1. Last night’s candidate forum at Mount Zion Church drew only the hardest of the hard-core political junkies. In one of the hottest rooms we’ve ever been in, a small crowd of dedicated Capitol Hill Central District residents tried to cool off with improvised fans (Jessie Israel, candidate for Position 6, of her mailers: “We specifically chose this card stock for its fannability”) as the candidates went through their usual paces on stage.
Among the more unusual/interesting moments:
• Asked whether she supported the Capitol Hill Alcohol Impact Area, which restricts sales on certain types of cheap booze favored by street alcoholics, Position 4 candidate Sally Bagshaw said she did, adding that before the AIA went into effect, “You could find alcohol that’s just not good for the people who are drinking it—it’s fortified, it’s making people sick.” Bagshaw’s opponents David Bloom and Dorsol Plants both said they did not support the AIA.
• Several lightning rounds of geography questions revealed that pretty much no one knows much about Capitol Hill or the C.D.—in Position 4, none of the candidates could name a single urban village in either neighborhood, and in Position 8, no one—not even C.D. resident Bobby Forch—knew the boundaries of the Central District.
• Position 8 candidate Robert Rosencrantz continued to be a little overenthusiastic, talking energetically about the “new industrial revolution” and offering “my neck to the city of Seattle” if he proved a disappointment on the council.
2. Josh got back to town yesterday after I’d already dealt with Joel Connelly’s column in Morning Fizz. (Connelly encouraged people to ignore our endorsements because Sandeep Kaushik, a PubliCola advisor, and Cynara Lilly, our ad salesperson, work for campaigns. Neither Cynara nor Sandeep have anything to do with PubliCola’s editorial content.)
However, Josh sent off this email to Connelly:
Joel,
While you’re busy knocking PubliCola’s endorsements and explaining how traditional journalism is supposed to work, you should at least take the time to practice the basics yourself: Give us a call next time you write about us. I would have been happy to explain how we do it, and why we think it makes sense.
And had you called, you also would have gotten the hot scoop: Sandeep Kaushik, Cynara Lilly, and former PI editor Mark Matassa (who you left out, but Erica noted), aren’t the only PubliCola folks who are working on campaigns. There’s a fourth person involved with PubliCola who’s also in deep in local politics.
Sorry, you missed your chance. Not gonna tell you who now.
Josh
Connelly’s response was pretty underwhelming:
Josh:
Expected at least 1,400 words of bile out of Erica, but happy to get prototypical putdown from you. It just goes to underscore the column’s basic point: With all those folks working on campaigns, setting a new standard of participatory journalism, how can any declaraction of support or preference by Publicola have any credibility?
As well, how does it constitute a “hot scoop” that somebody is working in a campaign?
jc
3. If you like beer, and you like sitting outside, and you want to meet one of the leading candidates for City Council position 8, stop by Linda’s on Capitol Hill (707 East Pine St.) tomorrow evening between 5:30 and 7:30 to hang out with Mike O’Brien, former head of the local Sierra Club and the only guy in his race to oppose the mayor’s $4 billion deep-bore waterfront tunnel. Event details available here.
4. Candidates for mayor and city council will release detailed fundraising and expenditure totals today. What we’ll learn: Who can afford to send mail to voters, who’ll be doing commercials (Mayor Greg Nickels, duh), and what the candidates are spending all that money on. This morning, Nickels reported taking in a whopping $24,000 from a fundraiser on June 22, including contributions from Posiion 4 candidate Bagshaw, former mayoral spokeswoman Marianne Bichsel, fire chief Gregory Dean, former mayoral spokesman Casey Corr, anti-bag-fee lobbyist George Griffin, current mayoral spokesmen Alex Fryer and Robert Mak, and dozens more. Full details on campaign reports later today.
This morning’s Morning Fizz is brought to you by Candidate Survivor.
Josh’s lame response to Connelly – he won’t tell Joel who else at Publicola has a conflict of interest, na na na (meaning, he also won’t tell us readers as well) – is as misleading as Erica’s earlier response was. Though, as the Weakly noted yesterday, she had mentioned last week that Matassa was working for Drago, she didn’t mention it yesterday, contrary to Josh’s email to Connelly. Josh also pulled out the old talk-to-us-first-if-you’re going-to-write-about-us line, something he himself doesn’t practice when he’s merely opining on a subject. I’m disappointed at PC. This is amateur night stuff.
Housing First is a much better approach to the Chronic Public Inebriate issue than alcohol bans.
I think it is a good question to ask candidates. First, people need to know where they stand on these kinds of policy issues but more importantly their answers are a pretty good indicator of how would solve problems.
