Author: jxindivisible

Dear Group, There are two candidates for technical seats in Spokane County who really stand out as examples of expertise over politics, two men who are applying jobs for which they have all the right credentials, competing with partisans who do not. If voting were more like applying for a job, these two would be shoo-ins.  Tom Konis is a moderate Republican running for Spokane County Assessor. He has worked many years in the Assessor’s office. He has all the technical qualifications, expertise, and experience one could ask for. He is endorsed by the retiring Spokane County Assessor, Vicki Horton. (I cannot even tell you, nor was I able to easily find out, which party Vicki Horton “prefers.” That is how non-partisan this office should be.) The fact that Tom Konis “Prefers Republican Party” is purely incidental to his qualifications and desire to serve. Tom Konis has not spent his life running for public office. His opponent, Mr. Christian, on the other hand, is a Republican politician and a real estate broker who lacks Mr Konis’ experience and has dabbled for years in the moderate end of local Republican Party politics. My faith in democracy would undergo a partial restoration if the voters choose Tom Konis. (It fascinates me…and makes me angry and a little sick to my stomach…that WeBelieveWeVote weighs in favor of the less qualified candidate based on criteria that have absolutely nothing to do with the job. If you’re curious, click the link and then the blue level of “alignment” comment following their names.) David Green is running for Spokane County Treasurer. In a piece entitled “Expertise or Ideology” I have written about this race before. David Green is a certified public accountant with decades of expertise in finance. If he were applying for this job solely on the basis of qualifications he would barely need to show up for the job interview.. His opponent is an unqualified, belligerent Republican political climber (M. Baumgartner) likely to use a position as Treasurer simply as a springboard to another office. His campaign emails alone are enough to make a reasonable person ill. If you have any doubt of that, read “An Election for County Treasurer…or a ‘Knife Fight’?.”  I urge you to tell everyone who might listen to vote for David Green for Treasurer and Tom Konis for Assessor of Spokane County. Please help restore my waning faith in the american voter. Don’t let David Green and Tom Konis get lost in down ballot incidentals (among the thirty-three races and issues). These are important posts for the function of our local government. Don’t let them go to the manifestly unqualified. Keep to the high ground, Jerry P.S. Taking the time to check out the fundraising of these candidates at the Public Disclosure Commission (a very useful resource) points up something interesting: the Spokane Association of Realtors donated to $1000 to Tom Konis’ campaign and none to his opponent despite the opponent being a realtor. I think there is a message here. P.P.S. David Green’s opponent, Michael Baumgartner, has two large campaign, one as LD6 State Senator (a position for which he continued to solicit funds even after he knew he was stepping down) and another campaign war chest to use in the Spokane County Treasurer race. You can see who has contributed here and here. With all this money he hopes to steamroll his way to Spokane County Treasurer and beyond. Don’t let him get away with it. Vote for David Green, the qualified candidate.

Dear Group,

I used to think attending a political rally or getting out and marching was unnecessary and somehow beneath my dignity as a logical, thoughtful citizen. I was dead wrong. Over the last two years of self-imposed study to produce this email I’ve learned how little I knew about the people for whom I was asked to vote. Quick! Recite the names of your two State Representatives and your State Senator from your Washington State Legislative District. Can you summon up in your mind’s eye what they look like? Perhaps you can. Two years ago I could not. Knocking on doors I’ve lately met a lot of nice people who remain as un-informed as I was two years ago, nice people uninformed in spite of, or perhaps because of, the continual barrage of national news and local campaign ads, nice people who have tuned out in despair, people who say they haven’t had time to study the ballot. 

Elections are won in this country by convincing people their vote might actually make a difference, enough difference to be worth the effort of voting. The most effective way to achieve that is to meet people face to face, engage, listen, explain your values, resonate, encourage, and cajole.

