Caffeinated News & Gossip. Your daily Morning Fizz.

1.The avalanche of emails, texts, and calls we got yesterday from journalists, US Senate offices, Democratic HQ, discreet Republican flacks (“I’m going to miss checking up on PubliCola every couple hours, but I will be following you on Crosscut”), transportation nerds, planning nerds, friends, and Cola readers was overwhelming. (In case you missed it, PubliCola is closing shop.)

Thanks for all the heartfelt messages. They meant a lot.

Local online pioneer Crosscut.com has some exciting expansion plans—and PubliCola’s voice and daily reporting figures prominently in their new vision. We’re hoping it works out.

For now, starting on Monday, you’ll find Morning Fizz and Afternoon Jolt at Crosscut.

2. The city council’s land use committee heard testimony and debated a controversial regulatory reform proposal yesterday that would, among other things, remove minimum parking requirements for new developments near frequent transit service, allow more street-level businesses in residential areas, and increase the number of units that would trigger environmental review under the State Environmental Policy Act.

Although the committee didn’t discuss the SEPA issue, they did narrow down the options for the street-level business proposal, leaving two options on the table: one that would allow new street-level businesses, but not bars and restaurants; and one to restrict new businesses to arterials).

On the parking proposal, the committee agreed that, at the very least, major institutions in urban centers and station area overlay areas will not be subject to parking minimums—the compromise proposal made by the city’s planning commission.

Opponents of the small business expansion proposal argued that new storefront and home-based businesses would destroy the character of neighborhoods, create noise and parking problems, and harm existing nearby business districts. Opponents of the parking changes, of course, argued that deregulating parking for new developments would clog city streets with new residents’ cars.

Watch the whole discussion here.

3. Also yesterday, the council’s housing committee voted to move forward with a mandatory rental housing inspection program, with Nick Licata, Jean Godden, Sally Bagshaw, and Sally Clark voting for mandatory inspections. Apartment owners opposed mandatory inspections in favor of a system that would prioritize inspections of properties with previous violations, complaints, or exterior problems, with random inspections at the bottom of the list.

4. Armed with a driving simulator (crash!) and scary stats (*texting while driving adds 70 feet to your break reaction time; *texting takes your eyes off the road for an average of five seconds, and at 55 mph, that’s the equivalent of driving the length of a football field completely blind), Seattle City Council member Bruce Harrell made the case to Garfield High School students yesterday that shouldn’t text and drive.

Fair enough … One in three texting teens ages 16-17, say they have texted while driving.

But there are two sides to the texting and driving equation. As Wired editor Clive Thompson, who argues that texting is actually a valuable 21st Century trend (and driving is a 20th Century hazard) brilliantly wrote:

When we worry about driving and texting, we assume that the most important thing the person is doing is piloting the car. But what if the most important thing they’re doing is texting? How do we free them up so they can text without needing to worry about driving?

The answer, of course, is public transit. In many parts of the world where texting has become ingrained in daily life — like Japan and Europe — public transit is so plentiful that there hasn’t been a major texting-while-driving crisis. You don’t endanger anyone’s life while quietly tapping out messages during your train ride to work in Tokyo or Berlin.

Even if you don’t agree that driving is increasingly antiquated, there’s some wisdom worth considering here—particularly for teens. Why should driving be a priority for teens at an inner-city school such as Garfield? I don’t mean to besmirch Harrell’s good deed addressing what is obviously a problem … another stat … people who send text messages while driving are 23 times more likely to be in a crash).

But here’s a better message: Hey Kids, take the bus.

5. Down-ballot in the 2012 election, six King County Superior Court justices will be retiring, stepping down, or moving on. Of those, so far, four seats are uncontested, meaning they have only one declared candidate.

Of those candidates, all are men. In theory, all six positions—two of which are currently held by women—could be taken by men, which court watchers call an unusual situation.

I’ve got a serious afternoon Jolt: PubliCola is going out of business. Sort of.

While PubliCola has been successful producing influential, must-read news coverage and building a loyal readership (more than 400,000 monthly page views during the election season and currently more than 10,000 Facebook and Twitter followers), we haven’t been successful as a business. Advertising revenue has been limited and inconsistent.

