After GOP Convention, Didier to D.C.

According to Politico.com, Didier made the trek to D.C. after speaking at his state party convention last weekend. In its convention coverage, the Seattle Times noted the electric reception Didier received.

[Video H/T RedCounty.com]

An article from the political site founded by WaPo writers earlier this week makes clear that Didier will have an uphill climb; national Republicans rolled out the red carpet to woo his rival Dino Rossi two months ago.

In other news, CNN reports on the latest polling that shows Rossi as the clear frontrunner in the GOP Senate race.

Reports: Dino Rossi for U.S. Senate

Will the third time be the charm for Rossi?  Sources say Dino Rossi will announce his campaign for U.S. Senate (as we predicted) this Wednesday. The consensus among early reports is that Rossi has hired Pat Shortridge, a current adviser to U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio in Florida.

Salon.com reports that Rossi’s recruitment into the race means Republicans now have a chance against Patty Murray, and even if it’s an uphill battle, at re-taking the Senate. No reports yet from Team Murray, but we can guess she’s not happy with the news.

Stay tuned for updates.

House Republicans Fight Late Into The Night For I-960

The voter’s shield against runaway government spending by the State of Washington, Initiative 960 is perilously close to temporarily losing its most crucial piece, the requirement that the state Legislature pass a two-thirds vote for measures to increase taxes. The engrossed version of Senate Bill 6130 was moved to the House floor for consideration and a vote, and House Republicans in Olympia kept the lights on until close to midnight Tuesday after forcing a six-hour floor debate on a series of GOP-sponsored amendments, the net effect of which would have been to “indefinitely postpone” the Legislature’s plan to put voter-approved tax restraint law I-960 in cold storage.

If SB 6130 becomes law in its current form it would postpone enactment of I-960’s two-thirds requirement for tax increases until July 2011.

For those Washington conservatives who have griped that Republicans in Olympia are indistinguishable from their tax-and-spend neighbors across the aisle, the tone and spirit of Tuesday’s flurry of impromptu speeches offered a sneak peek at something different.

“We are not California. We are Washington, and we are Washingtonians. We’re strong and we’re proud people… we’re not going to bow down to recession by putting burdensome taxes on our people,” Rep. Brad Klippert said. (Click here to listen to Rep. Klippert’s remarks.)

Rep. Glenn Anderson later picked up the ball and succinctly encapsulated what is different about Republicans and the majority Democratic Party.

“Economic growth is essential,” Anderson said, going on to characterize Democratic tax-and-spend solutions as “chasing a Band-Aid to avoid the pain” of difficult choices.

Their voices were only two among a unified chorus of Republicans calling for a bipartisan step back from the precipice both to assess the ethicality of reversing the will of the voters as well as to visit the total budget – expenditures and revenues – before gutting the tax restraint provisions in I-960 and further eroding the faith of the people in their government.

A small ray of light did pierce the House’s dark decision in the form of its adoption of the Finance Committee amendment that allows the transparency provisions of I-960 to remain in effect. Careful observers will recall that the original Senate vote last week had left these requirements intact and that body actually took a second vote to correct the oversight of preserving public notification when Olympia begins to move to raise taxes. That silver lining tarnishes in light of the Legislature’s practice of floating “ghost” legislation – also known as “title-only” bills – that defy transparency rules by offering nothing for the public to review.

The evolution of modern political systems has come to recognize that in free societies in order for the social contract to be consummated individuals will naturally require built-in defenses to guard against an oppressive government. In the United States Constitution the Bill of Rights embody those protections, and in Washington state we have codified our necessary stalemate between the government and the governed in our initiative process.

In order to register your strong opposition to SB 6130, the resulting avalanche of new taxes that will undoubtedly spring forth, and the requisite loss of liberty, please call the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000 to let your elected representatives in Olympia hear your voice.

If you have any interesting conversations with our legislators feel free to post details in the comments section to this post.

“Ghost” Bill Part II: The Execution

Calling Drs. Venkman, Stanz, and Spengler. Expertise in paranormal phenomena is needed in Olympia, Wash. to contain Senate Bill 6853 – the “ghost” bill – that is still working its way through the legislative process despite having no material form.

SB 6853 was introduced Tuesday as a title-only bill pertaining to the investigation of tax preferences, placed on the Ways and Means agenda for the afternoon, and by early evening had cleared committee without so much as a verb, noun, or other defining language added to indicate what its sponsors intended to do to the state’s tax system.

Anyone coming in after the initial 45 seconds of the Senate Ways and Means’ hearing on SB 6853 would also miss the committee’s vote waiving the rule requiring that bills be made public for at least five days prior to any executive action. After a single witness – Association of Washington Business representative Amber Carter – gave a cover-all-the-bases statement for the record, the bill of potentially limitless effect was passed out of committee during the executive session.

The Politburo did not work so efficiently as did Sen. Rockefeller’s committee. Jason Mercier, the Washington Policy Center’s government reforms director, assembled a real-time video album of the young life of SB 6853. Even if you’re on a tight schedule, the entire process of how a Washington state bill reaches the Senate floor can be viewed in less than a few minutes. In the implication that the public is again being kicked out of the room when their representatives craft laws that will affect them, Mercier’s clips should be sent for consideration to SyFy’s Ghost Hunters.

Perhaps SB 6853 will become to this legislative session what the Flying Dutchman is to nautical myth, a ghostly vessel doomed to sail forever and never come home. Methinks we shan’t be so lucky. Shutting down public comment on a bill is a pittance compared to the cavalier manner in which the state Senate cast aside the will of the people by voting to “suspend” Initiative 960’s requirement for a two-thirds vote by the legisalture to increase taxes. In fact, Senate lawmakers were so excited to trample on the voters that in their haste they voted to pass the wrong version of their amending legislation.

There’s no cause for panic, however. Their error was noted and will almost certainly be corrected forthwith.

Didier Hopes to Become State’s Next U.S. Senator

United States Senator Patty Murray has been serving in elected office since 1989. She has won three consecutive terms to the U.S. Senate and, according to campaign finance reports, has more than $3 million cash on hand (as of April) – enough cash to unnerve many potential challengers. However, Clint Didier, a resident of Connell, Washington and a first-time candidate for elected office, has formed an exploratory committee to consider a run against Murray and is convinced his conservative principles and hard work can help him challenge Washington’s longest-serving U.S. Senator.

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