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Today’s fun video: Warmup for tonight
Today’s fun video: Warmup for tonight
Triple-header debate night
Triple-header debate night
Inslee campaign cleared by state panel
OLYMPIA – The state’s campaign watchdog rejected complaints about contributions and spending by Democrat Jay Inslee while a small-business group tried to boost Republican Rob McKenna’s chances for governor Monday. Just days before Washington voters get their ballots in the mail and just over three weeks before the deadline to mail them back, the Public Disclosure Commission voted unanimously to reject a complaint against Inslee filed by McKenna’s campaign manager, Randy Pepple.
Final faceoff
WASHINGTON – They are two of the largest parts of the federal government. They’re growing. And they’re heading toward financial problems that will touch tens of millions of Americans unless something changes. Medicare is the nation’s biggest buyer of health care, spending $550 billion last year to provide care for 48.7 million Americans. The problem is that the taxes paid by workers and employers to finance the program aren’t covering the full cost, and the government since 2008 has been drawing off its trust fund to make up the difference. Barring changes, the trust fund runs out in 12 years – 2024 – and the government would have to raise taxes or cut services.
State awaits new governor
U.S. Senate Democratic incumbent Maria Cantwell coasted to the pole position in Washington’s top-two primary, but Republican challenger Michael Baumgartner, a state legislator from Spokane who captured the second-most votes and the final spot on the general election ballot, hasn’t let that deter him. The candidates are divided along fairly standard partisan lines.
Election resources
Brochures, advertising and campaign appearances can give voters a broad overview of candidate positions on the issues of the day. But politicians increasingly are relying on the Internet to lay out the nuts and bolts of their campaign platforms, and to dissect the initiatives being proposed by their opponents.
Heated issues carry ballot
Charter schools Supporters of Initiative 1240 think charter schools, which would be free of some of the rules governing standard public schools, will help the state meet its “paramount” duty of educating children. Opponents think they will make it harder to raise quality for all students, adding that voters have rejected them three times already.
Measures weigh on Idaho
U.S. Congress 1st Congressional District
Billig vs. McLaughlin, Energy
State Rep. Andy Billig, a Democrat, and Spokane City Councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin, a Republican, discuss their opinions about renewable energy. The two are running for state Senate in Spokane’s 3rd Legislative District.
PDC: Inslee campaign followed rules
PDC: Inslee campaign followed rules
McKenna: Too many permits, not enough help
McKenna: Too many permits, not enough help
S-R Video: Billig, McLaughlin consider the electric bus
S-R Video: Billig, McLaughlin consider the electric bus
Washington voters will decide fate of same-sex marriages
OLYMPIA – Three years ago, Washington voters approved an “everything but marriage” law, giving same-sex couples all the state-granted rights and benefits that married couples have. Now voters will decide whether to take the next step and allow marriage for all couples in the state, regardless of sexual orientation – something that has not yet been achieved by a public vote. Referendum 74 asks people to either approve or reject the state’s new law legalizing same-sex marriage. That law, passed earlier this year, is on hold pending next month’s vote.
Inslee, McKenna differ on economic fixes, challenge anti-tax claims
To turn the governor’s office Republican for the first time in a generation, Attorney General Rob McKenna seems intent on keeping the race focused on local issues and state politics. To hear him tell it, almost everything that’s wrong with Washington, from high unemployment to struggling businesses to underfunded schools, is the fault of Democrats who have controlled the governorship since 1985 and one or both houses of the Legislature since 1998.
Anti-gay marriage group airs TV advertisements
OLYMPIA – The group fighting to overturn Washington’s gay marriage law started running its first TV ads in the state on Thursday. The 30-second ad from Preserve Marriage Washington is running statewide on both broadcast and cable channels.
Spin Control: McKenna’s dance moves could wrap up the nerd vote
The first rule of campaigning in 2012 should be: Think twice before you do something. There’s always a video camera around. This might be something the staff of gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna should write down, have enlarged to second-coming type, and posted around the headquarters after last weekend.
Hemp may gain ground in votes only
SEATTLE – Residents of Washington, Oregon and Colorado won’t just be considering whether to let adults buy pot at state-sanctioned shops when they vote next month on legalizing and taxing marijuana. They’ll be voting on whether to let farmers grow marijuana’s far less potent cousin – hemp – for clothing, food, biofuel and construction materials among other uses.
Cantwell, Baumgartner exchange political jabs
SEATTLE – Republican Mike Baumgartner repeatedly criticized Sen. Maria Cantwell on Friday for “going to war on a credit card” in Iraq and Afghanistan, and called for a 1-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline to help fund the troops. “The country has not gone to war,” Baumgartner said, trying to turn much of the only debate in Washington’s U.S. Senate campaign into a discussion about Afghanistan. The military, and their families, bear the brunt of the two conflicts, he said.
Solidly GOP district seeing spirited race between Matt Shea, Amy Biviano
To Republican state Rep. Matt Shea, Americans are on the verge of becoming slaves, and he has a plan to stop it. Among his proposals: The federal government should make its payments to states only in gold or silver. The FBI and other federal officers must get permission from county sheriffs to arrest people. Guns made and sold in Washington should not be restricted by federal law.
Gridlock in Congress a hot debate topic
Republican U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, in the final debate before the November election, defended her eight years in Congress and argued that she has worked for bipartisanship in Congress. “We need leadership. We need both parties, Republicans and Democrats, working together,” McMorris Rodgers said Friday morning at the debate at the Red Lion Hotel at the Park. “When you look at my record you’ll see one where I have reached across the aisle to get the job done.”