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Posts published in “Day: June 17, 2007”

Buyout mania

Today's must-read about how the Northwest's economy has been remade in recent years, and continues to be, in an essential overview in the Seattle Times.

We've been watching in recent months the long list of publicly held Northwest companies being swept up in asset management buyouts. This piece puts some of that into perspective: "All told, about one of every eight publicly traded companies in the Northwest has been sucked up by the wave of deals since the beginning of 2006. Ten were bought or merged in 2006, six more have been bought out so far this year, and four more deals are pending."

Where it doesn't go, which a future article should: What happens then to all these companies, and to the communities that rely on them?

The Grant races, I and II

Larry Grant

Larry Grant

Noteworthy material in today's Dan Popkey piece in the Idaho Statesman about the Larry Grant congressional campaign from last year, in which he lost to Republican Bill Sali, and prospectively about the next one as well. Those following politics in Idaho's 1st House district will find some useful background here.

The core point was that Grant hurt his on campaign in several significant ways. Popkey reported that "Democrats are grieving and resentful. Folks close to Grant don't want their names attached to criticism, but they want this story told in hopes he'll reform. They told me he's 'a hard guy to help,' and 'a pain' who 'knew everything'." That would be a recipe for trouble, all right.

A couple of specific instances certainly sound damning. In one, Grant was on the verge of winning support from the Associated General Contractors, ordinarily a very Republican group, but he "lectured the contractors on unions, the minimum wage and a gas-tax hike, and said his aim would be to clean up Congress. 'You may hate unions, but that's the way it is, guys,' Grant recalled telling AGC. 'I'm not afraid of being on the side of the working guy.'" In a second, he didn't even reply to an offer of no-cost media work from Bryant Reinhard, formerly of WRC Advertising, whose experience in working for successful Idaho Republican congressional and statewide campaigns goes back a couple of decades at least.

Popkey also quotes Grant as saying, "I really do believe that we did almost everything right in the campaign." There's a fair implication in this of trouble ahead for 2008, when Grant is planning a rerun against Sali.

We do disagree on a couple of other points.

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