News Oct 24, 2012 at 4:00 am

The President of Seattle's Port Commission Wants to Go to Olympia—Which Makes Her Former Supporters Nervous

Comments

4
Sue Evans really seems to think that saying something is enough. As the saying go, actions speak louder than words, and Gael's actions make her unelectable in the 36th district, imho.
5
Bravo to Brendan Kiley for delving into the too-often-opaque politics of the Port of Seattle.

The Port, of course, was much more thoroughly covered when the Seattle P-I was still circulating on the streets of Seattle.

While Kiley says accurately that he is “dramatically oversimplifying” the controversy concerning clean trucks, he did a good job at conveying the basics with an economy of words.

For those who might want to know more about that controversy, InvestigateWest and KCTS 9 did a two-part series, “Breathing Uneasy,” that thoroughly explores how pollution in the south end of Seattle, where diesel-fired port trucks regularly traverse the streets, is a hot-spot statewide for children stricken for asthma: http://bit.ly/m24TRr

InvestigateWest also followed up when Tarelton and other commissioners refused to speed up cleanup of the trucks: http://bit.ly/RD9N9S . And we covered subsequent protests when the national organization of ports met in Seattle: http://bit.ly/TUQt7b

Publicola also tracked the trucks controversy pretty well, with a particular eye on the plight of the drivers. Here’s a recent example: http://bit.ly/TgcCjM

Robert McClure
InvestigateWest
6
Bravo to Brendan Kiley for delving into the too-often-opaque politics of the Port of Seattle.

The Port, of course, was much more thoroughly covered when the Seattle P-I was still circulating on the streets of Seattle.

While Kiley says accurately that he is “dramatically oversimplifying” the controversy concerning clean trucks, he did a good job at conveying the basics with an economy of words.

For those who might want to know more about that controversy, InvestigateWest and KCTS 9 did a two-part series, “Breathing Uneasy,” that thoroughly explores how pollution in the south end of Seattle, where diesel-fired port trucks regularly traverse the streets, is a hot-spot statewide for children stricken for asthma: http://bit.ly/m24TRr

InvestigateWest also followed up when Tarelton and other commissioners refused to speed up cleanup of the trucks: http://bit.ly/RD9N9S . And we covered subsequent protests when the national organization of ports met in Seattle: http://bit.ly/TUQt7b

Publicola also has tracked the trucks controversy pretty well, with a particular eye on the plight of the drivers. Here’s a recent example: http://bit.ly/TgcCjM

Robert McClure
InvestigateWest
7
Folks, we know you're in the tank for Noel Frame, but even if she gets elected, she can hire only one legislative aide. Don't expect much from these continuing efforts to ingratiate yourselves.

Also note that the description of the money race is wrong. By some strange coincidence, The Stranger can't bring itself to mention the $73,000 of independent money that Noel's (colluding) supporters have thrown into this race. Sort of belies the underdog narrative you prefer, but who cares, right?

The next time The Stranger bitches about the Times pro-McKenna ads and touts itself as a beacon of independent journalism, this story should be offered as evidence of rank hypocrisy.

Side note to Robert McClure: I applaud the efforts of InvestigateWest to keep journalism alive, but the examples you cite don't represent the best of your brand. You've provided links to two stories as a backup to assailing Tarleton - except neither one bothered to quote her or ask her a single question about the underlying issues. So very brave.
9
I attended the Port Commission session where Tarleton's refused to support the Clean Ports Act. Before abstaining (and thereby killing it), she gave a speech that essentially said why it would be great, but that now wasn't a good time. I thought it was a bizarre display of cognitive dissonance, but now reading this it adds up. For the record, Creighton and Holland voted for it. Bryant and Albro voted against it. The 2-2 vote meant it went nowhere. I was there in solidarity with the port truck drivers who voiced support for the Act-- they don't want to be polluting and hurting their own health. Two mustachioed men from port business interests sat in the room and said nothing; they just watched, but every one of the commissioners tipped their hats to them, thanking them for attending. Nobody thanked the truckers for taking the time to be there and risking their jobs in speaking out. That said, I maintain high respect for Holland and Creighton who were courageous enough to vote for a bill that would provide cleaner air for Seattle residents and move forward the struggle for better trucking regulations at the port.

