Mulloy Hansen had been a Mormon missionary in France for just a few months in early 1967 when he got word he was getting a new roommate and partner to seek converts in a working class section of Paris.
The 19-year-old Canadian teenager, who'd spent part of his life on a farm in Alberta, knew only a little about his new mission partner: He was the new leader for that district of the Mormon mission to France. He was a bit older, and had been in France about eight months longer. His father was a former Detroit auto executive who’d become a governor.
His new mission partner’s name: Mitt Romney. . .

To read the rest of this story, or to comment, go inside the blog.

As candidates wander around their respective district, county or state looking for support, it’s up to us the voters to have an idea what to expect from them.
They’re trying to cajole your vote with cheesy pictures in brochures or fancy camera work in commercial. It’s our job to make them work for that vote with something more than a nice smile or a catchy slogan on a billboard.
The assignment for Voter 101 is to figure out what’s important to you, and ask the candidate standing at your door or behind the podium “What’s the plan, Stan?”
The Washington Roundtable figured one out recently . . .

To read the rest of this item, or to comment, go inside the blog.

OLYMPIA — If your motor is racing because Washington's gasoline prices are going up, while most of the rest of the country's prices are going down, here's something that may tach it  up further:

There is now a state agency in charge of monitoring and reporting on gasoline prices and supplies. Gov. Chris Gregoire assigned that task to the state Department of Commerce.

Among its new duties, Commerce will “closely monitor Washington state and West Coast supplies and prices.” Spin Control will suggest it's first few reports:

“Hey, gas is getting damned expensive.”

“Hey, it's even worse than last week.”

“Geez, we can hardly afford to drive to work gas is so expensive. Can we have a raise?”

The department is also charged with “reporting any market concerns to the attorney general's office.” That's an interesting idea, but it could get her in trouble with the Democratic Party. If Commerce tells the AG's office they think there's something fishy about gas prices, and the AG does something to the oil companies to make them lower the prices, Republican Rob McKenna might be elected governor for life in the November election.

Gregoire also sent letters to all the refineries in Washington, including to the boss of BP's Cherry Point refinery, which is reputed to be part of the reason prices are going up because a fire earlier this spring forced it to shut down. It's not what you'd call a “come to Jesus” letter demanding Cherry Point stop dinking around and open the gasoline spigots. It's more of a reasoned, “we're all in this together” sort of missive:

“I urge you to take all prudent measures to increase production and supplies sufficiently to reduce prices for our consumers,” it says in part. The whole letter can be found here.

Sure, at nearly 5 minutes, it's too long. But it's still fun. Pay particular attention to the props he uses along the way.

Jay Inslee talks charter schools to WEA

Jay Inslee talks collective bargaining to WEA

Job creation may be the main talking point of the two main candidates for governor, but another topic is rivaling jobs as a top issue in the campaign.

That’s thanks in part to outgoing Gov. Chris Gregoire, who has loudly backed the creation of new taxes to support the state’s Constitutional requirement to provide quality basic education.

The state Supreme Court ruled early this year that the state hasn’t met its obligation to adequately fund education programs.

But both Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna, and Democratic Congressman Jay Inslee — Gregoire’s pick to succeed her — disagree with her assertion that more taxes are necessary.

Gregoire spoke strongly last week to the Washington Education Association for the need for “new revenue” to raise an extra $1 billion in the next two-year budget. The teachers union held its annual convention at the Spokane Convention Center.

The next day, however, Inslee addressed the WEA convention and largely avoided the topic of how to address the the Supreme Court ruling.

In an interview before the speech, Inslee said he would focus efforts to improve education funding on improving the economy, which would increase tax revenue.

“The most fundamental thing we need to do is get people back to work in this state,” he said. “That’s the real driver of revenue creation in our state.”

Inslee said he also would find savings by instituting efficiency programs that have grown popular in corporate America as well as in some city’s like Spokane under former Mayor Mary Verner.

McKenna says growing the economy is important, but says Democratic administrations have allowed the percentage of the state budget devoted to education to shrink as other programs have grown. He said he would reverse that trend.

“Moving forward we have to focus on reform and on spending more of the state budget on education,” McKenna said in an interview last week. “That means we’re not going to spend as much on other parts of the budget – that we won’t allow other parts of the budget to grow as fast as they have been growing.”

