To recap: Here’s today’s complete list of PubliCola endorsements for the November 3 general election.
Initiative 1033: No
Referendum 71: Approved
King County Charter Amendments: Yes on all of them
County Executive: Dow Constantine
Assessor: Bob Rosenberger
Seattle Port Commissioner No. 3: Rob Holland
Seattle Port Commissioner No. 4: Max Vekich
Mayor: Mike McGinn
City Attorney: Tom Carr
City Council Position No. 2: Richard Conlin
City Council Position No. 4: David Bloom
City Council Position No. 6: Nick Licata
City Council Position No. 8: Mike O’Brien
Proposition No. 1, Low-Income Housing Levy: Yes
Seattle School District No. 5: Mary Bass
Seattle School District No. 7: Betty Patu
PubliCola does not endorse in uncontested races.
PubliCola’s endorsement board is: Erica C. Barnett, Josh Feit, Jake Blumgart, and Jonah Spangenthal-Lee.
Dow Constantine spokesman Sandeep Kaushik co-founded PubliCola in January. He played no part in our endorsement process and has no editorial role at PubliCola.
Don’t forget “No on I-1033″!!!
BREAKING: McGinn dumps tunnel opposition after Publicola endorsement…
Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn previously vowed to stop the project if he’s elected, but after Monday’s vote said, “although I disagree with this decision, it will be my job to uphold and execute this agreement.”
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/64827602.html
Although I don’t agree with some of your choices, I appreciate the fact that you gave sound reasoning for them. It seems like your endorsement criteria consist of a reasonable balance of ideology and political experience/track record. I think that your city attorney endorsement is the only one that I wouldn’t have guessed.
Agreeing with Michael. Even though I disagree with some of the picks, your explanation of the reasoning behind them seems like a breath of fresh air compared to, say, the SECB.
The only nitpick I would think to make is that maybe you could have linked to some articles/posts/etc illustrating some of the points you made, but I’m sure this took a lot of time as it was and you guys are pretty busy as it stands, so I can understand that not being there.
I agree with Michael G and Gomez except for your Carr endorsement. Carr aside, I mostly agree with your endorsements, and where I disagree I respect your reasoning. But with the city attorney’s race, you essentially issue a Carr campaign press release, (1) giving Carr credit for a bunch of (generally laudable)reforms he only acquiesced to once he had no choice and/or was in campaign mode, (2) once again misstating the current law regarding vehicular manslaughter in an effort to make Carr’s criminalization proposal seem like a better idea than it is, and (3) accept Carr’s misguided explanation of why the city attorney isn’t responsible to the voters rather than the mayor. I don’t know if it’s a way of insisting you’re not The Stranger or if you just decided to believe everything Carr says without fact-checking it, but that one’s really a disappointment for an otherwise good publication.
These are a surprise?
you’ve been slavishly re-publishing every McGinn press release as badly as Fox News touts the latest witchhunt.
Doesn’t matter how much of a teabagger McGinn is in lying robocalls, or how much he flip flops on his singular issue, all the kewl kids like’em, oh that Eddie Haskell!
As regards the race for City Attorney, as everybody knows, Erica had an issue downtown earlier this year, and Tom Carr took care of it.
I was off on two of your endorsements – Bloom and Carr. I didn’t read the interview of Bagshaw and Bloom before my predictions or I’d have gone the other way. The Holmes/Carr race was a toss-up for me, especially after ECB’s highlighting Carr’s proposal on criminalizing vehicular manslaughter.
There’s plenty of food for thought in your endorsements. Thanks for the analyses!
Tom Carr? Come on.
Well, I guess the city council candidates are good… but I realized that we’ll now have just 2 women and one person of color on the council. And maybe 3 that live south of I-90 (albeit on the shores of Lake WA)? I wish our representation was, well, more representative. Guess I need to get ready to run in a few years…
We spend most of our time at our home in Greece, and we have already voted and mailed in our ballots (King County is one of the best counties in the country for helping military and overseas voters stay involved through voting – even won an award for it!).
We voted as if we had read your cheat sheet – every single race and initiative was, in our opinion, spot on!
Really glad that we agree since I enjoy reading the blog on a regular basis – true, I read it through Google Reader (like all the 65 other blogs I regularly read), but when I feel the need to comment I head off to the home page.
Great work to the endorsement staff and I love the Nerds!
I’m disappointing that this is just a list, no analysis, no indication of why Publica endorses these people. I expect more from a news source.
@12,
Please click on the links.
Thank you to Publicola for well-thought out arguments. I don’t agree with all of them but at least I can follow the understanding. When I wrote to the Times in protest over their endorsements, they seemed to think I was comparing them to Fox News (which I didn’t say one word about). I think they know that their endorsements are off-the-mark.
The article pretty clearly states that they are working on proof of concept examples, but I think it’s understandable that they would share that information with the vendors prior to releasing it to the general public. ,
Consider expanding your analysis to the Eastside. There are a bunch of council races with Kemper Freakman backing some regressive candidates. You cover some of the stories, so think about doing endorsements, as well.
I voted three or four times, just like you asked. When can I come by and pick up my $5?
(sarcasm)
Although I don't agree with some of your choices, I appreciate the fact that you gave sound reasoning for them. It seems like your endorsement criteria consist of a reasonable balance of ideology and political experience/track record. I think that your city attorney endorsement is the only one that I wouldn't have guessed.