Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Day: November 16, 2006”

A meta suit

November 16, 2006

Almost anything can become grist for a lawsuit, apparently. Not least the courts themselves. Or even - in effect - one court suing another over who has control of a legal case.

Washington courtsThat may be a slight twisting of the legal realities in City of Spokane v. County of Spokane, which made all the way to the state supreme court (which released its opinion today). But it isn't far off.

At the end of 2004, then-Spokane Mayor Jim West (yes, him again, but not about that) sent the word to the Spokaken County offices: Municipal court would go it alone. State law allows, quirkily, a municipal court - which ordinarily is under management of the court district court - to break off and become its own separate entity. That is what West was proposing in the case of Spokane.

Litigation arose when the city and the county disagreed over whether the city or county would be responsible for certain cases which were still active in the court at the time of transition. (The Supreme Court mostly sided with the city.)

It's what they call meta.

Beyond the Tide: WA 5

November 16, 2006

Second of four posts on competitive congressional contests in the Northwest.

Our clearest tipoff that the Washington 5th district contest was getting close came through inadvertence.

close districts mapRepublican Representative Cathy McMorris, seeking her second term in the Republican district, was checking into a telephone conference call with Republican Senator Larry Craig and a group of constituents, on the subject of veterans benefits, a hot topic in the 5th. Before entering the general call, she had what she thought was a private two-way talk with Craig, and said she was concerned that the race in her district was becoming very tight. Craig remarked that polling numbers looked bad all over. Neither of them knew a reporter for the Spokane Spokesman-Review was also on the line, blocked from announcing his presence but able to hear every word.

That was confirmation - since there hadn't been much objective evidence, such as polling - that Democrat Peter Goldmark was in fact closing on McMorris, putting her re-election at genuine risk.

It was a late-blooming race; Goldmark was more or less universally seen as a longshot when he entered earlier in the year. The seat once held by Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley was securely held by Republican George Nethercutt for a decade; having beaten Foley, Nethercutt was never again in serious jeopardy in the 5th. When he left to pursue (unsucessfully) a Senate seat in 2004, Democrats had high hopes that their candidate, a well-liked Spokane businessman who was well-funded, had a strong shot. McMorris, emerging from a three-way primary, clobbered him with 59.7% of the vote. In this Republican district, where the state legislative delegation was all Republican outside central Zpokane (and one Walla Walla representative), McMorris looked like a solid bet to hold the seat easily. In her first term, she engendered no major controversy or scandal, and seemed reasonably well liked personally.

Goldmark, though well known in agricultural circles, had never run for office before and had to introduce himself to the district. This proceeded slowly, especially since mass news media showed little interest in the contest, and since Goldmark was far behind McMorris in fundraising. (Fundraising picked up toward the end; he ultimately raised about $900,000 to McMorris' $1.5 million - money was probably not the deciding factor here.)

(more…)

Beyond the tide 1: OR 5

November 16, 2006

The concession Tuesday by Darcy Burner in her congressional race in Washington's 8th congressional district had to come as deep disappointment to her and her backers. But let's put a little edge on that. This was one of the seats, after all, that Democrats had a really high hope of picking up, long before those hopes started sprouting in far less likely places. There are new Democratic U.S. representatives-elect in places like Kansas and Nebraska and both seats in New Hampshire. The Democratic candidate for the at-large seat in Wyoming - Wyoming - came closer than Burner did to knocking off first-term Republican Dave Reichert.

close districts mapBurner's race was not the only case where Democrats were hoping for a big win last Tuesday: They were sensing the wave too in Idaho's 1st and Washington's 5th districts.

In this batch of posts we'll consider why the wave didn't lap up quite high enough in the Northwest, and what that suggests for the next cycle . . . which is, incidently, underway . . .

Let's begin with the other district that was, somewhat, in play in this last election: Oregon's 5th district.

(more…)