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Welcome to Cascadia Some months ago, there was a Pacific Northwest thread in GBS, and there was some interesting discussion in it. It being GBS, and the then-GBS 2.1, the posting was mostly about random regional topics. But it made me realize that perhaps a thread for political discussion of the Pacific Northwest would be useful to some people. This thread then, is about political and social issues of Washington and Oregon, as well as relevant issues affecting Idaho, Montana, British Columbia and Northern California. It doesn't have to be strictly political, discussion of social issues is also encouraged, as long as it is of more merit than "have you seen the Darth Vader unicycle bagpipe dude? that is exactly like Portlandia!". For one thing, yes, we have all seen the Darth Vader unicycle bagpipe dude, and we all know only tourists go to Voodoo Donuts. National Politics In National Politics, Oregon and Washington are considered to be blue chip blue states in Presidential runs. Oregon and Washington have voted for the Democratic candidate since 1988, and will probably vote for the Democratic candidate until the political blocs realign. The last year that the presidential election in either of these states was an issue was 2000, when Ralph Nader's candidacy won 5% of the vote, leaving Al Gore to scrape by George Bush by a narrow plurality. They also have two Democratic Senators in both states: Washington has Patty Murray (serving since 1993) and Maria Cantwell (since 2001), and Oregon has Ron Wyden (since 1996) and Jeff Merkley (since 2009). These senators are centrists who pretty much have their seats as long as they want them (as evidenced by Merkley winning by 20% in a 2014 election cycle that wasn't favorable to Democrats). Like with the presidency, the senators in Oregon and Washington are probably staying Democratic until the parties realign. Oregon and Washington also have strongly Democratic house delegations, although not unanimously. A gigantic part of the Pacific Northwest is the West/East divide: the major population centers, west of the Cascade Range, are strongly Democratic. East of the mountains, where the terrain is drier and the population much more sparse, the politics are conservative. Of Oregon's 5 congressional districts, the 4 west of the mountains are Democratic, and the 1 east of the mountain is Republican. The situation in Washington is much the same, of the 10 congressional districts, 6 of the 8 west of the mountains are Democratic, and both of the 2 east of the mountain are Republican. Statewide Politics Both states have been Democratic in the governor's office longer than any other states in the union. Much like with their electoral votes and their senators, this is probably going to persist for a while. The governor of Oregon is John Kitzhaber, serving his Local Politics and Other Issues This is actually more interesting to me than either the national elections (Democratic sinecures) or what goes on in the state house (mostly bickering over taxes and the like). Oregon and Washington are well known as progressive in the politics, and they have made some big changes. One of the most recent was Washington voting to legalize marijuana in 2012. Although there have been some hitches, Marijuana use has been legalized for a year. Oregon voted down a measure the same year, not because of a difference in the underlying political opinion, but because of the measure being sloppily written. Washington also legalized gay marriage the same year, something Oregon again does not have. Trends being what they are, Oregon will probably catch up with Washington soon. (2014 update:they did!) Oregon and Washington both use systems of direct petition: groups can gather signatures to put measures on the ballot. Many states have this, but Oregon uses it more widely than any other state, with voters often having to decide on 10 ballot measures a year. Another issue that is of great interest is "sustainability". Oregon and Washington have a reputation for environmental practices, and while it is well-deserved, it can be exaggerated. Not everyone in Portland is a bicyclist with an organic garden! Although most everyone in the Seattle/Portland metro areas is an "environmentalist" on paper, there are big debates about how far to take it. The Portland area has an Urban Growth Boundary that limits sprawl, and has pushed mass transit aggressively, all to build up a high-density city that is not car dependent. But there are a lot of people in the Portland suburbs who still want to be able to drive their SUV to Walmart. Vote-by-Mail! When I first made this post, I didn't think to mention that Oregon has conducted all elections by mail since 1999, and that Washington had conducted most elections by mail for some time, and now conducts all elections by mail. I didn't think to mention this for the same way I might forget to specify in a recipe that the cooking is to be done with a stove, and not over an open fire. It seems bizarre and a little quaint that other states don't do this. There was some concerns about Oregon's postal voting, and its susceptibility to fraud, but after 15 years, there hasn't been much problem, and no one has seriously suggested going back to the old system. In Oregon, at least (Washington voters: how do you do it?) we also get one, sometimes two booklets from the secretary of state detailing candidates and ballot measures. Having these voting guides, and the time to go through our ballot, is helpful for all the downballot elections. A person in a voting booth is probably not going to be able to take a guess at who they want to be their Soil and Water District Councilperson or Sheriff, an Oregon voter has time to leisurely peruse their biographies. Hopefully the Vote-by-Mail system will spread, and other states will join the 20th century. A note on stereotypes: People from outside of the region often stereotype the Pacific Northwest. People from within the region often stereotype other parts of the Northwest (it is physically pretty big and there are a lot of people in Portland who have never been to say, Spokane). As with many stereotypes, there are a lot of truth to these: Eugene is full of hippies, Portland is full of hipsters, Seattle is free of rich technology workers, and the eastern parts of the state are full of conservative people. But usually these stereotypes don't offer much explanation. They also often mask groups that aren't as visible: for example, there are probably as many Hispanics in the Willamette Valley as there are hipsters in Portland. They just don't have their own TV show. Other stuff: Oh, there is so much other stuff! Feel free to bring it up in the thread, and if it is an issue of major concern, I will edit this entry to include it. Also, feel free to suggest links to sites that handle Oregon and Washington issues. 2014 Update: Senator Merkley and Governor Kitzhaber won re-election in Oregon, Merkley by a comfortable margin and Kitzhaber by a small plurality. Oregon also legalized marijuana. While 2014 was a dramatic year in the rest of the country, it was much less so in the Pacific Northwest. 2015 Update! Kitzhaber resigned due to a possible scandal involving his girlfriend using the prestige of his office for her own purposes, and the governor of Oregon is now Kate Brown, who was previously the Secretary of State. glowing-fish fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Jun 6, 2015 |
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Mar 11, 2014 01:16
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BlueBlazer posted:
Is state politics, rather than local politics, the reason why Seattle has lagged so far behind Portland on building a good mass transit system? There was a 25 year lag in getting the first light rail line in Seattle, even though it is a bigger city than Portland.
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Mar 11, 2014 02:27
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Wanamingo posted:It's worse all around. All the liquor stores closed down, so now the only place to get it, at least around me, is from the crappy selection they have at grocery stores. Might be different if you're in Seattle, but I'm not. The sticker price stayed mostly the same, but before, the taxes were rolled into the price whereas now it's the sticker prices plus the taxes. Here's an article talking about it. The one thing that has improved is that there are a number of liquor super-stores. I know there is one in Vancouver. They have like 20 aisles where you can get whatever obscure liquor you desire.
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Mar 11, 2014 06:15
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Ardennes posted:Then there is the entire O & C issue and the fact there a bunch of counties in Oregon that basically lived off a federal stipend and barely had any property taxes themselves. I lived in Curry County when it twice voted against a property tax to replace the federal stipend. The state then had to take over the county to ensure public safety. Then I moved out. Like I said in the introduction to this thread, little of what goes on in the Presidential/Gubernatorial/Senatorial races is interesting at all. But then you get down to things like "Oregon counties can't or won't fund basic services", and the entire culture and politics of the region get a lot more interesting and important.
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Mar 11, 2014 07:43
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Mojo Threepwood posted:
Yes, there are counterexamples to Washington's solid-blue status. The 2004 governor's race was especially close, and I don't know why. Was Rossi a much better campaigner than Gregoire, or was it because Bush had coattails that year? The other thing about those examples are they are getting older...I imagine that the electorate in Washington is drifting to the left, especially as the Republican party doubles down on its messaging as a regional party for the south and the rust belt.
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Mar 12, 2014 20:59
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Spatula City posted:Turnout's not as much of an issue as we've got loving MAIL BALLOTS, HELL YES. Oh! I forgot to mention the vote-by-mail! It didn't even seem to be something to mention, in the same way that I don't mention that my laptop has a color monitor. A pretty apt comparison, since the last time Oregon had booth elections, I had a monochrome laptop.
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Mar 14, 2014 00:58
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Wanamingo posted:It still blows my mind that some places don't have that. Yeah, what do they do? Gather in front of the rock in the town square and hear two candidates make speeches and whoever gets the most applause wins? I edited the original entry to talk about Vote-by-Mail.
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Mar 14, 2014 01:11
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So does anyone have any thoughts about marijuana legalization in Oregon? I imagine that it is going to follow suit in legalization. Washington and Oregon have very similar electorates, and the consensus about why legalization failed in Oregon in 2012 was that the bill was badly written and promoted. If Oregon has the same type of campaign as Washington did in 2012, it seems to be probable it would pass. There has been some hitches in Washington's process, which opponents could use to spread some FUD, but the thing is "The licensing hasn't gone through as smoothly as it could have!" doesn't really resonate on the same level as "People are shooting up heroin in the streets now!" So little has changed in Washington that it seems hard to summon a bogeyman. The biggest difference I have noticed is that the Head Shops don't have to be coy, and the Vancouver Mall got a new Cinnabon. 
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Mar 14, 2014 21:29
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Does anyone have an opinion/insight into Washington-3 (Clark County and SW Washington) and Jaimie Herrera-Beutler? She came into office on the Tea Party wave of 2010, and I am trying to figure out whether she has won reelection through A) incumbency B) being a good politician C) SW Washington being more conservative than I usually think of it as being or D) re-districting. Right now, she is the only Republican congresswoman west of the Cascades, and I wonder how long that can last.
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Mar 16, 2014 20:42
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Mrit posted:2) Tipping exemption. I tip 20% normally, $15/hour + tips is crazy high money. Maybe an exemption that says you can be paid $10/hour and then get tips?(tips must at least make up the difference to $15) Not sure, but its a bit extreme for restaurants. I agree that 15/hour plus tips is a fairly good wage. If we imagine a waiter serving 2 meals of 20 dollars each an hour, and getting a 20% tip off each of them, that adds up to 23 an hour. Even assuming they have to pass on some of those tips or they get less than 20%, that is still around 20 an hour. When I had a job teaching GED at a community college, my salary worked out to around 25 an hour. So yeah, 20 dollars an hour for a waiter does seem a bit much. (These back-of-the-envelope calculations are not meant to be against the fact that yes, I do believe service people need to earn a living wage. I just think it is fair to point out these numbers for comparison.)
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Apr 2, 2014 03:47
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ProperGanderPusher posted:What is it with Southerners as a whole being so keen on being poo poo on when it comes to worker's rights? This poo poo predates the re-alignment of the South to the GOP or whatever, so it isn't just a case of toeing the party line. Is it out of some desire to demonstrate good Protestant industriousness unlike those greedy, uppity workers up north? More prosaically, it could just be that the federal minimum wage is less inadequate in the south, where prices tend to be pretty low. A federal minimum wage that makes sense in LA or NY doesn't necessarily make sense in Arkansas.
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Apr 2, 2014 09:08
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highme posted:Like Vancouver needs to import crime. Yeah but see those are just some
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Apr 18, 2014 00:30
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Only one of Oregon's congressional districts is going to be competitive this cycle: OR-5, which includes the Salem area, the mid-Willamette valley, the central coast, and the south Portland suburbs. It supposedly has a CPVI that is exactly even, and is represented by Kurt Schrader, who seems to be the dullest of centrist Democrats. But the Republicans don't seem to have put up a serious candidate: none of the three people running for office there seems to have any governmental experience. I know it is not the most exciting political story, but I think it is interesting.
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Apr 22, 2014 19:57
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http://www.seattlepi.com/news/us/article/Campaign-to-turn-away-same-sex-couples-suspended-5466970.php So apparently a group put a measure on the ballot in Oregon to protect "religious freedom" in the way of not serving gays, but the day afterwards, decided it was going to lose and has decided to not actively support it?
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May 10, 2014 02:49
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SALT CURES HAM posted:Is moving to the PNW from Texas worth it? More specifically, is it worth it if I don't have a college degree? On the pro side, there are very few cockroaches in the Pacific Northwest. That might be a positive. Because I want to keep this thread relevant to bigger issues, are you thinking of moving to the Pacific Northwest out of some type of social/political motivation? Do you want to live in a city that is a city and not just an endless suburb? Are you interested in a variety of artistic and cultural activities? Do you like to bicycle? And, are all of those things worth the fact that things might be more expensive and that jobs might be harder to come by?
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May 12, 2014 01:39
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Gerund posted:The cities that did form because of the GMA were usually already places of strong civic identity and development. Are Microcities a speciality of Oregon and Washington? In the Portland metro, there is Maywood Park, Johnson City and Rivergrove, all with populations under 1000 people, and all surrounded by larger cities. Does this occur other places?
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May 19, 2014 22:38
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Javid posted:Well, both Jackson & Josephine counties passed their respective GMO ban measures. I'm woefully unclear on the significance; isn't this just a primary and it gets voted on again later? Or what? Have pols closed in Oregon yet? It seems the statewide primary results aren't available, yet.
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May 21, 2014 04:34
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It looks like Monica Wehby is going to be the Republican senatatorial candidate. ...anyone want to predict Merkley's margin of victory?
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May 21, 2014 06:08
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highme posted:Well, the AG announced that they weren't going to defend the law from challenges. It was a blight on our state constitution, and now it's gone. We're (well most of us) are drat happy about that. That is, unless a conservative Republican wins the Attorney General's office in the 2016 election and makes overturning the ban their top, immediate priority. It could happen!
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May 22, 2014 22:09
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So who thinks the entire E. coli reservoir scare is a false flag operation to get Portland water under corporate control? As wonky as I am, I can't really work myself up over water bureau issues, although I know there are many people who do. Is there anyone who can give a one paragraph description of the politics of Portland's water supply?
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May 24, 2014 02:21
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As many people in this thread (and elsewhere) have noted, most of the population of Oregon and Washington is centered in the Portland or Seattle metro areas. But I was curious just how concentrated the population was, so I decided to put together a map for Oregon, showing the 50, 75 and 90% population areas, by county. It might sound confusing, but hopefully the map itself will make things clearer: So 50% of Oregon's population is in the Portland+Salem metro area, 75% of Oregon's population is in that area, or elsewhere in the Willamette Valley or Bend, and then by adding the coast and the Medford area to it, we get to 90% of Oregon's population. I will also try to do one of these for Washington.
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May 25, 2014 05:06
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TheBalor posted:Has that ever happened? I'm not being sarcastic, I'm genuinely curious how often a mass shooting has been stopped by a vigilante with a gun. http://www.somethingawful.com/news/concealed-carry-renfest/1/ Although this is a comedy article, it is still one of the ways to describe this. I think there have been mass shootings interrupted by armed citizens, but I think in almost all of those cases, A) there was already victims and B) the armed citizen was an off-duty officer or someone with training. The idea that Joe Schmo, gun enthusiast with a concealed weapon is going to somehow see the shooter ready to shoot and quick draw and kill him before he can start shooting, seems to be a really unlikely fantasy.
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Jun 12, 2014 01:57
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Eggnogium posted:Not really sure how (A) is relevant. If the data did show many instances of armed citizens stopping an in-progress shooting I know I'd be compelled that there's at least valid argument to be made. I am not an expert, and I don't want to derail this thread into a gun rights argument, but the pattern seems to be that most interventions against mass shooters are after they have already done their mass shooting: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_...erventions.html
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Jun 14, 2014 00:52
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Monica Wehby supports ENDA, probably: http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2014/06/monica_wehbys_campaign_affirms.html This particular race seems to be a foregone conclusion, but it is interesting to see how the Republican Party is trying to shape up its identity in Oregon for this election and coming elections. I imagine that they are trying to become the suburban party. In some states, this would work, the suburbs are naturally swing areas. But in Oregon, I don't think it will work.
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Jun 29, 2014 00:44
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Somewhat unusual news: http://www.king5.com/news/Train-derails-with-aircraft-parts-265866171.html A train carrying fuselages of Boeing Passenger jets derailed near Superior, Montana, spilling several fuselages into the river. Other than the delay in Boeing's schedule, this also has led to some funny pictures. As far as I know, no one was hurt.
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Jul 6, 2014 01:14
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According to Ballotpedia, the one opinion poll on Oregon Measure 91 (Cannabis legalization) has the measure being ahead 51-41%, with 8% undecided. http://ballotpedia.org/Oregon_Legalized_Marijuana_Initiative,_Measure_91_%282014%29 Since the last measure failed by only 7% of the vote, and voters in Oregon have had two years to see that marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado went off fairly smoothly, it seems pretty likely that it will pass. The one poll done didn't have a large sample size, and there was a lot of undecideds, but it seems there is a good change this measure will pass. Right now I would probably give it about a 75% chance of success.
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Aug 6, 2014 23:00
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Kaal posted:Vancouver Supports Terror Schools. Washington Crime Blight Threatens Portland Youth. Oregon Mom: This Doesn't Happen Where We Come From. Fair and Balanced, We Report, You Decide. But see, boys will be boys. This is just kids doing kid stuff that they will grow out of. But in Portland, you see, it is Thugs in Training.
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Aug 14, 2014 18:38
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Ardennes posted:When I have driven through Vancouver I never felt it was the "richer" city, if anything Clark County just seemed pretty run down and downtown Vancouver was about as bad as the most rundown sections of Old town. As far as schools I have no idea, but as far as visible infrastructure Vancouver seemed like a town that has been ground down and I wonder it might actually be an issue of property taxes. (State income tax wouldn't matter in this context.) People from Portland and Oregon often use "Vancouver" as a shorthand for Clark County. But even people in Clark County often don't know where Vancouver starts and stops, because past a certain point its borders kind of snake around. But Vancouver has also changed. This is especially funny for me because when I was growing up, the joke about Vancouver was always that it was kind of amusingly low-rent and unsophisticated. Lot of eating Jo-Jos outside the Minute Mart. The rise of bedroom communities in places like Ridgefield and Camas has really been the past 10-15 years. Camas used to be the town that smelled bad because of the paper mill. Now it is one of the top five richest suburbs in the Portland area. But just Vancouver itself is not just its stereotypes. Its a good cross-section of America. I could actually look at the figures on this...
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Aug 14, 2014 19:42
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On the subject of Chik-fil-a: it is one of several fast food chains that I have no idea what they are about. Occasionally I read posts from other parts of the country where people talk about all these different fast food chains and I don't know the connotations of them. Does every area of the country have some fast food chains that they are missing, or was the Pacific Northwest specifically left out of most companies' expansion plans? I know that we were the last area of the country to get Wal-Marts, and I didn't see a Wal-Mart until...1996? Or so?
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Aug 15, 2014 04:10
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In an exciting piece of non news, the Senatorial and Gubernatorial races in Oregon continue to poll with the Democratic candidate ahead by around 20 and 10 points, respectively. It looks like the obvious is going to happen and the Merkely and Kitzhaber will continue on for another term.
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Aug 21, 2014 06:57
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Ramsus posted:That's terrible and I wish Kitzhaber with his sport jacket, blue jeans and mustache would move on. He is term limited unless he waits a term, anyway.
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Aug 21, 2014 09:58
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anthonypants posted:His Republican opponent, Dennis Richardson, is some John McCain-lookin fucker who's a lawyer and a state rep outside of Medford. The gubernatorial debates should start next month. Considering the beating Kitzhaber's going to take over Cover Oregon, he's probably going to win. Remember, Chris Dudley only lost by a point and a half. A Republican candidate is "probably" going to win in Oregon, for the first time since 1986? The Cover Oregon debacle is probably going to be an issue, but I think most voters who aren't against the idea of government health care in the first place see it as a technical problem, not as a political issue. Chris Dudley did well because it was a a) wave election b) he had name recognition without any political baggage and c) he was a Yale graduate who lived in Lake Oswego. He had some suburban appeal. Suburban voters in Clackamas/Washington/Marion counties aren't going to vote for a conservative true believe, especially one from the Medford area. I mean, there is a chance he could do really well in the debates and scrape out a victory, but I can't see how he will "probably" win.
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Aug 22, 2014 01:25
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HondaCivet posted:Apples? Roofs? Maybe I should just be glad that I can't understand? Imagine four apples on the edge of a roof...
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Sep 10, 2014 00:10
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xrunner posted:So who else has seen this weirdness? I know they have a billboard on Burnside too. Probably other places. Not sure who they're trying to reach with these though. Anyone who can make sense out of this billboard already knows who they're voting for anyway. I don't know if this is referring to local or national politics? The Bridge and the Website could mean the CRC and the ACA website in Oregon, or Christie's GWB problems and the national ACA websites... Rudy Crew is...Rudolf Guliani? And Eliot is Eliot Spitzer? And then Bhutan? I can't think of Bhutan being an issue in either Oregon or National politics. Maybe this is just high level trolling?
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Sep 11, 2014 07:44
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Fats posted:Me neither, it's ugly. There is a lot worse places to live for ten years than Corvallis, I would think. Other than it being small, it seems like a pretty ideal place to live.
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Sep 12, 2014 05:18
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I recently went on a month long Amtrak railpass trip, and got to see every region of the country. It certainly made me realize many things about the Pacific Northwest! More specifically, the Vancouver, B.C-Eugene corridor is fairly lush when it comes to rail travel. Portland and Seattle have four or five trains a day passing through them a day. Compare this to Denver, Cleveland, Dallas, Atlanta and Minneapolis which only have one train a day! Houston, Texas, the nation's fourth largest city, only has train service three times a week! Just thought this was an interesting observation.
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Oct 17, 2014 07:00
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HPanda posted:In Florida, the usual response to bad things happening was just throwing one's hands up in the air. Like they just don't care! Also, the best part of Idaho is where people don't live. The Bitterroot-Selway wilderness is very nice, if you ever get a chance to go there.
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Oct 20, 2014 00:58
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While I think the entire debate about the senate and the fact that it does weight the opinions of Americans is a good debate to have, I don't know if this is specifically the thread for it?
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Oct 20, 2014 20:50
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CaptainSarcastic posted:Meh - that's a pretty narrow demographic and small sample size. I'm not sure that I would give it much credence. Especially since their methodology was to take away people who weren't paying attention to the "scandal". So, amongst people who care about the "scandal", many are planning to vote for Richardson. Although it is still bad news for Kitzhaber.
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Oct 23, 2014 05:12
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Javid posted:Some gold in the county election packet: I don't really know how much you can do on the Ashland City Council to stop Zionism. I hope this guy discovers a place where his views can be more productive---GBS.
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Oct 31, 2014 08:57
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