All Politics is Local
Do you want to pay for streets? The city council wants to know.
When Initiative 976 passed in November, it stripped cities of their ability to collect fees on car tabs. In Vancouver, specifically, I-976 torpedoed the Transportation Benefit District, a program that leverages car tab fees to allocate about $11 million per year for pavement repair and maintenance. At this week’s city council meeting, councilors discussed how […]
Inslee: Fast but always legal
Gov. Jay Inslee loves electric cars. Earlier this month, I asked Inslee how he squared his commitment to combating climate change with his support for replacing the Interstate 5 Bridge. It seemed like a fair question, given that climate change activists are boiling over at the Oregon Department of Transportation’s plan to add auxiliary lanes […]
Here’s to Prohibition, 1920-1933
Friday marked the 100th anniversary of the start of Prohibition, the day the nation went dry. America’s experience with banning the “manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors” would last only 13 years. The 18th Amendment stands alone as the only one change to be repealed. The Census Bureau estimates there were 229,239 U.S. bartenders […]
Will local Republicans get steamrolled?
Clark County’s legislative delegation primarily consists of Republicans. If you include the 14th and 20th legislative districts, which take in small portions of the county, Republicans control four of five Senate seats and eight of 10 House seats. Democrats, however, enjoy comfortable statewide majorities in the House and Senate. Gov. Jay Inlsee, who is running […]
Why didn’t Herrera Beutler sign an anti-abortion legal brief?
Last week, more than 200 Republican members of Congress signed on to a document urging the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision on Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that established a woman’s right to an abortion. The amicus curiae brief is linked to a case the court is expected to deliberate in March. The […]
Ad campaign boosts congresswoman after vote
A digital ad campaign lauding Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler for her vote on a prescription drug price bill will go live in Washington’s Third Congressional District on Monday. The campaign, funded by Patients for Affordable Drugs NOW, will thank Herrera Beutler for voting in favor of H.R. 3 in a rebuke of her party’s position. […]
Nierenberg signs onto Buttigieg’s campaign
One of Clark County’s most politically connected residents has thrown his support and money to Democrat Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign. David Nierenberg, a Camas investment manager, has backed both Republicans and Democrats for state and federal office. He was a financial insider during Republican Mitt Romney’s two presidential campaigns, in 2008 and 2012. For the […]
Massachusetts’ $64 billion car economy
For more than 100 years, Americans have had a love affair with our cars. Cars symbolize freedom, the ability to go where we want when we want, something that has become embedded in the American experience. Just don’t ever think that freedom is cheap or entirely borne by the car owner. A Harvard Kennedy School […]
Climate change and replacing the Interstate 5 Bridge
This week, the Oregon Transportation Commission hit the “pause” button on pressing ahead with a $500 million plan to improve traffic flow on Interstate 5 near the Rose Quarter, which is listed as the nation’s 28th biggest truck bottleneck. The commission agreed to table the matter for a few months at the request of Oregon […]
Long says she’d vote to impeach Trump
Carolyn Long, the Democratic frontrunner seeking to represent Washington’s Third Congressional District in 2020, said she would vote to impeach the president. On Wednesday, the day the House of Representatives will vote on two articles of impeachment charging President Donald Trump with abusing his power and obstructing justice, Long released a statement proclaiming the decision was […]