More items to sample at grocery store
Shoppers, it’s an idea whose time has come: free beer and wine in Aisle 5.
By random selection, the state Liquor Control Board says, it has picked the 15 independently-owned grocery stores that will soon be allowed to offer free wine and beer samples to customers. Fifteen chain stores will be picked soon.
State lawmakers were extremely wary of the idea when it was floated in Olympia earlier this year. The Statehouse debate also offered a rare ideological mirror image, with rural Republicans from grape-heavy areas like Sunnyside touting the idea of free drinks while some urban Democrats decried it.
“Let’s take a look at this bill. It’s about drinking – in grocery stores!” state Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, exclaimed on the House floor in March. “What are we thinking?”
“You’re going to see booze being handed out for free. That’s wrong,” said Rep. Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, a retired Navy captain.
Among the proponents: Sunnyside Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse.
“You won’t be seeing signs out on the street: ‘Come and get your free wine sample,’ ” he assured legislative critics at the time.
The bill passed, and the modest sampling – a maximum of two, 2-ounce samples of wine or beer per person – can begin Oct. 1. Stores can hold a tasting once a month for a year. To ensure that the rules are followed, state liquor agents will be at each store’s first tasting and will be doing spot checks throughout the yearlong pilot project.
Among the independent grocers taking part:
The Browne’s Addition Rosauer’s, 1808 W. Third Ave, Denny’s Harvest Foods in Medical Lake and Cowiche Harvest Foods in Cowiche.
Governor’s race: Gregoire still up (slightly) over Rossi
A new poll from Survey USA shows the governor’s race “too close to call,” with Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire leading Republican challenger Dino Rossi 50 percent to 48 percent, with a remarkable 1 percent undecided.
The poll suggests that Gregoire is particularly strong with women (54 percent), voters earning less than $50k a year (54 percent) and voters over age 65 (also 54 percent). Rossi’s stronger in Eastern Washington (54 percent) and slightly stronger (51 percent) with age 35-49 voters.
This is one of dozens of Rossi/Gregoire polls done in the past few years, and virtually all of them have shown the same thing: a narrow lead by Gregoire.
“There has been very little movement in the polling numbers for Rossi or Gregoire over the last 1.5 years,” political blogger Daryl at the Web site Hominid Views wrote recently. “If the non-movement continues, Gregoire will almost certainly win a second term.”
Rossi’s spokeswoman, not surprisingly, has a different take on it.
“Just as we have been saying all along, and poll after poll has confirmed, this race is statistically dead even,” said Jill Strait. “No one poll should be seen as being 100 percent accurate, but collectively these polls all show the race is extremely close and competitive.”
Nearly one in six state lawmakers unopposed
Barring some major write-in challenges, lots of state lawmakers are getting a free ride to re-election this year.
Two dozen state lawmakers are running without even a token opponent on the ballot. Among them:
•Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville,
•Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda,
•Sen. Linda Parlette, R-Wenatchee,
•Rep. Cary Condotta, R-East Wenatchee,
•Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake,
•Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum,
•Rep. Curtis King, R-Yakima.
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 yearlong hiring freeze. Rossi says the state should not only hire no new workers (except for public safety workers and a few other categories), but that it should only replace one worker for every four that leave.
I-1000 opponents: Not that John
The Coalition Against Assisted Suicide sent out a note recently thanking “members of the media for permanently refraining from accessing KVI’s John Carlson for Coalition information.”
Huh?
It turns out that some folks are confusing retired health care executive John Carlson – the guy heading up the coalition – with conservative talk-radio host and former Republican gubernatorial candidate John Carlson.
“When I e-mailed KVI’s Carlson, he said ‘Yeah, I’ve been getting some calls’ ” from reporters, said the coalition’s newly hired Cyndie Ulrich.
But wait, there’s more. The coalition also has a volunteer co-chairman in Spokane named Chris Carlson.
Local blogger re: political pitches: Enough.
In comments that I suspect a lot of people can empathize with – and more so as Nov. 4 nears – a writer for Olympia’s Olyblog recently bemoaned the flood of glossy political postcards, radio and TV ads, smiling knocks on the door, Robocalls and e-mails.
“This isn’t educational,” he writes. “It isn’t informative. It’s advertising a product, and after awhile it becomes nagging and/or harassment.”