The table in King County Executive Ron Sim's office is a big one, bigger than many boardroom tables, but there aren't enough people invited to sit there, share their views and work with Sims on pressing regional issues such as transportation, land use regulation, homelessness and election reform. So said Sims' Republican challenger, current County Council member David Irons, in announcing his candidacy today.
Speaking to a group of supporters, and media at the Hampton Inn in Seattle's Lower Queen Anne neighborhood, Irons charged Sims has been a divider not a uniter: that county elections snafus have festered for years; that social services to assist the homeless are uncoordinated; that regional transportation improvements are undercut by turf battles between local governments and the county; and that the county's Critical Areas Ordinance was so poorly drafted rural property owners must wend through bureacracy just to cut weeds on their land.
The two-term suburban Seattle council member supported the successful effort to reduce the size of the council from 13 members to 9; perhaps not so coincidentally, his district was one of those eliminated. Rather than run against GOP ally and current council member Kathy Lambert in a newly-drawn district, and with Sims more vulnerable than at any previous time in his two terms, Irons is shooting for the executive suite.
Irons is not a dynamic public speaker by any stretch of the imagination. His delivery today was at times hesitant, and fairly passionless when reciting scripted "messages." However, Irons seems to come alive when talking policy, and manages to do it without seeming terribly wonk-ish. This could be a strength at the retail level when campaigning to suburban neighborhood associations, and other mid- to small-sized groups.
Of the four issue areas he focused on at the announcement, transportation was his real passion, and as it happens, that, and restoring trust in government, are probably the biggest concerns of the crucial suburban electorate in King County. Irons talked with convincing ease and authority about things like High Occupancy Toll lanes (he's for 'em); tolls on a rebuilt Evergreen Point/Route 520 floating bridge (ditto); and told a wry story about a conversation with a German elected official who couldn't believe we subsidize unprofitable transit routes here.
How do we fund the billions in major road, bridge and viaduct projects the region needs? Irons said only that there'll have to be a combination of federal and state funds, and the Regional Transportation Investment District board, upon which he sits, will have a plan out next month, including two revenue sources. I know one. Can anyone spell g-a-s t-a-x h-i-k-e?
Candidate Irons and his policy advisors should really seize the debate and simultaneously play to Seattle-ites by getting creative on transportation funding. For example, what about advocating county leadership on a push for a state constitutional amendment to allow tax increment financing (TIF)? TIF is used in other states for redeveloping blighted areas, and is one idea brewing at the Cascadia Project of The Discovery Institute in Seattle for generating revenues to replace the aged, crumbling Alaskan Way Viaduct on Seattle's downtown waterfront with a tunnel.
With a two-thirds vote from the legislature, and public approval, TIF funding could become legal in Washington. TIF bonds could be floated against the rise in property values, and thus tax revenues, from parcels where water and mountain views are now blocked by the earthquake-prone Viaduct; and against the rise in property values when underutilized or atrocious places like Pier 48, Pier 54, Pier 55 and the "historic," wino-encrusted Washington Street Public Boat Landing are redeveloped in concert with a tunnel replacement for The Viaduct.
Just a thought. But to widen the opening given his candidacy by all that's gone wrong on Sims' watch, Irons will need to make good on his pledge to be not only a "regional facilitator" but a visionary as well. He'll also need to get a good deal more specific about homelessness and election reform. But there's time for that.
The last Republican executive of King County was Tim Hill, a Seattle resident. He was defeated in 1993 by Gary Locke. Irons has a far better chance than either Santos Contreras or Suzette Cooke, both good people, but marginal candidates who were no match for Sims in previous elections. Cooke was an ex-state legislator, Conteras a suburban city council member. Irons, in contrast, is a sitting member of the county council who has earned some political credits as a reformer (council size reduction) and gadfly (elections division critic, and opponent of the county's footsie game with Cuba), while still wearing a pro-development, busiiness-friendly mantle. Further, his own base is in the voter-rich eastern suburbs of Seattle that will be crucial in this election.
