A few days and still counting...

On election night it looked like Democrats might pick up a seat or two in both the House and Senate. Now it looks possible that they may lose a seat in each chamber but still retain large majorities..

In the Senate, Senator Don Benton (R-17) who trailed on election night has now pulled ahead and returns are trending his direction. Incumbent Senator Marilyn Rasmussen (D-2) has now fallen behind her challenger, Randi Becker. If those results hold, the result would be a one seat loss for Senate Democrats.

In the House, two incumbent Republicans, John Ahern in the 6th District (Spokane) and Norma Smith in the 10th District (Island, Skagit, Snohomish) have pulled very close after trailing on election night. Given late vote trends and the amount of votes remaining to be counted, they may well pull ahead. Incumbent Democrat Don Barlow, also in the 6th District, continues to trail and Republicans will pick up a seat in the 26th District (Pierce and Kitsap). Democrats earlier picked up a seat in the 17th District (Clark).

Best guess at this point. The House will be 62 D and 36 R and the Senate will be 31 D and 18 R.

It appears that Congressman Dave Reichert will maintain his lead and win in the end and that Randy Dorn will be the new Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Lands Commissioner race is still too close to call.

Finally! The Morning After

The last month has been crazy, with all the elections in the final stretch. Those of us who "work" the legislative process have been as crazy as the rest, following the trends, talking to the candidates and their camapign teams and trying to figure out who will be in place to address the issues of the next session.

Here is a run-down of the results that I have prepared.. totals may change.

The Governors race stands at Gregoire 53.5 and Rossi 46.5 and the remaining ballots won't change the result except to increase her lead. Of 830,000 votes remaining to be counted 380,000 are in her stronghold of King County and about 320,000 in other counties where she leads at this time. Here's a map showing the dispersion of results by county.. the "Cascade Divide" is even more apparent than it was four years ago.

http://vote.wa.gov/elections/wei/ResultsByCounty.aspx?ElectionID=26&RaceID=13&CountyCode=%20&JurisdictionTypeID=2&RaceTypeCode=O&ViewMode=Results

Congressionally the only real race is still up in the air with Rep. Dave Reichert (R) barely ahead of his "repeat" opponent Darcy Burner (D) 50.32 to 49.68. That could change. My guess is that the slower returns might be in the more ethnically diverse south end of the district which with Obama's win might favor Burner, a former Microsoft manager.

For State wide offices two are still up in the air.. Lands Commissioner where incumbent Doug Sutherland (R) trails challenger Peter Goldmark (D) by 49.5 to 50.5. The overwhelming outstanding ballots in liberal areas will, I believe, secure Goldmark's victory. In the other one, the non-partisan Superintendent Of Public Instruction, challenger Randy Dorn barely leads incumbent Terry Bergeson by 50.8 to 49.2. As both are really Democrats and the teachers aren't excited about either of them it is hard to predict how the remaining votes will fall. I would guess that it might go Bergeson based only on name familiarity with more infrequent voters.

Legislatively it appears the Democrats will increase their majorities by a small amount perhaps losing Rep. Don Barlow (D) in Spokane but with the Republicans also possibly losing Rep. John Ahern (R) north of there.

Other Republicans in trouble include Rep. Glenn Anderson (R), Rep. Norma Smith (R), Sen. Don Benton (R), and Rep. Skip Priest (R).

Sen. Marilyn Rassmussen (D) leads in a tight race and no other Democratic incumbents appear in trouble but the Republicans may get a pickup in the seat of retiring Rep. Pat Lantz (D) where Jan Angel (R) leads by about 600 votes and there is a very close race in the seat of retiring Rep. Joyce McDonald (R) with the Republican leading by less than 200 votes.

Stay tuned.

More Winners !

Thank you Jackie Currie and Dan Johnson (who signed in as DJ7) for being the latest folks signing up to be able to comment. Your prizes await you at the Christmas party! There are eight more prizes to go to the next eight signers-uppers.

Congratulations to Mike Bartolotti -

Congrats to Mike Bartolotti for becoming the first "comment-er-er" on the Blog!
He didn't know it but by doing that he won a really neat prize at the TRAW Christmas party.
The next ten people who sign up and comment will also recieve prizes then.. but not quite as neat as Mike's.
(Hint.. Remember I am a Civil War nut).
Spread the word about how easy it is!