Thankfully for local political news junkies, Crosscut.com, the local news site started by David Brewster, the founder and publisher-editor of Seattle Weekly for 21 years and the the founder of Town Hall, believes PubliCola’s reporting is invaluable for this city’s civic and political life. He wants to do everything he can to keep our reporting alive. During the last several weeks, we’ve been exploring ways to collaborate. (In fact, we’re currently squatting in Crosscut’s awesome Pioneer Square offices, having boxed up and left our one-room Cola HQ in Belltown for good last week.)

In addition to being gracious enough to host us physically, Crosscut.com has offered to keep us going for now digitally as well. So I know this is a little abrupt, but starting soon, you can read our Morning Fizz and Afternoon Jolt columns on Crosscut.com.

They’ve actually got more than three people on staff, a coffee break room, and a printer. How civilized.

We don’t know where this Crosscut PubliCorner, if you will, is going to lead. But there do seem to be some exciting possibilities: A combo of these two prominent local news sites—with Crosscut’s in-depth, analytical weekly articles and PubliCola’s on-the-ground, breaking news—could be awesome. And we’re considering it. Plus we could use their infrastructure, editors, and  copy editing (they’ve got all that too). And they could use our younger readers and progressive voice. This could end up being a real win for the community.

But it’s also a big loss right now. And a hard one for us personally. PubliCola, an idea I hatched back in 2008, has been a wonderful obsession that’s defined my life for more than three-and-a-half years since becoming the first on-line-only news site to be credentialed to cover the state legislature.

Erica and me and, our partners Greg Smith and Raj Singh, and co-founder Sandeep Kaushik, while trying to think big about 21st Century media, were at core banking on age-old news traditions—breaking stories, holding politicians accountable, creating a platform to debate and vet pressing issues—to establish PubliCola as a permanent and essential part of Seattle’s civic life. We’re proud of the work we’ve done, and we’re honored that so many of you have been reading us over the years.

Yesterday, I editorialized about city hall reporter Lynn Thompson’s front-page “Truth Needle” story in the Seattle Times, which, I argued, cherry-picked data to argue that Mayor Mike McGinn’s proposal to lift minimum parking requirements for new developments in dense inner-city neighborhoods would clog streets with cars and harm the working class. (My two main points: Young people, who are more likely to move into those new, smaller apartments, are less likely to have cars, as are members of the working class.)

Today, Seattle Transit Blog’s Sherwin Lee added two smart points to the argument for McGinn’s parking deregulation proposal.

First, they noted that getting rid of government parking mandates “has very little to do with how many households own cars citywide, and much more to do with the effects on real estate pricing that such requirements have.” Requiring a certain number of parking spaces per unit, as I’ve pointed out before, artificially inflates the cost of housing because people who don’t want parking still have to pay for it.

Second, and even more compellingly, STB notes that Thompson’s focus on the 16 percent of Seattle households that don’t own cars elides the percentage of carless residents in the dense urban centers that would actually be impacted by McGinn’s proposal—places like Capitol Hill, where just 29.5 percent of households own cars, or South Lake Union, where 41.6 percent do.

Finally, STB points out that there’s a big difference between owning  a car and driving a car. “When looking at car use in the form of daily commuting, only 61.9% of Seattleites drive (either alone or in a carpool), and that number shrinks remarkably in the neighborhoods that would qualify for an exemption of parking minimums.

“Using car ownership to dictate parking supply, on the other hand, turns housing projects into long-term storage units for cars, adding a rather cumbersome expense to a project, costs which are passed onto the ‘working class.’”

Seizing on an obvious opportunity today (no, I’m not talking about Obama’s “evolution” on gay marriage), Washington State gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee released a statement this afternoon urging Eastside megadeveloper Kemper Freeman to drop his lawsuit against Sound Transit.

Freeman sued Sound Transit over its plans to build light rail to the Eastside across I-90, arguing that the state constitution prohibits using highways built with state funds for “non-highway purposes” like light rail. He lost in Kittitas County Superior Court. Today, his group, the Eastside Transportation Association, appealed their suit to the Washington State Supreme Court.