OLYMPIA — An initiative that would allow the state to form as many as 40 charter schools over the next five years was filed today with the Secretary of State in an effort to get the proposal on the November ballot.

They would be “public charters” which mean they'd be non-profits with the same academic standards as other public schools, but would be exempt from some regulations on curriculum and budget.

The League of Education Voters, which filed the proposal, and its allies have less than two months to gather the 241,153 valid signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. A short time span for most campaigns, although Costco managed to get enough signatures for its “get the state out of the liquor business” initiative in less time last year.

Mark Funk, a campaign spokesman, said the group would use both volunteer and paid-signature collectors to get enough signatures in the short time available. The campaign hasn't raised any money yet, but expects to get contributions from people and groups who have long supported that aspect of education reform, and most money will likely come from individual rather than corporate sources, Funk said.

Washington voters rejected charter schools in 2004, and the Legislature has considered but not passed them since then. Legislation similar to the initiative was introduced with fanfare early in the last legislative session with bipartisan sponsors, but it met with strong opposition from Gov. Chris Gregoire and legislative leaders in both chambers, and eventually died.

Text of the initiative can be found here.

So much for magical thinking.

The Occupy Spokane activist who challenged state Rep. Kevin Parker's reelection bid already has dropped out of the race.

Wayne Kyle Spitzer, a Democrat, confirmed today that he decided against running for Parker's 6th District House seat. He filed paperwork officially dropping out on Monday.

Spitzer said recently that Parker would be tough to beat, but that with some “magical thinking” it could be done.

His withdrawal means that for the second election cycle in a row, Parker will not face a challenge to reelection.

OLYMPIA — The number of vacant seats in the Legislature continues to grow, as Sen. Cheryl Pflug accepted a gubernatorial appointment Monday to the Growth Management Hearings Board.

Pflug, R-Maple Valley, represents the suburban King County 5th Legislative District, first elected to the House in 1998, then appointed to the Senate in 2004 when Dino Rossi resigned to run for governor. (Those with really long memories might recall that the 5th District used to be located in Spokane County prior to 1992.)

Gov. Chris Gregoire announced this afternoon she was appointing Pflug to a six-year term on the board, which settles disputes over planning and development issues in cities and counties around the state, and two representatives each from Eastern Washington, Central Puget Sound, and the rest of the state West of the Cascades.

Pflug filed for re-election last week, listing her party preference as “Independent GOP Party.” She will have to withdraw from that race because she can't serve on the board and in the Legislature. That leaves the seat to a race between Democrat Mark Mullet and Republican Brad Toft.

It's also at least the third surprise departure from the Senate this month. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, announced May 3 that she was retiring and Sen. Joe Zarelli of Ridgefield, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee and a key player in this year's budget negotiations, announced last Friday that he'd had enough, too.

The Spokane County Republican Party plans to go to court this week in an effort to block the county commissioner campaign of Democrat John Roskelley.

The county GOP filed a challenge to Roskelley's current voter registration on Friday, and asked Auditor Vicky Dalton to remove his name from the ballot for the District 1 commissioner race, where he is challenging incumbent Republican Commissioner Todd Mielke. But an auditor has no authority to strike a name from the ballot, Dalton said, and the party will have to convince a Superior Court judge to take  him off the ballot.

“This is a very clear-cut case,” Matthew Pederson, county GOP chairman said, contending Roskelley is trying to “deceive voters” with the address.

“It's just politics,” said Roskelley.

To read the rest of this item, or to comment, click here to go inside the blog.

Attached to this post are the two proposed citizen intiatives filed recently with the city of Spokane clerk's office. The supporters of each initiative still need to gather signatures in order to force the issues onto the city ballot.

Here is the story about the proposals.

Finally, I apologize to anyone who tried to find them on Spin Control earlier today, as the print version of the story directs interested readers to do.

