Posts published in December 2009

There's periodic talk of this, of getting rid of any number of state boards and commissions. It gets mentioned a lot more than it happens.

It's begun to happen in Washington state, where Governor Chris Gregoire has now ordered an end to 17 state boards and commissions. She also asked for legislation to end 78 more (those are set up by state law).

The 17 out now: Aviation Advisory Committee, Cedar Creek Corrections Center Community Advisory Committee, Clallam Bay Corrections Center Community Advisory Committee, Connell Citizens Advisory Committee, Corrections Center for Women Community Advisory Committee, Family Planning and Reproductive Health Statewide Advisory Committee, Marysville Community Citizens Violation Board, McNeil Island Correction Center Community Advisory Committee, Olympic Corrections Center Community Advisory Committee, Peninsula Work Release Community Advisory Board, Penitentiary Community Advisory Committee, Public Health Improvement Plan Steering Committee, Religious Advisory Board, Special Commitment Center Advisory Board, Stafford Creek Liaison Committee, State Capacity for Disabilities Prevention Projects Consultants, State Genetics Advisory Committee.

Many of them, as you see, local or regional - not really statewide. And some of the others - you do wonder what some do.

But the larger question here: How many state boards and commissions are there overall? What's the total number (as in, 95 panels out of how many)? That number might be more stunning than the number for elimination.

Meant to post on this a while back (and thanks to the correspondent who sent the link) - it's a microcosm that ought to be more widely noted.

It's a useful microcosm in that the number of newspaper journalists has dropped by the tens of thousands over the last couple of years (around 25,000 this year alone), and tracking what has become of all those former journalists is tough on a national level. What they were doing was journalism: Watching and passing on useful information about the world around them in cases watchdogging and providing necessary oversight.

So what are they doing now?

The blog Safety Net, run by former journalists of the print Seattle Post-Intelligencer, has some answers locally. It surveyed the 140 who lost their jobs, and got 71 responses.

Of the 71, it found "Only 15 percent have found fulltime paid work in journalism. Another 25 percent are blogging, freelancing or working on journalism start-ups like Post-Globe or InvestigateWest for little or no money."

More are working in PR or other corporate jobs, but in all only a third have found full-time paid work of any sort.

Washington state law (RCW 46.63.030) allowed police to issue a ticket for a traffic infraction that they don't actually see, but have good reason to think occurred. There's some gray area here, and a Washington Supreme Court decision out today in Washington v. Andrew Magee shows how it can play out.

The time was April 2005 and the place State Route 512, a four-lane divided highway between Lakewood and Puyallup. State police fielded calls that someone was driving the wrong way on the highway. The court decision describes what happened then:

When the trooper arrived, she found Magee parked facing the wrong direction on the shoulder of the SR 512 on-ramp, nose to nose with another vehicle. Magee explained that he had been called by a friend whose car had broken down and that he was there to help jump-start the car. In order to more easily facilitate the jump-start, Magee told the trooper that he had turned his car around and pulled in front of his friend's car on the shoulder. There is some dispute, and the record is unclear, as to exactly how Magee maneuvered his car and whether he backed it down the on-ramp or turned it around on the shoulder. But
Magee contends he never traveled the wrong direction on the traveled portion of the road. Although the trooper never actually saw Magee driving, she concluded that Magee must have driven against traffic in order to reach his position and issued him a notice of infraction for negligent driving in the second degree.

Lower courts said that the trooper's issuing the citation was correct, or at least within the law. The Supreme Court threw it out: "the State argues that the trooper actually witnessed the citable offense because the negligent behavior was 'ongoing.' But negligent driving in the second degree is a moving violation. For the infraction to be valid, the movement must have been made in the officer's presence. Magee's driving occurred before the trooper arrived, the trooper never saw Magee operating his vehicle negligently, and none of the other circumstances outlined in RCW 46.63.030 were present. The trooper did not have authority to issue the notice of infraction."

One of the more naturally skillful minor party candidates the Northwest has seen in the last few cycles is Mary Starrett, who ran for governor in 2006 as nominee of the Constitution Party, which takes a conservative view. She was crisp, articulate and highly mediagenic - fitting, since she had years of professional work in Portland broadcasting.

She hasn't been especially visible politically since (she does have a Facebook page), but now she's announcing a run for the Yamhill County Commission. The commission is officially non-partisan, but as in so many places the sides are aligned. Two of the commissioners are Republicans (one is a former Republican legislator, and the other the mother of a Republican state senator). The third, Mary Stern, is considered the commission's Democrat, and she will be Starrett's target. Stern is broadly thought to be highly popular, and not at all an easy target. At the same time, Starrett may be helped by having to deal with no partisan labels. (Of course, Stern may as well.)

On the county level true, with mostly parochial issues under discussion. But this could be a hot race.

ADDITION Inadvertently not linked to in the original text here, but absolutely should have been - the story on Starrett's expected entrance showed up first in the McMinnville News-Register.

There are no absolute political monoliths; all places have their shades of support. Not even, for Republicans, places like Meridian, Idaho. Nor even, for Democrats, Seattle. Solidly lined-up as those places may be, overall.

Publicola has out a map showing the vote split in the close Seattle mayoral race between Mike McGinn, who won, and Joe Mallahan. Pulling implications here is a little dicey, since both are Democrats and not wildly different in their stands. But there is this: In very rough terms, McGinn was the candidate of the Democratic activists and outsiders, especially those most interested in environmental and labor issues, and Mallahan was the business candidate, backed by many of the downtown and moneyed interests and the political establishment.

With that in mind, consider the map, wherein McGinn's highest numbers are marked by reds and oranges and Mallahan's by blues and greens. McGinn territory seems marked by the downtown area, parts of southern Seattle (especially Columbia City) and some of the neighborhoods (looks like Ballard may be one) in the northwest, as well as the university district. A map to conjure with for a while.