Tonight at the Seattle First Baptist Church, about 100 mostly silver-haired voters got an earful. Naturally, they heard from the serious candidates for King County Executive who have dutifully shown up to every forum (and are invited to every forum). But this forum was different. The League of Women Voters of Seattle invited all eight candidates, and all eight had their say.
Goodspaceguy Nelson was the debutante of the ball. “Can you hear me? Thank you. Sometimes we don’t get invited, so this is one of the few times we are all here together,” Nelson said. “Boeing makes not only airplanes but spacecraft,” he said, launching from his campaign platform. “I want them not just to make more airplanes but more spacecraft.” He used a lot of metaphors about “highest potential” and “moving upward.” When asked about more earthly subjects, like what we should do about fixing the structurally compromised Howard Hanson Dam, he said, “We should have more dams to create several man-made lakes to make King County more of a tourist destination.”
I became enchanted with Stan Lippmann, a physicist who has run for nearly every local office and lost every time. Lippmann, speaking in a lullaby cadence, shares with the listener an alternative reality where transportation can be fixed by magical transit systems that cost half the price and cut traffic in half, a reality where we live robust and healthy without man-made medicines, and a world “inspired by the Jetsons.” As Dow Constantine talked about the need for rapid response to swine flu outbreaks, Lippmann began shaking his head violently. “It’s all about moving more Tamiflu off the shelf,” he said. “It is all a hoax. I will protect you from it.”
Reclusive Republican Susan Hutchison told the voters sitting in pews that she ran because, “I saw the need for a nonpartisan, non-politician to step in.” Yes, indeed, finally a nonpartisan. Hutchison’s most puzzling statement was in her one-minute answer to a question about how the county can maintain human services without raising taxes. “Nonprofits get the most bang for the buck,” she said, noting that the county could fund those groups instead of providing services itself. “If we can consolidate those services, we can cut the overhead.” Like find one big nonprofit—a nonpartisan, nonpolitical (and nonexistent) nonprofit—to handle all the county health problems. Of course.
It’s almost as if a lack of education is a bonus when seeking a job at The Stranger. Seriously dude, get your fucking GED.
Stan Lippman is an institution, glad to hear he’s still around.
Goodspaceguy belongs in an institution, glad to see I can still get a laugh from his piece in the voter’s guide.
i think it would be awesome if goodspaceguy got elected.
Susan Hutchison’s idea to devolve county services to nonprofits is stupid. Just hugely, thoughtlessly stupid. So stupid and thoughtless that I might just have to bang my head against the wall a few times before I go to sleep.
At least Goodspaceguy is a lovable kind of crazy.
And Lippmann is a “stole my client’s money and got disbarred last year” kind of crazy. ‘Physicist’ my flappy brown eye.
Seeing Goodspaceguy in the voter’s pamphlet is always a genuine pleasure.
Is that a CROSS Suzie is clutching? Just wondering…
Susan Hutchison is the one hope we have of actually changing county government and making it more efficient.
@10: ok, i’m game. exactly how would she do that?
@7: I think he actually was a physicist and grew disillusioned with the “corrupt” atmosphere in science. He then went back to school to study law – and I think that’s when he moved to Seattle – and it was then that he began his political “career.” His first campaign featured his mug on the side of several buses, stating that vaccination was killing us.
He’s his own kind of crazy, that’s for sure.
“If we can consolidate those services, we can cut the overhead.” Isn’t that KC Public Health?
@10
She’s not given any specifics other than vaguely talking about “reform”. She lacks the prior track record that might make one believe she’s capable of enacting reforms without getting specific.
Dino Rossi, Reagan Dunn, or even Pam Roach would be far more credible as reform candidates from the right.
For those who see reform as a key issue I’d suggest voting for either Hunter or Jarret, they both at least have some hope of getting some changes made.
Susan Hutchinson is very specifically full of shit. The fact is, THAT’S WHAT WE ALREADY DO. I won’t say “most”, because I don’t know the exact numbers, but a very large percentage of the human services provision by the county is done through local nonprofits.
What she’s saying is “what if there were buses and sewers and electricity around here?” She’s as nutty as Lippman in her way.
My favorite Lippman story is the time he was running for something on his anti-vaccination platform, and the voter’s pamphlet wouldn’t print his entire candidate’s statement (because it was 1,000 pages long), and he wouldn’t edit it, so they printed whatever the standard allotment was, cutting him off in the middle of a sentence.
i’m voting for goodspaceguy
Did Lippmann mention his plan to pay all county expenses in silver coins, coins which the county would apparently mint after buying a silver mine? Cause I gotta say, that part of the Voters Guide tickled me.
At least they showed up..The guy running against Judge Anne Ellington chickened out and was a no show..Go to VOTINGFORJUDGES.ORG.. you can read their answers to the Muni league and KCBA questionnaire as well as ratings and endorsements
Wait, did your ass burn on the pew, Dominic? The nerve of the LWV having a political forum in a g-ddamn church!