Freeman and his wife, Betty, have maxed out to Inslee’s Republican opponent, state AG Rob McKenna, a foe of light rail since his days on the Sound Transit board, in the early 2000s. Earlier this year, McKenna told the Eastside Transportation Association that he wasn’t “sure how light rail is going to work” on I-90 and expressed skepticism about the project.

TYING  MCK

“As the majority of businesses throughout the region have made clear, we need to move forward with transportation projects, not second guess, or question with additional public votes and ongoing litigation,” Inslee said in a statement. “Armchair engineers like Rob McKenna and Kemper Freeman have other ideas, repeating tired arguments and causing disruptions that waste money, postpone job growth and keep our freeways clogged. Freeman should drop the lawsuit and let the region move forward.”

Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna, the GOP candidate for governor, has downplayed social issues in his race against Democrat Jay Inslee who’s pro gay marriage and supports R-54, this fall’s pending measure to affirm the legislature’s pro gay marriage law. Trying to sound moderate on the issue, McKenna has relied on a catchy sound bite when asked his own position on gay marriage.

“My position is no different than President Obama’s,” he’s said again and again, referring to Obama’s longstanding mushy: “I don’t support gay marriage, but I’m evolving” stance.

Today’s big headline: Obama has fully evolved. He supports gay marriage.

We’ve got a call in to McKenna’s campaign to see if he still stands by his man Obama.

We’ve also got a call into Inslee, who we imagine will pounce on this news.

UPDATE: Inslee tells PubliCola:

Moving forward takes courage, and we should all be very proud of the President today who displayed courage in moving forward on this issue. I believe marriage equality should be the law of the land and will work to make that happen here in Washington state.

Meanwhile, Gov. Chris Gregoire, who pushed this year’s gay marriage legislation said in a statement:

Thank you Mr. President. Along with thousands of Washingtonians who stand strongly for marriage equality, today we thank you for your courageous and heartfelt act. As we know in Washington state, families are families and we cannot deny equal rights to committed, loving couples. Passing the marriage equality bill was among my proudest accomplishments. Today I’m equally proud of our President.

Reforms to the state’s community supervision program for recently released jail inmates, combined with other changes at the state level, could cost King County between $4.6 and $4.8 million a year in the short term, and as much as $10 million a year in the future, but could also reduce recidivism among former inmates, the King County Council was told this week.

The biggest change to the community supervision (formerly known as parole) program is that, under a new law adopted this past legislative session, former inmates who violate the terms of their parole will be automatically thrown in jail for a short period of time, usually a few days, in combination with intensive supervision and treatment. DOC contracts with the county to pay for state inmates’ stays in county jail.

In contrast, under the current system, violators go before a hearing officer who then determines what sanctions they’ll be subject to, which may or may not include jail time. (The jail time under the existing system is usually longer). The idea of the new approach is that when people know for sure that they’ll face jail time—as opposed to possibly facing vague sanctions, which may or may not include jail—they’re less likely to reoffend. (According to state legislative staff, “increasing the certainty of apprehension and punishment demonstrates a significant deterrent effect” over the currently vague and uncertain sanctions.)

“What will happen is that for certain kinds of violations, people will go to jail, but they will go for two to three days and be let out,” King County juvenile detention director Claudia Balducci says. “The theory is that you’re much more likely to go to jail if you violate the terms of your release. Right now, there’s no hearing, no lengthy stay. The theory is that the certainty that I’m going to go to jail for a certain period of time has a better deterrent effect than the possibility that I might go to jail or I might not.”

While the idea of reducing recidivism is obviously in the county’s best interest, reducing the jail population is not, at least financially. Balducci says the new approach is expected to reduce the number of inmates at the county jail from about 270 to 220 per day—an impact county executive Dow Constantine’s government affairs director Genessee Adkins estimated will cost the county between $6.9 million and $7.3 million the first year it’s in effect, for a net impact of $4.6 to $4.8 million after the reduction in costs from fewer inmates is factored in.

