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July 28, 2010 |
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Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Seattle
Times denies Moscoso endorsement due to union affiliation
It's hard to imagine a candidate with better community-service credentials and understanding of legislative process than Luis Moscoso, Democratic candidate for the State House of Representatives in the 1st Legislative District. And yet, the Seattle Times broke with its own tradition of endorsing two candidates to very deliberately deny him its primary election endorsement. Why? Because he's a union leader. Read more.
More election news:
► In today's (Everett) Herald -- Boeing workers tout senator's work in latest Murray ad -- A new campaign commercial for Sen. Patty Murray features Boeing workers from Snohomish County lauding her for helping the company in the competition for the lucrative aerial tanker contract. The 30-second ad is scheduled to start airing today statewide.
► In today's (Everett) Herald -- This year's race could be Sen. Murray's toughest yet -- This year will test the mettle of the 59-year-old Whidbey Island resident as she pursues a fourth term in the most unfriendly political environment she's yet encountered. A stagnant economy and stubborn unemployment are frustrating many. As Republican challengers Dino Rossi and Clint Didier look to capitalize on the discontent, Murray is campaigning with a totally different algorithm.
► From AP -- Obama to visit Seattle in August for Murray fundraiser -- He will make his first presidential stop in Seattle to talk about the economy -- and to headline an Aug. 17 fundraiser.
► In today's Seattle Times -- Rep. Smith, seeking 8th term, faces 3 rivals in primary -- His opponents are a Pierce County Council member who has strong Republican backing, a second Republican who ran against Smith in 2008 (getting 34%), and a Green Party candidate.
► From Gallup -- Democrats maintain advantage on generic ballot, 48% to 44% -- Democrats' improved position is counterbalanced by the continuing wide advantage Republicans have in voting enthusiasm. This foreshadows a typical Republican turnout advantage in midterm election voting. Still, the results show that expectations of an assured Republican landslide in the congressional elections this fall are not a foregone conclusion.
Local news:
► In today's Columbian -- Gregoire talks budget in Vancouver public forum -- The governor came to Clark County on Tuesday to ask for help making permanent changes in the services that Washington's financially strapped state government will provide in the future. But at a public meeting at Clark College, attended by about 400 people, most speakers advocated for preserving state funding, whether for higher education, welfare-to-work programs, school levy equalization or environmental protection. (Attend the final hearing Thursday in Spokane!)
► In today's Spokesman-Review -- Union votes to strike -- Union workers at Deaconess Medical Center and Valley Hospital and Medical Center (SEIU 1199NW) have voted to authorize a one-day strike against the facilities because of alleged unfair labor practices. A date was not set for the strike. The heightened labor tension comes after the workers union spent 20 months trying to reach a contract with the Tennessee-based, for-profit owner, Community Health Systems, which purchased the facilities in 2008 from Empire Health Services.
► In today's Seattle
Times -- Environmentalists,
loggers push new wilderness deal in NE Washington -- After years of
lawsuits and fights, environmentalists and timber companies are working
together on proposals to preserve thousands of acres of forests in Northeast
Washington -- and an agreement to dramatically increase logging. The
centerpiece is an initiative that will be unveiled Wednesday to add more
than 180,000 acres of wilderness to Colville National Forest in Northeast
Washington.
► At SeattlePI.com -- Boeing profits down on lower deliveries, seat issues -- Profit for the quarter fell to $787 million as the company cites a drop in deliveries "driven by anticipated seat supplier challenges and lower planned wide-body deliveries." The seat issue comes from Japanese manufacturer that admitted earlier this year to falsifying test results. (More outsourcing follies!)
► In the Tri-City Herald -- Ex-vit plant official raises safety concern, alleges retaliation at Hanford -- Safety and design concerns are being suppressed at Hanford's $12.3 billion vitrification plant, charges an engineering manager who was dismissed earlier this month.
► In today's Olympian -- Sound Transit bidder appeals disqualification -- Calling it an $800,000 waste of taxpayer money, MidMountain Contractors of Kirkland appeals the disqualification of its low bid to build a commuter rail link connecting South Tacoma to Lakewood.
Read this...
