The Jeff Recommends (Annotated Version)

So unlike the primary, I’m not going eat up a lot of blogspace death-marching through every bloody candidate, but give it to you in one big chunk. I’m doing it now because a vast bulk of the ballots are already in the mail, and winding my way through the voter’s book (hardly a pamphlet this time – they could have made this squarebound) will just take too long.

But I will footnote, and reserve the right to come back to these subjects at a later date. Here we go:

President: Barack Obama

US Rep, 8th District: Darcy Burner (1)

Governor: Christine Gregoire
Lt Governor: Marcia McGraw (2)
Secretary of State: Sam Reed
State Treasurer: Jim McIntire
State Auditor: Brian Sontagg
Attorney General: John Ladenburg (3)
Commissioner of Public Lands: Peter J. Goldmark (4)
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Teresa Bergeson
Insurance Commissioner: Mike Kreidler

Legislative District 47 (Pos 1): Geoff Simpson
Legislative District 47 (Pos 2): Pat Sullivan

Supreme Court Justices: Mary Fairhurst, Charles Johnson, Debra Stephens (5)

King County Superior Court, Pos 1 – Tim Bradshaw [Not Bradstreet, as originally noted. Tim Bradstreet is an artist, so that's what caught in my mind. Thanks to Shelly for catching me on this. The Jeff regrets the error.)
King County Superior Court, Pos 22 – Julia Garratt
King County Superior Court, Pos 37 – Jean Rietschel

King County Amendment 1 (Elected Director of Elections): No (6)
King County Amendment 2 (Expand definitions of discrimination): Yes
King County Amendment 3 (Restructure regional committees): Yes
King County Amendment 4 (Set requirements for some offices): No
King County Amendment 5 (Create forecast office): Yes
King County Amendment 6 (Move up budget deadlines): Yes
King County Amendment 7 (Increase requirements for Initiatives): Yes
King County Amendment 8 (Make executive, assessor, and county council nonpartisan offices): No (7)

King County Fire Protection District 2 (Bonds for new stations): Yes (8)
Maple Valley Fire and Life Safety (Restore levy for funding): Yes

Washington State Initiative 985 (Magic Ponies): No (9)
Washington State Initiative 1000 (Allow terminally ill access to lethal drugs): Yes (10)
Washington State Initiative 1029 (Certify long-term care workers): Yes


Sound Transit Propositions 1: Yes (11)

Notes;
1) Incumbent Reichert’s campaign was pretty positive early on, but apparently the numbers have closed since they are now running attack ads in which Ms. Burner is heard to say that the recent FISA bill “Sucks” as proof that she is divisive. Um, that would be the bill that lets the telecoms off the hook for spying on us at the orders of the White House. Which Dave voted for. Yeah, I think “sucks” pretty much sums it up.
2) This is a Rodney Dangerfield of an office, but I am recommending the GOP candidate because she is pro-choice and pro-drug reform. Not that the office gives her more than a bully pulpit to work from. But I want to see the King of Spain knight her.
3) Incumbent Rob McKenna is in a miserable spot right thanks to gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi’s fiscal shenanigans. He has to prosecute Rossi and the BIAW which has supported McKenna in the past, or it looks like the fix is in. Go for the equally qualified Dem this time.
4) One of the contests I am passionate about. Incumbent Sutherland was asleep at the wheel in overseeing the timber industry (major contributors) and a good chunk of the hillsides came down upstream of Chehalis and flooded Lewis County. Enough of this foolishness. Vote for Goldmark.
5) Don’t like these guys? Tough. They were elected back in the primaries. Pay attention, next time.
6) Most of these initiatives are sound like busywork, but there are couple nasty little items hidden in here. This is one. Just for grins, lets NOT make the guy in charge of the elections not subject to the same money-hunting chase as other politicians.
7) This is the other nasty little gem buried in the details – I call it “Incumbent Employment Program”. Giving the voters LESS information to work with is not a good idea.
8) I know you’ve thought this as well: Why do we always have to vote to see if we want fire departments, while large amounts of cash go out to other interests with nary a note? Can we make voting on government salaries part of these ballots?
9) This is a mess of an amendment, one of those rotten deals that steal from everyone except the road-builders.
10) I believe in living wills and DNR orders. I am at the age when I have heard the phrase “When the end came, it was a blessing” more than I should. Even so, I cannot give this more than a grudging approval, and then only because it is so tightly written that I can’t rules-lawyer any reasonable exploits off it.
11) OK, I was wrong. I figured mass transit was dead after the last vote. This version cuts away the pave-the-earth bennies and concentrates on the good stuff. It’s a light out of the transit tunnel, and the opposite of I-985.

Got it? Good. Now go vote.

More later