JXIndivisible

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.

 

Dear Group,

Ballots are due just three weeks from tomorrow, November 6. We’re on the home stretch. McMorris Rodgers is already back in eastern Washington, desperate to keep her seat in Congress. She’ll be here for the duration, no time for relaxation in sunny San Diego. 

She will use every trick in the book. She will flash her standard smile to mask her anger at pointed questions. She will trot out as character witnesses people her staff has individually helped with the 1.3 million of our tax dollars she receives each year and uses for the purpose (read Members Representational Allowance). She will use the “deference to the incumbent” (that the Spokesman says is proper and traditional) to get first billing in everything they publish and free coverage that touts small meetings as examples of supposed constituent engagement. 

McMorris Rodgers has already used her leverage as the incumbent to specify favorable ground for the”debates.” She carefully sidestepped invitations to debates on college campuses and even the League of Women Voters, the traditional sponsors. Instead, consider the turf she approved: turf with a business lean. Greater Spokane, Inc. (GSI) is the sponsor of this Wednesday’s debate. “Greater Spokane” sounds really upbeat and inclusive. GSI does some great things for some Spokanites, but it is not exactly neutral ground. GSI formed in 2007 when the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce merged with the Spokane Area Economic Development Council. It was a timely rebranding. “Greater Spokane” is warm and fuzzy. “Chamber of Commerce” sounds a little too much like business, the audience of the Powell Memorandum I wrote about last Friday. 

Like GSI, The Rotary Club of Spokane #21, the sponsor of the Thursday, October 18, noon debate, does some laudable community work, but it also is hardly neutral ground. The Rotary debate will be held in the Georgian Room of the Spokane Club. It is a “private event by invitation only.”. Questions are submitted in advance and only by Rotary 21 members. In Walla Walla next week Wednesday, October 24, the slant is front and center: the Walla Walla Chamber of Commerce is the sponsor. 

That McMorris Rodgers deigns to debate four times in the lead up to the election shows more courage than usual, but her refusal to debate in front of the League of Women Voters, on college campuses, and groups representing people of color speaks volumes about her constituency and her fears.

McMorris Rodgers, with her excitement over the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, is committed to “trickle down” economics, enrich the rich and some will slide through the cracks to the commoners. With her selective acceptance of debate turf she also subscribes to “trickle down” politics, speak to business interests and the benefits somehow will dribble down to the worker bees. 

Watch for a slew of attack ads nearer the time ballots are mailed, October 19th, attack ads bankrolled by her corporate sponsors, ads carefully constructed by Republican word-meisters to light up negative mind-frames among the brainwashed, attack ads injecting doubt and fear. 

Discouragement with voting is a Republican weapon. “Polls” will be released suggesting there is no point in voting, the result is a foregone conclusion in favor of the incumbent. “We are the Borg, resistance is futile.” 

There will be exhortations to vote from evangelical pulpits in the last weeks, while many mainline Christian pastors will shy away from exhortation for fear of losing their non-profit status or offending some of their parishioners.

McMorris Rodgers lacks one thing: an army of dedicated, unpaid, intelligent volunteers willing to go out, knock on doors and sincerely discuss with discouraged and disconnected voters why this election is important, to explain why McMorris Rodgers sounds so desperate, how she has drunk gallons of the Republican/Libertarian Kool-Aid and lost touch with needs of her constituents, to explain after fourteen years of Cathy “Ignores-us” Rodgers it is time to apply the electoral term limit CMR herself says she endorses (as better than statutory term limits). 

Join the volunteer army of door-knockers. Major change does not happen by accident. We have lived with fourteen years of non-representation by a Republican/Libertarian ideologue who rode into office on the coattails of a man (George Nethercutt) who won by only 4000 votes (out of more than two hundred thousand cast) in 1994. It is high time to flip the dynasty of incumbency those 4000 votes created. This will only happen if we put our shoulders to the wheel…

Join the volunteer army, Don’t wake up November 7 wishing you had done more. Go to Lisa’s Events Page or check out wa-democrats.org. Adopt a candidate. Get involved. 

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. Right after I wrote this one of my predictions was verified. A Republican operative was on KPBX, suggesting the election was a done deal. On what did he base his prediction? “She [CMR] won the primaries by 8% even with an historic primary turnout of Democrats.” He did NOT add that less than half of registered voters cast a ballot in the primaries, a convenient…and glaring…omission. This is right out of the Republican playbook of discouragement. “Don’t bother to vote. The result is fore-ordained. Resistance is futile.” I hope to rub his nose in his prediction after the election. To be fair, the broadcast began with a different suggestion from another talking head: “The election will be so close it may involve a recount.” The truth? We will only know some time after November 6th. 