Ultimately, Balducci says, the county could end up saving money if it’s able to close down a whole facility, like the King County regional jail in Kent, which houses just 64 inmates. But, she adds, “because we can’t do that routinely”—because the county only has two adult jails—”there’s always going to be a net cost of losing that revenue, and that will be an impact to our bottom line.”

According to the latest reports at the state Public Disclosure Commission, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee’s latest fundraising numbers are in; though his staff says more is coming.

The current numbers show that Inslee raised at least $366,000 in April, bringing his total right now to $5.1 million with $3 million on hand. (Inslee raised $580,000 in March.) He doesn’t appear to have gotten an infusion from the Washington State Democratic Party this time around. In previous months, the GOP has been quick to point out that the state party has kicked in about a half million.

We are currently reviewing his donations (lots of donations from Group Health). Inslee had a last-minute goal of raising $40,000 from $5 donors during the last few days of the month, a goal his campaign says he met. (Still checking to see if that’s $5 each from brand new donors, or whether it includes people who had already donated bigger amounts.)

Republican candidate Rob McKenna has not updated his numbers yet. He had raised $4 million as of last month’s report after having to sit out the fundraising race for four months during the legislative session and special session.

Caffeinated News & Gossip. Your daily Morning Fizz.

1. Erica “the C is for Crank” Barnett moderated a panel on women and the economy last night at the Wing Luke museum in the International District. Starring Dana Laurent from Planned Parenthood, Lori Pfingst from the lefty Washington Budget and Policy Center, Marilyn Watkins from the lefty Economic Opportunity Institute, David Ward from Legal Voice (a women’s rights legal nonprofit that’s on the the Plan B case), and Diane Narasaki from the Asian Counseling and Referral Service, the event drew 100 people, mostly women, to answer the age old question: What do women want?

Erica reports that there was no consensus, but that the crowd was a little miffed at the lack of diversity on the panel (namely—no people of color except for Narasaki or queers), and there were a couple of pointed questions about the fact that minority women and gays were hardest hit by the recession.

In a lighter moment—during a tangent about the 2010′s losing high-earners income tax campaign—Watkins acknowledged that the “No” side’s scare tactic … that the 1098 was really a ploy to institute a full blown progressive income tax … was true. “That was the plan,” Watkins joked after Erica asked her how realistic the cause actually is. She quickly added, “Just kidding. That wasn’t the plan” before acknowledging that of course EOI supports a progressive income tax.

So there you have it: Women—at least a few white women in Seattle—want a progressive income tax.

2. The latest campaign finance numbers are coming in—and per usual, we’ll scour the Jay Inslee and Rob McKenna reports to give you the latest details on who’s funding this year’s gubernatorial candidates. In the meantime, we’ve also been obsessed with the hot contest in the 36th Legislative District, where a pack of Democrats is competing to for retiring state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson’s (D-36, Ballard) open seat.

Progressive Majority leader Noel Frame boasts that she raised $12,000 in April, bringing her total to $35,000 raised and just about all of it still on hand. Her campaign’s spin: “More than one quarter of Noel’s donors in April contributed $25 or less.”

 3. Tacoma News Tribune veteran political columnist Peter Callaghan had a nice tribute to state Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane), the senate majority leader who surprised everyone last week by announcing that she’s not seeking reelection this year.

Adding some context to the conventional wisdom that Brown left because of last session’s GOP coup, Callaghan wrote:

Once she became just the second female majority leader, however, Brown too often placed her own views behind those of the caucus. Perhaps that is necessary to keep the top job, but sometimes she yielded to people with less knowledge than she had and allowed them to define her party as anti-reform – especially on education.

Rider Strong at EMP

Longtime Cola readers will remember that we used to do a feature called “Last Night.”

It was an excuse to color our interminable politics coverage with some groovy culture posts. We wrote about everything from the Walrus and the Carpenter to SIFF to some band called Brain Fruit.

One of my favorites was this mini-essay about a US Marine Corps dinner and dance.