Let's hope the Irons campaign takes a page from the successful Bush effort last fall, using grassroots boosters to spread the word to friends and neighbors. In addition, the candidate will need to get in front of a lot of community and neighborhood groups. A policy-oriented candidate such as Irons would also be well-served by a campaign blog that helps illuminate his ideas with news from the broader world. Most candidate blogs to date have been a shabby re-hash of the candidate's Web site, with a few links to stories about the candidate thrown in.
To volunteer for the Irons campaign or contribute, call 425-313-9536. They'll be getting a campaign Web site up and running before too long, I'd guess.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at March 12, 2005 03:47 PM | Email This"...and told a wry story about a conversation with a German elected official who couldn't believe we subsidize unprofitable transit routes here."
A couple of years ago, the total "mass transit" subsidy from taxpayers in WA was about 1.3 billion dollars a year. I haven't looked to see if anyone has provided a more recent total, since it's too painful to look at that figure and consider what an utter waste of government revenue it represents.
That's enough to build a Tacoma Narrows Bridge every year and still have 500 or 600 million dollars left over.
How much do you need to replace the viaduct on the Seattle waterfront? One or two years' worth of "mass transit" subsidy?
How much to build a new floating bridge across Lake Washington? Six months' worth of that subsidy?
How much to replace half the Hood Canal Bridge? A few months of that wasted subsidy?
If we weren't blowing more than a billion dollars a year out the tailpipes of single-occupant-buses, maybe we could build the roads, bridges and viaducts we need to build in this state with the taxes we are already paying.
Maybe -- except that somehow the people who worship at the altar of "mass transit" have to be brought around to the realization that wasting revenue offering rides to people who don't want them or subsidizing the commuting expense of people who can pay their own way is indeed a waste of revenue.
If we could just get them to set aside their article of faith for a few years and let us put that revenue to good use, we could get the transportation infrastructure repaired and improved. Then, if anyone wanted to go back to pouring money into "mass transit," they could.
Posted by: Micajah on March 12, 2005 04:10 PMMy personal struggle is with a Republican Party that is controlled by the Chris Vances, who themselves are controlled by the building industry. With this disaster of a top 2 election, I don't know how we ever will get a real Republican (conservative, opposing both social and CORPORATE WELFARE) elected ever again.
Trees or pavement? It's a LOSE - LOSE with the game stacked against the candidate that hasn't sold out to either extreme.
Posted by: Mike on March 12, 2005 04:28 PMPosted by JCH at March 12, 2005 04:19 PM"
I would guess that democrats run "ALL" the major cities because they are "filled with democrat voters." Sometimes the answer is right there in the question.
As far as the party being controlled by the chris vance
crowd.Have no fear that is about in all
likelyhood to come to an end.
Vance has gotten himself in some big
time trouble with the state executive board.
I don't believe he will be able to worm
his way out of it this time.
I would like to see High Occupancy Toll Lanes, but combined with a concept known as the FAIR lane.
I am getting tired of those who think one-solution fits all is the aproach to fix our traffic. That goes for monorail advocates, light rail activists, highway activists, streetcar activists, free bus activists and so on. I think that the best transit mode for the corridor is what should be used. All sides have to get together to decide what is the best. In the case of Pacific Highway South, a combination of two modes would be the best. Extend Central Link from S. 200th St to Downtown Tacoma, wiith a monorail running as an express track. Since I know that is expensive, I would just go for crossovers on the Light Rail corridor at every station to allow express trains to overtake.
The Valley Freeway corridor needs HOT Lanes, it already has corresponding rail transit. SOUNDER. I do not think HOT lanes will help a bus or car get from S. King St.and 4th Ave to Downtown Kent in 20 minutes at Rush Hour. SOUNDER leaves King St. Station at 4:45PM, reaches Tukwilla Station at 5:01PM, then pulls into Kent at 5:08, then in about 10 minutes reaches Auburn.
I would like to see Tax Increment Financing used for transit projects, with a twist. In addition to a property tax, allow a small sales tax to also help pay off the bonds, .1% sounds good.
Posted by: MASSTRANSITFAN on March 12, 2005 10:22 PMIn 2003, $1.6 billion was spent on mass transit in WA. Of that total, only $131 million came from fares and "vanpool revenue" (which I suppose is paid by the vanpool riders, but maybe not).
The report was done in Nov. 2004, so it's apparently the latest available info.
