News Well, That Took Too Much Time
posted by on January 23 at 15:39 PM
Okay, so the top donor to the highest-profile campaign in the highest-profile battle this city has seen in years is Christopher Ackerley, head of Ackerley Partners.
You wouldn’t know that, though, if you simply went to Seattle’s elections commission where campaigns file contribution reports.
Sheesh. I had to tell them where the money came from.
That’s because, in the disclosures presented to the public, the biggest donor is simply listed as: AWV Partners LCC. They’ve contributed $18,000 to the pro-tunnel campaign, which is called Waterfront for All/Not Another Elevated.
To find out who AWV Partners LCC is, you have to call the secretary of state’s office to get AWV’s annual report. That lists their board and a phone number. That gets you to Ackerley Partners—a venture-capital firm run by the former billboard guys who got bought out by Clear Channel a while back.
They won’t want to talk about where the $18,000 came from, though, and they’ll forward you to John Taylor—who is the policy director of the Downtown Seattle Association.
So, Taylor told me he didn’t know where the $18,000 came from. Then he called back to tell me that Christopher Ackerley called Taylor to say, yes, he contributed the money. (I had left a message on Christopher Ackerley’s voice mail.)
Why am I relaying this mundane reporting story? Because: The public’s access to information about big donors to important ballot campaigns like Tunnel vs. Rebuild shouldn’t depend on reporters getting annual reports from the secretary of state and then having to make phone call after phone call. (I also happen to be friends with Taylor, which I think, helped me get the info.)
The public just doesn’t have that kind of access or time. And they shouldn’t have to have that kind of access or time to get this basic info.
My point being: Public disclosure law is Swiss cheese.
And my point that the underwater tunnel is being built for ultra-rich developers also being true.
Will, you are truly a simple-minded moron. The biggest developer in town is personally bankrolling the retrofit campaign. Might want to try reading a real newspaper for a change...
So who exactly is bankrolling a retrofit campaign? Last I heard they had about $200, and it was for an anti-tunnel campaign. There is no retrofit on the ballot, so please explain your slack-jawed posting.
Now granted, I hope some conscientious developer (being as no one stands to make as much cash from a rebuild, anyone bankrolling this doesn't stand to directly profit) will match the mega-bucks the DSA and Hallivulcan will raise, if only so us little peons who actually rely on the AWV to get around don't have to watch our lifeline sacrificed to the gods of phony environmentalism and/or cruise ship tourism.
Gee Mr X, you ever hear of Marty Selig?
The PWC aint on the ballot either - I guess that means there's no one supporting that cause...
You paranoid delusionists really do need to get a life.
Selig hasn't ponied up dime one for a retrofit campaign - because there isn't one. No newspaper in Seattle I'm aware of has reported that Selig has taken any recent position on the AWV or indicated that he would support a rebuild campaign. Source please?
If Selig has ponied up significant funds for a rebuild campaign (which, I would add, will likely do less to benefit the value of his property than a tunnel might), the campaign has until March 10th before they're next due to file a list of all contributors who have given $200 or more.
You do know the difference between retrofitting the Viaduct and rebuilding it, don't you?
Here's the current tunnel contributor list from Ethics and Elections (apologies for the formatting, you can find it in its full glory at http://www2.ci.seattle.wa.us/ethics/searchlist/lists.asp?
elcycle=el07a&hidRetrieve=VIEW_CONTRIBUTIONS&cbCampaign136=ON.
Reported
AggregateContributorContribution
Date &
Amount C3 or C4
Report
$18,000 AWV Partners LLC 12/7/06
$18,000
$15,000 WA Engineers PAC 8/11/06
$15,000
$10,000 Downtown Seattle Association 6/7/06
$10,000
$10,000 Glacier NW 7/19/06
$10,000
$10,000 Ginger Ackerley retired
retired 8/11/06
$10,000
$10,000 Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce 12/7/06
$10,000
$10,000 Davis Wright Tremaine LLP 12/7/06
$10,000
$7,500 Metzler Realty Advisors, Inc 8/30/06
$2,500
$5,000 Seattle Mariners 5/22/06
$5,000
$5,000 Touchstone Corporation 5/24/06
$5,000
$5,000 American Coun of Engineering Co 5/27/06
$5,000
$5,000 WA ST Council of Co & City Employ 5/27/06
$5,000
$5,000 Holland America 6/27/06
$5,000
$5,000 Safeco Corporation 7/21/06
$5,000
$5,000 Street Pavers Union 440 8/17/06
$5,000
$5,000 Frank Stagen Nitze-Stagen & Co, Inc.
