OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ Gov. Chris Gregoire is out of state, but her office won’t say where she is.

Gregoire was set to be the keynote speaker Tuesday at a pre-legislative session forum sponsored by The Associated Press, but her office canceled Monday afternoon. Legislative director Marty Brown will stand in for Gregoire at the forum.

Spokesman Pearse Edwards said that Gregoire will be making an announcement Tuesday morning, and that no further information would be released before then.

Joe Turner at the News Tribune in Tacoma had much to offer on his blog, including this:

One of my sources said he couldn’t tell me where Gov. Chris Gregoire is now, but assured me she would still be my governor in March. “She’s not going to take Bill Richardson’s place as Commerce Secretary. So you can kill that story.”

We had speculated on the cabinet position, but I never thought Commerce was a fit. She had always dismissed the idea of anything in the Attorney General’s office, as had Obama’s people.

In the newsroom we wondered if her cancer was back.

Most likely, in my book, is another thing Turner offered:

Another source speculated that Gregoire has lined up a big chunck of federal money for Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct, and she’s going to announce it Tuesday. (And it would have to be a big chunk because that project keeps getting more and more expensive.)

Commissioner Steve Bauer said it amounts to another unfunded mandate. It’s not truly a mandate, because the state would be saying you can have the service if you want, but you’ll have to pay for it. Nonetheless, you might be hard pressed to find many on this side of the sound who think the service isn’t a critical part of the infrastructure.

New commissioner Charlotte Garrido said the state has been treating the ferry system as a “postcard,” not a critical highway element. She also faulted the state for contending it needs ferry money to pay for highway work, when ferries are technically part of the state’s highway system too.

More to come.

On 985, 1000, Sutherland-Goldmark, Gregoire-Rossi and Obama-McCain that proved true.

Two races, I thought, were worth mentioning.

In the Bergeson-Dorn race, partisanship did not matter at all. The districts had the same result.

In the Insurance Commissioner race, I might have guessed partisanship would have played a bigger role than it did. I’ve heard some conservative displeasure with Kreidler. Overall, though, the race did not generate much heat. And when there is a referendum on the incumbent and there’s been little out there to throw him or her out, voters tend to stick with the one they know.

I’m on vacation for the rest of this year.

Happy Holidays.

It is a common complaint that Kitsap County looks more liberal than it is, because voters in Bainbridge Island skew the results. While there is no question that the island tilts to the left, I question whether you can discount the results of an entire county because one part of it leans a certain direction. Islanders, much to the chagrin of some who do or don’t live on the rock, are part of this county, as much as those right-leaning folks who live in Silverdale or in South Kitsap.

George Will pointed out in a column dismissing arguments by Hillary Clinton’s supporters in the Democratic primaries — when they argued that had Democrats used the same rules as Republicans, then their candidate would have won — that rules are a “pesky nuisance.”

“She (Clinton) may think, or at least would argue, that when she was 12 her Yankees really won the 1960 World Series, by standards of “fairness,” because they trounced the Pirates in runs scored, 55-27, over seven games, so there.

Unfortunately, baseball’s rules – pesky nuisances, rules – say it matters how runs are distributed during a World Series.

The Pirates won four games, which is the point of the exercise, by a total margin of seven runs, while the Yankees were winning three by a total of 35 runs. You can look it up.”

Consider our conversations here and again over here about the Electoral College.

Nonetheless, it is an interesting question to pursue, if true that Garrido lost in the district she will now represent. It will add fuel, certainly, to those who would like to see the race for commissioner be decided more like a congressional race. In other words, you vote for your own rep to represent you against those dimwits in the other districts.

For those of you still wondering, the speculation was indeed true. Matthes won handily in the South, by a few points in the central district and lost by a ton in the North, which includes the island.

In District 2, the district making up the southern part of the county, Matthes received 53.7 percent of the vote to Garrido’s 46.3 percent.

In District 3, the central, Matthes received 52 percent to Garrido’s 48.

In the North and Bainbridge, Garrido received 56.7 percent of the vote, while Matthes received 43.3 percent.

This discussion should not occur without an exploration of voter turnout. The North district has about 7,500 more registered voters than the South district and about 8,500 more than the Central district. Turnout in the north was 89 percent. In the South and Central it was about 85 percent.

If voters in the South and Central had voted at the same rate as their fellow Kitsapers in the North and on Bainbridge, it would have narrowed the margin by about 600 votes. That wouldn’t have been enough for Matthes to win or to spark an automatic recount, but Matthes would have lost by less than a percentage point, instead of by just under 1.5 percentage points.

Matthes supporters can still argue that they lost because of the skew from the North and Bainbridge, but the case would be stronger had voters in the South shown up at the same rate those in the North and on the island did.

Then again, you didn’t want to go there anyway, did you?

I”ve got at least one more post coming. It will have some interesting stuff for you politics watchers. Until then, Apollo says, “Merry Christmas.”

The final budget was 848,029 higher than the preliminary budget, largely because of higher than expected capital project funds and real estate excise tax revenues.

The budget does include lowered expectations for interest income.

The 2009 funding plan calls for pulling $1.2 million out of reserves as an “anti-recessionary measure,” said Shawn Gabriel, the county’s administrative services director.

The approval came at a Tuesday afternoon meeting that had originally been scheduled for Monday night.

Gabriel went to commissioners with a proposal before the meeting to reduce the expected fuel costs from $3 per gallon to $2.50 or $2.25 to help make up a $159,709 gap from the preliminary budget to the final one.

Josh Brown, county commissioner, said he was initially reluctant to lower the gas price to $2.25, which Gabriel said would lower the county’s budgeted cost by $141,000.

Reducing it to $2.50 is projected to knock off $96,000.

Gabriel said the board would have two options if prices rose above the benchmark set by commissioners. One would be to do a budget amendment to take more from reserves. The other would be to tell departments, with some exceptions, to live within the budgeted fuel costs.

Steve Bauer, county commissioner, cited Bremerton’s efforts to reduce consumption, “and we haven’t even talked to our departments about that.”

Other adjustments were made with the district court to make up much of the rest of the gap.

On this Page I’ve include our local reps only.

23rd
Sherry Appleton
Vice Chair: State Government and Tribal Affairs
Health and Human Services Appropriations
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Christine Rolfes
Vice Chair: Ecology and Parks
Education Appropriations
Environmental Health
Transportation

26th
Jan Angel
Local Government & Housing (ranking Republican)
(The GOP has only released the list of ranking members.)

Larry Seaquist
Early Learning and Children’s Services
Vice Chair: Health and Human Services Appropriations
Ways and Means

35th
Fred Finn
Audit Review and Oversight
Ecology and Parks
Environmental Health
Technology, Energy and Communications
Transportation

Kathy Haigh
Chair: Education Appropriations
Ways and Means

Word is the commissioners asked for even more cuts from each department. When it comes to money lately, it’s rare we hear much in the way of anyone having plenty.