So, should we be considering higher taxes to pay for more spending on transportation needs, or isn't $1.5 billion a year enough to blow out the exhaust pipes of under-used buses and railcars? Couldn't we divert some of that wasted subsidy of mass transit into building bridges, viaducts and roads?
Posted by: Micajah on March 12, 2005 10:43 PMI am not suggesting spending more tax money on transit. The idea of LRT along the entire Pacific Highway route to Downtown Tacoma is that I would have a small taxing distrcit for TIF, about 4 blocks on either side of the alignment. Also, the last 1.6 miles into Downtown Tacoma is already operation, all they would have to do when the line reaches Tacoma Dome Station is double track the single-tracked portion of the route, and upgrade the voltage to 1500 Volts, which the seattle sysetm will use.
In Portland, they are to scared to spend some money that will eventually reduce operating costs on MAX. TriMet carries 91 Million riders, just 9 million short of Metro, but a third of the riders ride MAX. The Airport Line was criticized as being a train to nowhere, but came in handy on Day 2 of operation. The first Red Line Trains went on line, September 10, 2001. Stranded travelers the next day needed to get to hotels, or possibly Portland Union Station to catch Amtrak or Greyhound.
The Friday before last night, I rode SOUNDER to Tacoma, to see if people like you are right. I am sorry to admit, you are wrong. The week before the one that just ended, they were dealt two emergencies that should have discouraged ridership, the Sumner Cafe Fire on Tuesday, and the BNSF Dispatchers 2 hour strike(gotta love the Railway Labor Act) on Wensday. The train was still full. I boarded in Kent, and thought only 2 people would be waiting for the train, it was thirty. There was also one stop between Seattle and Kent. I could not find a seat on the train if I had boarded at King Street Station.(I had been in Renton looking for a Skippers, cannot find one in Seattle.)
Posted by: MASSTRANSITFAN on March 12, 2005 11:06 PMThink about it Matt....ANYONE is better than Ron Sims. Would you be willing to risk having Ron Sims as KC Exec for another term...just because you have a *suspicion* that Irons may want to increase gas taxes? A completely unfounded fear?
There is absolutely NOTHING to back up your fears about David Irons...but there is PLENTY to validate our fears about Ron Sims!
I just don't know where your head is at.....To dis' a valid conservative candidate on the day he announces his run against Sims...makes me go hmmmm....
I guess I will just accept that you and I are not like-minded.
I think Irons's plan to cut the Council in size was the right thing to do, but he went about it the wrong way. It should have been 3 districts, with three seat districts. Using Single-Transferable Vote, a Seattle Republican would need only 25% of the vote to win, same with a rural Democrat. You see, Irons wanted 3 Districts representing unincorporated King County, 3 Districts represnting suburban King County, and 3 Representing Seattle.
Seattle had two Charter Ammendments in 2003 regarding council elections, I hoped both made the ballot, but only one did. That was districts, the other was PR. It failed to get enough signatures because few people knew what it was. The City Council is unresponsive.
(Also, I have pictures of various transit facilities on my Webshots page, including of a bus in Victoria that I think Metro should try.)
Posted by: MASSTRANSITFAN on March 13, 2005 12:11 AMI'll call Monday to volunteer, in the meen time, send me a bumper sticker a.s.a.p.
Awe heck, I'll get some shoe polish for now.
And Mr Cynical, you don't have to live in King County to vote in King County. Drive over precinct 1823, say your homeless and write your name without the middle initial.
Posted by: chardonnay on March 13, 2005 01:20 AMI remember hearing how they get in fights, and not just the brother/sister kind, it was during the campaign in 2003 that I heard it. If only the Democrats had somebody other than Party Turncoat Brian Derdowksi running against Irons.
Posted by: MASSTRANSITFAN on March 13, 2005 01:51 AMTake Sims out!
Posted by: Jeff B. on March 13, 2005 01:12 PMBut, I'm not optimistic. First, the election system that allows magically appearing ballots to be counted is not fixed. Worse, Sims controls it.
Second, Seattle is full of unrealistic idiots. They will vote for Sims no matter what.
Third, Irons is a somewhat weak candidate. He's had very little impact on the council and is not considered much of a leader within the part in the area.
