Monthly Archives: September 2012

Posted inEconomic Security, Elections, Media & Culture, Policy Topics

Let’s put Washington’s history of public votes on supermajority requirements in full context

by Andrew Villeneuve

Yes­ter­day evening, as I was scan­ning head­lines on Pacif­ic NW Por­tal, an arti­cle by Seat­tle Times reporter Andrew Gar­ber caught my eye. I clicked through to read it, and the fol­low­ing head­line and sum­ma­ry appeared on my screen: Vot­ers may make it tougher for Leg­is­la­ture to raise tax­es — again Tim Eyman has anoth­er ini­tia­tive on […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Elections, Our Environment, Policy Topics

Republicans mock Jay Inslee for supporting companies that are succeeding

by Patrick Stickney

Con­tin­u­ing to posi­tion them­selves as the unapolo­getic oppo­nents of any pol­i­cy direc­tion with the word “clean” in it (clean ener­gy, clean elec­tions), the Repub­li­can Par­ty has nee­dled Democr­tic guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­date Jay Inslee for envi­sion­ing a clean ener­gy econ­o­my for Wash­ing­ton and for sup­port­ing clean ener­gy in his 2008 book, Apol­lo’s Fire. Accord­ing to them, every […]

Posted inElections

The News Tribune shines a spotlight on Tim Eyman’s secret campaign to qualify I‑517

by Andrew Villeneuve

Sev­er­al months ago, around the time Tim Eyman and his pals Roy Ruffi­no and Eddie Agazarm began accept­ing hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars from big cor­po­ra­tions for I‑1185 (Eyman’s mea­sure to reim­pose the uncon­sti­tu­tion­al two-thirds vot­ing require­ment for rais­ing rev­enue), they qui­et­ly began schem­ing to have I‑1185 peti­tion­ers col­lect sig­na­tures for a sec­ond ini­tia­tive that […]

Posted inElections, Events, Live Coverage, Party Politics

LIVE from Charlotte: What a week it’s been so far at the Democratic National Convention!

by Linda Jenkins

Hel­lo from Char­lotte! I have been think­ing about how to best sum­ma­rize my expe­ri­ences in the Queen City for some time. What do I tell peo­ple back home in the Pacif­ic North­west about my expe­ri­ences here? Well, to put it suc­cinct­ly, I am all fired up and ready to go. Char­lot­teans have been very hos­pitable to us. […]

Posted inElections, Events, Live Coverage, Party Politics

LIVE from Charlotte: DNCC moves Thursday evening events to Time Warner Cable Arena

by Andrew Villeneuve

The fourth evening of the 2012 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion will take place at Time Warn­er Cable Are­na instead of Bank of Amer­i­ca Sta­di­um as pre­vi­ous­ly planned, con­ven­tion orga­niz­ers have just announced. “We have been mon­i­tor­ing weath­er fore­casts close­ly and sev­er­al reports pre­dict thun­der­storms in the area, there­fore we have decid­ed to move Thursday’s pro­ceed­ings to […]

Posted inElections, Events, Live Coverage, Party Politics

LIVE from Charlotte: Schedule of speakers for Wednesday, September 5th, from the DNCC

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good morn­ing from Char­lotte! Today is the third day of Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion week here in the Queen City. This after­noon, we will recon­vene for our sec­ond gen­er­al ses­sion of the week at 2 PM Pacif­ic. The DNCC (Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion Com­mit­tee) was kind enough to release a sched­ule of speak­ers for this evening’s program […]

Posted inElections, Events, Party Politics

LIVE from Charlotte: Michelle Obama electrifies Time Warner Cable Arena

by Andrew Villeneuve

That. Was. Incred­i­ble. If you’ve been fol­low­ing the DNC from home, then you just wit­nessed, along with us, one of the great­est speech­es ever deliv­ered at a Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion… Michelle Oba­ma’s cul­mi­nat­ing prime­time address, in which she elo­quent­ly laid out the case for Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma’s reelec­tion. To say that the speech was a […]

Posted inElections, Events, Party Politics

LIVE from Charlotte: Washington State’s view inside Time Warner Cable Arena

by Andrew Villeneuve

Hel­lo again from Char­lotte! We are just an hour away now from being gaveled into ses­sion here at Time Warn­er Cable Are­na. To be hon­est, this are­na feels like the keep at the cen­ter of a giant urban fortress. I had to pass through sev­er­al lay­ers of secu­ri­ty to get in here, includ­ing a maget­nome­ter and […]

Posted inElections, Events, Party Politics

LIVE from Charlotte: Schedule of speakers for Tuesday, September 4th, from the DNC

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good morn­ing from Char­lotte! Today is the sec­ond day of Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion week here in the Queen City. This after­noon, we will be offi­cial­ly gaveled into ses­sion by Con­ven­tion Chair and Los Ange­les May­or Anto­nio Vil­laraigosa. The DNCC (Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion Com­mit­tee) was kind enough to release a sched­ule of speak­ers for this evening’s […]

Posted inEvents, Party Politics

LIVE from Charlotte: Washington Democrats hold evening reception at Mac’s Speed Shop

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good evening from the City of Trees! Tonight, the Wash­ing­ton State Democ­rats are cel­e­brat­ing Labor Day and the 2012 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion with a spe­cial evening recep­tion at one of Char­lot­te’s best eater­ies… Mac’s Speed Shop, renowned in Char­lotte for its beer and bar­be­cue. Mac’s is ours for the night, and we’ve tak­en full advantage. […]

Posted inElections, Events, Party Politics

LIVE from Charlotte: CarolinaFest in pictures

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good after­noon from Char­lotte! Today, in hon­or of Labor Day, and to thank the peo­ple of Char­lote for wel­com­ing us to their fine city, the DNC is throw­ing a big par­ty called Car­oli­naFest in Uptown. It’s essen­tial­ly a big, fes­tive street fair, with a tem­po­rary food court, big stage, aux­il­iary stage, and lots of tents […]

Posted inEvents, Party Politics

LIVE from Charlotte: DNCC officials hold opening press conference

by Andrew Villeneuve

Wel­come back to our con­tin­u­ing cov­er­age of the 2012 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion in Char­lotte, North Car­oli­na. I’m at Room 208 in the Char­lotte Con­ven­tion Cen­ter, await­ing the begin­ning of the Con­ven­tion’s Open­ing Press Con­fer­ence, where DNCC CEO Steve Ker­ri­g­an, Char­lotte May­or Antho­ny Foxx, and oth­er DNCC offi­cials are wel­com­ing mem­bers of the press corps to […]