My friend Jim Nobles has filed to run for a seat on the Seattle Monorail Board.
His platform is very simple: shut down the project and dissolve the agency. His opponents are incumbent board member Cleve Stockmeyer and Dick Falkenbury, the taxi driver who dreamed up the whole Monorail scam in the first place. All of the pixilated true-believing Monomaniacs should split their votes between Falkenbury and Stockmeyer, while all of the sane people will vote for Nobles. All Nobles needs to survive the primary is for 1/3 of Seattle's voters to be sane, which admittedly is not a slam dunk.
In the race for the other Monorail Board seat, incumbent Cindi Laws and perennial space case Stan Lippmann are on the ballot. Laws doesn't deserve another shot at misoverseeing the Agency. The third candidate on the ballot is Beth Goldberg, who is Criminal Justice Budget Supervisor for King County. Today's Seattle Times says Goldberg "wanted to bring greater financial scrutiny to the project". That doesn't necessarily mean she wants to shut the mess down, but she might be an improvement over what we have today.
UPDATE: Beth Goldberg sent me this press release announcing her candidacy. I'm hoping to talk to her to find out more.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 30, 2005 05:14 PM | Email ThisAt least now with Ron Sims mega trail we can walk from Issaquah to Redmond and beat the parking lot called I-90
Posted by: Johnny on July 30, 2005 05:46 PMI'm not convinced that a casual observer will notice an appreciable difference. And there is little assurance that it would be for the better.
But you do have a good point.
If we get to vote...I'd go against ST as well. But no on seems to be asking.
Posted by: scott158 on July 30, 2005 05:54 PMYou got me good with that one.
Laughed out loud, good work.
Someone should have talked Stefan into running for that other position ...
Posted by: Richard Pope on July 30, 2005 07:50 PMWe need more Government candidates who promise to eliminate their departments!!!!
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on July 30, 2005 09:50 PMLike I said during the wake of the election, if I could figure out how to take a short position on it, I could die a wealthy man.
Posted by: scott158 on July 30, 2005 10:33 PMRead it here:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2001910546_danny23.html
If he endorses a candidate.....I would have confidence in his choice!
Posted by: Deborah on July 30, 2005 11:44 PMNow, THAT would really "rise above it all"!
Posted by: BananaLand (aka Iguana) on July 31, 2005 12:33 AMJim Nobles ran for Lieutenant Governor in the 2004 primary and narrowly lost to Jim Wiest, despite a very late start. If Nobles had been able to stump at the county conventions around the state, my guess is that he would have won the GOP nomination and faced off against Brad Owen last November.
I think the Board pays $100 per meeting, for a maximum of $7,500 per year, so Jim is certainly not in this for the money.
Incidentally, I'm not sure where the Board found the authority to grant themselves the $100 per meeting, but that is another story.
Posted by: Tim B. on July 31, 2005 02:54 AMLiberals and technology don't mix. Unless it's used for porn.
Posted by: Thr33of4 on July 31, 2005 02:09 PMIf it's a rhetorical question you're asking then you got a good point.
But I found in actuality pretty much all government legislative apparatuses get some kind of stipend whether it's a small town council, school board or utility district. It usually ranges from $25 to $125 supposedly to pay for gas, time spent and whatever homework you have to do. It's a holdover from back in the "good old" days when being a local politician was looked at as doing ones civic duty and not as a full-time profession.
Honestly, with Monorail being a Seattle institution, I'm surprised it's only $100. That's the kind of chump change you'd expect a city councilman from Arlington or Eatonville to make. How are you supposed to get qualified candidates to solve all of our problems if you don't give them a six figure income, benefits and the right of prima-nocturne?
I guess it is the principle, not the amount. But the outcry would be louder if they gave themselves large salaries.
Posted by: Tim B. on August 1, 2005 12:58 AMI'm liberal, I live in Seattle, and I'm voting for Nobles.
On ST: I'm not sure why you're blaming folks who have only been there since 2000 for things that were planned in 1996. They admitted that the original Sound Move plan was a mess, and they've been on track with what they've offered us.
Posted by: Ben Schiendelman on August 3, 2005 01:25 PM