However, the option of getting a lot of homeless republicans from outside King County is a good one. People can still register City Hall as their home address, so people from across the country should be doing that, with the intention of voting for Irons.
Posted by: DeadManVoting (aka Iguana) on March 13, 2005 06:05 PMThe conservative angle, is in 2002, King County Metro, in honor of Route 99(official route number of the line)'s 20th anniversary, named it the George Benson Waterfront Streetcar Line. George Benson was the line's champion, and one of the last, if not the last, conservatives on the Seattle City Council. The cars, he got for Seattle, were at a cheap price, in fact, it cost more to ship them from Austrailia to Seattle.
I am not against cars, just the gas guzzlers that have one occupant that clog our highways. I would like pedestrians to have their rights restored. I nearly lost my mom to a driver who was not looking, while she was legally crossing a street at a crosswalk on Broadway. She lived, but it was close. Even after that incident, I am not opposed to cars, I just want the discrimination against pedestrians and transit that the highway lobby has orchestrated to end.
Seattle once had a good system, but in 1963, against all logic, Seattle Transit axed half the electric bus route system. In 1964 they posted a deficit of $1 million, the year before, they had a profit of $1 million. Imagine what the cost of paying for diesel for the majority of your fleet, after having not to do it for 23 years.(Quoting the 1963 case.)
I would vote for Talmadge instead of Sims. I think I remember meeting Sims twice. (Kingdome Employees reunion in 1999, and once at a Safeway Store in the neighborhood), and Talmadge once(He adressed a political science class I was taking at SCCC). I have never met Irons.
Perhaps in this talk about who would be a good conservative King County Executive, we should discuss a split. Seattle, Shoreline, Mercer Island, Skyway, and White Center could become the City and County of Seattle. I threw Shoreline and Mercer Island into it, because we need to have some Republicans and Maverick Democrats in it. The Suburban King County, I would call Lake County, would have the I-405 Corridor, and South King County. Rural King County would become Cedar or Cascade County, whichever they prefer.
City-Counties are legal in Washington State, I actually checked the State Constitution on that one.
Posted by: MASSTRANSITFAN on March 14, 2005 04:33 AMI good to see someone else recognizes the real problem with Republican Party.
Posted by: M&M on March 14, 2005 08:17 AMWhatever you want to say about Derdowski, his actions were not driven to stop growth, but to make growth pay its way. His fight to oppose taxpayer funding of roads was designed to force local governments to levy the legally mandated impact fees on developers. This would have restrained growth to that which could be supported with infrastructure, and would have protected the taxpayers from subsidizing so much growth, including tens of billions today in unfunded road projects that Vance, Hague, McKenna, Sullivan and others worked to shift from the builders to the taxpayers.
King County's pro-development positions and fraud committed in DOT and DDES was so bad that Sammamish had to break away and the first thing the new city did was to impose a moratorium. With the defeat by the building industry of all 7 of the sensible growth candidates in the Sammamish City Council elections, thousands of bogus King County permits (approved based on alleged fraudulent traffic studies) were left unchallenged by the new city, and that explains the thousands of homes built and under construction in the new city since it imposed its "moratorium".
Irons has no integrity. He took out a personal loan to fund his early campaign so the builders could pay it off when it was too late for the public to see who was pulling his strings. He ran an illegal commercial that impersonated Derdowski with no disclaimer, suggesting that Derdowski was the reason for Sammamish's road problems, when more roads would only have justified even more development and made the problems in Sammamish worse. Irons was even caught red-handed stealing Derdowski signs, and found to have violated PDC filing rules, and more.
Yes, Irons' parents and sister supported Derdowski, because they understood more about their son/brother than anyone else. They also understood that Derdowski was fighting for the taxpayer and not the builders that were gridlocking roads with unrestrained development. They felt so strongly, based on reasons never made public, that they took personal steps to try to prevent what they saw as a potential disaster should their son be elected.
If Irons is the best that King County Republicans can do, we don't deserve to win anything. It's the Irons, Vances, Hagues and McKennas that will drive more smart and responsible people like Derdowski out of the party or out of politics altogether and leave conservatives without any choices.
