Brand New Day

Kumbaya, The One, kumbaya
Yes We Can, The One, Yes We Can
Change and Hope, The One, Change and Hope,
Kumbaya, The One, kumbaya

Kumbaya, The One, kumbaya
Iran will like us now, kumbaya
North Korea'll stop developing-the-bomb,
Oh Great Talker, kumbaya

Taliban stops shooting, kumbaya
Al-Queda gives up, kumbaya
Putin's missiles? Nah, kumbaya
Oh they'll like us again, kumbaya

Punish big oil, The One, kumbaya
More-expensive-gas, The One, kumbaya
Raising taxes (on "them"), kumbaya
Spreading the wealth, The One, others' wealth

Israel's crying, The One, kumbaya
Hammas is cheering, The One, kumbaya
We're all less safe now, kumbaya
Yes We Can, The One, kumbaya

Someone's praying, The One, kumbaya
They'd better-not-pray out loud! kumbaya
Fairness Doctine, now! kumbaya
Silencing decent, Hope-Change! kumbaya

Masses are fainting, The One, kumbaya
But what has changed? The One, kumbaya
Eloquent words, The One, kumbaya
Eloquent words, The One, just eloquent words

Quick Cheat Sheet

Since its clear I'm not going to finish by 8PM PDT here are the rest of my picks:

Secretary of State: Jason Osgood

Lieutenant Governor: Brad Owen

Governor: Dino Rossi

Representative, U.S. House, 8th Congressional District: Dave Reichert

President of the United States (Electorial College Elector): John McCain/Sarah Palin

Sound Transit Proposition Number 1 (Mass Transit Expansion): Rejected

King County Charter Amendment Number 8 (Nonpartisan Elections): No

King County Charter Amendment Number 7 (Charter Amendment by Citizen Initiative): Yes

King County Charter Amendment Number 6 (Budget Deadlines): Yes

King County Charter Amendment Number 5 (Establishing Forecast Council and Office of Economic and Financial): Yes

King County Charter Amendment Number 4 (Additional Qualifications for Elected Officials): No

King County Charter Amendment Number 3 Regional Committees): Yes

King County Charter Amendment Number 2 (Prohibiting Discrimination): No

King County Charter Amendment Number 1 (Elected Elections Director): Yes

Initiative Measure Number 1029 (Long-term Care Services): No

Initiative Measure Number 1000 (Allowing Certain Terminally Ill): No

Initiative Measure Number 985 (Transportation): Yes

Attorney General

Republican incumbent Attorney General Rob McKenna is running against Democrat challenger Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg.

Attorney General Rob McKenna has served one term in Olympia as AG, and served three terms on the King County Council. Prior to that he was an attorney with the huge law firm Perkins Coie in their Bellevue office.

Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg is a former Tacoma City Councilman, Pierce County Prosecutor, and now a two-term County Executive.

AG McKenna took a majority of the vote in the August Primary (very nearly 57%), whereas Executive Ladenburg received 43% of the primary vote.

Endorsements for the two candidates breaks mostly along typical party lines, with the noteworthy exception of 13 county sherriffs and several prominant law enforcement unions supporting AG McKenna.

The Attorney General's Office has been busy under AG McKenna, including twice successfully defending state initiatives before the U.S. Supreme Court.

There's frankly not a lot of difference between the two, with the quite notable exception that Executive Ladenburg supports pre-emptive review of initiatives by state courts, whereas AG McKenna views that as a violation of the state constitution.

I have dealt with Rob McKenna on King County budget issues in the past. He's a VERY sharp man. I've been impressed with him everytime I have encountered him.

I see no reason for change in this office. I am voting for Rob McKenna for Atttorney General.

State Treasurer

Democrat incumbent State Treasurer Mike Murphy is retiring. Assistant State Treasurer Allan Martin, a Republican, is running against Democrat challenger State Representative Jim McIntire, currently the chairman of the State Economic & Revenue Forecast Council.

Assistant Treasurer Martin has been with the State Treasurer's Office since 1998 (where he is now the current Treasurer's top deputy), and prior to that was Chelan County Treasurer for six years. He was a banker and is still a licensed funeral director.

Representative (Doctor) McIntire has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington. He was a research scientist at the Battelle Memorial Institute, did work for Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey, was Governor Booth Gardner's Fiscal Policy Advisor for 3 years, has run 5 different state economic advisory groups, has served on the faculty of the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs (at the University of Washington) since 1983, and still serves in the State Legislature (since 1998) where he has served on every financials-related committee in the House including having previously chaired the House Finance Committee.

Assistant Treasurer Martin took as a plurality of the August Primary with 45% of the vote in a 3-way race. Representative McIntire received almost 40% of the vote.

Assistant Treasurer Martin has been current State Treasurer Mike Murphy's top deputy since 2007. He is the continuation of Treasurer Murphy's policies. He said he would have given the same answers as his boss regarding demands to toll both 520 and I-90, and in opposing a NASCAR racetrack partnership.

Representative McIntire has said he supports moving to a state income tax, but has never introduced or voted for any legislation to do that. He also was instramental in putting together the legislation that led to the state's Rainy-Day Fund.

While I am no fan of even talk of a state income tax, I also don't think the State Treasurer should be announcing he'll refuse to sell bonds for which the legislature would direct to be sold unless a political policy he backed was also implemented (as in tolling I-90 as well as 520).

I am voting for Jim McIntire for State Treasurer.

State Auditor

Democrat incumbent State Auditor Brian Sonntag is running against Republican challenger Dick McEntee, a corporate executive. These candidates also ran against each other in 2000.