Banning the sale of a certain kind of booze in a neighborhood might be appealing to people who live next to the booze outlet but it doesn’t address the underlying issue. As 1811 has shown, providing treatment can be effective (and cheaper) than alcohol bans.
It isn’t the booze that is making these people sick. They are sick and that is why they drink the booze. This is a small but important point.
Put money into treatment and everyone, including the sick people, benefit.
@1 Josh didn’t say there was someone who has a conflict of interest, just someone who is involved in politics.
I’m mystified by the taunting Connelly, and also by advertising those taunts publicly. What’s the point? Can’t blame Dan Savage now.
“No one—not even C.D. resident Bobby Forch—knew the boundaries of the Central District.” Hard to be tough on Forch for this. Maybe it’s because no one agrees on what those boundaries are?
For decades, neighborhood groups have been trying to re-brand the CD. You have Squire Park and Miller Park, for instance. Or you have all the real estate agents re-branding the CD. I once saw a realtor list a house at 31st and yesler as “Leschi Heights.” South Central District? Please, Homesight would like you to call that Judkins Park. West Central District? I believe that Seattle U would like you to call that the 12th Ave corridor or something. Central District just sounds so…
Myself, I think the area West of 19th, North of Cherry, South of Madison, and East of 12th should now be called “South Capitol Hill.” That might be the key to getting some decent north/ south bus service between Capitol Hill and, er, you know.
You should list all the people that work or own Publicola and the campaigns they work or have worked for recently on an easy to find link.
You quote Sandeep and don’t mention that he is an owner or founder, which seems to be less transparent than it should be.
Erica left out the best part. I cc’d the email to Connelly’s editor, Chris Grygiel. Grygiel emailed back:
“Is it MusicNerd?”
To which I responded:
“Chris: All I know about MusicNerd is that he records rap albums.”
@5,
Sorry. Happy to say: Sandeep helped me cofound PubliCola. (Which I have said here many times. I thought it was common knowledge. Perhaps it is not.)
He’s also a minority owner.
He has zero to do with our political coverage—and he certainly doesn’t write about local politics. And he has almost less to do with the day to day operations at PubliCola.
As for the other person. I’m not going to say who it is, but I will say this: They work on a campaign against one of Sandeep’s candidates. They also have zero to do with the editorial or day-to-day decision making at PubliCola and they do not write about local politics.
As I’ve said before: It makes sense to me that people who are involved in the DNA of local politics like Sandeep and Cynara are involved at PubliCola. Perfect fit. However, Erica (news editor) and I (editor) do all the reporting and writing on local politics and make all editorial decisions.
You forgot to mention one of the most telling points from last night’s forum: Joe Mallahan was unable to name even one community/neighborhood organization on either Capitol Hill or in the CD. For someone who likes to rail on about how important the neighborhoods are to this city, it might be good to actually get to know the neighborhood organizations.
Um, Joel Connelly should be disclosing which political consultants are buying him dinner for him to write nice stuff about their candidates.
Pot meet kettle.
As if the PI, through decades of “access” and cocktail parties, doesn’t have a plethora of conflicts.
Sheeesh!
#1. has it right. When I stopped reading the SLOG is was because of BS like this — twisted facts, coy disclosures/non-disclosures, and general pettiness. I was really hoping Publicola wuld turn out to be different, but lately the staff (well, Feit and ECB at least) is fleeing back to their childish Savage training…such a a bummer.
Even if it is completely true that Sandeep (and the 3-4 others) has no impact on content with regard to political races he is working on, his role in PB and role in a campaign needs to be disclosed *every* time (“I thought everyone knew” is a lame-ass cop out). Either that or buy out his minority share and be done with it.
For the last goddamn time – if you are going to “write” PDC stories, get your timeline right.
ALL candidates who will be on the Primary ballot have to file C4s today, not just mayoral and city council candidates. How many times can one website get the PDC schedule wrong in the same cycle?
http://www.pdc.wa.gov/archive/pdf/2009/2009.krp.can.pdf
Josh: just saying it doesn’t make it go away. Simply because someone doesn’t write for you doesn’t mean there’s no conflict – specifically, the people on your (presumably) editorial masthead, including your fellow owner. How many times have you or Erica criticized media ownerships for similar presumed conflicts? (Be careful how you answer: the Stranger’s archives are available). And now, though both you and Erica slough it off, this ethical question of independence has slimed its way into your editorial product, with the hiring of Drago’s campaign spokesperson as a writer. Perhaps this is what it takes to make PC a success. But pretending it isn’t a conflict, rather than dealing with it as a conflict (requiring new story labeling), isn’t a solution.
