{"id":95,"date":"2007-10-28T21:15:15","date_gmt":"2007-10-28T21:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/?p=54"},"modified":"2007-10-28T21:15:15","modified_gmt":"2007-10-28T21:15:15","slug":"november-election-endorsements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2007\/10\/28\/november-election-endorsements\/","title":{"rendered":"November Election Endorsements"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lobotomies
\nStatewide Prop One \u2013 Roads and Transit \u2013 Vote Yes<\/u><\/strong>
\nProp One is one of the most important ballot measures we\u2019ve seen in recent years. In addition to funding the expansion of mass transit, it provides funds for key infrastructure improvements.
\nAfter the disappointing and untimely demise of the Seattle Monorail, the region is getting a second chance at mass transit with light rail.
\nIf the Seattle metropolitan area is to succeed in becoming a world-class city, we have to start building mass-transit systems.
\nOur current freeway system is maxed out. It can\u2019t handle the traffic that currently exists, much less handle the anticipated growth we\u2019re likely to experience in the coming years.
\nMass transit is one of the answers.
\nI was in San Francisco while they were building BART in the early 70\u2019s. The disruptions were terrible. Market Street, downtown was torn up for several years. It was a real mess. And the expense to taxpayers? Horrible. People bitched and moaned for years. It really was terrible.
\nBut now 30 years later, on an average weekday BART has over 340,000 <\/em>riders. That\u2019s 340,00 people who did not have to take the freeway.
\nThe Seattle area needs something like that \u2013 soon. If the Monorail wasn\u2019t the answer, then apparently light rail is.
\nMass transit is a must for this area.<\/p>\n


\nThe other freeway improvements are just as essential.
\nHere in the South Sound, a couple of the important projects include the Cross-Base freeway, and connecting Highway 167 where it dead-ends in Puyallup, and Highway 509.
\nThe Cross-Base freeway will provide an alternate way to get to the Graham-Eatonville area, directly connecting I-5 and SR-7. Right now the only way to get there is Pacific Avenue which is a real bottleneck. The Cross-Base freeway will take the pressure off Pacific and make it easier to get out past the Roy Y.
\nAt the same time, the city of Fife is inundated with trucks going and coming from the port. If the connection between Highway 509 and 167 is finished, it would get a lot of those trucks off Fife\u2019s streets, relieving congestion, and speeding up deliveries from the port to local warehouses.
\nFinishing the connection between Highway 167 and Highway 509 is very important to the infrastructure of the Port of Tacoma.
\nProp One is vital to developing the infrastructure for the Puget Sound Area \u2013 vote yes.
\nReferendum 67 \u2013 Triple Damages for Denial of Valid Insurance Claims \u2013 Vote Yes<\/u><\/strong>
\nThe insurance industry is spending millions of dollars to convince you that R-67 would be bad for Washington, and that only the trial lawyers would profit from its passing.
\nThe truth of the matter is that the insurance industry is scared shitless because if R-67 passes, they may finally be held accountable for their actions.
\nAs it stands right now, Washington is one of only a few states that does not have a law like this. And as such, insurance companies can drag their feet on paying valid claims \u2013 or even deny them \u2013 without facing any penalties for their actions.
\nWhat R-67 does is hold their feet to the fire. Under R-67, if an insurance company denies a valid claim, and you sue and win \u2013 then the insurance company is liable for triple damages.
\nAs long as they don\u2019t deny valid claims, they have nothing to fear.
\nVote yes on R-67 \u2013 let\u2019s make insurance companies accountable for their actions.
\nEHJR 4204 \u2013 Simple Majority on School Levies \u2013 Vote Yes<\/u><\/strong>
\nI\u2019m not sure what the history is behind having to have a super-majority (66% vote yes) to pass on school levies, but it\u2019s a bad idea.
\nOur kid\u2019s education is our future. If there\u2019s anywhere we\u2019re going to skimp and save, this is not it.
\nSo it makes sense to me to pass levies based on a simple majority.
\nInitiative 960 \u2013 Two-thirds Legislative Vote to Raise Taxes \u2013 Vote No<\/u><\/strong>
\nThis latest initiative, sponsored by horse\u2019s ass, Tim Eyman, is the flip side to EHJR 4204.
\nEyman keeps repackaging his anti-tax initiatives every year, solely to provide himself an income (and a right tidy one at that).
\nEyman positions himself as the champion of the people; the truth is he\u2019s an arrogant, self-aggrandizing, ignorant, blathering idiot who knows one and only one song, and who is in the initiative game solely to provide himself with an income.
\nTacoma City Council \u2013 At Large Position \u2013 Julie Anderson<\/u><\/strong>
\nIncumbent Julie Anderson is facing off against perennial thorn-in-the-side-of-government, Will Baker.
\nWill Baker styles himself as made in the same mode as Tim Eyman; citizen activist and all.
\nBut put simply, Baker just doesn\u2019t have his shit together as well as Eyman.
\nI can\u2019t believe he has any credibility at all, although he did made a respectable showing (for a lunatic) in his race for auditor.
\nJulie Anderson, on the other hand, seems to have done a good job in her first term.
\nShe has my vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Statewide Prop One \u2013 Roads and Transit \u2013 Vote Yes Prop One is one of the most important ballot measures we\u2019ve seen in recent years. In addition to funding the expansion of mass transit, it provides funds for key infrastructure improvements. After the disappointing and untimely demise of the Seattle Monorail, the region is getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikepellegrini.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}