Documents:

Washington’s Top 2 primary doesn’t just bring out a wealth of candidates. It brings out the creativity in some of those candidates as they list which party they “prefer.” Preference is a key part of the Top 2, because it doesn’t limit the general election field to one Democrat and one Republican, so no matter what party is listed on the ballot, if a candidate finishes first or second, he or she goes on to November. Finish third or worse and it’s “Later, gator.”
This year we have a candidate from the Human Rights Party running for secretary of state, candidates from the FDR Democratic Party, the Progressive Independent Party, the Employmentwealth Party and the 99% Party running for various Congressional seats (on the West Side, of course.) Lieutenant governor attracted the most creativity, with candidates inventing an Indep Republican Party, a Democracy Indep. Party and a Neopopulist Party. And there is the usual schism for between candidates who want to list Republican Party and others who want to list the GOP Party. The latter ignore the redundancy because spelling out the acronym would mean they prefer the Grand Old Party Party.
Or they just really like to party.
  

When the dust from candidate filing week settled at the close of business Friday, there were a few surprises in who is running for what. But the biggest surprise was who isn’t running.
For the first time since 1996, a Spokane primary election ballot will be printed without Barbara Lampert’s name on it.
The retired nurse’s aide said after that first campaign 16 years ago she planned to run every year for something until she got elected or turned 70. In that span, she has run for almost every office short of president in that span, from U.S. Senate down to city council member. She is such a fixture that some political reporters joked recently about betting on which race it would be.
Joke’s on us. Lampert, at 66, is shy of her self-imposed age limit and hasn’t wound up with the most votes in a general election. But Friday she said she’s getting spoiled in retirement and isn’t up to a run this year. “I was just too busy with other things,” she said. “There’s no sense to kill myself.”
To read the rest of this item, go inside the blog

OLYMPIA – Washington’s primary ballot got longer and more interesting before elections offices closed for filing Friday afternoon.

Spokane-area ballots will have nine candidates for governor, eight for U.S. Senate, seven for secretary of state, six for lieutenant governor, five for a Spokane legislative seat, four for Eastern Washington’s 5th District congressional seats. No partridges or pear trees, though.

Many of the candidates for major offices are well-known, and have been campaigning for months. Some entering the field this week are perennial candidates who regularly file for something, but rarely make it past a primary. Mike the Mover, owner of a Seattle area moving company who legally changed his name to reflect his occupation, filed this year for Senate, as did Will Baker of Tacoma and Glen Stockwell, a Ritzville resident who has tried legislative campaigns in the past.

The Aug. 7 election is a Top 2 primary, which means the candidates with the most, and second most votes move on to the general, regardless of party. Candidates say which party the prefer, but that doesn’t signify party support, or even recognition.

That means some races in November could match two Democrats or two Republicans. It also means candidates are free to describe their party preference in creative ways, to make up parties, or say they have no party preference at all.

For a list of candidates appearing on Spokane-area ballots in the primary, and their stated party preference, go inside the blog.

Downtown Spokane businessman John Waite said Friday that he has decided not to run for the state House afterall.

Waite said earlier this month that he would run as a Democrat for the seat held by state Rep. Andy Billig, who is giving up his seat to run for state Senate.

With five candidates who have filed for the seat, Waite said he decided this afternoon that it already was too crowded and that the entry of former City Councilman Bob Apple would make the race more difficult because he was hoping for strong support in Apple's former council district in Northeast Spokane. Waite ran for Apple's seat last year.

Waite said he will support City Councilman Jon Snyder in the race because of Snyder's experience in small business and his work promoting sustainability.

“He fits my agenda as well as anybody,” he said.

OK candidates, it's down to the wire. You have until 5 p.m to file for statewide office, and 4 p.m. to file for an office with a district that is solely within Spokane County.

As we approach the deadline, the field for one of the races got smaller. Spokane businessman John Waite posted on Facebook that he was dropping out of the 3rd District primary for an open state House of Representatives position. Waite said he was throwing his support behind Spokane City Councilman Jon Snyder.

That leaves three Democrats — Bob Apple, Marcus Riccelli and Snyder — as well as Republicans Tim Benn and Morgan Oyler, in that race.

For a list of all candidates filed for offices on Spokane-area ballots as of 3 p.m., go inside the blog.

Gregoire on the need to raise taxes

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire told the state’s largest teachers union that she will work to increase taxes to help the state meet its mandate to provide quality education.

“I am traveling the state to send the message to legislators and taxpayers that we must have a new source of revenue because we cannot have money in the good times and no money in the bad times,” Gregoire said. “We have to have money all the time to meet our obligation to ensure the education of our children.”

Gregoire spoke Thursday evening at Spokane Convention Center during the annual convention of the Washington Education Association. About 1,000 members are attending the weekend event.

