Politics Last Night’s 43rd District “Debate”
Perhaps you can tell from the headline that I was a bit disappointed by last night’s event at Town Hall, which had been billed as an exciting debate among the six candidates who are vying for the open State House seat in Seattle’s 43rd District. I’ll say more about the evening and its disappointments later in the day, but for now here’s a brief photo blog…
The scene outside was promising (if you squint really hard you can see City Councilman Peter Steinbrueck holding a Stephanie Pure sign in this image).
And inside, moderator Heidi Wills (formerly of the City Council and now changing the world through golf) did her school-marmish best to keep the candidates to their time limits.
But then there were the candidates themselves (and then, in addition, there was the uninspired format). We’ll get to the particulars later, but for now here is Jamie “I grew up in Puyallup” Pedersen, seated to the right of Jim “I was reading in The Economist the other day…” Street.
And here is Dick “The power of special interests!” Kelley, seated to the right of Stephanie “I have the experience” Pure.
Here is Lynne “I’ve walked the picket lines” Dodson—who prefers to stand.
And here is Bill “When I was working for President Clinton…” Sherman, who prefers to stand and walk around to the front of the table.
I promise to post something more analytic later in the day. In the meantime, what did you think of the “debate”?
Lynne Dodson had the biggest balls of all of them. She seemed a bit angry, a bit wound up, and a little unpredictable. She wants to be on Appropriations? I would travel to Olympia to see her emasculated by the original ball breaker Helen Sommers.
Bill Sherman, by contrast was poised, thoughtful, and eloquent. Rather than jumping from issue to issue, he milked his environmental theme for everything he could.
Jamie Pedersen, well, "Oh gosh!"
Jim Street managed to imply Speaker Chopp endorsed him as well as everyone with a pulse and a passing interest in public policy.
Dick Kelley? Yawn.
Stephanie Pure would be an interesting candidate if she wasn't 1) seemingly overwhelmed by every question "wow" and 2) a little less topical.