It turns out, the last Last Night we posted was on Dec. 21. There’s a lot to review since then (we’ll use the Rolling Stone five-star rating method).

From me and Erica:

1. Jimmy Carter at the Paramount downtown (4 Stars … he had nostalgic, and somewhat deluded, Seattle liberals in the palm of his hand until—as he was always good at doing—he lost the crowd by talking about how he wasn’t pro-choice. Ha, check out his White House diaries for his feelings about the National Organization for Women).

2. Wilco at the Paramount downtown (3 Stars … didn’t like the addition of weirdo guitarist Nels Cline so much).

3. Tilth Edible Plant Sale in Magnuson Park (5 Stars).

4. New Sitka & Spruce in Capitol Hill (4 Stars … I was forced to drop my vegan experiment while I was there for the grilled halloumi…plus the cookies).

5. Hat Shopping at vintage store in Portland (5 Stars … $8, no sales tax!).

6. Cajun Food Truck (Where Ya At Matt?) in Belltown (4 stars … excellent vegan (!) red beans and rice).

7. Annie Hall at the new Uptown SIFF in Queen Anne (5 Stars)

8. Getting a library card and hitting the stacks at the downtown library (2 Stars …pretty random selection).

9. Future Shuttle at the Stone in NYC (5 Stars … these women better play next year’s Decibel Festival here in Seattle).

10. Jewish classical music trio at a Jewish seniors home on First Hill (5 Stars … the set list ranged from Mendelssohn to Gershwin).

11. Local composers showcase at Benaroya Hall downtown (3 Stars).

12. Sprout local arts fundraiser on Capitol Hill (5 Stars …I still think the standup bassist should have gotten the grant).

13. Season Six of Mad Men, at home (5 Stars … loving the development of Megan’s character).

14. Hot-tubbing in Leavenworth (5 Stars).

15. Cafe Selam for breakfast in the Central District (5 Stars).

16. The Dish & the Spoon at Northwest Film Forum in Capitol Hill with the filmmaker there for a Q&A (4 Stars).

17. Forum on the elimination of the ride free area in Pioneer Square (2.5 Stars).

18. Chinese foot massage at 12 & Jackson in the ID (2 Stars … too ticklish).

19. Clybourne Park at the Rep in Seattle Center (3 Stars).

20. Vegan pizza at Pizza Pi in the U. District (3 Stars).

21. Cabin Fever starring Rider Strong at EMP at Seattle Center (3 Stars … Strong was there for a Q&A. He looks exactly the same as he did on Boy Meets World).

22. Local 360 in Belltown (5 Stars).

23. Karaoke at Seattle’s Best Karaoke (5 Stars … Jet by Paul McCartney and Wings was a smash).

This post has been updated with comments from Joni Balter.

Joni Balter, the longtime Seattle Times editorial columnist and frequent critic of Mayor Mike McGinn (most recently, she argued against his plan for later bar hours in Seattle), is moving into the Times‘ newsroom after 16 years on the editorial side.

In an email, Balter told PubliCola that her new title will be assistant political editor. “I have long wanted to try some editing,” Balter says. “I am taking the lead on the Politics Northwest blog, trying to give it a bigger presence on the site and make it a must read.”

The paper hasn’t made an official announcement, although Slog’s David Goldstein got a copy of the announcement memo last week.

Times spokesman Jill Mackie says that executive editor David Boardman “ strongly believes Joni’s skills will be an asset in our political coverage this year.”

Mackie continued: “A big piece of [the decision] was brought on by the challenges in the upcoming political campaigns and our desire to be well staffed for the whole political season.” Will Balter be doing straight reporting about the mayor’s race starring her foe Mike McGinn? ”The mayor’s race is just a small piece of that.” Mackie says.

Mackie says Balter will be “backing up” politics editor Richard Wagoner. “She’s definitely not going to be an editorial writer or a columnist, so the question is, how much editing is she going to do and how much reporting is she going to do.”

It’s unclear how the rest of the editorial staff will react to Balter going from a very outspoken columnist to writing straight news—and, potentially, editing reporters on the news side.

