Smoking ban helps bars … maybe not

OLYMPIA – Bars and taverns “have bounced back strongly” from the hit they greatly feared when the state indoor public smoking ban took effect in Dec. 2005, according to the state Department of Revenue.

As an industry, the average growth rate was actually stronger after the ban. According to tax reports, bars and taverns made 20 percent more in 2007 versus barely growing (0.3 percent) in 2006.

So … the smoking ban helped most bars? That’s what proponents of the initiative predicted at the time. But alas, correlation is not causation. In other words, just because I put my hat on and it rains doesn’t mean that my hat made it rain. DOR says it didn’t try to figure out why revenues changed the way they did.

“Perhaps patrons are just returning to their favored places because the alternatives were not as convenient,” said Stephen Smith, a department economist. He said cigarette tax hikes sometimes show a similar result: a short-term drop-off in sales that picks up again over time.

Justice Stephens: Six more years

Even though Election Day is still more than four months away, newly appointed state Supreme Court Justice Debra Stephens, a Spokane native, has won her race.

As political writer Jim Camden blogged last week, Stephens’ sole challenger for re-election had second thoughts and dropped out of the race only days after filing. Jack Hill, a former Pierce County public defender, said he researched Stephens’ record after he filed. His conclusion: she’s the better candidate for the job.

“I probably jumped the gun a bit in filing,” he said. He forfeited his $1,555 filing fee.

Stephens, who Gov. Chris Gregoire appointed first to an appeals court seat and then as one of the state’s nine justices, will be the only candidate listed for the position on the August and November ballots.

Feel richer?

The state Employment Security Department says the average wage in Washington grew 5 percent from 2006 to 2007, to $44,721.

“These numbers are another indication that Washington’s economy continued to be strong last year while other parts of the country were slowing down,” said Karen Lee, head of the agency. Actually, Washington slowed a little: the previous year’s income growth was 5.6 percent.

For an average worker, this year’s increase works out to an extra $42 a week.

‘GOP’ a mystery?

In a tussle made possible by the new rules for Washington’s “Top Two” primary, the state Democratic Party says Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi is trying to deceive voters by saying he prefers the “GOP” party on the primary ballot, instead of simply saying “Republican” like most candidates.

State Democratic Party chairman Dwight Pelz wants Rossi to change it to “Republican.” Pelz cited the Wall Street Journal, which in 2002 decided to avoid the abbreviation GOP because it felt some readers might not know that the abbreviation for “Grand Old Party” refers to the Republicans.

Rossi refused to change the designation.

“It’s ridiculous to claim that our campaign all of a sudden decided to start using GOP,” Rossi spokeswoman Jill Strait said. “Since 2004, all of our TV ads, bumper stickers and signs have all said ‘Rossi for Governor, GOP.’ We have put millions of dollars into ‘Rossi for Governor, GOP’ and it just made sense to keep using it.”

How’s the race look?

New polls continue to show a lead, albeit a small one, for Gov. Chris Gregoire over Rossi. Survey USA puts likely voters at 50 percent for Gregoire and 47 percent for Rossi. Rasmussen puts it at 50 percent Gregoire, 43 percent Rossi.

In great demand: TVW footage …

Really. The state’s public affairs network, famous for its “gavel-to-gavel” coverage of the Legislature, state Supreme Court and more, is clamping down on bloggers lifting video or audio from the site. (In Spokane, TVW is on Comcast channel 25.)

The network, which copyrights its work, says it’s worried about its streaming-video clips turning up in campaign attack ads. That could presumably draw official ire that could threaten the goodwill and access the network has worked hard to gain.

It’s not hard to imagine the content being put to attack-ad use. TVW cameras and microphones have inadvertently caught lawmakers falling asleep at their desks, stammering in floor speeches and ranting at each other.

As a compromise, TVW’s working on software that will allow people to embed TVW clips on a blog.

“We want our stuff out there, we really do,” said TVW president Greg Lane. But the clips popping up on YouTube, etc., he said, could leave viewers with the impression that it was TVW that had done the editing. And that was a problem, he said, because TVW’s reputation is built on its promise to “provide the whole, unedited version of the event,” he said.

Who’s writing checks to whom …

Mother Jones’ magazine has cross-matched recent presidential campaign contributions with the reported occupations of donors.

Caveat: These are not scientific results, just a smattering of primarily self-reported occupations compared to donations. And the amounts, in most cases, suggest pretty small samples.

Still, the results are interesting. Among them:

•Science teachers overwhelmingly gave to Democrats; English teachers were split about 50/50 between Democrats and Republicans.

•Episcopal priests: also overwhelmingly donated to Democrats. Catholic priests, on the other hand, donated to Republicans 68 percent of the time.

•Cartoonists, reporters, journalists and editors: overwhelmingly donating to Democrats. (Most mainstream journalists – particularly political reporters – would never donate to any political candidate.)

•Truck drivers/truckers: mostly Republican donations.

•Farmers: overwhelmingly Republican donations. Exception: Organic farmers, who donated solely to Democrats.

Among the unusual occupations listed: “sex slave” and “wizard,” both of which were listed by donors to Republican candidate Ron Paul.