Why is the King County Director of Elections Smearing Jason Osgood?[Front paged: NM. Editorial comment: 1.) See Jason Osgood's 5/12/07 story specifically congratulating Councilmember Constantine for protecting our secret ballot: KING COUNTY PROTECTS OUR SECRET BALLOT. 2.) Councilmember Constantine knows that King County Elections has not used unique identifiers on ballots. Having been told, erroneously, by the King County Director of Elections that Jason Osgood was misinforming people that King County had used these unique identifiers, I understand why he recommended against contributing to Osgood's cammpaign. Therefore, I don't agree with the characterization of his comments that appears here as "trashing" the candidate. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that Sherril Huff appears to have not verified the information in her email before she sent it out and that, therefore, she spread misinformation that makes it more difficult for voters to make an informed choice in this election. I'm front-paging this story despite my disagreement with the author's characterization of Councilmember Constantine's comments, as it is reporting important information.] Wednesday night I attended the regular membership meeting of the 34th District Democrats. Part of the night's agenda included approval of proposals to donate money to Democratic candidates for statewide office. Following decisions to make donations to Christine Gregoire, Jim McIntire, Peter Goldmark and John Ladenberg, I stood and introduced a motion to contribute to Democratic Secretary of State candidate Jason Osgood. I expected little or no opposition, as Osgood enjoys the strong support of a large number of 34th LD activists. However, to my surprise, King County Council Member Dow Constantine stood to speak in opposition. Constantine was clearly upset with Osgood, and proceeded to trash him before the group. His anger was focused on public statements he claimed Osgood has recently been making to the effect that King County uses bar-codes on ballots which allow votes to be tracked back to voters. King County uses no such system - and therefore Constantine was upset that County officials have allegedly been forced to deal with confused, angry and misinformed citizens. Following his talk the motion to contribute to Osgood (who was endorsed by the 34th last month) was easily defeated. Many Democrats in the room were shocked that the Osgood campaign would spread such false information and agreed with Constantine's assertion that the group should postpone any contribution until the candidate "gets his act straight." This would all be perfectly sensible, except for the fact that Constantine's accusations were entirely false and that Jason Osgood has never said any of the things about King County ballots that he was accused of saying. In fact, Osgood has consistently and publicly said the exact opposite - that King County does not use bar-codes and that this is a good thing.
So where did Councilmember Constantine come by this false and defamatory information about a Democratic candidate for statewide office? Well, that's where it gets interesting.
Following the meeting I approached Constantine to learn the details of his accusations. I'm familiar with Osgood's positions and have seen several of his stump speeches. I also know he's quite knowledgeable about ballot issues and was astonished that he would say anything as seriously wrong as Constantine had claimed. It didn't sound right.
Constantine immediately produced an email he had received that same day from Sherril Huff, Director of Elections for King County. The email, addressed to the entire King County Council, was the source of his anger and of his accusations. Here is the entire text (bolding mine):
From: Huff, Sherril So yesterday I called Jason Osgood. As I suspected he would, Osgood emphatically denied having ever conflated timing marks on ballots with bar-codes. He also made it very clear that he knows full well no bar-codes exist on King County ballots and that he would never say they did. In fact, he pointed out that he was active in the campaign to pressure the King County Council to pass the legislation - referenced in Huff's email - banning such codes. Furthermore, he pointed out that in his regular stump speech and in his usual talking points he mentions the fact that King County did not adopt voter-tracking bar-codes. Here's an interview with Osgood on KEXP that supports exactly what he told me. So... next I called Sherril Huff. I was curious to know specifically at which "public meetings as well as editorial boards" Osgood had allegedly made these crazy statements that directly contradict what he usually says, and which were causing so much awful trouble for the poor folks at the County. The first thing I asked Huff was to confirm that the "candidate for public office" she referenced in her email was indeed Jason Osgood. She told me it was. I then asked if she could refer me to the particular occasions at which Osgood had said the things she states in her email. It turned out that she couldn't. In fact, she wasn't personally familiar with his exact comments or where exactly he had made them. However - to my astonishment - she assured me she had been told about Osgood's alleged crazy-talk by a very reliable source: Nick Handy, Director of Elections for the State of Washington and top deputy to incumbent Secretary of State Sam Reed. Handy, she told me, was a very respected individual and was the sole source for the allegations in her email. Maybe he would have the details? So... I called Nick Handy. To my continued disbelief, Handy confirmed that he had indeed told Sherril Huff about Jason Osgood's alleged statements regarding timing-marks on ballots and about Osgood's supposed contention that King County ballots included voter-tracking bar-codes. Great, I thought, now I can get to the bottom of this. But no. Believe it or not, Handy wasn't exactly sure when or where Osgood had made these statements either. He had simply been told about them, he said, by Attorney General Rob McKenna and by Eastside State Representative Fred Jarret. They had in turn been told about them by unnamed citizens. Allegedly that is. So the trail was dead. There was and is no evidence whatsoever that Jason Osgood said any of the crazy things that Sherril Huff claimed emphatically in her email that he said. In fact, they appear quite clearly to be the product of rumor-mongering by Republican officeholders opposed to Osgood. So what the heck was Sherril Huff doing? Well, let's review: Huff receives uncorroborated, third-hand, defamatory information about the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State from a top official in the office of his opponent. She then includes that information, presented as the gospel truth, in an email that she spams around to top officials in the County under the color of her official role as King County Director of Elections. As just one upshot of this mind-boggling action, Councilmember Constantine - taking on faith the word of high-level County staffer - insured that Osgood was denied money from the 34th LD Democrats, and was made to look like a crackpot to boot. Who knows what other consequences have resulted or will follow? Let's be clear: It's against the law for County Officials to use their position to electioneer or campaign on behalf of political candidates; and it's unconscionable for one to use her position to participate in what can only be described as a smear campaign against a candidate running for the office which directly supervises the work that she does.