Fizz hears that Balter may have sought to head up the editorial board, a position to which Kate Riley was appointed back in December.

Balter did not return a call for comment.

The Station At Othello Park. 351 apartments, 330 parking spaces.

The Seattle Times‘ “Truth Needle” column, the paper’s semiregular takedown of local politicians who play fast and loose with the facts, is dedicated today to Mayor Mike McGinn’s proposal to lift minimum parking requirements. (McGinn’s plan would do away with the requirement for new developments in dense areas near frequent transit service.) The big reveal of the piece, which was written by city hall reporter Lynn Thompson, is that McGinn got his numbers wrong on how many households in Seattle don’t have cars. It’s 16 percent, Thompson writes, not 19 percent as McGinn claims. (“He misspoke,” McGinn’s spokesman Aaron Pickus says.) At any rate, the lower stat Thompson cites still puts Seattle at number 50 among the US cities with the largest number of households without access to a car.

Calling that 16 percent figure itself “squishy,” Thompson next turns to a stat that seems cherry-picked to back the Times‘ agenda to continue requiring developers to build parking: The fact that just 11 percent of households with one employed worker lack a car. “That means,” she concludes, that “the overwhelming number of people who work, drive.

“If Seattle has more apartment buildings without parking, is that better or worse for the working class?”

But Thompson’s asking the wrong question. In fact, the sheer number of people with access to a car is much less relevant than who those people are. Among very high-income Seattleites, Thompson is right: Lots of them drive to work. In 2009, according to Census stats put together by Seattle Transit Blog, nearly two-thirds of all Seattle employees making more than $75,000 a year drove to work; meanwhile, just 44 percent of workers under the poverty line did. Of those over 65, 28 percent did not have access to an automobile.

(And, for what feels like the millionth time: The deregulation proposal does not eliminate parking. It merely allows developers to build as much parking as their buyers or renters—most of them not very low-income—demand. There will still be parking in new developments—as the Station at Othello Park, which is not subject to parking minimums, demonstrates).

And McGinn makes a good point. As young people—who are more likely to live in smaller, newer apartments and condos—move here, the demand for cars is likely to decrease. Although Thompson acknowledges that the number of young people getting their licenses has dropped precipitously nationwide, she counters that fact with cherry-picked stats from King County as a whole, which show that the percentage of 16-year-olds getting their licenses throughout King County has gone up.

But that’s exactly the point: As millennials cluster in cities, they’re seeing less need to have a license or own a car. King County’s largely suburban expanse is wicked different than Seattle’s dense urban core (which is, by the way, the only area in which McGinn is proposing parking deregulation.)

Finally, Thompson kvetches that McGinn’s claims about increased bike numbers—up 105 percent between 2000 and 2010, no thanks to a maritime industry that has spent years fighting needed safety improvements on the city’s most popular bike route in court—are misleading because there still aren’t a lot of people biking to work, just 3.6 percent. But that’s a chicken and egg problem. For a paper that popularized the derisive term “Mayor McSchwinn” and has consistently opposed investments in our city’s barely-there biking infrastructure, it’s pretty bold to claim that doubling ridership in the last ten years represents merely a “modest” gain for cyclists.

Caffeinated News & Gossip. Your daily Morning Fizz.

1. As part of its parking mitigation program during construction of the downtown tunnel, the Washington State Department of Transportation plans to give shoppers up to four hours of free downtown parking on Mother’s Day, this coming Sunday. Drivers (not just moms) who use one of five private downtown lots will be able to park for free between 9 am and 7 pm. The state will reimburse the lots’ owners from WSDOT’s $30 million parking mitigation fund.

WSDOT spokeswoman KaDeena Yerkan said she didn’t know how much the agency planned to spend on the free parking. “We won’t really know until we figure out how many people use it,” Yerkan says.

Theoretically, though—assuming an average price for four hours of $14—if all 1,100 spaces in the promotion turned over once between 9 and 7, the state could be on the hook for more than $30,000. That’s a tiny fraction of $30 million, but it raises the question: Is free parking the best use of taxpayers’ parking mitigation dollars?