Chief Executive Office 8/18/06
$5,000
$5,000 Harbor Properties 8/21/06
$5,000
$5,000 David Evans & Associates, Inc. 8/21/06
$5,000
$5,000 HOD Carriers & General Labor #242 8/22/06
$5,000
$5,000 Wright Runstad Associates 8/26/06
$5,000
$5,000 Unico Properties LLC 9/21/06
$5,000
$5,000 Jacobs Civil Inc 9/28/06
$5,000
$5,000 Harris Rebar Seattle Inc. 10/30/06
$5,000
$2,500 HDR Engineering, Inc 5/22/06
$2,500
$2,500 Vulcan Inc 7/21/06
$2,500
$2,500 Goodman Real Estate Inc 10/19/06
$2,500
$2,0000 CH2M Hill, Inc.
Gee, Will is right. It IS a bunch of ultra-rich Seattle developers (I'm surprised Vulcan isn't in for more, but I suppose they're already on the hook to pay for the RTID vote since WSDOT put their $400 million Lowered Aurora/Mercer Boulevard project into the AWV DEIS.)
I don't see a developer on the list for more than $5k. If either of you two dullards think that a $5k contribution is an attempt to "buy" an election you really do have a lot to learn. Give us all a break from your paranoid rants.
How much did Selig contribute to anti-monorail? Now THAT'S how you buy an election. And that's exactly what developers would do if there were anything to gain from the tunnel - but there isn't. Talk all you want about the "new waterfront development opportunities" that will be created - developers don't care about that. Any new dirt that gets created will be priced such that the profit from the new condos won't be any greater than condos anywhere else in the city. Sorry to upend your conspiracy theory - but that's just how the real world works. It'd be nice if you tried to join it every once-in-a-while...
As to your "fact" that Selig hasn't spent a dime on the retrofit - well if you say so it must be true. I guess the reporters at the Daily Journal of Commerce must be wrong.
Face it X, once again you are 100% wrong. Unfortunately (for all of us) I'm quite certain that you'll continue to bluster - without any facts OR common sense.
@2 - funny, you should have heard us getting down at KC Dems tonight, figuring out what is likely to happen.
Most everyone, even the tunnel backers, agreed with my analysis.
Now, would you like chips with your fries? Cause you been fried.
Righto, SJSS, none of those donors (btw readers, half of their names didn't make the post due to the formatting error - you ought to go look at the link for more info) have ANY vested, direct, up-to-their-eyeballs financial interest in downtown (and other) development projects - not a one.
For example, no one would consider Unico Properties (you know, the people who manage the University Tract that the 4 Seasons Hotel and the Rainier Club are located on?) or Glacier Northwest (big concrete manufacturers) or Nitze/Stagen (who made a serious pitch to take over all of Pier 91 and other Port properties if the AWV was tunnelled for a gigantic mixed use project that would turn Martin Selig green with envy) to be donors that would reflect the opinion of the development community. Heavens, no.
Please, the list is a who's-who of the big downtown business community mucky-mucks who have historically dicatated where the real dollars are spent in local politics, and it's just absurd parsing for you to suggest otherwise. Besides that, if they haven't given enough already for you to consider it significant, it's early days, and I'm sure everyone on that list will give more.
Now that Seattle's business and political elite finally have to defend this boondoggle at the polls against the rest of us poor peons who will be on the hook for the costs, and will get to watch this project suck up every available transportation, open space, policing, and other public dollar for decades to come, I'm sure they bring all of the financial and political power they have to bear on a campaign that denies the true (and essentially unchanged) nature of the tunnel project, minimizes the direct costs and ignores the ancillary costs, and soft-pedals the fact that Seattle residents alone will be on the hook for the added costs. I don't think it will work, but after seeing two stadia rammed up the regions collective behind by essentially the same crowd, very little would surprise me at this point.
I didn't see the DJC article (which I'm guessing came out at the end of last week - they don't publish the date on the free part of their website). Maybe it's because the only people who can afford to read the City of Seattle's "journal of record" are developers, lawyers, and contractors who have a material interest in the published RFQ',RFP's, and other opportunities to bid on local government projects that are posted there and can afford the $200 or more (as I recall) it costs to subscribe. You know - exactly the kind of folks on the list I cited, and who Will from Seattle was quite correct in citing as the prime supporters of the tunnel?
I'd be interested to hear who signs your paycheck - but I'm willing to bet I wouldn't be surprised.
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).