It’s not a coy disclosure. I have posted before that I write for the blog when folks went ape shit on Sandeep. I have also said that I believe Sandeep (and Cynara for that matter) have the highest integrity. And although I am working against both of their clients, I have high respect for them. Plus they are really fun to drink with, which is nearly as important to me as integrity this time of year.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I am working with Mallahan, Royer, and Ginsberg. Plus doing treasury for about 10 other clients, including Vekich, Israel and Constantine. It’s not that big of a secret. And really, not that big of a deal. I know some folks have this idea that we political people skulk around in the fog and can’t wait to shank our opponents or detractors. That all we do are various sorts of nefarious things to get our candidates ahead. It’s not nearly that Cloak and Dagger.
It should give you comfort (but probably won’t) that nearly every campaign has a counter balance on publicola. no one has an advantage. And even if they did, Josh never listens to us anyway. Try pitching a story to him sometime. It’s exhausting. I can make 500 GOTV calls in the same amount of time.
So, in summary: your concerns are valid. They just aren’t an accurate reflection of what’s really going on here at the Cola.
If folks ever have questions or concerns, I am happy to answer them directly. jason@argostrategies.com
thanks for covering the mt zion event. in defense of the candidates re: boundaries, they are defined differently by every group in the CD/CA. many want it to be everything (i.e…Seattle U and I90 lid) so as to a) expand the scope of its influence and b) claim that the CD isn’t only 23rd and Jackson and 23rd and Cherry.
Jason Bennett is the secret extra insider?!?
Doesn’t he already have enough conflicts of interest on his plate without joining this “news” site?
Mike O’Brien @ Linda’s
How come all the other candidates have to pay to advertise their fundraisers?
oh erica and josh have a longstanding practice of picking winners in elections well ahead of when the vote takes place and then pimping them out in whatever fashion they feel they can get away with.
I think the real danger here is the city running out of smelling salts and fainting couches for a few Publicola commenters who are constantly searching for new reasons to be outraged.
If you don’t trust Josh and Erica to be fair and ethical then go read some other blog…or start your own.
The Publicola model is a hundred times better than newspapers, but it doesn’t magically relieve you of the responsibility of being a responsible reader. And Joel’s concern trolling from “on high” is laughable given the MSM’s performance over the last decade.
Oh, and I don’t want to alarm you, but most of the commenters have skin in the game as well (me included), so if you don’t want to pass out and bump your head, you better stop reading the comments.
A question for everyone: If a right-leaning news blog told us they had an identical structure as the one set up by Publicola to avoid conflict of interest, would we accept it as good enough? Yes or no? Why?
@18: Are you new to the internet? This is what we do here.
I think its fair to say we all want Publicola to be great. Since there are so many politicos that read/comment here, we want this to be an awesome site. Yet these conflicts of interest keep coming up, distracting us from their coverage.
I agree with the universal disclaimer, but one other possibility might be stop hiring people with obvious conflicts of interest.
I think my only irritation is being told how many times I’ve been told something. Argh! It’s like that person in the office who says “Didn’t you read my memo?”. (No, I didn’t read your freakin’ memo, answer the question!)
Just do a disclosure tab and write “For Disclosures, click here” every time someone asks. End of story, back to the juicy stories.
And your right whoever said it: Disclosure does little or nothing to ‘cure’ the conflict. Please. There are conflicts all over the place, i.e. drinking buddies, friendships, ideas, money, information, etc.
That said, the information is top-notch so I say, keep it coming! I’d rather get my news from this group of political nerds than anyone else.
@ 18, if the “skin in the game” you refer to is a direct professional relationship with a candidate or cause and the commentating you also mention in your post doesn’t disclose that relationship and is related to it; you might want to read Joe Trippi’s recent daily kos diary (7/19) regarding sockpuppetting.
Just thought I’d mention that, while not a huge crowd, don’t forget the dozens or so volunteers not seated in the audience who are not traditional politicos, but rather members and officers of endorsing neighborhood associations and community councils, and members of Mt. Zion.
I would have hoped for a bigger crowd, but as it was one of the last opportunities before ballots went out, folks who don’t participate in Dem Party/Sierra Club/Muni League, etc., got a good opportunity to hear from the candidates.
Thanks for sharing the results so more people get a benefit. Glad you enjoyed the lightning round questions. Makes ya think, doesn’t it? We purposely ended with a nice ‘let us know more about you question’ to not end on a negative tone. I know, you all have to pick out the hot tidbits!
I learned a lot, not from the standard stump speech stuff, but from the way the candidates reacted and responded. No one reported on how Mallahan responded to the ‘extra’ question about schools and sales of school property. After hearing the others, he both admitted not being totally versed in the subject, and then articulated the problem perfectly from a social justice POV.