Chief George Tellevik - A Good Man

From the Seattle Times:
By Charles E. Brown
Seattle Times staff reporter

Retired Washington State Patrol Chief George Tellevik, who rose through the ranks to head the agency from 1985 to 1993, died Saturday (Sept. 20) at his Olympia home after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 74.
"Chief Tellevik was really about service," said current State Patrol Chief John Batiste. "People all over this state are safer because George Tellevik knew that police agencies could be no better than their leaders."
Mr. Tellevik, the agency's 14th chief, was credited with increasing the number of troopers on the road to improve service to motorists. He also was credited with moving the agency into the world of high technology, and making it almost invisible politically.
He persuaded the Legislature to fund a statewide computerized fingerprint system, had the Patrol designated as a clearinghouse of information about missing children, and moved the Patrol into DNA tracking. He also won legislative support to improved State Patrol facilities at a time many had been housed in old gas stations and World War II-era military buildings.
Mr. Tellevik retired in 1993 after eight years as chief and 37 years with the agency. His first assignment with the Patrol in 1956 was two weeks as a driver's-license examiner. He later was assigned to Walla Walla and the Tri-Cities, then promoted to a major and Western Washington field commander. He was appointed agency head by former Gov. Booth Gardner.
"He was a great man who believed in our organization," said State Patrol Capt. Mark Couey, who joined the agency in 1985 under Mr. Tellevik's tenure.
Batiste recently reinstituted the Tellevik-era agency motto, "Service with humility."
Mr. Tellevik is survived by his wife, Karen, of Olympia, and two daughters. Funeral arrangements are being made.

Legislative Report - September 10th

Below is the Legislative Report from the latest Newsletter:

The first ever “top-two” primary is over and the general election is less than two months away and perhaps the “hottest” National election in decades is in full swing. The recession has finally crept into Washington’s revenue stream and the state is predicted to have around $2.7 Billion less coming in over the next two years than it had expected. It was with that backdrop that Legislators gathered in Olympia this week for a monthly “committee assembly” and specific issues sometimes seemed to take a backseat in conversations to “who’s ahead”, “how much have they raised” and what are the latest “numbers”.
This is the time for us to look inward, to talk among ourselves and with our contacts in state agencies to get ready for the next session in January. It is a time to prepare and prioritize. Obviously the most important thing we do in Olympia is to watch everything and make sure that nothing bad for the towing industry makes it through, but if we want to ask for something we have to do a lot of work months ahead of time.
I went over to Spokane last Monday and had a great gathering of Eastern Washington towers to listen to their concerns and start the process of developing our legislative agenda. Many thanks go to Bettie for putting it all together. We will have a Western Washington “Round-Table” on the 23rd at 6:00 PM at Columbia Towing. Because legislative sessions are so fast paced, and the deadlines for consideration of bills so strict, if ideas aren’t well thought out and worked with other groups before it starts there is no-chance that they will be seriously considered. Almost 3,000 bills are filed every session and only about 300 make it to the Governor’s desk.
Insurance coverage for recovery operations, questions about hulks, postage, non-RTTO inspections and insurance, the list goes on and on. Be sure to attend and share your thoughts and experiences with the Legislative Committee.
Shortly I will begin a new feature for the association, the TRAW- Legislative News and Forum “blog”. For those that are unfamiliar with them it is short for “Web-Log” and is basically an on line diary that allows readers to comment on the entries. I will use it to get out information and get feedback on our Legislative efforts as we move towards and into the session. The address is: http://traw-legislative.blogspot.com and I hope to have a link on the association web-site as well as posts to read soon.

Timeline for development of the Legislative Agenda

In early August I met with Paul Bressi and Ron Madler the co-chairs of the Legislative Committee and we developed the following "Timeline" for the development of the TRAW 2009 legislative agenda for circulation. We had the Eastern Washington discussion group on Septemeber 8th and with the "Round-Table-West" meeting next Tuesday we will be at the stage of putting together the priorities and then the actual bill language. About a week behind but still in very good shape:


Legislative Agenda Timeline:

Legislative Committee co-chairs Paul Bressi and Ron Madler met recently with our lobbyist, Stu Halsan, and set a schedule for development of the 2009 TRAW Legislative Agenda. Although good ideas can come up anytime, even the best idea can’t be successful in the legislature without “laying the groundwork” and a lot of preparation, discussion and drafting months ahead of time. In order to give us the best chance next year we will follow this timeline:

