The official mainstream media like the Newcastle News, and to a lesser extent, the Seattle Times, will play an important part in this election since the overwhelming majority of voters in Newcastle will get their news about the election from them. However, Northern Pacific Report, with our handful of readers, will fill in the gaps that the mainstream press may leave out for one reason or another. We are happy to report that the readership of N.P.R. has increased over the last month by an extra 150-or-so page views, and an aggregate 600 per month, more or less. We need to do much better in order for Mark Greene to win a seat on the Newcastle City Council, even though our main goal is not the election, but to give Newcastlers an in depth look at their city government and the main players within it. More about doing better with circulation a little later in this essay.
We congratulate the News on trying to drum up more interest in this year's elections. In their reports, John Drescher is a chairman of a commission and Greene is merely a citizen. Nonetheless, Greene runs the Democracy In Election Process organization that enrolls citizens for voter registration, informs them about civic affairs, and helps them with rudimentary legal and governmental matters. This is a private organization, and not a governmental one as Drescher's commission is. Greene is a legal assistant and the editor of this Northern Pacific Report. However, it is not so much titles that should influence the electorate as fundamental philosophies, and Greene's philosophy can pretty much be summed up as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." That will tell you a lot about why Greene will be outspent by at least one and possibly more candidates for Position No. 6 as far as fundraising is concerned. In other words, Greene's campaign won't be getting any money from big shots who are more interested in shaping policy for their own narrow special interests than in general, good government.
A signal that more likely than not narrow special interests will play a part in any election: the fancier the advertising and the more abundant the campaign materials that particular candidates have. Not necessarily through PAC money, however, because they are getting smarter as PAC money, generally, becomes more of a negative in campaigns as time goes by. So they may get around that in the future by getting well-compensated executives, and some underlings, to contribute to the candidate of their choice as individuals.
About Drescher's ascendancy to the chairmanship of the Planning Commission, isn't it odd as to how it all came about in an odd time of year for governmental transitions, last September, a few months before the election season, and the predecessor that stepped down didn't even leave the commission, but became part of the rank-and-file? We won't go so far as to call it pre-election year planning, however, which could bring up the term "double entendre." One thing is for sure, Mark Greene didn't have to wait for "Bellevue-centric" Councilman Bill Erxleben to announce his intentions before running, but his opponent's announcement came after Erxleben's public decision not to run.
Back to the circulation business: we need readers of N.P.R. to spread the news about this blog to other Newcastlers through their social media or otherwise, so that our readership will at least quadruple, and hopefully increase by tenfold before the August Primary or the November General Election. If N.P.R. gets over 5,000 page views per month by time voters cast their ballots, Mark Greene will win. If not, it is going to be a struggle.
[revised on 5/6/2013]
We congratulate the News on trying to drum up more interest in this year's elections. In their reports, John Drescher is a chairman of a commission and Greene is merely a citizen. Nonetheless, Greene runs the Democracy In Election Process organization that enrolls citizens for voter registration, informs them about civic affairs, and helps them with rudimentary legal and governmental matters. This is a private organization, and not a governmental one as Drescher's commission is. Greene is a legal assistant and the editor of this Northern Pacific Report. However, it is not so much titles that should influence the electorate as fundamental philosophies, and Greene's philosophy can pretty much be summed up as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." That will tell you a lot about why Greene will be outspent by at least one and possibly more candidates for Position No. 6 as far as fundraising is concerned. In other words, Greene's campaign won't be getting any money from big shots who are more interested in shaping policy for their own narrow special interests than in general, good government.
A signal that more likely than not narrow special interests will play a part in any election: the fancier the advertising and the more abundant the campaign materials that particular candidates have. Not necessarily through PAC money, however, because they are getting smarter as PAC money, generally, becomes more of a negative in campaigns as time goes by. So they may get around that in the future by getting well-compensated executives, and some underlings, to contribute to the candidate of their choice as individuals.
About Drescher's ascendancy to the chairmanship of the Planning Commission, isn't it odd as to how it all came about in an odd time of year for governmental transitions, last September, a few months before the election season, and the predecessor that stepped down didn't even leave the commission, but became part of the rank-and-file? We won't go so far as to call it pre-election year planning, however, which could bring up the term "double entendre." One thing is for sure, Mark Greene didn't have to wait for "Bellevue-centric" Councilman Bill Erxleben to announce his intentions before running, but his opponent's announcement came after Erxleben's public decision not to run.
Back to the circulation business: we need readers of N.P.R. to spread the news about this blog to other Newcastlers through their social media or otherwise, so that our readership will at least quadruple, and hopefully increase by tenfold before the August Primary or the November General Election. If N.P.R. gets over 5,000 page views per month by time voters cast their ballots, Mark Greene will win. If not, it is going to be a struggle.
[revised on 5/6/2013]
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