Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Olympia archive for Aug. 2008

THURSDAY, AUG. 28, 2008


Obama's speech: the preview...

Forty five minutes before Barack Obama takes the stage in Denver, his campaign has sent out excerpts from his prepared remarks.He talks about his background, about the nation's promise that hard work and sacrifice, each can pursue his or her dreams. But this is "one…

Continue reading this post »

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 27, 2008

Governor's race maps and Eastern Washington...

Catching up...My colleague Jim Camden has worked his political-mapping skills and come up with a couple of graphics in the governor's race.The upshot: the late-arriving ballots have been tilting slightly to Republicans."Dino Rossi has been gaining a bit of ground in the gubernatorial vote tally…

Continue reading this post »

TUESDAY, AUG. 26, 2008

Tax showdown in the Temple of Justice...

(and yes, the state Supreme Court's office building is really called the Temple of Justice.) Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown is doing something that would make many a politician squirm: going to court to make it easier to raise taxes. A 15-year-old law declaring that…

Continue reading this post »

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 20, 2008

Primary election postmortem: Everybody's happy...

After an afternoon of phone calls and emails with political consultants, campaign managers, etc., it's nothing but day-after sunshine and candies. Everyone I talked to claimed to be happy -- usually very happy -- with the results. Incumbents said challengers fell short of expectations, and…

Continue reading this post »


TUESDAY, AUG. 19, 2008





Goldmark/Sutherland: Very close

Democrat Peter Goldmark, who's led incumbent Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland in campaign fundraising for months, is neck and neck with Sutherland: 49 percent to Sutherland's 50 percent. (It's closer than it sounds, due to my rounding of these percentages.)As expected, urbanites seem to…

Continue reading this post »



Rossi's slightly ahead...

Now Rossi's up by a fraction of a percent: 47.49 percent to Gregoire's 46.5 percent.He's been helped by heavy leads in rural, sparsely populated counties, primarily east of the Cascades. But Gregoire's up by nearly five percentage points in Snohomish County -- a populous battleground…

Continue reading this post »



And in Spokane...

Gregoire's beating Rossi 48 percent to 45 percent in the earliest returns. Also, local guy John Aiken Jr. can take heart: among the 8 much-lesser-known contenders for governor, he's currently in the lead, with a statewide 2 percent.

Continue reading this post »


More primary-eve predictions...

More top-two predictions from The Moderate Washingtonian blog, including NE WA races:(Central Spokane)3rd House District #1:Alex Wood [D] 55%John Waite [I] 19%(Spokane Valley area)4th House District #2:Diana Wilhite [R] 32%Tim Hattenburg [D] 29%(A crescent around western Spokane)6th House District #1:Don Barlow [D] 47%Kevin Parker [R]…

Continue reading this post »

MONDAY, AUG. 18, 2008

Nearly one in six state lawmakers unopposed...

Barring effective write-in challenges, lots of state lawmakers are getting a free ride to re-election this year.Two dozen state lawmakers, including local Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville and Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, are running without even a token opponent on the ballot.Among them:-Rep. Al O'Brien, D-Seattle,-Rep.…

Continue reading this post »


Local blogger re: political pitches: Enough.

Also with the rainy-Monday-morning-coffee: a rant from Stevenl at Olympia's Olyblog community blog.In comments that I suspect a lot of people can empathize with -- and more so as Nov. 4 nears -- Stevenl bemoans the flood of glossy political postcards, radio and TV ads,…

Continue reading this post »


FRIDAY, AUG. 15, 2008


THURSDAY, AUG. 14, 2008

Coming to a Rosauer's near you: Free alcohol...

By random selection, it says, the state Liquor Control Board has picked the 15 independently-owned grocery stores that will be allowed to offer free wine and beer samples to customers, starting this fall.Another 15 chain stores will be picked soon.State lawmakers were extremely wary of…

Continue reading this post »


Rossi: What I'd do now about the budget...

Trying to trump Gov. Gregoire's recent announcement of a hiring freeze and other budget-trimming measures, Republican challenger Dino Rossi says he'd:-launch a year-long hiring freeze,-and shrink consulting contracts 20 percent, travel 10 percent and supply purchases 10 percentRossi says the state should not only hire…

Continue reading this post »


THURSDAY, AUG. 7, 2008

Short takes and breaking news from the Washington Legislature and the state capital.



Blog Archives

Aug. 2008
28 27 26 20 19
18 15 14 07 06
05 04 01