1) In the first two weeks of September two meetings will be scheduled, East and West to talk about issues and take input from membership. Any written suggestions should be sent to the committee chairs before September 10th.
2) Around September 15th the Legislative Committee will meet, discuss the concerns and input from members, consider the feasibility of potential solutions, and prioritize the issues into a legislative agenda for the association.
3) Around October 15th the Legislative Committee will review draft bills and make suggestions for language changes and refinements before they are put into final form.
4) In late October and during November the bills will be promoted to key legislators and sponsorship sought from them.
5) Early in December the bills should be ready for “pre-filing” for consideration by the 2009 session.
6) January 12th the Legislature convenes for a frantic session of 105 calendar days.

Let us know your thoughts! But please remember this timeline or the ideas will have to wait for 2010.

Legislative Report from June

There have been some questions about the process the Legislative Committee is going through to develop the Legislative Agenda for the 2009 session of the legislature. Below is the Legislative Report I sent out in June asking for input from the membership:


Legislative Report

Since the Legislature is not in session and legislators are focused on running for re-election, all of the activity is at the “Agency Level” in working on problems with WAC rules and preparing for the next session in January.

The Association is working in several areas. First, there is a proposed set of National recommendations for the so-called “NUG” or National Unified Goal regarding Incident Response and Management. A work group of the TRAW led by Rich Steele who sits on the Board of the local Washington State “NUG” committee went over all the draft language on a conference call and submitted comments reflecting the programs we have implemented here to bring towers into the co-ordination of Incident Response and suggestions for improvements that might be considered for the final draft.

Additionally, the TRAW is working with the Department of Licensing and the Washington State Patrol on an issue that was brought to our attention by members regarding the legal ability of RTTO’s to deal with hulk vehicles. There are differences of opinion as to how these should be handled and whether a Hulk Hauler license is needed, but both the WSP and DOL want to work with us to come up with an interim solution pending a “fix” in January that may well be in the tiered licensing system that we have suggested that would clarify that RTTO’s under one plate could do all the various tasks of handling motor vehicles while at the same time regulating and inspecting Non-RTTO’s.

Now is the time as well for members to be referring to the Legislative Committee any ideas and problems they have had for consideration regarding our proposed Legislative Agenda for the 2009 session. There is a lot of preparation that needs to be done for any proposed change in the law and suggestions made close to, or during the session would have to wait a year.

District 2 meeting combined with West-Side Legislative "Round-Table" discussion

There will be a "West-Side" Legislative Committee "Round-Table" discussion next week in preparation for the legislative session next January. It is the same evening as the District 2 meeting. The following is Jackie's meeting notice:

Hi Everyone…..
Amazing, it’s already September and time for District meetings to begin. We will be combining our District #2 meeting with the “West Side” legislative meeting. TRAW’s lobbyist Stu Halsan will be on site to listen to comments, ideas and suggestions about what TRAW would like to accomplish in Olympia in 2009. This meeting is open to all members so it’s a MUST that you RSVP if you’re planning to attend. Dinner will be served (everyone is invited) at a cost of $15.00. Without an RSVP, it will be impossible to guarantee that there will be enough for everyone. The schedule is as follows:

DATE: Tuesday - September 23
TIME: 6:00pm – Social
6:15pm – District 2 meeting - Mike Bartolotti
6:45pm – Dinner Served, $15 per person. Everyone is invited for dinner.
* MUST have RSVP no later than Friday, September 19th
7:00pm – Legislative Meeting - Stu Halsan

PHONE: 206.722.2535 or 800.303.2535 *Please let our dispatcher know your company & how many will attend.

LOCATION: Columbia Towing, 5907 M. L. King Way South, Seattle.

If you have questions or Mike (206.364.2000) or I can help in any way, please give us a call.

See you on the 23rd.

Thank you,

Jackie

How to set up a "Short-Cut" to this blog on your computer

As we get closer to the Legsialtive Session I expect many of you may want to check for information on this blog more often and instead of looking up the TRAW website and then going through all the steps to finally get here there is a quick and simple way to put an "icon" on your computer screen that will do it all with just two clicks. It's called "creating a short-cut".

