Kitsap Caucus

There were a few other things I learned/observed while preparing the Tim Sheldon profile, things that ended up on the cutting room floor.

There was an entire section dealing with the strained relationship Sheldon has with fellow Mason County commissioner Lynda Ring Erickson.

On the commission itself a testy relationship, fueled in large part by an elimination of a county job, between Sheldon and fellow commissioner Lynda Ring Erickson almost influenced Erickson to quit.

Their ongoing spat has become so expected that their agreement in the Feb. 22 briefing surprised Hirschi. “A scary thing happened in this meeting. Tim and Lynda were agreeing with each other,” Hirschi wrote on her blog.

Many within the 35th District also wondered if Erickson might challenge Sheldon for his Senate seat, but a party newsletter published in January included a dismissal of the idea written by district chairwoman Nancy Frank of Bremerton.

“According to her campaign treasurer for the last two commissioner campaigns, ‘A main logical argument is financial — winning the senate seat would negatively impact her state retirement pension. She already took a significant pay cut to go from City of Olympia Public Works to Mason County Commissioner in 2004,’” Frank wrote.

During the half-day I spent with Sheldon, I watched lobbyists and others approach the senator to discuss Olympia issues. With all of them he seemed to be up on what they were discussing. He asked questions.

In one situation Sheldon was speaking to someone who is not a frequent witness at the capitol, and didn’t really know Sheldon’s opinions on matters. She spoke in favor of something I knew Sheldon was opposed to, and expressed wonder that anyone could believe any other way.

This is a moment that calls for extra attention. Sheldon gently weaved in a counterpoint, a maneuver not at all similar to the one he used in warning that criminals in Mason County might be subject to a “hot lead enema.” Different audience.

In almost every conversation of any length, Sheldon will work in a conversation about state-run liquor stores. The noticeable difference this year is he’s not alone. The idea looked to be dead again, but with a special session coming who knows if it might not come up again. Sheldon’s biggest hurdle in this issue is the governor. While I think it’s realistic to think a majority of legislators might approve of liquor privatization, I don’t know that they could get enough to overcome a governor’s veto.

The story mentioned his support for Barack Obama. It came up in a conversation about how the news media goes to lengths to point out Sheldon’s votes against the majority of his party, but doesn’t do much when he’s in line with the others on his side of the aisle. He praised Patty Murray. We mentioned that he supported Obama, but I left out the fact that Sheldon said he still likes Obama.

Now for behind-the-scenes tidbits. I called Sheldon about the story a few weeks ago and he called back fully on board and suggested Feb. 22 as a date. I had earlier planned that as one of three vacation days, but decided to start that break on Tuesday instead of Monday.

Sheldon was the one who suggested I ride with him to Olympia, a great idea and a great way to provide a visual for the video. Derek Sheppard wrote about that on the Kitsap Frames blog.

Things went well, but the battery on the camera didn’t have as much power left as I thought. I had originally planned to ride back to Shelton with the senator, then drive myself to Olympia, stopping at different points to grab shots of signs to Olympia. The battery had already died in Olympia, though. It wasn’t important enough to come back to Bremerton and then return through Shelton to Olympia. No road signs for the video. Angela Dice went to Olympia herself one day and got shots of the senator on the floor and talking to folks.

Fun fact: There is a glitch on the video. Normally when we have that Kitsap Sun logo that fades out the story the player shows you that it’s pretty much over. In this case, however, when I edited the piece I unknowingly eft a tiny sliver of material about a minute past the final frame. The video continues as a blank screen, which I’m sure for most people is a sign that it’s over, but about a minute later that is a very brief clip and then the show is over for real. I didn’t realize it until I had actually loaded the video onto our Web site. It probably would have taken me at least another hour to go back and repair it, so I opted to let the glitch remain.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 4:58 pm by Steven Gardner and is filed under Legislature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.