Primary: Any Storm in a Port

Goodness, do we have a primary coming up?

Yep, the state primary has been moved up to August, and given (for this area at least) a pretty soft opening. Here on Grubb Street we don't vote for the Seattle City Council, don't belong to Renton or Kent (yet), and due to the recent provincialization of the King County Council, we have an off-year there as well. That leaves King County Prosecuting Attorney and Assessor (Partisan posts), a couple ballot measures, and two non-partisan positions with the Port of Seattle (Top two going to November).

Ah, the Port of Seattle. This is a non-partisan post, which means Republicans can run for it without having to admit they are Republicans, only that they favor "business and growth". And, being a large, murky operation with opaque meetings of late and access to a great deal of power (SeaTac airport, our ports, cargo loading, and a large amount of choice land), it is no surprise that here is where we tend to find a crop of scandals. And the most recent one stems from a Platinum Parachute given to the former head of the Port of Seattle, which was approved in secret by the Port of Seattle Council. The Port if Seattle investigated this charge and found the Port of Seattle innocent. And then gave itself a cookie.

So reform is in the air for the Port, and I'm going to recommend Jack Block, a longshoreman who sits on the Burien City Council (Burien being cheek-by-jowl on the Third runway of SeaTac) and who gets an Outstanding record from the Municipal League and the Sierra Club's endorsement. The incumbent is Bob Edwards who is apparently part of the problem.

For the other position, I am going to recommend Alec Fisken, who also gets the Sierra Club nod but (surprise!) is the incumbent in this case. Fisken is a progressive who has been fighting uphill against the tinted windows around the Port's meetings and needs some aid in letting some light in.

For the Democratic primary for KC Prosecutor, both candidates, Keith Scully and Bill Sherman are good, and this is a place where there is an embarrassment of riches. I'm going to go with Bill Sherman only because of the Municipal League rating. but I shan't cry if Scully gets the nod.

For Democratic Primary for KC Assessor, we have one candidate, the incumbent, Scott Noble. Yeah, sounds good to me.

There are a pair of ballot measures on the boards as well for King County, Proposition 1 is to retain a levy for regional and rural parks. Proposition 2 is to create a new levy for the regional trails and the Woodland Park Zoo. Vote YES on both of these. The local fire district has to huxter for money as well YES to them

And that's about it. It is a warmup for the fall, so vote early and vote ... well, early. They're figuring around a 34% turnout this time around, so your vote counts a little more than normal.

More later,

So