1. Morning Fizz hears that mayoral candidate Mike McGinn bombed when he met with the GSBA, Seattle’s gay business association, a few days ago. The word on McGinn from some gay business owners: “Really rude.”
2. Unsatisfied with the two mayoral candidates? Well, this guy is apparently running. On the “Ballard: Superpower of the Future” ticket.
3. Picture this: Reagan Dunn as Dow Constantine. Morning Fizz hears that the frat-boyish Republican King County Council Member is playing the role of County Exec candidate and Democratic County Council Member Constantine in campaign rival Susan Hutchison’s debate rehearsals.
Constantine and Hutchison face off next Thursday on KCTS 9 at 6 pm in a live, televised debate.
4. On Tuesday, the state’s Public Employment Relations Commission dismissed a complaint from the Seattle Police Officers Guild (the police union) against the city.
The Guild argued that the city violated labor law when—at the behest of City Council Member Nick Licata in 2006—the council amended city code, allowing the police accountability review board to look at un-redacted reports about alleged police misconduct.
Overturning an earlier ruling by the city Examiner, the state found the council’s amendments—which allow for greater public oversight of the SPD—were kosher.
Here’s the ruling.
5. PubliCola intern Jake Blumgart published a story this week in Campus Progress, a national lefty youth publication out of D.C.
Blumgart’s article is all about The Washington Bus—the rambunctious local organizing group that’s dedicated to getting young people active in politics. Blumgart spins Washington Bus’ success in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest as a model for activating youth.
In Seattle, where their presence is strongest, Washington Bus registered thousands of new voters before November elections last year; now, they are fighting to sustain voter participation beyond the high-visibility presidential elections. They recently ran a “You Are Perfect” postcard campaign that reminded thousands of Washington 18 to 29 year olds to keep their voting record perfect by participating in this year’s local primaries and not just in presidential elections. Each recipient received three postcards and a phone call, their addresses and phone numbers obtained from public record.
The Bus also uses a street team of eye catching robots to collect voter pledges and phone numbers (which tend to be far more reliable than the state’s information). Their tactics seem to be getting the desired results. Youth voter turnout in non-presidential years tends to be quite low, but according to the Win/Win Network, young voters from Seattle’s King County who got the “You Are Perfect” treatment were 18 percent more likely to vote than those who didn’t.
“The Bus has become a stop along the trail for candidates who are looking for endorsement and support,” says Christian Sinderman, founder of Northwest Passage, one of the premier political consulting agencies in Seattle. “They go to environmentalists, they go to labor, they go to business, and they go to the Bus. And it’s because they’ve got younger voters invested in the process in a way no one else has.”
Such efforts really can change the balance of power in a region.
6. We buy it. Morning Fizz was at a Washington Bus event last night at the VERA Project in Seattle Center.
Billed as “Parliament” (as in the legislative body or as in the ’70s funk band), the Bus invited young people to a free hip hop show starring GMK and THEESatisfaction where kids got to vote on which issues they thought Bus lobbyists should focus on during the upcoming legislative session in Olympia.
The choices for the Bus’ Olympia agenda: Education funding, transportation choices, health care access, equal rights, environmental protection, and good jobs. (I cheated and voted—voting for transportation choices), but the winner was environmental protection with education funding and equal rights in close second. So, that’s where the kids are at.
As for the music … well, as you know, we’re crazy about GMK. And that should make the following endorsement all the more meaningful: THEESatisfaction, a female rap duo with a Black Power filter and what seems to be formal conservatory training in jazz composition, stole the show.
They have a song called “Stimulus Package” (where they sing something about not getting their reparations check yet) that puts the Obama era in clearer focus. It also features a repeated and catchy aria flourish, from THEESatisfaction lead diva, Cat.
THEESatisfaction released an album in August called Snow Motion. Find it. Buy it.
7. Speaking of hip hop. Yesterday, Seattle Weekly fired Jonathan Cunningham, the paper’s music editor and, mostly, its outstanding hip hop writer. There’s no for-sure reason why, but inside sources tell Fizz that Village Voice Media, which owns the Weekly, wasn’t happy with Cunningham’s “managerial skills.”
Earlier this year, the Weekly brought Cunningham on from VVM’s Miami New- Times. Cunningham, the big guy who runs around hip-hop shows shaking his dreds and grabbing people’s t-shirts, came to the Weekly to legitimize “Reverb,” their music blog.
We will say this: Cunningham was the first Weekly music writer in over a decade to plug in and have an impact.
Cunningham first caught our attention in June with his sprawling, for-real feature on the white-kid party rappers known as Mad Rad. (Give us a call, man.)
Today’s Morning Fizz brought to you by:
