News Sep 25, 2013 at 4:00 am

How One Man's Gambling Addiction May Have Cost Democrats Control of the State Senate

Asleep at the wheel. Isaac Novak

Comments

1
What a story. Good job on the reporting. And what a damning indictment of the culture of Washington State Democrats. Winning doesn't matter, and ensuring good processes are in place to win doesn't matter either. All that does matter are relationships. If you are in the club you can get away with anything and never be held to account, literally in this case, even as the state drifts toward the right.
2
A sure sign of poor reporting: blaming "insiders" for not being able to get to a source. Let's see if I follow this logic: IF the Democratic party had some amount of money more (we don't really know how much, or what percentage the alleged $250K made up of the total budget--probably because that would take real reporting skills), they MIGHT have won some unidentifiable seats, and they MIGHT have more clout to pass some "major legislation" that MIGHT have some immediate effect on our Metro passed. Please. Talk about passing the buck; instead of dumping on a mentally ill person and the bureaucracy (which is always lacking in hindsight), let's hold our elected representatives to task for not being able to work on negotiating major legislation that benefits our state because they are entrenched in their own personal political beliefs--and let's hold ourselves responsible for letting our representatives get away with it!
3
what a laugh riot. we already know how poorly they handle the public's money via their constant whining about spending and never ending desire to raise taxes but apparently they are just as cavalier about their own money. what's even better is how much of WEA's, Labor council's, FUSE's and SEIU's contributions went into tribal casinos slot machines. the tribes should pay for King's attorneys. they win twice. the dems are still beholden to the tribes and they got a bunch of money from other liberal groups via King's addiction. hilarious and much deserved for the state leftist party. I do hope King does get help and sober; addiction sucks.
5
Michael King and his buddy, Rodney Tom, should be hung.
6
This thesis is based on wild-ass speculation; it is a total stretch.
8
Michael King and Rodney Tom are horrible humans
9
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10
Hey, it looks like money well spent too me.

11
@5 (auntie grizelda): When it's by the neck until dead, it's "hanged."

@Goldy: Did you scoop other Washington journos because you straight-up scooped 'em, or do you think their bosses made them sit on the story for as long as possible? Either explanation seems plausible to me...
12
@11 We scooped the other news organizations partially through an accident of timing, which was dictated by our weekly print schedule. It just so happens that this week's paper hit the streets just after the charges were filed; if the charges had been filed a day earlier, we would have been a day late. In fact, I had argued to wait on writing it until after King was sentenced, so that I could have talked to him and everybody involved and gotten a more fleshed out story. But Cienna and Dominic felt otherwise.

To be clear, the news about the embezzlement was old. Everybody had that back in February. My scoop was based on having the insight to see that the method of embezzlement all but required faking polling data, and that the impact likely cost Dems control of the senate. The value I added was in connecting the dots, asking the right questions, and then piecing it all together credibly given the sources I had.
13
Anything that causes Democrats to lose control of any legislative body is a good thing.
14
Wish we had Satterberg in Pierce County... where no politician with proof of white collar crimes goes to jail.

15
I had the misfortune of dealing with Michael King on a campaign last year. It was clear from our first meeting that something was not "right" with him. It came as no surprise to me when he was arrested. How he appealed to people of power as a person of competence is a bigger mystery.
16
@11: When it's in reference to two assholes being suspended over dizzying heights by their limp, useless dicks, it's being hung.
@13: Are you seeing red?
17
Why hasn't this come up in the Mayor's race? It seems to me that Ed Murray, while not bearing culpability, has shown some questionable judgement.

Let's put it this way: If Mike McGinn had anything to do with this do you think the only noise we would be hearing about this is crickets? No, I don't think so either...

Please wait...

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