1. Heading into primary week, Sunday’s Tacoma News Tribune challenged Dino Rossi on his signature issue—earmarks.
Rossi has criticized Sen. Patty Murray for securing hundreds and millions in federal budget line items for Washington state, but voila—Rossi did the exact same thing as a legislator in Olympia.
The TNT reports:
However, in Olympia, as the chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Rossi wrote a 2003-05 state budget that contained dozens of member requests. Nestled in the budget were $19 million worth of projects funded through the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development and $5.6 million funded through the Community Services Facilities program.
It also provided grants of $500,000 or less to 47 projects through what was known as the Local Community Projects program.
The Rossi budget included $500,000 for a pirate-themed water park, $150,000 to acquire land for new gun and archery ranges, $500,000 for new turf at a high school, $350,000 for baseball fields, and money for a farmers market, a skateboard project, a naval museum and salmon habitat restoration.
Rossi also sounded a little like Murray when he described the money he’d secured.
“That wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t make it happen,” Rossi was quoted by the Northwest Asian Weekly as saying about $1.5 million he secured for the Wing Luke Asian museum in Seattle.
PubliCola wrote about state senator Rossi’s $25 million bundle of earmarks (and the irony) back in June, noting, additionally, that Rossi has benefited from a state budget earmark himself, one directed at the Everett Aqua Sox, a team he was part-owner of.
Rossi often takes credit for the state budget he wrote and passed in 2003, when he was a senator in Olympia. That budget contained nearly $25 million in earmarks.
Rossi has also personally benefited from earmarks. In 2007, the Everett Aquasox, of which Rossi was a part owner, got a $433,000 earmark in the state budget to upgrade their stadium. That one actually caught the attention of a conservative think tank, The Washington Policy Center—fans of Rossi, and vice versa—which included the earmark in its 2008 “Piglet Book” documenting wasteful pork in the state budget.
2. The Seattle Times ran a story this Sunday outlining Lake City residents’ concerns about a proposal to reduce NE 125th St. from four lanes to three, adding bike lanes and crosswalks. (As in other neighborhoods where the city has implemented similar “road diets,” neighbors have complained about traffic impacts and loss of parking.) The aim of the project is to calm traffic and make the street safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
BikeNerd will have more to say about the Times’ story later today, but it’s worth noting that the Times didn’t talk to a single neighborhood supporter of the project.
For a more complete explanation of why the city recommended the road diet, visit SDOT’s blog.
3. A front-page New York Times story on Sunday documented the secret “shadow war” the U.S. is waging around the world (although, no price tag mentioned) to fight al Qaeda—a new “scalpel” strategy that’s replacing the U.S. “hammer” strategy. They also described the plan as “multigenerational,” meaning it’s longterm.
Washington state’s own Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA, 9), who’s on the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committee, was quoted as a main advocate for the new strategy:
“Where we want to get is to much more small scale, preferably locally driven operations,” said Representative Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington, who serves on the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees.
“For the first time in our history, an entity has declared a covert war against us,” Mr. Smith said, referring to Al Qaeda. “And we are using similar elements of American power to respond to that covert war.”
4. A lot has been made about Clint Didier’s grassroots insurgency, particularly his ubiquitous yard signs.
However, heading into this week’s primary, Jennifer Duffy, Senior Editor at the non-partisan Cook Political Report, the insider’s bible for political punditry, threw a wet blanket on the notion that Didier has the momentum, telling PubliCola: “If the number of campaign signs mattered, Ron Paul would be president.”
