James Watkins, one of two Republicans signed up to do battle with U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, unveiled Fact Check Jay Inslee Monday.
In it he invites people to post communications they get from the congressman. The press release follows.
Hello? Mom, it’s Jay Inslee.
U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee will be holding a telephone town hall sometime today. Phone calls will go out to residents in the First Congressional District. No inbound phone calls.
In the meantime the congressman says Barack Obama’s plan to drill offshore “doesn’t make an energy policy.”
The idea that we are going to solve our energy and economic problems by drilling offshore is not supported by fact. Evidence should inform our national energy policy and evidence tells us that new drilling won’t satiate our hunger for foreign oil. The United States has a mere 2 percent of the world’s oil reserve while consuming a quarter of the world’s oil supply. New drilling won’t change this fact.”
Inslee calls for caps or prices on carbons to help alternative energy compete.
The press release follows.
Several names are missing from this list. The ones I include here are those who have either filed with the Federal Elections Commission or the state’s Public Disclosure Commission. Most notably absent are Republicans Rob McKenna and Dino Rossi, named often as suspected candidates for the U.S. Senate against Patty Murray. Brad Shannon at the Olympian offers party speculation that Rossi will run. On McKenna most speculate he’s aiming for a run at governor in 2012.
The examiner lists 17 possible challengers for Murray. Inslee has two Republican opponents.
In the state races I’m not yet listing Web sites, because I’m
not sure any are up to date or offer any real substance. If you do
a search yourself you might find more.
Continue reading
At 6:10 Thursday evening I received in the inbox an e-mail from the James Watkins for Congress campaign saying that Jay Inslee, the Bainbridge Island Democratic incumbent congressman, was vulnerable in the First Congressional District race in November. That conclusion came from a survey done by Moore Information of Portland.
Here are some words of warning. I’m not at all saying Inslee isn’t vulnerable. That is entirely possible. Given the difference in national surveys we are seeing about the health care reform bill, it’s really hard for me to know. Plus, November is a long, long time away, especially in a non-presidential election year.
However, I feel justified being somewhat skeptical of these numbers. Watkins commissioned this survey, and we don’t have the questions, information about the demographics of the people surveyed, or any other information that would be helpful in deciphering these numbers. That kind of information is critical in trying to determine whether a poll accurately reflects what people feel.
That sentiment is confirmed by a blog posting by Jim Small of the Arizona Capitol Times. Small quotes Bob Moore of Moore Information in an earlier post.
Finding out who paid for the poll also is critical, said pollster Bob Moore of Oregon-based Moore Information. If a candidate has paid for it, then the numbers can’t be taken at face value, he said, and reporters should do everything they can to speak to the pollster about the results, not someone working with the campaign.
“The pollster may get some numbers that the campaign doesn’t like, and won’t release,” Moore said.
If we see the script with the questions, the demographic information and the cross-tabs from the survey, then that goes a lot farther in trusting the results. Last night I asked the Watkins campaign and the polling company for that information. I particularly want to see it in light of this item I found about surveys the company did in New Hampshire leading up to the presidential primary in 2008. As you read this info, bear in mind it does come from a site that is pro Democratic Party.
Friday, March 26, 4 p.m. UPDATE: I received an e-mail from the campaign saying they would check with the pollster. I got a response from the pollster saying I would have to get that information from the campaign.
Skepticism is not cynicism. I just want to see more data. Here are some other clips featuring Moore.
Here’s a 2007 story about polling Moore did for Dino Rossi. The company is still helping Rossi these days.
Moore Information was referenced in a 2003 column here about former Gov. Gary Locke.
When I added “push poll” to the search I got this 2004 column from Wisconsin on Moore Information polling in the presidential race.
Here’s a 2008 Newsweek story that mentions Moore, but is about negative campaigning generally.
After all that, I decided to go ahead and share the e-mail and the memo I got. If Inslee’s campaign wants to commission a survey and publish selective results, I’ll do the same. The rest is after the jump.
View the Kitsap Sun editorial board’s discussion with Bremerton Municipal Court judge candidates Ed Wolfe and James Docter. One of the topics sure to be of interest to Sun readers: about 22 minutes in, they each offered views on issues surrounding the city’s red light cameras.
Find links to past election-related videos with the candidates on our elections site, http://elections.kitsapsun.com and find out about upcoming live broadcasts at kitsapsun.com/2009/editorial-videos
– Angela Dice
Our editorial board discussed several issues — including city density, city hall and downtown development — with Poulsbo mayoral candidates Becky Erickson and Kathryn Quade. You can watch it below.
Our next broadcasted editorial board discussion will be with Port of Bremerton director CEO Cary Bozeman at 4:45 p.m. Sept. 2.
Tuesday, the Kitsap Sun hosted Central Kitsap School board candidates Eric Greene, Richard Romero, and Jim Zimny for a discussion in the run-up to the Aug. 18 primary.
As mentioned in a previous post, the discussion included questions from Caucus readers and was led by Editor David Nelson.
We ran into some technical problems so about 10 to 15 minutes of the discussion was lost from our recording. The first video includes candidates’ introductions, before we ran into difficulties. The second video includes a majority of the questions and discussion.
Part 1:
Part 2:
— Angela Dice
On Tuesday, our editorial board hosted Bremerton school board candidates. We shot video of the event to let you look into the discussions.
Here is the discussion with Bremerton School Board Position 1 candidates Christianne Martin, J. David Rubie, Scott Rahm and Cynthia Large:
Here is our discussion with Bremerton School Board Position 4 candidates Cynthia Triplett Galloway, Bruce Woolnough and David Boynton Position 5 candidates Ken Watkins, Ruben R. Garcia Jr. and Carolynn Perkins. (Note: Position 4 candidates are scheduled to meet with the board on Thursday.)
The Kitsap Sun editorial board hosted Bainbridge Island Council District 3 South Ward candidates Curt Winston, Tim Jacobsen, and Kirsten Hytopoulos Wednesday as part of it’s pre-primary series of interviews used to make the Kitsap Sun’s political endorsements.
We stream these discussions live and archive them on this blog. You can find out when upcoming discussions are and, at the scheduled time, watch them live, comment and ask questions, of which we’ll choose several at the end to ask the candidates on your behalf. Go to kitsapsun.com/2009/editorial-videos
– Angela Dice
The Kitsap Sun editorial board hosted Bremerton mayoral candidates Tuesday as part of it’s pre-primary series of interviews used to make the Kitsap Sun’s political endorsements.
We stream these discussions live and archive them on this blog. You can find out when upcoming discussions are and, at the scheduled time, watch them live, comment and ask questions, of which we’ll choose several at the end to ask the candidates on your behalf. Go to kitsapsun.com/2009/editorial-videos
Click play to watch the video.
Below, you can see questions asked during the live broadcast and see viewers’ comments below. Because of time constraints, we weren’t able to ask everyone’s questions, but did tell the candidates they can find all questions asked here posted on this blog:
— Angela Dice
The Kitsap Sun editorial board interviewed the three candidates vying for a seat on the Port of Bremerton board of commissioners. Watch a recording of that by clicking on the video below.
We’ll be live broadcasting more interviews with Kitsap candidates before the upcoming primary election and posting them on the Kitsap Caucus blog.
– Angela Dice