First move your cursor to the middle of this page and press the right button on your mouse once. A menu will appear.

Select "create shortcut" and right click once.

A question box will pop up asking if you want to create a "shortcut" on your "desktop" (That's your computer home screen). Click "yes".

Now close or minimize the blog and you will see a new red "icon" on your "desktop" a kind of puffy red "B" called "TRAW-Legislati...".

Now every time you want to go to the blog and read Legsilative News just put the cursor directly on the "icon" and left click twice quickly. The blog website will pop right up.

And yes, you can by following the same steps create a "shortcut" to the TRAW website or any website that you want quick access to every day.

How to sign in to make a comment

To comment on a post I have made:
1) Move the cursor down to the bottom of the post you want to comment on and place it on the underlined word "comments" and left click once. A comment page will pop up.
2) Type your comment in the box on the right.
3) There will be a non-sense word in weird script below. This is a safeguard so that automated computer systems can’t post and a real person needs to figure out and re-type the word in the “word verification” box provided below it.
4) If you have blogged before on a “Google-Blogger” site you then type in your user name (email address) and password in the space provided.
5) If you have not blogged before move the cursor down, place it on the underlined "sign up here" and left click once. A “Create a Google account” page will pop up.
6) Type in your normal email address, and then type it in again to confirm it.
7) Pick a password at least 8 characters long. Letters and numbers together make a strong password such as maybe your middle name and birth year or something like that but easy for you to remember. Type it in and re-type it for confirmation.
8) Pick a “display name” which is the name your comment will be “signed” with. Your name, both first and last, along with your company name would be good so we will know who you are and if we want to call you we will know who to call.
9) Next is another “word verification” to prevent automated hacking so look closely at the non-sense word in script and re-type it in the box provided.
10) Put the cursor on the blank box that says “I accept the terms of service” and left click once. The box will then be “checked”.
11) Click the orange “Continue” arrow at the bottom. Sometimes it will ask you to do some of these steps over and it will tell you in red what to do. Usually this is because the “verification word” in script was hard to read and you didn’t type in the right letters. Be patient and do it again until you get it right. If you make a mistake a couple of times it gets a bit easier to see.
12) The “leave a comment page” will pop up again and you will be signed in.
13) Type or modify your comment and when it is just like you want it, there is another “word verification” protection where you need to re-type a nonsense word in script. This may seem to be a pain by now but it makes sure no-one can pretend to be you and there will be a lot less of them the next time you “log on” as this one page is all you will have to deal with.
14) Now put the cursor on the orange “publish your comment” bar at the bottom and left click once. You’re done!

Your comment will be forwarded to me for review and unless it tells the world something that we should only share privately, or is not nice, I will click a button on my control screen and it will be placed on the blog.

I hope this has helped you and I apologize if for you experienced bloggers if it seems a bit simplistic. Have fun!

Welcome to the “TRAW-Legislative News and Forum”

I set this “blog” up to provide a quick way to update the TRAW membership about what is going on behind the scenes in Olympia and to alert you to proposed laws that might impact your businesses. It also gives you the opportunity to “comment” on my “posts” providing a forum for discussing issues increasing the member input into the efforts of the Legislative Committee.

Since this is on the Internet, and there might be folks outside our towing family that read it, I have put some safeguards into it so that we don’t let the world know everything we are trying to accomplish or open rare internal disputes to public view. I have set it up so that “comments” to my “posts” will be “moderated” meaning that when you enter a comment it will not appear immediately, but only after I have checked it over for strategic or private material or just plain “polite-ness”. I’m not trying to censor things but there may be times we don’t want other groups to know our plans and, frankly, we don’t need to argue with each other in public.

I have also set it so that it should not be searchable by “Google”. Doing that, and then having a link to the “Legislative Forum” on the official TRAW website will go a long way to keeping the discussion among “just us” in the association because only folks who know the web-address or who click the link should be going onto it. That won’t completely keep prying eyes out, but should help. I thought that setting up password entry system would make it too difficult to use and create problems with letting everybody know how to access it.

This is an experiment that I feel very excited about but it will only work if we work with it. That means that not only do I “report” but you “discuss” as well. It will not do away with any of the long work of the Legislative Committee in reviewing bills and making recommendations for association positions on them but clearly will give us much more information in a timely manner.

Let me know what you think!