If politics were boxing - and sometimes it certainly seems that way - then we have finished with the sparing and its now time for the main event. In other words, the general election will be nothing like the primary.
When the early vote totals were announced after Aug. 19’s primary election, it looked like good news for the Democrats. Governor Gregoire was beating Dino Rossi by about four and a half percentage points and heading toward 50 percent of the total vote. Darcy Burner was running just a couple of points behind the 8th District incumbent Congressman Dave Reichert and gaining ground fast.
Satterberg, bringing to a meeting of the Greater Maple Valley-Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce the good crimebusting news he’s been sharing with similar audiences countywide, noted the Legislature finally wised up to a state law that required a car thief to be convicted of the crime seven times before being sent to jail. And even, a six-month sentence was the norm. The law has been rewritten so it now packs sentences of at least 17 months behind bars after three convictions and longer terms for subsequent convictions.
Summer isn’t over yet. But what the heck, let’s have an end-of-summer closeout on column items.
Seems like oil is connected to about everything. The cost associated with growing and delivering our food. The cost of driving to work, the cost of delivering goods and clothing from overseas or the cost of exporting our goods from Washington growers and manufacturers..
The community lost a local drag racing pioneer, competitor, businessman and good friend in 67-year-old Bill Kost, who died Aug. 3 because of medical issues.
The Jade Greens Women’s Club and Jade Greens Golf Course held the second annual fund-raising “Tee It Up For Our Troops” golf tournament on July 9. All proceeds from this tournament go directly to support the gym therapy patients with equipment at American Lake Veterans Hospital, which is a regional hospital near Tacoma treating our returning and current veteran population of the Northwest.
“The oldest and strongest emotion in mankind is fear.” H.P. Lovecraft
Last month, Kenneth Demone Sims, a convicted sex offender from Renton, was charged with three counts of rape.
Covington had a nice problem to solve last week: One open seat on the City Council, and five people who wanted to fill it.
Next week’s primary election isn’t exactly a barn-burner, as many races only have two candidates, at best. Most candidates will move on to the general election. Still there is an issue on the ballot that deserves attention.
Let’s hear from people in power
Judicial elections are different from all other elections in Washington. First, if one of the candidates gets more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary, he or she automatically wins the race and won’t appear on the November ballot. And second, most people don’t learn as much about the candidates as they want to know.
Thumbs up to the Covington City Council and the officials at City Hall for their attentiveness and diligence on a subject that most people only think of in retrospect: How the downtown should grow and eventually look.
Well, at a time when there are big layoffs, the cost of gas is going through the roof, the cost of groceries is out of sight, the governor is making toll roads out of I-5 and I-405, and with Highway 167 losing it’s HOV lane to only the people that can afford to buy a special permit, I find that merely asking for more money is pompous and out of touch with people struggling to pay their utilities and keep food on the table.
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for the wonderful front-page publicity (June 28, “What’s new?”), and I loved the caption and title you added. We’ve had several people call and e-mail with interest to visit, and they are all commenting on the Reporter article and how cute the front-page photo was. Please pass on to photographer Charles Cortes the interest he has sparked and what a great job he did.
Will voters remember there’s an election this month?
In 1954, a cholera epidemic struck London, England. Thousands of people were dying and no one could determine the cause. Doctors were stumped as deathly ill adults and children filed into the overcrowded hospitals.
“Fairy Tales” is the name of the beautiful quilt Fran Woods, a Maple Valley Library Guild member, was kind enough to donate to the guild so that we could raffle it off. Proceeds from the raffle will augment the programming for children, teens and adult patrons of the Maple Valley Library.
All big elections are about two issues: Peace and prosperity.
