NEWSPAPER COVERAGE FOR 2016
Press Favors Inslee or Bryant, Ignores Other Candidates
The Stranger was the only newspaper which invited all the candidates for governor to come in for an interview. I pointed out all the failings of Governor Inslee, that he is not green, not progressive, that he is weak on oil trains, weak on coal trains, supports fluoridation, supports vaccinating pregnant women with mercury vaccines, supports compulsory vaccination, failed to take a position on GMO labeling, supported a plant in Tacoma which would produce ethanol for export to China, appealed the Climate Kids’ lawsuit, and has no proposal for reducing traffic congestion.
But the Stranger endorsed Inslee nevertheless.
Oh, Jay. We’re so sorry. The SECB always invites every candidate who files to run for an elected office to our endorsement interview. Every. Candidate. This year’s un-illuminating shitshow of gubernatorial endorsement interviews made us question that approach.
As I have pointed out before, the Stranger generally is more interested in being clever – including throwing scatalogical references, than being accurate.
It mentioned me only in one sentence, saying
James Robert Deal [is] a Lynnwood attorney concerned with fluoridation of the water supply and the tyranny of vaccines.
The Stranger made no mention of Inslee’s failure to answer the charges I leveled at him.
I wrote to the Seattle Times, saying:
I am a candidate for governor. See www.JamesRobertDeal.org. It would be unfair of you to endorse Jay Inslee without giving fair consideration to the other candidates. I have been expecting to receive a call or email from the Times inviting me to attend an endorsement interview.
Kate Riley’s response was:
We are examining candidates’ positions before extending invitations for interviews. We do not want to waste anyone’s time. You have met with the editorial board in the past and we are familiar with many of your positions. Thank you.
Kate Riley | Editorial page editor
I have discussed this with other candidates for governor. Our conclusion is that none of the media intend to give any coverage to candidates other than Jay Inslee unless we buy their advertising space.
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The Spokane Spokesman posted this web information regarding the candidates.
NEWSPAPER COVERAGE FOR 2015
Press Favors John Lovick and Maybe Dave Somers
A Bit of Information about James Slips Through, Republicans Dissed
Herald Criticized for Inept Coverage
On May 20, 2015, the Snohomish Tribune had this to say about my campaign:
Deal, who challenged Lovick last year when the seat was up for a one-year term to replace disgraced executive Aaron Reardon, collected almost 14 percent of the primary vote last year. Some of his platform issues are raising the minimum wage, stopping oil and coal trains and building a fiber optic internet for Snohomish County. He also led a crusade to end public water fluoridation.
I appreciate the fact that the Tribune listed most of my platform issues. Note that the only issues the Democratic candidates are running on pertain to competence. Regarding the two Democrats running, the Tribune had this to say: :
Lovick’s failure to grasp the complex issues facing Snohomish County have had a deeply damaging impact,” a Somers campaign announcement said, citing battles over Lovick giving top administrators pay raises and proposing what Somers called imbalanced budgets. “This has got to stop,” Somers said.
The Herald reported on May 16, 2015: “5 candidates file to run for Snohomish County executive“.
On June 15, 2015, the Herald asked, “Is 1-party control county’s destiny?” It asks whether Snohomish County is fated always to have a Democrat in the County Executive seat.
I would propose that partisan politics are not relevant on the local level and that a non-partisan county government would be much more effective. The issues which divide Democrats and Republicans on the national and state levels do not apply on the local level. County government has no input into foreign policy, Obamacare, or abortion policy.
John Lovick has endorsements from all Democratic organizations locked up. Nevertheless, Dave Somers is challenging John Lovick based on his competence, apparently not based on any difference over issues.
The Herald reports that the Republican Party is confused and seems to concede defeat. It is not happy with either of the two Republicans running.
In focusing on the party issues, the Herald neglects other more important issues. The Herald has not made my opponents say what they would do about the issues I identify:
using flex vans and door-to-door transit to eliminate traffic congension,
no to commercial air service at Paine Field,
joining the effort to regulate or ban or oil and coal trains,
housing the homeless, much cheaper than current policies, and the right thing to do,
halting the spraying of Roundup (now declared to be a Type 2A carcinogen), and helping farmers convert to more profitable organic growing.
ending drinking water fluoridation.
Maybe the Herald and my opponents have not studied these issues. Maybe they do not under stand what the County could do about these issues.
This what the Herald had to say of Candidate Deal:
Rounding out the five-person field is James Robert Deal, an independent candidate with a quixotic political platform. He’s probably best known in the community for opposing fluoride in drinking water. ***
Lynnwood attorney James Robert Deal, 67, has dispensed with party labels altogether. He is running for executive as an independent, with a platform that includes branding Snohomish County as “the organic county”; opposing the use of fluoride in drinking water (which is not controlled by county government); and building the new county courthouse at Everett Station. Deal ran as a Democrat against Lovick in last year’s special election but failed to make it out of the primary.