Posted by: Mike on March 14, 2005 09:22 AMI pushed for PDC investigations over his fraudulent radio commercial, his refusal to submit timely PDC reports, and the loan that the PDC eventually found to have been illegal, but excused because the PDC took responsibility for the error in not affirming its illegality to Irons when asked.
As for McKenna, he's well-known as a good, loyal "bought and paid for" Republican. Former member of the "Gang of Four". Completely loyal to the building industry and the billions in Corporate Welfare spread out among the construction industries. When King County or the state comes to you and asks if you'll increase your taxes to pay for unfunded roads, you can thank McKenna. Like Vance's attempt at the Superintendent of Public Instruction position, funded by the building industry in recognition of a job well done, McKenna is the builders' dream in the AGs office.
Why don't I run? Well I've considered it. But every shread of evidence I've seen indicates that I could never win. Without a strong party to back a candidate, any principled candidate is chum in the waters for special interests that will invent anything they need to to win. I could never run as a Democrat. I'm very conservative. But the cost of admission to the Republican Party in King County is to become a redistributor of wealth to the growth industries. Sorry, I can't do that either.
I watched, for example, while good people were smeared by anonymous direct mailings in the Sammamish race, and the press refused to even report what had happened. I've had many, many dealings myself with all the area papers, law enforcement agencies and supposed government self-policing agencies like the Ombudsman. The one thread that they all have is their allegiance, or fear, of going up against the building industry.
So where does that leave a convervative in Western Washington?
I am not asking for perfect. I'm asking for better, and I'm suggesting that having an "R" after a candidates name is insufficient reason to be satisfied.
Posted by: Mike on March 14, 2005 11:53 AMI resent your spreading vicious rumors on this blog about David Irons Jr., a long-time family friend of mine (the rumors keep returning, the same old, tired rumors from Derdowski's campaigns of the past but the voters didn't buy the lies twice before and they won't buy it county-wide either!). The voters of East King Co. are generally smarter than their Seattle counterparts--I know, I've lived and been educated in both places!
I have known Irons Jr. and his wife for over 20 years, since I was a young teenager. I babysat his young daughters occasionally and our families often vacationed together in places like Sun Valley, ID. and Whistler, BC. He taught me how to drive when my father was hospitalized in 1985 for a bone marrow transplant (my Dad, a King Co. Police detective, died April 5, 1985 after a heroic battle with leukemia when I was 16 and my sisters were 9 and 11 years old, respectively.) He and his wife, Deborah, have remained great friends to my mother all these years since. They are wonderful people and they have 3 really great daughters.
They are better people than Di Irons, the "unsuccessful" one in the family--a puppet of her domineering father. Janet Irons, a successful attorney, is on her brother's side. Even good families may sometimes suffer a "falling out". It is unfortunate that his parents and one sister have chosen to bad mouth their own child who has given them those 3 beautiful, intelligent daughters, just for political power and influence.
Which Councilman in the early or mid-'90's was it that had an affair? I think it was Mr. Derdowski. It was a long time ago, so my memory might be failing me. I was just finished with college and busy starting my career back then and I might be wrong, but if it was Mr. Derdowski that I am thinking of, that is a pretty serious ethics problem, wouldn't you say so?
Posted by: ErinA on March 14, 2005 11:19 PMYour comments about David Irons are gratuitous, but I wouldn’t expect anything different from a liberal democrat. You make nothing but generalized oblique accusations and then use them as the basis to pin characterizations like “dishonest” and “smarmy,” on Irons. If you actually have anything specific to say about David Irons say it, or quit wasting our time by pretending to be something you are not.
Your claims about PDC investigations of Irons regarding various offenses require more verifiable specifics to avoid sounding like an application of rhetorical log-rolling. If you want to accuse Irons of illegal and fraudulent activities, do so clearly so that he can either admit or deny your charges directly. If you do this many people will listen, and respond.
Your comments are calculated and slippery and unless I hear something more substantial and authoritative (I won’t hold my breath), I will be forced to conclude that you are a somewhat-devious, but not too smart-a$$ liberal democrat engaging in a cheap political smear.
Nice try I suppose. Let’s hear more.
Thanks for the cheap lesson.