Spin Control: WSU’s snub of 2008 debate and a case of what might have been
Local political junkies might have been playing “what might have been” last week as the 2016 presidential debate schedule was announced.
Those with long memories probably recall that in 2007, Spokane had a brief flirtation with quadrennial debate extravaganza after Washington State University put in a bid to host one of the matchups at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. There was what can best be described as eager anticipation as WSU and local officials talked about the high profile the city would get in the days leading up to the debate, with hundreds of national and international news types flocking to town, along with candidates, campaign staffs, consultants and advisers.
Visions of Matt Lauer doing “The Today Show” from the north bank of the Spokane River, sunrise in the background, danced in a few heads.
When the debate selection commission sorted through the bids, it offered WSU the 2008 vice presidential debate. University officials declined. They were hoping for the big kahuna, a presidential mano a mano, and didn’t want any second-string event.
Some city officials defended the decision, saying the cost of sponsoring the debate – about $1.35 million to the Commission on Presidential Debates and maybe $1.5 million more in prep work for the Arena and other areas – wasn’t worth the veep debate and its normally smaller draw.
Little did they know that the 2008 vice presidential debate would be the most anticipated, if not the most consequential, of that year’s matchups, featuring Joe Biden vs. Sarah Palin. It was held at Washington University in St. Louis, which stepped in when WSU declined.
So why recount old news? Last week, the sites for the 2016 presidential debates were announced. Wash U, as it is known in St. Louis, was selected as the site for one of the presidential face-offs.
Now, some folks will say that school has such a long history of hosting the debates – 1992, 2000, 2004 as well as 2008 – that it would be an easy choice for the commission regardless of Wash U’s willingness to step into the breach eight years ago.
It’s also possible that, having hosted one debate, WSU and the Spokane tourism industry would have decided “been there, done that.” The hassle of dealing with all of those obnoxious reporters – trust me, the last horde that was more demanding rode behind Genghis Khan – might’ve convinced them it just wasn’t worth it. Maybe they wouldn’t have tried again.
But if anyone entertained serious thoughts of making Spokane a regular stop on the campaign trail, they might have taken a lesson from the city’s NCAA basketball tournament experience. Before you can host the opening rounds of the Men’s Tournament, you might have to show you can handle the Women’s Tournament.
In the mail
Washington readers who aren’t registered to vote, but could be eligible if they’d take the time to do so, are getting a postcard in the mail with an invite to get signed up.
The secretary of state’s office sent out 218,000 such postcards – including 10,645 in Spokane County – in an effort to convince potential voters that it’s a snap to sign up online.
“We hope these postcards will provide just the nudge for people to go online and get registered,” Secretary of State Kim Wyman said.
Cost of this nudge? Twenty-three cents per postcard, or a bit over $50,000. The state currently has 3.94 million registered voters. It expects to go over the 4 million mark before the 2016 presidential election.
In the courts
The state attorney general may be stepping into a pair of complaints about violations of Washington’s campaign disclosure laws.
Last week, Attorney General Bob Ferguson said his office will file against the Service Employees International Union 775 and its political action committee for allegedly not reporting cash and in-kind contributions moved from one to the other over the past five years. It will be acting on a complaint originally filed with the Public Disclosure Commission by the Freedom Foundation.
About the same time, the PDC asked Ferguson to take up the latest complaints against perennial initiative entrepreneur Tim Eyman for the way he allegedly accepted payments from a signature-gathering committee and loaned money to an initiative-rights group without properly reporting it. The AG hasn’t said yes on that one, but PDC staff contend the violations are so egregious the commission’s power to issue a penalty is inadequate.