1. On Friday, we had the latest fundraising stats on Republican gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Rob McKenna; he was at $5.8 million raised with $3.2 million on hand.
Democratic candidate former U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee's numbers are in now as well (the deadline was June 10). Inslee has raised $5.6 million with $3.3 million on hand.
The two candidates will square off Tuesday in their first debate: It's in Spokane, but you can catch it live on TVW or KUOW at 3:30 p.m. It's being sponsored by the Association of Washington Business, the conservative business lobby that traditionally supports Republican causues. For example, AWB's political committee just took in $100,000 from big McKenna donor Tesoro Oil, which AWB then contributed to Initiative 1185, Tim Eyman's latest measure to reaffirm the two-thirds requirement on the Legislature to raise taxes.
In a widely reported swing-and-a-miss, the Inslee camp fired off a letter to the AWB last week accusing the business group of taking money from a big McKenna-backer such as Tesoro ($3,400 to McKenna), but the AWB rejected Inslee's accuastion of bias by pointing out that they sent the Tesoro money to Eyman's PAC.
Hopefully the candidates will directly address the two-thirds rule on Tuesday. Inslee has said he questions whether the rule is constitutional and he doesn't like the policy. McKenna says voters have approved the rule several times, so he's for it.
2. Those may seem like standard party lines on both sides, but McKenna is aiming to defy political stereotypes this morning. He's holding a press conference at Seattle Center to showcase his Democratic supporters, "Democrats for Rob."
No word on who'll they'll be, but Fizz recently got a will-not-confirm-or-deny response from Kirkland-area Democratic state Rep. Deb Eddy (D-48) that she was involved in the effort.
3. Speaking of fundraising: In the state legislative race that Fizz has been obsessed with (Seattle's 36th District—Ballard, Queen Anne, Greenwood, Lake Union, Magnolia, Fremont), Brett Phillips, a sustainability and green jobs advocate and Unico Properties program manager, is edging ahead in fundraising with $48,000 cash on hand. (Phillips is the son of Democratic King County Council member Larry Phillips.)
Seattle Port Commissioner Gael Tarleton is right behind him with $45,000 cash on hand.
Progressive Majority leader Noel Frame has about $27,000 on hand and Seattle City Council member Mike O'Brien aide Sahar Fathi has $19,000 on hand.
State Sen. Paull Shin aide, Evan Clifthorne has $6,000 on hand.
The pack of Democrats is running to replace longtime state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-36, Ballard); Dickerson, who has endorsed Tarleton, is retiring.
4. The little scoop Erica had back in April about San Francisco hedge fund manager Chris Hansen's potential for a sweet deal on the arena propoerty is starting to get some attention:
"Stay tuned for 'Flip This Arena' on ESPN. How much else in this deal is similarly inflated?" the Seattle Times asked on its Sunday editorial page this weekend.