The Herald says my platform is quixotic. We all read Cervantes’ Don Quixote in high school. The definition of quixotic is “resembling or befitting Don Quixote; extravagantly chivalrous or romantic ; visionary, impractical, or impracticable; impulsive and often rashly unpredictable.” I like the chivalrous, romantic, and visionary part. I am unafraid to be in the minority when I know the majority is wrong. I am not impulsive or unpredictable. I will keep patiently banging cymbals together on important issues until the sleep walkers wake up.
Describing my campaign issues as impractical shows that the Herald is as conventional in its thinking as my opponents. Does the Herald think that it is just fine to have everyone ingesting between 2.0 and 10.0 milligrams of fluoride every day of our lives from birth to death? The bones can only store away so much of this stuff, and sooner or later it affects the organs. Like the candidates, the Herald does not engage in critical thinking. It reports on who is likely to win, not why they should or should not win. That is journalism these days, balanced but afraid to think independently and critically.
The Herald says that county government does not control fluoridation. Everett Utilities fluoridates, as authorized by the Everett City Council. The captive water districts have no say in whether they will be forced to drink diluted toxic waste. The Everett City Council, in the words of deceased attorney Drew Nielsen, “is not a medical court” and cannot decide the fluoridation issue, but must rely uncritically on county health officer, who works for the Snohomish County Board of Health. The health officer’s support of fluoridation has been shown to be thoroughly unscientific. The health offider, an otherwise competent medical officer and a really nice guy, has apparently been duped by the dental establishment, which in turn has been duped by the phosphate fertilizer industry, which contributes to medical and dental colleges, and which churns out fluorosilicic acid as a waste by product and needs to find suckers who will buy it and drink it.
Members of the Snohomish County Board of Health, like the Everett City Council, are afraid to go against their medical officer. Apparently they have forgotten their high school biology and chemistry and refuse to think for themselves. So one dupe dupes both Everett City Council and the Snohomish Board of Health.
The Herald implies that if I were elected county executive, I would not be able to do anything to stop fluoridation. This is incorrect. If I win, it will be a political indication that a majority wants fluoridation to stop. Further, as county executive, I would have some input into who serves as medical officer. We need one who will pay more attention to science.
For an evaluation of press coverage of this election see www.JamesRobertDeal.org/press-coverage.
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NEWSPAPER COVERAGE FROM 2014
John Lovick Favored Enthusiastically
A Bit of Information about James Slips Through
John Lovick is lauded and endorsed by both the Seattle Times and The Daily Herald.
The community newspapers do not do endorsements. They do features comparing the candidates. Their coverages is more even handed. This is what the Snohomish-Everett Tribune had to say:
James Robert Deal (D)
Deal is entering the race with a wide range of ideas on a campaign of environmental and public health issues he says will improve the county’s quality of life.
“You need a guy with a vision,” Deal said.
One idea that may resonate with a chunk of the electorate is increasing the local minimum wage. He would raise it to $10.69 to start, which he said would align the current minimum wage rate to 1968’s rate after inflation.
“I’m not asking for much, I’m asking for what people were paid 46 years ago,” Deal said, adding that higher wages would give the county a stronger tax base.
He said he would need to get the County Council to consider putting the wage increase on the ballot, and would try to work with the council on his other ideas.
Some of his ideas, though, would be outside his direct dominion if elected county executive. For example, he wants transit agencies to cut back the size of some buses and use a fleet of vans that offer door-to-bus service to get people out of their cars. People would be willing to pay extra for a service like that, Deal said, pointing to the success of rideshare services such as Uber.
Empty buses bother him, he said. “We need to get as much bang for our sales tax buck that we can and right now we get a fizzle,” Deal said.
He also would encourage Snohomish County PUD to build a high speed fiber optic Internet network. He calls the PUD the best entity to create it. A fiber optic network would be a boon for businesses, his candidate’s statement says.
“These changes are never going to happen unless you get someone in there” who’ll fight for these issues, Deal said.
Deal came to the public’s attention in Everett two years ago with a push to remove fluoride from Everett’s drinking water, which is another component of his campaign.
Deal said he believes his ideas would not require raising taxes or drastically altering the county budget. “I don’t think it’s needed to raise taxes,” Deal said.
Deal is running as the self-described progressive in the race. “I disagree with anybody who says I am a radical,” Deal said.
Deal has 36 years of experience as an attorney, but none in elected office. He has practiced law in Snohomish County for most of his life.
Deal, 67, makes his home in Lynnwood. He ran for lieutenant governor in 2012 and for Lynnwood City Council in 2013. In the council race, Deal lost the primary with 15 percent of the vote.
Compare Snohomish Tribune coverage of John Lovick and Carolyn Eslick. Regarding John, the Tribune said:
His intraparty challenger, Deal, has put raising the minimum wage as a highlighted platform point. Lovick doesn’t have a stance on that yet. “What I feel on minimum wage is we need a broader discussion on ‘how’ first … on that one, I’m just not sure yet.”