-- Rev. John Helmiere
Valley & Mountain community in the Rainier Valley
(valleyandmountain.org)
10
The people quoted in this article should be applauded for their courage. Tarleton has been known to leave some pretty nasty voicemails and to even get a little physical when she's frustrated. I'd call her a bit of a bully.
11
Tarleton is a bully, so it's refreshing to see so many former supporters pull up their boots and agree to be quoted. I don't doubt they'll get some nasty voicemails, but major kudos for the courage.
12
Tarleton is a charlatan. She claims to be a progressive, but in reality she is just a corporate stooge who doesn't give a darn about working families, our environment or labor. Tarleton needs to go back to suckling from the teat from the Port interests and leave the people of the 36th alone.
13
My reaction: The Stranger is to Noel Frame as Fox News is to Mitt Romney.

It's obvious that Rob Holland (aka "Mr. Ethics") is a major source for this story. I'm surprised Commissioner Holland has any credibility left after his serial misuse of his Port-issued credit card and the discovery of a pornographic photo on a Port camera in his possession. (But everybody makes mistakes, right?) Come to think of it, John Creighton, the other Port commissioner who saw this story as an opportunity to damage Commissioner Tarleton's current campaign, had a girlfriend who sought a restraining order against him a few years ago because she was frightened by his angry, stalkerish behavior. Creighton still had political ambitions at the time, so he paid her to withdraw her request for a restraining order. The episode does make one wonder if he has a problem with women, an anger-management issue, or both. Anyway, those two commissioners certainly don't have any axes to grind, do they?
14
My reaction: The Stranger is to Noel Frame as Fox News is to Mitt Romney.

It's obvious that Rob Holland (aka "Mr. Ethics") is a major source for this story. I'm surprised Commissioner Holland has any credibility left after his serial misuse of his Port-issued credit card and the discovery of a pornographic photo on a Port camera in his possession. (But everybody makes mistakes, right?) Come to think of it, John Creighton, the other Port commissioner who saw this story as an opportunity to damage Commissioner Tarleton's current campaign, had a girlfriend who sought a restraining order against him a few years ago because she was frightened by his angry, stalkerish behavior. Creighton still had political ambitions at the time, so he paid her to withdraw her request for a restraining order. The episode does make one wonder if he has a problem with women, an anger-management issue, or both. I'm not surprised that the two nutty commissioners have had problems with Commissioner Tarleton and, after their own recent losing campaigns, want to take her down too.
15
Two faces? I don't recognize the CMYK orthodontic mirage you published today about Real Democrat Gael Tarleton. She is current president of Seattle Port Commission. She is a connected to her community, her family, her friends. She is accomplished, a do-er, and a progressive woman working in a man's world. She is the face on the left above, smiling, focused, unaware that many men and their money hate what she has accomplished: success, cooperation, longevity in a system now for sale. This article is like a Report Card filled out by Gael's opponents....
Noel Frame is a political insider who is going public. She can't be a "grassroots" organizer if she relies on the deployment of her game changing $100,000 in Special Interest PAC money. It's Astroturf.
You present demonic-upside-down-teeth Gael as anti-union and anti-environment. It's not true. Environment? What environment? Sierra endorsed pro-coal Larsen in the 1st District. They accepted and used natural gas money to close coal plants and used that $26M (ended 2010) to fund employees who now work for SEIU and Teamsters. Also supported lukewarm DelBene in the Primary, with no environmental record she was the weakest eco-choice with the most $. Just sayin'. It's obvious they don't endorse for enviro cred. After so many expensive political losses it's about "winability" this year. Haven't you noticed they seem less concerned about toppled trees and more concerned about Gael's tone when she defends herself from their attacks?
Noel doesn't need to discuss the environmental issues she knows little about. Just like pro-coal Rick Larsen she can say: Sierra likes me. And Gael does have high profile environmental endorsements, they just don't matter to you.
Unions support Gael, just not the ones most comfy with big, secret money.
Noel is sitting on top of a giant stack of secret PAC money. Thanks Citizens United! Whose money? Union? Non-union? She has no progressive cred left. The Right Wing made her campaign viable.
Noel is a pawn in a destructive game. And it's just a vendetta game, and a warped war of words.
When Gael wins this election fair and square, the 36th will have made the honest, progressive choice.
16
@15 - So Sue Evans finally got another SLOG login? Good to see!
18
The Times came out with it story on the race today. It appears the Stranger is earning its moniker 'Seattle's only newspaper'. The Time just takes juggles quotes and talking points from the two campaign. Brendan's doing actual reporting. Damn nice to write.

