they fit generally with other recent polling results as well. Consider this from Survey USA, which polled only favorable/unfavorable about incumbent senators: Cantwell polled 48% favorable and 43% unfavorable - again, not good for an incumbent.

One thing this suggests is that Washington residents, so far, arent’ falling in love with either one of them.