Dear Group,

In 1971 soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell (nominated by Nixon) wrote “a confidential memorandum titled ‘Attack on the American Free Enterprise System,’ an anti-Communist, anti-Fascist, anti-New Deal blueprint for conservative business interests to retake America for the chamber [US Chamber of Commerce].” Lewis Stevens had served as a lawyer for Phillip Morris, “arguing tobacco companies’ First Amendment rights were being infringed when news organizations were not giving credence to the cancer denials of the industry. That was the point where Powell began to focus on the media as biased agents of socialism.” (from Wikipedia from which you can follow the footnotes) Part of Powell’s motivation in writing the Memo was his fear that Ralph Nader’s consumerist movement (Unsafe at Any Speed) would hamper American enterprise. If those ideas sound eerily familiar a half century later, they should. The Powell Memorandum is a foundational document.

Powell, incidentally, was approved by the Senate as an Supreme Court Justice almost a year before the Washington Post found and published his Memorandum.

At the time of Lewis Powell nomination to the Supreme Court, Supreme Court nominees were mostly centrists, so much so that it was actually unclear how they would rule in any particular case brought before the court. The major vetting prior to presentation to the U.S. Senate was done by the American Bar Association (ABA). Nixon (a Republican, of course), for example, made four appointments: Lewis Powell (who was pro-choice and pro-business), Harry Blackmun (the famous author of Roe v. Wade), Warren Burger, and William Rehnquist. 

The Powell Memorandum spurred the non-profit think-tanks funded by prominent Republican/Libertarian monied interests so well chronicled by Jane Mayer in “Dark Money.” (See the Reference Section below.) Their sights were then set on the judicial branch, believing the judiciary  insufficiently friendly to business. The Federalist Society was founded in 1982, backed by major donations from the Koch brothers, the Mercers, and the Scaifes. The avowed purpose of the Federalist Society is to nurture scholars, students, lawyers, judges and public opinion toward “a textualist or originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.” That is shorthand for the business-friendly prescription of the Powell Memorandum. Every successful Supreme Court nominee by every Republican President since 1982 has been a member of the Federalist Society…except one…Anthony Kennedy, the swing-vote Justice who just retired, opening up seat into which the Republicans have gleefully filled with Brett Kavanaugh.. 

Here’s the list of nominees to the Supreme Court by Republicans since 1982. The two in parentheses are the only Republican nominees not part of the Federalist Society:

Antonin Scalia (1986-2016)

Robert Bork–rejected by the Senate 42-58 in 1987

(Douglas H. Ginsburg) withdrew on account of earlier use of cannabis 1987

(Anthony Kennedy) (1987-2018)

Clarence Thomas (1991-   age 70

John Roberts (2005-    age 63

Samuel Alito (2006-    age 68

Neil Gorsuch (2017-   age 51

Brett Kavanaugh (2018-   age 53

The Senate process was contentious for Bork, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh in part because of the ideological vetting by and membership in the Federalist Society. For Republicans the Federalist Society approval has mostly replaced the vetting process of the American Bar Association that was the standard before 1980. Part of the reason the Federalist Society was founded to counter what the Republican think tanks had come to believe was a liberal bias on the part of the ABA and the majority in most law schools.

With Kavanaugh the Federalist Society goal is reached, a youthful 5-4 Supreme Court majority of Federalist Society members, a goal apparently worth outright theft of a seat from Merrick Garland and all the contention around Kavanaugh’s inadequately investigated past…and his blatantly partisan eruption during the last Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. (The two oldest current members of the Supreme Court are Ginsburg at 85 and Breyer at 80. The Federalist Society majority, barring some medical accident, depends on a pinch of luck and Clarence Thomas’ longevity.)

Much of the political excitement over Kavanaugh’s elevation surrounds abortion and gun rights, but never forget the real reason the Republicans pushed so hard has more to do with Republican power: rulings on gerrymandering, corporate personhood (Citizen’s United), possible adjudication of the handling of indictments against Trump…and all the corporate, “free enterprise” goals of the Powell Memorandum.

Now, with a definitively Republican/Libertarian/Federalist Society majority on the Supreme Court, it is more important than ever to regain control of the House or the Senate and as many parts of state governments as possible this November. (Note that regulations around a woman’s right to control her own body are likely to devolve to the several states.) If all three branches of the federal government are left in Trump’s tiny hands I fear for our country. 