So why rally? Why march? Why try to grab media attention? We are social creatures. It is a rare day I can motivate myself, on my own, to go out and canvass. But I go, week after week, and now day after day because I am inspired by the group of which I am a part, inspired by the people who marched with me at the original Women’s March, the people went to the trouble of bringing the Trump balloon to protest Mike Pence, the women who marched dressed up in the costume of the Handmaid’s Tale. I believe we are awakening enough people in eastern Washington that real change is possible even against the manifest advantages of incumbency. 

With all that in mind come join Lisa Brown at the Tribal Gathering Place at 5PM this evening. Dress warmly. Meet nice people. Contribute to the buzz around voting for Lisa. 

You have your ballot. Do your homework. For my part, I have met face-to-face at least once with most Democratic candidates for state and federal office named on a ballot in eastern Washington and all of Democratic candidates for office in Spokane County. They are all good  people with solid skills for the job for which they are applying. I would be very happy to have any one of them represent me. I found the progressivevotersguide.com very useful in providing reasoned viewpoints for some of the more arcane ballot questions and judgeships.

I close today with a strong recommendation to read Robert Herold’s piece in the Inlander from October 18 on the choice between Lisa Brown and Cathy McMorris Rodgers. In person, I listened carefully to three debates. I have interacted extensively with both Lisa Brown and McMorris Rodgers. For anyone who has been paying attention Robert Herold says it all. I cannot improve on his perspective. Please click and read.

See you at the Tribal Gathering Place (353 N Post St # 367) at 5PM. Bring your filled out ballot to ceremoniously turn in at the Spokane Library. Do your homework. (If you cannot yet decide how to vote on everything you feel compelled choose, come anyway. Swell the ranks. Feel the vibe. It’ll be fun!)

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

Dear Group,

There is lots to do this weekend. I received my ballot in the mail today, Thursday. Nearly all registered voters in Washington State will have theirs by Saturday. “Ballot drop” puts all the campaigns in Get Out the Vote (GOTV) mode. 

Much of GOTV mode is spend nudging folks who have already been contacted to actually fill out and turn in their ballots. There are several fun facts worth memorizing and talking up with everyone who’ll listen:

1) You don’t need to make a choice in every race to submit a ballot (It’s probably a good idea to have the right candidates in mind in the area you are canvassing so you can offer suggestions if it comes up.)

2) You don’t need a stamp. Just put it in your mailbox before the post-person comes by and off it will go. (Or take it to the dropbox at a library.)

3) Once you vote the campaigns can learn you voted and will quit knocking on your door within a couple days! 🙂

4) You can check to see if your ballot has been received by going to MyVote.wa.gov . 

This is where the rubber meets the road after so many months of preparation. It seems hard to imagine there are still people out their who haven’t studied up yet, folks who aren’t sure if they’re going to bother to vote, but there are. I keep meeting them on their doorsteps. Meet them, smile, nudge them. Canvass. Don’t wake up on November 7 and wish you had done more. On Saturday (check out the detail in the box above) we’re headed to Deer Park. Join us. Check out this and many, many other opportunities at:

lisabrownforcongress.com under the “Events” pull-down or, more directly, right here. 

Or, sign up with your favorite State Democratic candidate. There are competitive races in all Districts. GOTV canvassing for any Democratic candidate is likely to help all of them. It is all good.

The Debate Comments:

I’ve attended two Lisa Brown/CMR debates in two days, one at the Fox and one with Rotary 21 at the Spokane Club. They both get gold stars for participation, for managing to answer questions on the fly without a major stumble. From my very partisan viewpoint, Lisa looked relaxed, poised, and in command. At both debates McMorris Rodgers’ lead-line was how fast the economy growing. Excitement! Optimism! The economy today certainly is fired up. It is fired up as though one started with a nice warm fire in the fireplace with a few sticks to add on and then, instead of the sticks, you threw a gallon of gasoline on it. To me the economy feels like early 2008. Wages are a little up, but so is inflation, the stock market is wobbling around, and Trump’s trade wars have everyone on edge who isn’t part of the Fox News faithful. When the crisis comes, as it always does, Trump, McMorris Rodgers and the Trickle-downers won’t have the tools soften it. They have already blown a massive hole in the budget. They have no wiggle room. McMorris Rodgers seems to think the economy can and will roar on forever and produce jobs, jobs, jobs. Somehow that will save us from a fate from which the economy has never before been spared–the next downturn of the business cycle…or worse. 