2. The standard position from most of the 1st Congressional District Democrats on the proposed coal train from Montana that would run to the Cherry Point port outside Bellingham is reserved skepticism, with the attitude, let’s wait and see what the environmental impact statement  says. (Though conservative state Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-44, Lake Stevens, breaks ranks and supports it.)

And now, breaking ranks from the left flank, longshot candidate Darshan Rauniyar says he’s 100 percent against it. In a statement this morning, Rauniyar, a Nepalese immigrant, electronics entrepreneur, and active Democratic Party activist, said:

Global warming is a severe crisis facing the planet, impacting the health and economic well-being of all of us. Democrats need to be unified in providing national leadership to reduce the burning of fossil fuels that are the direct cause of global climate change. I’m proud to stand with the Washington Environmental Council, Sierra Club Washington, People for Puget Sound and the Washington Conservation Voters in the fight to defeat this proposal. This is a defining issue of my campaign. Republicans in Washington have blocked efforts to reduce our carbon emissions and have waged a dangerous campaign of disinformation about the real threat posed by global warming. In Washington DC, I will take on the big energy companies and their right wing allies to create responsible policy that’s based on sound science.

3. One last tidbit from the Washington State Labor Council convention this weekend where the WSLC endorsed candidates and released their annual legislative scorecards (as we noted yesterday Democrats such as Seattle Reps. Frank Chopp,  Reuven Carlyle, and Jamie Pedersen, who voted for the GOP pension reform bill—a vote that got extra weight in the scorecard—did not get the WSLC endorsement regardless of how good they were on labor issues otherwise.)

Not a single Republican incumbent got a WSLC endorsement this year. Labor typically endorses a few GOPers—such as Sen. Pam Roach (R-31, Auburn) and former Reps. Shirley Hankins and Larry Haler of the Tri-Cities, Rep. Tom Campbell of Roy.

No Republicans this year, though. “On very basic issues such as collective bargaining, the Republican caucus just locked up in unison, no one was allowed to break away,” WSLC spokesman David Groves said. “Not to mention the horrible Senate Republican budget that required not only the three Roadkill Dems  but each and every Republican.”

Fizz evidently touched a nerve talking to Groves about this. He sent a follow-up email elaborating on the WSLC’s aversion to Republicans this year.

The Republican Party has launched an all-out assault on unions in recent years. Every GOP presidential candidate has endorsed so-called “right-to-work” laws. And it’s pretty clear that the people funding that party, like the Koch Brothers, are pushing to eliminate collective bargaining rights as part of their agenda. I think that has hardened conservative union members against a party they might have previously supported for fiscal/social reasons before. In this state, moderate Republicans no longer exist.

As opposed to many Democrats, such as Democratic speaker Rep. Frank Chopp (D-43, Seattle), conservative Rep. Hans Zeiger (R-25, Puyallup) voted against the pension reform bill. Not sure, though, if that explains the typo on the WSLC’s scorecard—which lists Zeiger as a Democrat. (Thanks to the Washington State Wire for catching the gaffe.)

Labor jolted Democratic leadership this weekend.

Several liberal Democrats did not get endorsements from the Washington State Labor Council this weekend, including Democratic Speaker of the House Rep. Frank Chopp (D-43), Democratic majority leader Pat Sullivan (D-47, Covington), and Chopp’s Seattle district seatmate, Rep. Jamie Pedersen (D-43).

The snub comes despite strong lifetime labor voting records from most of these Democrats—89 and 83 percent, respectively, for Chopp and Sullivan, for example. And most of these Democrats’ records would be okay in isolation this year too—and, in fact, are surely good enough for a labor endorsement. Marcie Maxwell(D-41, Bellevue), for example, voted with labor 11 out of 12 times.

But all these legislators, nearly 20 Democrats on the house side, voted for Republican state Sen. Joe Zarelli’s (R-18, Ridgefield) budget-deal bill to penalize state workers for taking early retirement. That vote received extra weight in this year’s labor scorecard. For example, even though Maxwell voted with labor 11 out of 12 times—literally 92 percent—she only got 75 percent.

