Politics Last Night’s Candidate Debate: 43rd District State House Seat
My two cents on last night’s debate…although, mostly: Why I liked Jim Street…
although although, how he could have been way better. (Hint: Criticize the current legislature.)
Quickly: I thought Bill Sherman and Lynne Dodson and Jim Street emerged as the heavy weights. Those three owned the evening with the most presence/charisma (Sherman), energy (Dodson), and substance (Street). I think Jamie Pedersen disappeared. Dick Kelley seemed downright kooky. And Stephanie Pure, who I was rooting for, ping-ponged between displays of charismatic smarts & displays of being in-over-her-head on specific issues.
Okay: Personally, I liked Street the best. He distinguished himself by being the only candidate to really answer the “What would you cut out of the budget?” question. Rather than the standard D answer (“I’d find cuts in the $6.8 billion tax preferences handed out to special corporate interests”), Street called that approach “vague and fuzzy” and then proceeded to lay out stats on incarceration and vent about his frustration as a judge overseeing buy bust arrest cases. He said he would take the knife to the corrections budget. In fact, he started in on a passionate criticism of “The War on Drugs” before his time ran out, giving a hint that he’ll be a reformer on this issue. I dug him.
He also (twice) made biting comments about ridding ourselves of our addiction to auto-dependency. “We can’t rely on the automobile,” he warned after answering the “What House committee do you want to be on?” by saying definitively, the Transportation Committee.
I wish, however, that he had expanded that criticism to blast the current crop of Seattle Democrats in the house for standing by the line that the $2 billion for the Viaduct must accommodate auto capacity. If Street is as dedicated to reforming our auto culture as he appeared, he (and anyone else up there, really) should have slammed our local delegation for not standing up to WashDOT on that point. I know Ed Murray and Frank Chopp were in the audience and all, but if you’re afraid to challenge your colleagues…
Final note: I do wish the moderator (Heidi Wills) had forced the candidates to answer the 6 tailor-made questions that Eli, star news intern Sarah Mirk and I had suggested in our our debate preview last week.
Our candidate customized questions were:
For Lynne Dodson: “Do you part company with labor on any issue that’s in front of the legislature?”
For Dick Kelley: “Besides your push for publicly funded campaigns, what other issues do you want to push in the legislature?”
For Jamie Pedersen: “Is it true that you were against filing the marriage-equality lawsuit before you decided to join it?”
For Stephanie Pure: “With only 300 contributors—the lowest of all the candidates—do you have enough support to win this?”
For Bill Sherman: “As a King County prosecutor, would you press charges against the Critical Mass bicyclist involved in the altercation with undercover King County cops?”
For Jim Street: “As a city council member (in the 90s), why did you vote for the Teen Dance Ordinance? And how did you vote on Mark Sidran’s civility ordinances?”
"he would take the knife to the corrections budget"
The problem with that approach is that the DOC would then determine where to make the cuts. And they will make the cuts in inmate programs not in salaries and infrastructure; thus resulting in more prison violence, more over crowding and more violent and ileterate inmates that we on the outside would have to deal with and which we will then have to send back.
How would Street deal with that? It seems like the correct answer is true prison reform and the establishment of alternative sentencing for violent offenders. Reducing the DOC budget will not accomplish anything, other than prison overcrowding and less programs for inmates.
Seems like a change of heart from the guy who supported some of Sidran's crap and supported the TDO.