At next month's 34th LD meeting I intend to reintroduce my motion to support Osgood and to share what I have learned about this incident with my fellow Democrats. I sincerely hope Councilmember Constantine and other members of the County Council will also take a hard look at the actions of their Director of Elections. It appears someone has been saying some crazy things - and I don't mean Jason Osgood.
Why is the King County Director of Elections Smearing Jason Osgood? | 26 comments (26 topical)
Why is the King County Director of Elections Smearing Jason Osgood? | 26 comments (26 topical)
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By WA Spirit Matters (2 comments) Related Links+ KING COUNTY PROTECTS OUR SECRET BALLOT+ your.kingc ounty.gov/... + www.metrok c.gov/council/news... + Here's an interview with Osgood + jeffuppy's Diary Washblog RSS FeedsPolitical ContactsLocal MediaCoastal/Grays HarborAberdeen Daily World Chinook Observer Montesano Vidette Pacific County Press Willapa Harbor Herald KXRO 1320 AM Olympic Peninsula Peninsula Daily News Bremerton Sun Bremerton Chronicle Gig Harbor Gateway Port Orchard Independent Port Townsend Leader North Kitsap Herald Squim Gazette Central Kitsap Reporter Business Examiner KONP 1450 AM Sound and Islands Anacortes American Bainbridge Review Voice Of Bainbridge San Juan Journal The Islands' Sounder Whidbey NewsTimes South Whidbey Record Stanwood/Camano News Vashon Beachcomber Voice Of Vashon KLKI 1340 AM North Puget Sound Bellingham Herald The Northern Light Everett Herald Skagit Valley Herald Lynden Tribune The Enterprise Snohomish County Tribune Snohomish County Business Journal The Monroe Monitor The Edmonds Beacon KGMI 790 AM KELA 1470 AM KRKO 1380 AM Central Puget Sound King County Journal Issaquah Press Mukilteo Beacon Voice of the Valley Federal Way Mirror Bothell/Kenmore Reporter Kirkland courier Mercer Island Reporter Woodinville Weekly Greater Seattle Seattle PI Seattle Times KOMO TV 4 KIRO TV 7 KING 5 TV KTBW TV 22 KCTS 9 UW Daily The Stranger Seattle Weekly Capitol Hill Times Madison Park Times Seattle Journal of Commerce NW Asian Weekly West Seattle Herald North Seattle Herald-Outlook South Seattle Star Magnolia News Beacon Hill News KIRO 710 AM KOMO AM 1000 KEXP 90.3 FM KUOW 94.9 FM KVI 570 AM South Puget Sound The Columbian Longview Daily News Nisqually Valley News Lewis County News The Reflector Eatonville Dispatch Tacoma News Tribune Tacoma Weekly Puyallup Herald Enumclaw Courier-Herald The Olympian KAOS 89.3 FM KCPQ 13 KOWA FM 106.5 UPN 11 Cascade/Okanogan Ellensburg Daily Record Levenworth Echo Cle Elum Tribune Snoqualmie Valley Record Methow Valley News Lake Chelan Mirror Omak chronicle The Newport Miner Spokane/Palouse The Spokesman-Review KREM 2 TV Spokane KXLY News 4 Spokane KHQ 6 Spokane KSPS Spokane Statesman-Examiner Othello Outlook Cheney Free Press Camas PostRecord The South County sun White Salmon Enterprise Palouse Boomerang Columbia Basin Herald Grand Coulee Star Walla Walla Union-Bulletin Yakima Herald-Republic KIMA 29 Yakima KAPP TV 35 Yakima KYVE Yakima Wenatchee World Tri-City Herald TVEW TV 42 Tri-cities KTNW Richland KEPR 19 Pasco Daily Sun News Prosser Record-Bulletin KTCR 1340 AM KWSU Pullman Moscow-Pullman Daily News |