This morning Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire is in a spot of trouble after admitting her UW sorority Kappa Delta, of which she was president, was all-white and all-Christian. She says she tried to change it from within, making a speech at a national convention after she graduated urging the national group to change its rule. It did, but not until many years later.
At first, Gregoire welcomed the story, touting it as an example of leadership. Now she's changed her mind and accused her Democratic primary opponent, Ron Sims, of planting the story, Ralph Thomas reports in this morning's Seattle Times.
Turns out, a Times editor is the tipster, not Sims.
Meanwhile, Dino Rossi, the Republican, must be loving this, wondering to himself how on earth the Democrats are going to unite after this primary battle.
Washington voters hate the new primary system, in which they can only vote for one party or another.
Times reporter Susan Gilmore reports the response from Secretary of State Sam Reed:
"He said that since last Wednesday night, when a state flier explaining the primary started showing up in 3 million mailboxes statewide, his office has received 6,546 phone calls. Only 5 percent were positive. He also received about 2,000 angry e-mails. In one 24-hour period Reed's office, which has hired a dozen temporary workers to help field the calls, received 2,000 calls and one e-mail every two minutes."
More: "Voters on Nov. 2 will decide on Initiative 872, sponsored by the Washington State Grange, which would change the state primary to a top-two contest. Under that system, voters could cast ballots for any candidates, regardless of party. Reed expects the measure will pass easily."
Times reporter Susan Gilmore says she's getting crazy response from her story this morning. We'll post some of them a little later.
Isn't the purpose of a primary to allow the members of the parties to pick their candidates? If so, what's the big deal? Just pick a party and be done with it. Or don't pick a party, and forfeit your right to pick that party's candidates. Or make an angry call to the Secretary of State's office.
The Seattle Weekly has a story predicting mass confusion and voter anger over the new primary system.
Down in Oregon, The Oregonian reports that a group of Vietnam vets are rallying against a Clackamas county prosecutor who appeared in the anti-Kerry swift boat ad. He signed an affidavit attesting to the truth of his assertions, but it turns out he didn't actually serve with Kerry. Just has friends who did.
The News Tribune in Tacoma has a profile of Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. Pretty rosy.
The Bremerton Sun has a cool voter's guide: It allows you to type in your address, if you live in the Bremerton area, and you get a sample ballot.
And finally, The New York Times has a fun story about the coming clash between New York City and Washington, D.C. during the coming Republican National Convention:
"Washington, seen from Manhattan, is drab and humid, a swamp-city populated by doughy people in brown suits and heinous ties that always seem to be askew. And many Washingtonians return the disregard by lampooning New York's pointless clatter, a big noisy town whose chief product seems to be some tawdry combination of smoke and mirrors."
More: "In Washington fresh-faced interns, emboldened by the heady aroma of democracy in the making, brandish new ID tags and frolic amid the photocopying. In Manhattan interns sort mail for assistant fashion editors and end up dancing shirtless at raves with people they will never see again. In Washington inscrutable men in dark glasses with earpieces make sure that government and its leaders proceed unmolested. In New York County similar fellows defend the velvet rope at Bungalow 8."
The editor of Details mag: "I don't want to see a lot of bad Men's Warehouse suits and a lot of badly parted hair walking around my neighborhood," he said. "All Republicans part their hair the same way."
Matt Labash, of the conservative mag The Weekly Standard: "They can say that they won't even know we are here, but they will. We will plunk down our garment bags in their hopelessly trendy hotels, standing out like Good Humor men in our summer-weight khaki suits while all those hipster squirrels scramble for our tips."
"They needn't worry," he added. "The contempt is mutual."
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