Deal’s answer to John:
“John, this is a no-brainer. I stand for an immediate raise across the board to $10.69 for everybody. Why? That’s what the minimum wage in 1968 was worth in today’s dollars. It is a shame that the poor are paid less today than they were paid 46 years ago. Further increases should be phased in over a seven year period to give businesses the time to adapt. They will adapt, and they will benefit. Customers will have more money to spend, which will balance off increased labor cost and more. It will force businesses to computerize more aspects of their businesses and become more efficient. Workers will be of a higher quality and more likely to remain long term. They will be more loyal and more likely to look after the best interest of ownership. So say yes unequivocally to a phased-in increase in the minimum wage.
Regarding Carolyn, the Tribune said:
Eslick does not support raising the minimum wage, an issue being championed by competitor James Robert Deal.
So my opponents are either opposed to raising the minimum or wish-washy about it. The Seattle Times was all for John, saying he was the “obvious choice”. “Lovick’s endorsements and his campaign treasury point to strong support for his re-election”. The Times dismissed James with just a few words:
The Democrat is facing Eslick, a Republican, and James Deal, a Democrat and a Lynnwood attorney. Deal seems more interested in the campaign as a forum for strongly held environmental and public health issues…. Lovick and Deal support I-594, which would expand background checks for gun sales and transfers. Eslick does not.
For much of the one hour, we discussed issues important to me, however, none of them got any coverage. Putting a banning growing of commercial GMO crops in the County and putting a stop to pouring lead-leaching dental chemicals into our drinking water are merely a “strongly held environmental and public issues”. Much time was spent discussing the tragic deaths a Oso. I pointed out that we need to identify and prevent the next Oso. We need better risk management. This it would appear that the Seattle Times is not interested in issues. It is interested in who has the biggest campaign war chest and who has signed up the most endorsers. The Seattle Times lauded John Lovick again on August 1, leaving Carolyn and James out of the article title, saying:
Now, Lovick has two challengers in Tuesday’s primary: Carolyn Eslick, the Republican mayor of Sultan, and James Robert Deal, a Democrat who is an attorney and anti-fluoride crusader. The top two will advance to the November general election.
After pointing out that John has raised $88,000 and Carolyn has raised $10,000, the Seattle Times had this to say about James:
Deal, 67, has raised no money in the campaign.
“I think a campaign should be about something other than just the fact that John Lovick has been elected many times and has experience,” said Deal, who lives in Lynnwood.
Deal says he wants the county to raise its minimum wage incrementally over the next few years to reach $13 an hour. He wants to invest in fiber-optic Internet to create jobs and develop more public-transit options.
Another priority would be to make Snohomish County an organic county for farmers, meaning no genetically modified crops could be grown there.
“Our farmers would get rich,” he said. “We could brand it and export it all around the world.”
The Daily Herald wrote about its interview of candidates for County Executive on July 18. Regarding James, it had this to say:
Deal, an attorney for 36 years, works with homeowners facing foreclosure.
He’s best known locally for his opposition to adding fluoride in drinking water. He also backs an assortment of other causes, including raising the county’s minimum wage, lowering the voting age to 16 and banning chemical pesticides.
“The county needs an attorney with a vision in the top spot,” he said.
Deal blogs about mass transit and has written a cookbook about “the theology of food.” He also wants to stop freight trains from carrying highly flammable crude oil through the county in flimsy container cars, as well as uncovered loads of coal.
“I’m the progressive candidate in this race,” he said. “I am the one with positive vision for what this county can be.”
Deal has no experience in elected office. He ran unsuccessfully for Lynnwood City Council in 2013 and lieutenant governor in 2012.
The county auditor mailed 411,000 primary ballots Thursday.
The Daily Herald was a little more even-handed, although it was critical of John in part: He can be painfully wishy-washy on the options for a new courthouse. He also hasn’t provided a systemic remedy for the misuse of county computers and information technology — a return to executive oversight after the Kevin Hulten scandal isn’t a fail-safe. Similarly, a few Reardon cronies, who contributed to administration mischief, need to be given the heave-ho, not comfortable gigs with fat salaries. The Daily Herald had little to say about the many issues I raised except for this one sentence:
James Deal, running as a Democrat, is an earnest and capable attorney, advocating a number of novel ideas from a flex-van system (good) to banishing fluoride (a fringe cause).
Adding lead-leaching toxic waste dental chemicals to the drinking water of every fetus, infant, adult, and old person for life is not a fringe cause. I provided the Herald interviewers with ample information on dental chemicals, but apparently they either did not read them or lack the scientific background to comprehend them. Oh the other hand the Herald liked my flex van proposal. More later. The Lynnwood Today – MLT News – My Edmonds News gives good online coverage. James 