Rob McKenna addresses white people in Bellevue
  • Goldy | The Stranger
  • Rob McKenna is no Tom Skerritt

While literally the entire Stranger staff was out boozing it up at the undoubtedly stupendous Tom Skerritt Happy Hour, fucking Dominic sent me to Sammamish High School in fucking Bellevue to cover Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna officially kick off his 2012 gubernatorial campaign. Well fuck me.

When I got there and tried to check in at the press table I was informed that I wasn't on the list. "Did you RSVP?" the volunteer asked me. Of course not. How could I? I never got the invitation. An oversight, I imagined. So I cozied up to Washington State Republican Party chair Kirby Wilbur, and ultimately just walked into the auditorium with him. You know how it is... politics is politics, but all us failed talk radio hosts stick together.

An hour later, after McKenna had drained the battery on my camcorder with promises, platitudes, and unicorns, I was eager to ask him a few questions, like how he planned to pump an additional $3 billion into K-12 education without raising taxes? So I joined the P-I's Chris Grygiel and PubliCola's Josh Feit in walking down the hall to a scheduled press conference where I was unceremoniously stopped at the door. No campaign-certified press credential, no entry, I was told. When I asked campaign communications coordinator Adam Faber why Josh was invited and I was not, Faber made it clear that this slight was intentional. "We invited a very wide cast." But, you know, not wide enough to include The Stranger.

Again, fuck me.

Lots of white people and empty seats await Rob McKennas unsurprising announcement.
  • Goldy | The Stranger
  • Lots of white people and empty seats await Rob McKenna's unsurprising announcement.

As for the speech itself, billions more for K-12 education... blah, blah, blah... hundreds of millions more for higher education... blah, blah, blah... less burden on small businesses... blah, blah, blah... there are too many state workers, and they make much too much money... blah, blah, blah... bipartisanship! The room full of white people just ate it up.

I'll post more details and bit of analysis later, after I walk my dog, eat some dinner and edit some video.