Auditor Sonntag has been in office since winning the 1992 election. Prior to that he was twice elected Pierce County Clerk, and then two-term Pierce County Auditor.

Dick McEntee has long served in lesser known government roles such as sitting on the Fircrest City Council, Governor's councils, county-appointed corporations, and also was the Pierce County Republican Party Treasurer for 2 years. He has a long career in business including as Vice President of Nalley's Fine Foods and VP/Chief (Government) Compliance Officer of an investment firm.

Auditor Sonntag took the majority (59%) of the August Primary. Dick McEntee received 33% of the Primary vote (in a 3-way race).

Auditor Sonntag has been in office as the focus of the State Auditor's Office changed from purely letter-of-the-law CPA-style auditing to Performance Auditing as empowered by I-900.

He has done a pretty good job of going into budget-heavy sacred-cow territory (such as the state Department of Transportation budget) and given his own party the bad news. This has made Auditor Sonntag more popular in many Republican/conservative circles than in his own party!

Auditor Sonntag has received some key endorsements from the Association of Washington Business and the Building Industry Association of Washington.

Mister McEntee has been calling for more extensive performance audits for a long time, and makes the argument that he would be more forceful in this area than the incumbent has been.

While I have often thought that the State Auditor's Office should be more liberal in its use of its Performance Audit authority I also have to remember that it was under his watch, and (continuing) political leadership, that real Performance Audits came into existence in state government.

I am voting for Brian Sonntag for State Auditor.

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson is running against challenger Randy Dorn, head of the Classified school workers union and former state legislator.

Superintendent (Doctor) Bergeson was a teacher and school administrator, head of the state teachers union, ran the state committee that created the WASL, and has been Superintendent of Public Instruction since 1997.

(Former) Representative Dorn is a former teacher and principal, former state representative (for 7 years) who chaired the State House Committee on K-12 Education, and currently runs the second largest school workers union in the state.

Superintendent Bergeson took a plurality of the six-way August Primary with nearly 40% of the vote. Representative Dorn received just over 5% less of the vote in the Primary.

While Superintendent Bergeson was initially the darling of the state teachers union there is now no love-loss between either of the public school employees unions and the current Superintendent.

Representative Dorn has made the WASL the primary issue of this election. While I personally support an objective, standardized testing program as part of earning a High School Diploma, the WASL is just horrible. Teaching to a good test leads to good fundamentals. Teaching to the WASL (a subjective test) that absolutely does not teach the basics. (Watch this well-done video to see an example).

Its time for the sad state of affairs in actual graduation numbers to be addressed. The incumbent is ensconced in defending a bad standards test that she developed and is deaf to calls for looking at actual rates of graduation instead of using cooked numbers.

I may not be a fan of the state teachers union agenda for schools, but their candidate is better than the status quo.

I am voting for Randy Dorn for Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Lands Commissioner

Republican incumbent Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland is running against Democrat challenger Peter Goldmark, an Eastern Washington rancher and unsuccessful candidate for Congress in 2006.

Commissioner Sutherland has been in office since winning the 2000 election. Prior to that he was Mayor of Tacoma, and then Pierce County Executive, along with a plethora of conservation commission and committee memberships.

Doctor Goldmark (he has a Ph.D. and was a research scientist) was Governor Mike Lowry's Director of Agriculture for 5 months in 1993. He's served on several Governor's councils and committees on the environment since then.

Commissioner Sutherland took a very slim majority of the August Primary over his only opponent (Dr. Goldmark) by 2 1/4 % of the vote.

While this office's race tends to polarize between the environmentalist/eco-terrorist crowd and the pro-timber industrialist crowd I find that Commissioner Sutherland has been really very fair in his execution of policy and administration of the state Department of Natural Resources.

This department was a virtually unmanaged mess when Commissioner Sutherland took control eight years ago, and has turned its administration around. He took a department with competing policy objectives that brought in $6 million per year into a streamlined-in-objective less-beauracratic entity that now brings in $16 million per year.

While Commissioner Sutherland has received endorsements from the timber industry he is not in their pocket. He's actually fair.

Doctor Goldmark has pointed out that the DNR has made some mistakes over the past eight years, but I don't see these as a worthy call for the ousting of a fair, centrist, experienced administrator of the largest department in our state's government.

Doctor Goldmark's five-months of experience administering a state agency just doesn't compare to the eight solid years of successfully directing the DNR in which Commissioner Sutherland has proven himself.

I am voting for Doug Sutherland for Commissioner of Public Lands.

Insurance Commissioner

While I'm not sure why we need to be electing a plethora of state executive positions with no budget authority I also wasn't around when our state's constitution was written!

Democrat incumbant State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler is running against Republican challenger John Adams, owner of a Seattle-area indeptendent insurance agency.

Commissioner Kreidler has been running this office since he succeeded fellow Democrat Deborah Senn (who lost her race for Attorney General) in the 2000 election. Prior to that he was in the state legislature and served one term in Congress (losing his 1994 re-election campaign). He is an optometrist by trade.

John Adams is relatively new to campaigning for public office. He was on the Board of the Lake Washington School District for 8 years, and has been an insurance agent for 38 years.

Having a sour taste in my mouth for Commissioner Kreidler from when he was my none-too-agreeable Congressman I am predisposed to not support him; add to that the fact that his opponent actually has experience in the insurance industry and my mind is pretty well set.

I am voting for John R. Adams for state Insurance Commissioner.