1. According to the latest (May) campaign finance reports, Tim Eyman’s main funder in past elections, retired Woodinville financial adviser Mark Dunmire, still remains nowhere to be seen on Eyman’s latest initiative campaign. (We’ve been looking for Dunmire since April’s I-1053 report.)
However, 1053, which seeks to reinstate a requirement, overturned this past legislative session in Olympia, that any tax increase get a two-thirds vote of the legislature, did get a boost from some heavy hitters in the last month: Conoco Phillips ($25,000), Tesoro Companies ($25,000), the Washington Bankers Association ($25,000), and the Washington Restaurant Association ($20,000).
No wonder, as we reported late last week when the monthly reports first came in, Eyman’s May fundraising was killer—he climbed from $162,000 raised to $290,000 raised. However, in addition to the big corporate donations, Eyman himself loaned the campaign $40,000 this month, bringing his total personal campaign loan to $90,000 now. (I-1053 also reports $288,000 in expenditures.)
2. According to D.C. news site Politico this morning, the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee’s incumbent retention chair, U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), told donors he thought just nine Republicans were vulnerable this year—down from 30 seats he was worried about a year and a half ago. Pretty good news for the GOP. However, Rogers’ prognostication was bad news for a local Republican.
Among the nine Rogers is still worried about: U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA, 8).
3. City Council elections are still more than a year away, but sitting council members’ campaigns are already reporting a flurry of fundraising activity, suggesting that council incumbents know they’re vulnerable too in the city’s tough economic climate.
In the last month, city council member Bruce Harrell raised more than $14,000; council member Sally Clark transfered $80,000 from her surplus fund to her 2011 campaign; council member Jean Godden raised nearly $4,000; and council member Tim Burgess raised more than $3,000. Only Tom Rasmussen has not reported any campaign activity.
4. As for this year’s only city election battles, Seattle Municipal Court judge Edsonya Charles—who received the lowest ranking of any muni court judge from the King County Bar Association—is being challenged by assistant city attorney Ed McKenna.
McKenna won a dual endorsement with longtime incumbent Charles at the 37th District Democrats’ meeting last night in South Seattle. Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes made the endorsement motion for McKenna saying the McKenna had the leadership needed to reform the muni court.
5. Republican Chris Boyd, 30, an Afghan war vet, dropped out of the de facto GOP primary in the 3rd Congressional District (Southwest Washington) and endorsed Tea Party fave David Castillo over establishment favorite, state Rep. Jaime Herrera (R-18).
Boyd was charismatic on the stump, but he’d raised $0.
6. Yesterday in dueling oddball city newsletters, city council member Sally Clark sent out a 3,000-plus-word update that included an item about the “taco truck revolution,” an update on the city’s multifamily housing code, and a picture of her recent CAT scan (pictured below). Clark has had both pneumonia and bronchitis this spring, and apparently has a lot of time on her hands.
Moments after Clark’s lengthy missive landed in our inbox, council president Richard Conlin came through with his own equally verbose newsletter (topics: the South Park bridge, local food, the Zero Waste Initiative), which concluded with this “deep thought” from Stumbling on Happiness author Daniel Gilbert: “Economies thrive when individuals strive, but because individuals will only strive for their own happiness, it is essential that they mistakenly believe that producing and consuming are routes to personal well being.”