Twice in two days in two debates McMorris Rodgers boasted of her bipartisan legislative successes. Here is a transcript of my audio recording of her words at the Spokane Club on October 18:

I’m proud of a record of leadership and results…all the legislation I’ve introduced that has passed the House and Congress has enjoyed bipartisan support. I’ve had 10 bills that have passed, five signed into law, everything from forestry to agriculture to small businesses to healthcare to helping kids with disabilities. I am proud to be someone who works across the aisle.

That statement is damnably difficult to fact check, since she doesn’t specify the time period. Is it all fourteen years? If so, then, really, just ten bills? On the other hand, if she means the current two-year Congress, the 115th. then things don’t add up. See Congress.gov. During the 115th Congress, it sure looks to me as though McMorris Rodgers did not introduce (personally “sponsor”) a single bill. She co-sponsored three that became law, none of them in the least bit controversial. Click and see for yourself. Click around and see if you can discover anything I couldn’t. I don’t see the evidence of leadership in bill passage that she claims. I see a cheerleader for the Republican national agenda.

Erratum:

After Wednesday”s (October 17) email entitled Citizens United Comes to Spokane County several readers replied and noted I had written Avista Utilities where I should have written Avsita Corp. Technically, Avista Utilities is a highly regulated utility that is a subsection of Avista Corp. As a utility it operates under different accounting rules than the Avista Corp. Avista Utilities cannot legally contribute to a PAC (Political Action Committee) or a candidate. Avista Corp. maintains accounting that keeps Avista Utility earnings separate from its political speech activities, that is, Avista Utilities cannot claim political speech as a cost of its doing business as a utility when asking for a rate hike. Still, some part of Avista Utilities’ net earnings from our utility payments accrues to Avista Corp, and thanks to the Citizens United ruling Avista Corp can spend its money on political speech. For me, Avista Corp’s $200,000 independent ad buy in favor of two candidates whose campaigns have generated less than $100,000 each is a disgusting example of partisanship in favor of the party that engineered Citizens United. It is a local reminder of the current Republican Party’s thirst for power.

Come on out this weekend and canvass. Your country needs you.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

Dear Group,

As a customer and small stockholder of the Avista Corporation, I am really peeved reading the document I posted above. Avista has an effective monopoly on the sale of electricity and natural gas in much of eastern Washington, North Idaho, and beyond. They are also a private company with a big profit motive. So what is Avista doing pouring an overwhelming amount of money into the re-election campaigns of two sitting Spokane County Commissioners?

Transparency is only as useful as one’s willingness to look. Thanks primarily to the efforts of Democrats we, as citizens, have a transparent window through which to look at the money spent on the election of candidates for office in Washington State. It is called the Public Disclosure Commission. You can visit here: pdc.wa.gov

Check out the above document from the PDC website. Avista paid $99,517 each for the production of TV ads in support of two candidates for County Commissioner, Al French and Mary Kuney. Is that a lot of money to spend in races for Commissioner? Yes, in fact, it is a breathtaking amount. Here are the total amounts raised by the candidates (exclusive of Avista’s “independent” expenditures) for these two seats. (Click on the name to link to the raw data at the Public Disclosure Commission as of October 15):

Al French  $92,392.44

Robbi Anthony  $5,216.93

Mary Kuney  $85,903.37

Rob Chase  $20,859.59

Eye-popping, isn’t it? With this nearly $200,000 “independent” expenditure Avista Corporation is weighing in on the basis of its “free speech rights as a corporate person” (Read here, here, and here for background and detail on the Citizens United v. FEC decision that made this legal.)

