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Posts published in “Day: September 8, 2008”

WA: Counties then and now

Not too much should be made of the vote totals out of the August Washington primary, in projecting ahead to possible November results.

Still, the primary offered a head to head matchup of sorts, albeit imperfect, between Democratic Washington Governor Chris Gregoire and Republican challenger Dino Rossi. So the question: Now that the votes are counted (takes a while in Washington), how do the results from the November 2004 general election differ from what we saw in August?

Both were close, that's for sure: 2004's was simply a photo finish, and the primary wound up with Gregoire getting 48.3% of the vote and Rossi 46.3% - also very close. But were there any suggestions of where voting patterns may have shifted? Maybe.

In 2004 Gregoire won eight counties: Cowlitz, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, King, Pacific, San Juan, Thurston and Whatcom - all on the west side, with the two major exclusions of the state's second and third largest counties, Pierce and Snohomish, and the other large population base at Kitsap. (We note the list of Gregoire wins because it's the short list: Rossi won many more counties, most of them small, than she did.)

In the August primary, Gregoire got more votes than Rossi in 11 counties: Grays Harbor, Island, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Pacific, Pierce, San Juan, Snohomish, Thurston and Whatcom. She lost Cowlitz this time, but picked up Island, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish.

For all sorts of reasons not too much should made of this, partly because the margins in a number of the counties were small (in cases like Pierce and Kitsap, almost microscopic). But they do seem to be small pieces of evidence of shift.

Radio Free Salem

When you ask where the mass media - newspapers, radio, television - go from here, if you want content of use and quality, one thought jumps out: Go non-profit. Non-profit newspapers and television are (unless you count public television) essentially onexistent, but there's no reason they couldn't be developed and a useful part of the mix, especially if laws were changed to offer some encouragement.

For the moment, consider the recent growth of nonprofit community radio. There's not a lot of it around, yet, but we are seeing growth in the effort, in most of the larger metros in the Northwest and some smaller places too. (The big godfather of the form probably would be Portland's KBOO.)

The comes up owing to the welcome news out today that clearances have been received for development and airing of Radio Free Salem, a community radio station in Oregon's capital city. Part of the startup agreement is that the station must be on air by mid-2011; its backers anticipate a startup much sooner. The frequency is 88.5 FM.

We look forward to listening in.