And important, if Tarleton wins this race, Seattle will be stuck with a wolf in sheep's clothing as our representative for years.
19


Tarelton and Bryant were elected at a "throw the rascals out" time
and replaced, respectively, Bob Edwards, a Mic Dinsmore - the then Port C.E.O - supporter,
[although on coming to know Edwards I did not feel that that needed to be held against him
as it definitely did in the case of Pat Davis] and Alec Fisken, a Dinsmore opponent. Dinsmore, so seemed to be the feeling, was too much in the bag of the Carrix Corporation and of the business interests in general, to whatever
degree the various interests overlap or not I will not discuss here.

John Creighton won against a very Green-oriented fellow whose name escapes me at the moment.
All this occurred during the not-so-long-ago when Brian Sontag, at the behest of a Tim Eyeman driven initiative, did
a Port audit, and the audit came up wrong by about 100 million. At that no so long ago time, about eight to ten years ago, the odeur of Afghanie type corruption was heavy in the air as the smell of burnt diesel fuel on the
South End and I got to know rather a lot about the port, for having been involved with several candidates, one of whom Citicorp forced to drop out or lose his job, and then support of Jack Jolley's candidacy against the most notorious Dinsmore supporter, the commissioner for life, Pat Davis, who too, initially, five thousand years ago, had run as a
reformer as did Tareleton and Bryant.

At that time I felt halfway well versed on the many interests that came to bear on the port and felt that Tarelton was
instantly suspect and Bryant entirely obvious to me as someone who would never
be a reformer of any kind but had been put up to defeat the best commissioner at the time,Alec
Fisken. And in that respect it proves the Seattle adage that if you want to get
elected you must run as a reformer and then be two-faced as hell. I also did a long
very interesting interview with a most impressive Mic Dinsmore but no one was
interested in publishing it, including The Stranger. And it was yet another confirmation
that no one was really willing to get down to the nitty gritty in these matters,
I had had one previous one during my years in Seattle, and my interests and training are not ordinarily those of a muckraker. Just stuff I happened on to.


http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref…
20
Relling -- Just to be clear, I was only trying to let readers of Mr. Kiley's piece know that they could learn more about the controversy over pollution from port trucks, and the trucks issue in general, since Kiley said himself in the story he was deliberately oversimplifying (as was necessary considering the thrust of the story).

I didn't offer those pieces as backup to Mr. Kiley's reporting -- just as extra info for Stranger readers. We spoke with staff of the port but not port commissioners for the "Breathing Uneasy" story, and attended and covered the meeting where the 2-2-1 vote occurred, as described by Rev. Helmere.

I will again, though, commend Mr. Kiley and the Stranger for this in-depth reporting on the Port of Seattle. It's in short supply nowadays.
21
Sometimes I have to vote by my gut. With Gael, it says she is first, foremost, and only interested in Gael. She won't represent the 36th; she will (if elected--I hope not) represent her future progress in elective office only.

I live in the 36th, and I certainly will NOT vote to elect Gael Tarlton.
22
I live in the 36th, and I will NOT be voting for Gael. Sometimes your gut tells you what's right. And my gut tells me that Gael is only interested in Gael--she doesn't care a whit about anything else or anyone else. Why should we voters give her a boost she does not deserve?
23
I think you fell short in your attempt to demonstrate the two faces of Tarleton - and way short in your balance to get a much-needed response from her to the issue you raise.

Your "proof" consists of a few lines (lacking any context) from emails, and complaints from her opponents. You quote them at length, especially Holland, yet don't print Tarleton's point-by-point responses. It's a glaring omission.

I have to assume you didn't ask her for such responses, since the reporter does not state - as he should have - whether or not she was asked, and perhaps had no comment. Another glaring omission.

It's a story in need of an editor, and undeserving of the above praise, as it does not pass the reportage test (it doesn't have to be balanced, but it sure as hell ought to be fair). Thing is, I don't happen to like the candidate either. But in the end, as journalism, this story comes off as another Stranger assault on one of its enemies.
24
@16 I am not Sue Evans. But she's a pro so thanks for the compliment! ;)
I just hid my earlier posting activity from view, I am a "long time" Stranger reader. Even before "unnecessary" quotations were popular. And I am really disappointed now. B/c this is not the scoop. It is so gossip-y and bird doggy.
What's the opposite of Pulitzer Prize?
I notice you changed the picture. Now the Irish Auntie is the devil incarnate.
You're throwing tin cans at a star on the rise. I hope you miss your mark.
For decade+ I more or less believed you. Now I know why it's called The Stranger!
25
Just one more thought on this independent expenditure.

Imagine the two-face story replaced with Noel Frame's mug and written in the same manner, with her detractors and disappointed former supporters supplying the dirt (there is plenty of it, by the way).

Noel is given no chance to respond to specifics. A generic quote near the bottom is the only gesture toward fairness - not "balance" – just fairness.

The Stranger can attack Gael - that's fine. But tying her hands behind her back and punching her in the face is not well-reported journalism by any standard.
26
So The Stranger has decided that the Teamsters Union is the strong arm of... progressivism? Clearly Brendan Kiley doesn't know many people in either progressive politics or the labor movement. This article is what is known in the business as a hatchet job, and perfectly timed. For the enlightenment of the poster who asked why this article wasn't in the election endorsement issue, the answer is that the timing would have been less damaging, and the purpose of the article is to damage Gael Tarelton.
27
If Tarelton is half as two-faced as you claim, she won't last more than one term if elected. The voters in the 36th are not exactly pushovers.

Unless you tell them "it's for the children."
28
I see that Dominic Holden in a Slog post this afternoon has called attention to this "excellent" article on Port Commissioner Tarleton's super-manipulative, evil ways. I assume this will be a daily (or hourly) occurrence every day through the election.

Once again, The Stranger is to Noel Frame (Tarleton's inexperienced and vastly-less-accomplished opponent) as Fox News is to Mitt Romney.

Score one for yellow journalism right here in progressive Seattle.

29
The devil-horned Tarleton pic is super tacky.
30
This reminds me quite a bit of the race in the 38th in 2010. Jean Berkey was a moderate Democrat who hadn't voted down the line for the Unions (they gave her an 89% rating on her votes over her career) so they decided to oust her as a show of strength. A coalition of unions coalesced behind Nick Harper, whose consultant Moxie Media colluded with them to break the law in their efforts to unseat Berkey.

You will notice that Noel Frame's consulting company is Moxie Media... and you will notice that their primary strategy seems to be letting select union voices speak for them, both in favor of Frame and against Tarleton.

Now, that all aside, it's very disappointing that this piece takes quotes and opinions from biased sources and doesn't even present their own fact checking, let alone allow the target to speak against the allegations. I would love to read what Tarleton has to say about these things in a direct response, not pulled quotes from previous stories or press conferences.

I love reading the Stranger, but this wasn't up to snuff.
31
Brendan Kiley: Are you revising your "excellent" article (Dominic Holden's characterization) to take account of the success of the Port of Seattle's program to reduce -- by more than 50 percent -- toxic emissions from heavy trucks?

(Oh, I forgot: to credit Port Commissioner Tarleton with any accomplishments would undercut The Stranger's role as Noel Frame's propaganda organ.)

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