1. So far, King County Elections has received 395,000 votes. That is already the second highest primary turnout going back to at least 1998. Only the 2004 King County primary, with 466,000, was higher. (The 2008 primary vote was 363,000.)
Votes are still coming in. 395,000 is nearly a 37 percent turnout.
2. At a panel on election tactics sponsored by CityClub Tuesday afternoon, longtime political consultant and Mike McGinn campaign strategist Bill Broadhead (whose wife, Julie McCoy, is McGinn’s chief of staff) explained how social media has changed his approach to campaigns over the years.
“When I got into politics in the 1990s, it was a really simple formula,” Broadhead said: Call your base, come up with targeted mailings, and run the nastiest 30-second TV ads you could get away with.
Now, he said, campaigning is much more nuanced and fractured—particularly if, as was the case with the McGinn campaign, you don’t have a lot of money. He said the key to campaigning with social media was making the campaign seem sincere, not contrived by consultants. “People’s radar is so fine-tuned and there’s so much cynicism. One of the tricks is to make sure [social media outreach] is pretty credible.”
Broadhead said getting people to change their Facebook or Twitter profile picture to McGinn’s logo turned out to be worth “more than a 30-second ad,” because those people were effectively making a “personal recommendation” to their network of friends, who trust them more than an ad on TV.
3. Some national media (if you count Erica’s favorite blog, Obama Food-o-rama, as national media) filed reports on Obama’s trip to Seattle.
Obama Food-o-rama details Obama’s lunch at Grand Central Bakery in Pioneer Square and Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein blogged about Obama’s next stop, the Sen. Murray fundraiser luncheon at the Westin—mostly to trash Obama for telling a dumb joke.
4. Back in July, the Washington State Board of Pharmacy suddenly stopped defending its pro-choice rules against a lawsuit from a religious pharmacist (the rules mandate that pharmacies must fill all scrips, including emergency contraception) because, despite winning the first round of the case, they decided they were going to scale back the guidelines.
Yesterday, the pharmacy board formally began the process, submitting a proposal that would allow pharmacies to refuse to fill scrips and send them to another pharmacy.
Lisa Stone, executive director of Legal Voice (a woman’s legal advocacy group), says:
“This is a step backwards; the existing rule should not be discarded by the Board of
Pharmacy. The existing rule has been upheld as constitutional by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. It is also sound public policy. Washingtonians expect the Board of Pharmacy … to ensure that patients’ health care needs are paramount.”
5. On Tuesday, Erica wrote a “C is for Crank” about Nicole Brodeur’s critique of SDOT’s road diet plan to make NE 125th safer for pedestrians and bikers. Part of Erica’s criticism was that Brodeur didn’t talk to any neighbors who supported the plan.
Yesterday, a neighbor who supports the plan emailed Brodeur to make the same complaint and invite the Times reporter to come check out NE 125th.
I am a mother of two (ages 8 and 12), pedestrian, transit rider and driver and I live two houses from the proposed NE 125th rechannelization. I wish you had visited our neighborhood and spoken with the many supporters of the project before you wrote your article.
Brodeur responded:
Thanks for the invite. I would love to come and visit and look, on foot, a road I have only traveled by car.