Someone or several someones at Avista Corporation made the decision to spend $200,000 of the money Avista made to support two candidates for Spokane County Commissioner. That total amount is nearly as much as raised by all four candidates combined to date.

Why is Avista weighing in on two County Commissioner races? What does Avista expect of Mr. French and Ms. Kuney in exchange for this wad of money, this “independent” expenditure, supporting their incumbency? As a corporation Avista’s primary duty is to its own corporate profit. This two hundred thousand expenditure should raise eyebrows. 

I find the Spokane County method for selecting County Commissioners rather odd. In the Primary (last August 7) candidates run in one of three Districts, but in the following General Election each of the three seats is voted county-wide. Robbi Katherine Anthony faced off against Mr. French in District 3 and beat Mr. French, 26,023 to 18,726 (55 to 45%). I imagine Mr. French finds those numbers a little worrisome. However, roughly 144,000 ballots were cast in the entire county in the Primary. The field of voting for this position in the November General election is the whole county. Furthermore, ballot turn-in is likely to be higher, so the field of votes to woo for this seat is much larger.

I will cast my vote for Robbi Katherine Anthony. Avista’s profit-driven massive expenditure in Mr. French’s support only underlines business relations that are a little too cozy. French is vehemently against expanding the County Commissioner seats from three to five. He threatens to take Washington State to court (on our dime) to contest the issue. This sounds to me like a man on the losing side of an argument desperately trying to consolidate his power–and now Avista is loudly defending him in monetary “corporate speech.” Is Avista afraid of losing a cozy arrangement that defends their profits?

Robbi Katherine Anthony is young, personable, smart, highly conversant in the digital world (she owns two local tech businesses), and she’s in favor of expanding the number of Commissioners to better represent the county’s residents.  It’s time for a new face in that seat. For more, read the Inlander article or the Spokesman article. (Better yet, read both articles and ponder the subtle differences in slant.)

The other County Commissioner race, between Mary Kuney and Rob Chase, is a tough one for me. Ms. Kuney has  four times the war chest of Mr. Chase, (Nine times if you count Avista’s help.) It seems to me Chase is more likely to speak truth to business power and stand up against cozy relationships on the County Commission, but his involvement with Northwest Grassroots, the white supremacist, conspiracy-theory-fueled local Republicans, and his rabid conservatism make me very uncomfortable. Avista’s weighing in Avista’s self interest is in danger of pushing me over the edge in favor of Chase. Perhaps I’ll re-think that Kuney sign in my front yard. 

Keep to the High Ground,

Jerry 

P.S. After you click on a candidate name (above) to go to the PDC website, click around to see who has contributed money to these candidates. Form your own opinions.

P.P.S. Yesterday morning Amy Edelen of the Spokesman covered this story on the front page of the Spokesman. I invite you to read it here. Ms. Edelen does not mention the $100,000 investment per candidate by Avista is more than either candidate has been able to raise on their own. Ms Edelen writes, “Collins Sprague, who is Senior Director of Government Relations for Avista Corp., said the independent expenditures – which are funded by company shareholders and not included in utility rates – were made pursuant to state law in support of each candidate”.  Avista Corp. does maintain accounting that keeps Avista Utility earnings separate from its political speech activities, that is, Avista Utilities cannot claim political speech as a cost of its doing business as a utility when asking for a rate hike.  On the other hand, profit finally made from the utilities business feeds Avista Corp.  In any case, I am a shareholder and I DISAPPROVE of the message. I acknowledge Avista is within its legal rights, thanks to Citizens United’s ludicrous concept of corporate personhood and free speech. Legality makes the expenditure no less deplorable as an example of overwhelming and egregious corporate election meddling.

NOTE: this archived missive has been modified from the original email to reflect the relationship between Avista Utilities and Avista Corp.