►
At Huffington Post -- Glenn
Beck's incendiary angst is dangerously close to having a body count
(by
Eric Boehlert of Media Matters)
The radical right's media rhetoric is no longer even political in a partisan sense. Instead, it's purely revolutionary. It isn't, "We think taxes should be lower" or "Obama should be more hawkish overseas." It's, "There's an insidious and deadly plot afoot by Democrats and progressives to strip Americans of their freedom and this country of its greatness." Obama is now the incarnation of evil (the Antichrist?), and his driving hatred for America, as well as for democracy, runs so deep that he ran for president in order to destroy the United States from inside the Oval Office. Rush Limbaugh: "Our country is being overthrown from within." And this summer, the latest toxic twist to that line of attack is that Obama is destroying America on purpose in order to exact revenge from white America for the historic sin of slavery. The GOP Noise Machine is now mixing a vile cocktail by stirring revolutionary rhetoric with hateful race-baiting.
National news:
► At AFL-CIO Now -- Republican blockade of Medicaid worsens state budget crises -- A new report from the National Conference of State Legislatures warns that if Congress does not extend Medicaid assistance to help states operate the low-income health care program, the states' budget crises and budget gaps will grow even larger.
► In AFL-CIO Now -- After failing to kill health care reform, insurers now fight to weaken it -- Big insurers are trying to gut new rules that require they spend a certain amount of premium dollars on actual medical care, not wasteful administration, marketing or executive pay and bonuses.
► In today's Seattle Times -- BP's $17 billion loss buoyed by tax credit to help its bottom line -- BP plans to seek a $10 billion tax credit from the U.S. government because it has lost so much money from the oil spill. (Do YOU get a tax credit when your actions lead to a bad year?)
Luis
Moscoso, a longtime union leader and State Democratic Party official from
Snohomish County, is running for State House of Representatives in the 1st
Legislative District. His opponents are Tea Party-endorsed Republican
Heidi Munson who the nonpartisan Municipal League rates
as "not qualified," and an unknown "Democrat" named
Dave Griffin who filed for election on the last day possible. Both of
Moscoso's opponents are running on a platform of smaller government and
lower taxes.
The conservative Seattle Times editorial board, which has a tradition of endorsing two candidates -- usually one Republican and one Democrat -- in contested primary elections, has given its sole endorsement to the GOP's Munson, writing that she is "essentially running on pledges of leaner government, tighter spending and an open mind about new ways to doing government business, including working toward a greener environment. Her earnest rhetoric fits the times."
Here, from her Facebook page, is some of Munson's "earnest rhetoric" about her work toward a greener environment: "I honestly don't remember the environment coming up AT ALL during the interview (with the Times), except for the Growth Management Act briefly being brought up. So, who knows?" (Moscoso reports, "I brought up the GMA with respect to other issues I was concerned about. She said she didn't know what it was, but if the government was involved it was probably bad.")
As blogger David Goldstein points out, "After 33 years of public service and community volunteerism, Luis Moscoso is so totally unacceptable to the Times, that they're forced to break with their dual endorsement tradition, and endorse only a single Republican in a primary for a race to replace a retiring Democrat in Democratic leaning District 1. Why? Because Moscoso is a labor leader and a party Democrat. And that, for the Times, is an instant disqualification from public office."
Moscoso worked for 25 years at Community Transit, starting his career as coach operator, where he helped organize them with the Amalgamated Transit Union, becoming their local's first President/Business Agent, serving four terms. He later served eight years on the staff of the Washington Public Employees Association/UFCW 365, the last three as Director of Government Relations in Olympia before retiring in 2009.
Moscoso's 34 years of community activism in his district include:
- Secretary of the Washington State Democratic Party (3rd term)
- President of Board of Directors at the Institute for Washington's Future
- Organizer/Founder: Snohomish County Citizens Committee for Human Rights
- Founding Member of Labor Justice
- Organizer & former Executive Committee member of NAACP-Snohomish County
- Organizer/Founder of Communities of Color Coalition
In sum, it's hard to imagine a candidate with better community-service credentials and understanding of legislative process. And yet, the Times very deliberately denied him even the primary election nod as the best available Democrat against Griffin, whose positions mirror those of the Republican Party and who reportedly won't respond to requests for interviews.
While the Times concedes that Moscoso "knows the inner workings of Olympia," they write that "the challenge for him is to broaden a perspective shaped by representing the Washington Public Employees Association/UFCW 365 and union issues for Community Transit workers and drivers. He knows the territory, the question is how tough he can be in the interest of all taxpayers."
Translation: He is a union member and activist, and therefore, not fit for public office.
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Copyright © 2010 -- Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO