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- YESTERDAY AT THE STRANGER ELECTION CONTROL BOARD OFFICES Left to right: Republican John Dickinson, Republican Daniel Bretzke, and Democratic Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, all candidates in Seattle's 37th District.
It is hard to surprise the Stranger Election Control Board, for we have seen many things. There was the guy who showed up packing a concealed weapon. There was the epic debate between Slog commenters (and King County Democratic Central Committee candidates) Will in Seattle and michaelp, in which we somehow ended up exploring the color of their underwear. There was Christine Gregoire facing down a six-pack of beer. But, until yesterday's 9 am meeting the SECB had never seen a candidate in Google Glass.
Then we met Republican John Dickinson. "It's my fashion statement for accountability in state government," he told us. "I hope all elected officials will wear these in the time that they are working for us."Really? An entire capitol building filled with lawmakers in Google Glass? "Because you can record all day long," Dickinson explained. "And it goes to the cloud." He promised this would expose the "backroom" Olympia, the "meet in the toilets and discuss" Olympia. "This is pure accountability here," he promised.
We were skeptical, so Dickinson offered this thought experiment: "When you think of transparency what word do you think of?"
His answer: "Glass!"
Dickinson said he wasn't using the glasses during our meeting... Or maybe he was, just with one eye? When an SECB member asked Dickinson if he could get porn on those things, he replied: "Half of this is X-rated."
(Also in this meeting: Daniel Bretzke, the other Republican in the race, said he's running to change state law so that Seattle can't cap the number of Uber and Lyft drivers, though he also said he'd never used Uber or Lyft. Meanwhile, Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, the incumbent, said she'd support using a graduated state income tax to help get the billions of dollars the state supreme court says we need in order to start adequately funding basic education.)