You should have received your ballot in the mail, and you have until November 5th to get it back into the mail or a handy ballot drop box.
This year we don’t get to vote for Obama, gay marriage or pot. But that doesn’t mean it’s a slow news cycle! Washington has the opportunity to be the first state in the nation to label genetically modified foods (take that, Monsanto!) if we pass Initiative 522 (and accomplish what California couldn’t last year). There’s also a contentious school board race, the mayoral race, public financing of campaigns and a chance to smack down yet another Tim Eyman initiative.
Back in the old days, I used to vote using a combination of The Stranger’s endorsement list, a pint of beer and common sense. While I still heartily recommend all three, I also now lean on DOUG., whom I recently learned is from the ‘hood. Since 2008, DOUG. has been publishing his own voter’s guide from right here in the heart of Wallingford. It’s insightful. It’s funny. And it includes humorous photos (this year, Ann Landers, Teen Wolf and Mr. Peanut all have cameos). Thanks DOUG., for taking the time to research the issues so that we don’t have to!
For comparison, you can also check out the Progressive Voter’s Guide and the 43rd District Democrats’ endorsements. Or if you lean the other way, there’s always the Seattle Times.
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Here are the voter resources my friends and I compiled. Hope you find them helpful too!
http://kuow.org/topic/election-2013
http://washington.progressivevotersguide.com/
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-stranger-election-control-board-voters-guide/Content?oid=17961723
http://www.jvox.doodlekit.com/
http://www.dougsvotersguide.com/
Please vote for Sue Peters (School Board) & Kashama Sawant (City Council.) Thanks for endorsement lists above!
Doug is learning well from The Stranger – character assassination by unprovable assertion
“Meanwhile his opponent, Ed Murray, is endorsed by the corrupt and unwavering Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, proof that Murray has no real interest in actual reform at SPD.”
Proof… I do not think it means what you think it means
DOUG’s guide looks right to me, though I’m leaning the other way on council by district. I have not liked the idea in the past, but his crack about Godden really speaks to the point: Seattle voters are not critical enough, to vote for council members at large. If each had to be accountable to a specific district, and people voted with the thought in mind that this person is their neighborhood’s one main chance to be represented, I think standards for effectiveness and representation would be higher. Meanwhile, they’ll all still have their special angles too – O’Brien isn’t going to be barred from bike issues, and you aren’t barred from talking to him just because he isn’t your district rep.
But when your neighborhood has an issue, you can hope that your member will stand up for you in council. That’s far more effective than going to the council and trying to speak there yourself. I don’t know. Like I say, if Seattle voters would just insist on a representative, effective at large council, that would be a better system.
@3: I’m not sure whose character I’m assassinating. Rich O’Neill’s? He’s done fine on his own.
Your point is taken, though, and I suppose I could’ve written, “Meanwhile his opponent, Ed Murray, is endorsed by the corrupt and unwavering Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, an endorsement which suggests that Murray has no real interest in actual reform at SPD.”
But my point remains the same: Ed Murray is not an agent of reform. If you want a go-along-to-get-along mayor, he’s your man.
@4: I also worry about how the current districts are drawn, and whether having district representation will pit neighborhood against neighborhood. The current map is here. It seems strange to me to be in the same district as Laurelhurst, but not as Fremont or Green Lake (fortunately it doesn’t include Broadmoor).
This guide sounds like it was written by a 14 year old boy (with a bad case of acne) living in his parent’s basement and desperately trying to be funny. Name-calling and personal attacks are not clever tools for political analysis, no matter what your political beliefs may be.
That’s ridiculous. My parents don’t even have a basement.
Ha ha ha! No basement!!!
Will be voting the DougTicket as always.
Yay for good old-fashioned propaganda.
While I enjoyed Doug’s snarkiness, I prefer something more based on facts rather than opinion and personality attacks. Doug, how could you have missed the fact that the advisory votes were mandated by a Tim Eyman initiative? Even the Times got that this morning.
For non-partisan candidate reviews, I also take a look at the Municipal League which uses volunteers to evaluate each candidate. This especially helps me with those elections about which I’m less familiar (Port, Judges, etc.). http://www.munileagueratings.org
I miss the PI endorsements, they were liberal but level headed. Now adays we are left with ranting socialists vs stodgy old rich people. The Doug = The Stranger Lite, so why not just read The Stranger, which went to the trouble of interviewing the candidates? If you read The Times for point and The Stranger for counterpoint and the voters pamphlet for the unfiltered take on things you can usually muddle your way to an informed decision.
I would love to have the resources to interview the candidates, but times are tough at Doug’s Voter’s Guide and I had to lay off half my staff this year. So if you’re at QFC and see an orange tabby with a “Will Purr for Food” sign, that’s Zander, my former Director of Communications. Please send him my regards.
I dig DOUG’s, and think it is pretty cool that he has taken the time and effort to put this together, especially in our own neighborhood. I kind of wish I had reviewed it before I mailed my ballot this week. Don’t agree re council districts but agree wholeheartedly re McGinn.
Re Port of Seattle 3, Bowman vs. Wolfe — to be fair, not only does Bowman not use Port of Tacoma as a bogeyman, she worked there and supports working with them.
There’s no question that the airport is a big chunk of the Port’s territory, but the sea port could be on the brink of disaster here and it’s a bad time for the directors to start blowing it off because it’s smaller than the airport.
Wait wait wait, ranting socialists? I resemble that!