“It was a gratuitous attack,” says WSLC spokesman David Groves. “It was not fiscal, it was political. One billion dollars over 25 years [the amount the cut was slated to save]? At that level that’s less than [one tenth of] one percent of spending. How is that a fiscal vote.”

Meanwhile, one house Democrat with an impeccable labor voting record, Rep. Mark Miloscia (D-30, Federal Way), whose lifetime labor voting record is 91 percent—and 93 percent this past session, including voting labor’s way on the pension bill—also got the cold shoulder from the labor council this weekend. (Miloscia is running for State Auditor.)

Why? Because, he says, labor thinks he voted the wrong way on gay marriage. Miloscia is a social conservative who also has a long anti-choice record.

“Anybody else would have smashed Pridemore and gotten the endorsement,” Miloscia says about his Democratic rival for state auditor, state Sen. Craig Pridemore (D-49, Vancouver). Pridemore actually voted against the pension bill and got 100 percent score from labor this year, but his lifetime score is lower than Miloscia, and  he cast two major votes against labor last year, scaling back workers’ comp and unemployment insurance. “He got 31 percent last year,” Miloscia grouses. “He stabbed labor in the back.”

“This was solely about social issues … judging our labor records on social issues,” Miloscia complains. “It’s funny that [some of] labor is using the same tactics now as Republicans do, using social issues to get people to vote against their own economic interests. They’re dividing labor from its core mission to focus on living wage jobs.” Miloscia namechecked the UFCW, the machinists, and AFSCME, qualifying that all labor wasn’t using social issues as “a litmus test.”

Clever comparison to GOP, but quickly, a little context: Labor is pushing for extending civil rights, not limiting them as the GOP wants to on gay marriage. And extending marriage rights makes economic sense for gays and lesbians.

Pridemore, who scored an upset win over Denny Heck in 2010 for the WSLC endorsement, didn’t get it this year either, thanks to his 2011 anti-labor votes.

Democratic Rep. Troy Kelley (D-28) is also in the race for auditor. He failed to get the labor nod because he voted for scaling back the pension system. He also has a tepid lifetime labor voting record of 61 percent.

Nearly 50 US mayors, including Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, signed off on a letter today urging Village Voice Media CEO Jim Larkin to require people advertising escort services on Backpage.com, which VVM owns, to provide photo ID showing they’re 18 or older before advertising on the site. VVM owns Seattle Weekly. 

Noting that Backpage, unlike other advertising services, only requires escorts to check a box online saying that they’re over 18, the mayors wrote, “We urge you to take quick action and help us address underage sex trafficking by requiring a photo ID for prospective advertisers. We believe this is the only way to provide safeguards against individuals who may be placing advertisements on under aged individuals. We stand ready to discuss this issue with you and hope to hear from you soon that Backpage.com will require a photo ID for prospective advertisers.”

The mayors probably shouldn’t hold their breath. A similar letter McGinn sent Larkin earlier this month went unanswered. And just today, VVM’s attorney, Liz McDougall, wrote an op/ed in the Seattle Times today arguing that Backpage is an “ally” in the battle against child sex trafficking and calling demands for in-person age verification merely “symbolic.”

According to a new KING5/SurveyUSA poll, just 32 percent of Seattle residents approve of the job Mike McGinn is doing as mayor, with 49 percent of respondents saying they disapprove.

Interestingly, for a mayor who won election largely by rallying the youth vote, McGinn’s support was lowest among voters between 18 and 34, only 20 percent of whom said they approved of his performance.

Half of all respondents said they approved of McGinn’s handling of the May Day protests, with 35 percent saying they disapproved.

In an unrelated question, 70 percent of respondents said it was harder to park a car in Seattle than it was five years ago; the poll did not ask whether respondents lived here then. Predictably, a large majority (73 percent) said on-street meter rates in Seattle are too high (a whopping 3 percent said they were too low), and 67 percent said higher parking rates have not made it any easier to find on-street parking downtown. Despite this, just 41 percent said higher parking rates have made them more likely to  take the bus downtown. And just 9 percent said they had considered giving up their car.