Come on out and knock on doors this weekend. The November election is looming. Your country needs your help.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

Dear Group, There is something happening among folks who call themselves Republicans in Spokane County.  A friend is on the emailing list for “Republicans of Spokane County.” They have a short endorsement list I’ve reproduced below from their recent email. (Their website isn’t quite so up-to-date.) In the email they wrote: “There are many other Republican candidates on the ballot. However, the above are the ones who asked and are endorsed by the Republicans of Spokane County Body.” Susan Hutchinson for U.S. Senate Cathy McMorris Rodgers for Congress Dave Lucas for 3rd District State Representative Jenny Graham for 6th District State Representative Ozzie Knezovich for Spokane County Sheriff Larry Haskell for Spokane County Prosecutor Al French for Spokane County Commissioner Mary Kuney for Spokane County Commissioner Tim Fitzgerald for Spokane County Clerk Leonard Christian for Spokane County Assessor Richard Leland for Judge Jennifer Fassbender for Judge Patrick Johnson for Judge Shelley Szambelan for Judge The thing I find notable is not whom they endorsed, but whom they did NOT endorse. I have a theory, a suspicion. I don’t see any of the Republican candidates I identify as the belligerent flapping far right fringe of the Party. Those folks include Matt “The Red Pill-State of Liberty” Shea and McCaslin Junior of District 4 (Spokane Valley plus), Jeff Holy, Mike Volz (of District 6), Rob Chase, Michael “the general election is going to be a door-to-door knife fight” Baumgartner, or any of the State District 7 incumbent reactionaries, Kretz, Short, or Maycumber. Even Ozzie Knezovich, hardly a progressive, is on record worrying about the direction of the local Republican Party influenced by white supremacists and conspiracy theorists. He has a running feud with Matt Shea. Is this a developing rift? Did the fringe not ask for endorsement from the Republicans of Spokane County out of disinterest or because they sensed they were unwelcome? What’s going on? Are the confusingly named Republicans of Spokane County longing for the day when the Republican Party actually stood for at least a few principles worth admiring? Contrast the Republicans of Spokane County with the “Spokane County Republican Party.” The latter note on their webpage they are the “Official Spokane County Republican Party.”  They’ve made some pretty unflattering news. First they said they wouldn’t…and then they auctioned off an assault rifle at their Lincoln Day dinner fundraiser at which McMorris Rodgers spoke in June. You can read about that here. They invited that paragon of empathy, former Congressman and current FOX commentator, Jason “if-they-just-didn’t-have-to-have-that-new-iPhone-they-could-afford-healthcare” Chaffetz to speak at the same gathering. (Read here.) Then Cecily Wright, their new chairwoman and purveyor of conspiracy theories with NW Grassroots, resigned over her laudatory hosting of the white supremacist, James Allsup. (Read here and here and here.) As for endorsements, the Spokane County Republican Party endorses every Republican candidate running for an office in any district that touches on Spokane County, no matter how far off on the flapping fringe. (Read Matt Shea and the Red Pill) (For some unknown reason they don’t endorse candidates for judgeships. Certainly after Kavanaugh it is pointless for them to pretend they don’t consider electing judges a partisan act.) McMorris Rodgers tries to keep a foot in both Republican camps. A product of the fringy Stevens County Republicans of which her father was once the chairman, she tries to clothe herself in the garb of a moderate Republican mom. Surely she would not want you to catch her giving an excited interview to a Breitbart reporter or attending a Republican event where an assault rifle is auctioned off to the faithful. McMorris Rodgers and many other Republicans this election season are desperately trying to survive, hoping to remain attractive to…and energize…the conspiracy theorists, the State of Liberty devotees, and their white supremacist base to vote for them while they pretend to adhere to the principles of a Republican Party that no longer exists. The GOP has become a dangerous cult of personality. From Tom Nichols in The Atlantic, October 7, “Why I’m Leaving the Republican Party:” Politics is about the exercise of power. But the new Trumpist GOP is not exercising power in the pursuit of anything resembling principles, and certainly not for conservative or Republican principles. Free trade? Republicans are suddenly in love with tariffs, and now sound like bad imitations of early-1980s protectionist Democrats. A robust foreign policy? Not only have Republicans abandoned their claim to being the national-security party, they have managed to convince the party faithful that Russia—an avowed enemy that directly attacked our political institutions—is less of a threat than their neighbors who might be voting for Democrats. Respect for law enforcement? The GOP is backing Trump in attacks on the FBI and the entire intelligence community as Special Counsel Robert Mueller closes in on the web of lies, financial arrangements, and Russian entanglements known collectively as the Trump campaign… The Republican Party, which controls all three branches of government and yet is addicted to whining about its own victimhood, is now the party of situational ethics and moral relativism in the name of winning at all costs. It is time to clean house of all of them. It is time to send a loud message to the demagogue-in-chief and his sycophants. I have some sympathy for Republicans edging away from the fringe of their Party, but they need a trouncing this November. Our nation depends on it. Keep to the high ground, Jerry