The governor, who opted not to run for a third term, won’t be governor when the Legislature convenes in January to consider the next two-year budget cycle and if tax increases will be part of that budget. Even so, she said she will remain active on the issue of education funding.

“It is time for us to step up to the responsibility that we as citizens in the state have and that is a long-term sustainable revenue source,” she said.

Washington's congressional delegation is a diverse group that doesn't agree on much, whether it's who's waging a “war on women” or what's the right policy on taxes, budget cuts, health care reform or immigration.

But they managed to rally around one favorite topic this morning: Putting the first new KC-46A tankers at Fairchild Air Force Base.

OK, so it's kind of a no-brainer that planes assembled in the state at a Boeing plant would stay in the state at Fairchild. Still, all nine representatives and both senators signed on to a letter today to Air Force Secretary Mike Donley and various generals that Fairchild would be a really great spot for the first '46As because it has both Active Duty and Air National Guard units that fly tankers, an improved runway, and is close to the Asia-Pacific theater. That plus the federal government has spent about $400 million on a wide range of improvements over the last few decades. (Stuff that we assume the secretary and the generals already know, but hey, they're busy guys so it probably doesn't hurt to remind them.)

A copy of the full letter is inside the blog.

Changes to the way citizens can sidestep elected leaders to pass their own laws received the endorsement on Wednesday of Mayor David Condon.

But there will be more steps before the new rules become law if some citizens have their way.

Ian Moody, a marijuana reform advocate and candidate for Congress filed a referendum in hopes of preventing the ordinance, which was approved by City Council on April 30, from becoming law.

Supporters of the referendum will have until June 14 to collect 6,262 signatures of registered voters in the City of Spokane – 10 percent of the number of people who voted in the last city election – to prevent the rules from becoming law on June 15. If enough signatures are verified, the City Council will reconsider the ordinance. If the council upholds its decision, voters would have the final say in November 2013 election – though the City Council could opt to hold the election sooner.

OLYMPIA — The middle of filing week, as usual, brings some familiar names to the primary ballot and at least one newcomer: Mike the Mover has filed for governor. John Adams has filed for state insurance commissioner.

Ian Moody of Spokane has filed for the U.S. House in Eastern Washington's 5th District.

The Mover runs for some major political office every two years. In 2010 and 2006 it was U.S. Senate. In 2004 it was governor. In 2000, insurance commissioner. He seemed to be ready to sit out 2008 and didn't show up anywhere during fililng week, but later filed to run for governor as a write-in candidate.

As his name (which was legally changed years ago from Michael Shanks), he runs a moving company in the Seattle area.

John Adams, who has a presidential-sounding name, has run for insurance commissioner in 2004 and 2008, capturing the Republican nomination both times, then spending small sums — $1,346 in '08 and $997 in '04 — on his campaign. He got about 41 percent of the vote the first time and about 39 percent the second, which is a pretty good vote-to-dollar-spent ratio, in a “statistics are for losers” kind of metric.

Moody is active in efforts to legalize marijuana and the Sensible Spokane Alliance. His congressional campaign will dovetail with marijuana intiative efforts, and bring attention to problems with federal marijuana laws, he said. He's running with no party preference and describes himself as a social progressive and fiscal conservative.

For the latest list of candidate filings for offices on Spokane-area ballots, go inside the blog.

OLYMPIA — Attorney General Rob McKenna says state residents shouldn't be taking advice from Kim Kardashian, at least not about shoes that supposedly help build you up without a trip to the gym.

The state got a piece of the settlement between Skechers shoe manufacturers for several models of “Shape Up” footwear that don't deliver what Kardashian promises in the above ad.

“Advertising materials claimed that consumers may ‘get in shape without setting foot in a gym’ even though there’s no good evidence to show the shoes work as advertised,” McKenna said in a press release. “Don’t cancel your gym membership. File these sketchy footwear claims under ‘too good to be true.’”

The state gets about $117,000 in the settlement, which will go for legal costs and education programs for health and fitness for women and girls. Consumers who bought Shape Ups, Tone Ups or Resistance Runners can apply for a partial refund by going on the Federal Trade Commission site.

A spokesman for McKenna's office says the refund is about $20, because the shoes weren't completely worthless. They still covered your feet, they just didn't work as advertised.