Monthly Archives: September 2015

Posted inElections

Randy Pepple’s gut was wrong again: 45th LD’s Andy Hill won’t run for governor in 2016

by Andrew Villeneuve

This just in: Repub­li­can State Sen­a­tor Andy Hill (R‑45th Dis­trict: Unin­cor­po­rat­ed King Coun­ty, Kirk­land, Red­mond, Wood­inville, Sam­mamish, Duvall) will not be a can­di­date for Gov­er­nor of Wash­ing­ton State in next year’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tions. In a mes­sage sent out to his email list, Hill announced that, after some con­sid­er­a­tion, he has ruled out a chal­lenge to […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, World Commmunity

Mitch “Filibuster” McConnell furious after Senate Democrats thwart vote on Iran

by Andrew Villeneuve

The shoe is on the oth­er foot now, and it hurts: Repub­li­can efforts to stop the nuclear deal with Iran end­ed in fail­ure Thurs­day, thwart­ed by unflinch­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic sup­port for Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s land­mark accord and famil­iar GOP infight­ing. With no clear strat­e­gy remain­ing to pre­vent the inter­na­tion­al­ly backed deal, Repub­li­can lead­ers in Con­gress were left […]

Posted inHolidays

In memoriam, fourteen years later

by Andrew Villeneuve

Today is the four­teenth anniver­sary of the Sep­tem­ber 11th attacks, which destroyed New York’s World Trade Cen­ter, dam­aged the Pen­ta­gon, and claimed the lives of thou­sands of inno­cent Amer­i­cans. In hon­or of those who died that day, we’re repub­lish­ing a poem that we post annu­al­ly here on The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate. Two thou­sand one, nine eleven […]

Posted inElections, Litigation, Live Coverage, Open Government, Policy Topics

Worth noting: Washington State’s elected justices can’t personally solicit campaign cash

by Andrew Villeneuve

On Tues­day, The Seat­tle Times ran a col­umn from Dan­ny West­neat titled “The trou­ble with union dona­tions, school cas­es”, which expressed dis­com­fort over the fact that the Wash­ing­ton Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion has pre­vi­ous­ly donat­ed mon­ey to the cam­paigns of sev­er­al of the jus­tices who now sit on our state Supreme Court. Almost from the moment that […]

Posted inElections

Momentum builds for defeat of Tim Eyman’s odious I‑1366 as coalition roster swells

by Andrew Villeneuve

With Labor Day 2015 now behind us, the tra­di­tion­al home stretch of the annu­al autumn cam­paign sea­son has begun. The Novem­ber 3rd gen­er­al elec­tion is less than two months away, and bal­lots will be mailed in about thir­­ty-five days. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court declined to issue an injunc­tion last Fri­day in Huff v. […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Elections, Policy Topics

Former Republican state party chair Chris Vance launches challenge to Patty Murray

by Andrew Villeneuve

Last week, rumors sur­faced that for­mer Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty Chair Chris Vance would be launch­ing a cam­paign for U.S. Sen­ate in 2016, seek­ing the seat cur­rent­ly held by Pat­ty Mur­ray. Yes­ter­day, to the relief of cur­rent state Repub­li­can Chair Susan Hutchi­son, Vance made it offi­cial: He’s in. Vance, fifty-three, has a his­to­ry of run­ning for […]

Posted inElections, Litigation

State attorneys go after Tim Eyman’s bank records to help PDC finish I‑517 investigation

by Andrew Villeneuve

Late Thurs­day night, just a few hours before the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court released its order allow­ing Ini­tia­tive 1366 to pro­ceed to the Novem­ber 2015 bal­lot, The Her­ald of Everett pub­lished a remark­able sto­ry break­ing the news that state author­i­ties are final­ly, final­ly tak­ing action to com­plete the stalled inves­ti­ga­tion into Tim Eyman’s cam­paign to […]

Posted inBreaking News, Education, Elections, Litigation, Policy Topics

Washington’s Supreme Court strikes down I‑1240 (charter schools) in its entirety

by Andrew Villeneuve

Once again, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court has rid­den to the res­cue of Wash­ing­ton’s belea­guered pub­lic schools sys­tem. In a mon­u­men­tal­ly impor­tant 6–3 deci­sion released late this after­noon, the Court struck down Ini­tia­tive 1240, a char­ter schools mea­sure vot­ers nar­row­ly passed in 2012, as uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in its entire­ty. The deci­sion means that Wash­ing­ton’s exper­i­ment with […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections, Litigation

Washington’s Supreme Court allows Eyman’s I‑1366 to proceed to November 2015 ballot

by Andrew Villeneuve

This morn­ing, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court ren­dered a pre­lim­i­nary ver­dict in Huff v. Wyman, the scope chal­lenge to Tim Eyman’s I‑1366. The Court has ruled unan­i­mous­ly that plain­tiffs’ request for an injunc­tion should be denied, which we under­stand means that I‑1366 will appear on the Novem­ber 2015 bal­lot. The Court entered the fol­low­ing order: This […]

Posted inLegislative Advocacy, Public Service

Brian Hatfield leaving Washington State Senate to take job with Inslee administration

by Andrew Villeneuve

For the sec­ond time in as many days, a Demo­c­ra­t­ic law­mak­er has decid­ed to move on from the Leg­is­la­ture and take a job offer­ing bet­ter com­pen­sa­tion and ben­e­fits in Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee’s admin­is­tra­tion. Yes­ter­day, it was State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ross Hunter (D‑48th Dis­trict); today it’s Sen­a­tor Bri­an Hat­field (D‑19th Dis­trict: Aberdeen, Long Beach Ray­mond, Longview). Hatfield, […]