Props: This is a sheep (toy sheep). This is shinola (shoe polish)
Great to be back in Spokane, We don't have those magnificent neon beer billboards in Seattle.
Who is this Hu guy? Well, this picture shows [photo of Gary Locke and me after King County Democratic Convention], I'm a mirror image of the governor, but reversed from left to right.
My folks fled communism from China, Their American Dream was sending 7 kids to MIT and Stanford from Renton Public Schools Now I'm a real life high tech Dilbert, but my kindergartener gets standardized reading tests, my 1st grader is supposed to write 9 sentences as homework his 1st week, and brings home his percentile ranking on a timed 1 mile running assessment. In 2nd grade he gets algebra problems and reads See Nat Run for Freedom from men with guns and dogs. There's stuff on the 4th grade WASL I didn't see until after I'd graduated with 2 degrees from MIT, and their answer was wrong to boot. Its like forcing everyone from Gilligan to Ginger to be the Professor. Raising the bar my eye, I'm running to get my little munchkins back to Kansas, and I'll have to bring back the broom of the witch to do it.
My race will be the big I200 I695 upset. Im the guy that got UC Berkeley to overhaul their affirmative action which led to I200. Eyman even called me up to help, and I called in Carlson to help me as the only Chinese brave enough to defend I200. Now Hochstatter can tell you I was the first to ask Bergeson fix the WASL test, but she's had 4 years to get it right. Not one in her whole 300+ staff can tell sheep from shinola, or knows enough math to pass her 4th grade test. If you want to turn 4th grade into rocket science, only a computer scientist is qualified for the job!
The education guy is not the pres or the gov. If you want to get a handle on spending and taxes,The SPI controls half the state budget, and it's Olympia, not just Washington that should leave our local schools alone. The OSPI should be protecting the public from goals 2000, outcome based education, fuzzy math, whole language, and school to work, but Bergeson is the Sunny Kobe Cook of Education DE-form. Its the 3rd highest paying job, which would make my wife the 3rd lady, plus it will put me on 2nd base to try for being the first Republican Chinese American governor. With Conrad Lee and Allen Huang, we've got the chance to match the Democrats in Asian officials.
The Superintendent of Public Instruction is a non-partisan race (yeah right), but I'm the only Republican. I'll get 40 percent just because I'm not Ron Taber, factor in either governor, Bush, and the WASL, Dr Bergensteins monster, and I'm over 50. All the ed inititives are going to take wind away from her sails, so I just have to man the rowboat when her battleship blows up and sinks on its own. WA can be first in the nation to fire their SPI over bungled testing, and I can provide enough ammo for the people to fire every superintendent and curriculum director who supported this turkey as well.
I'm already #2 which makes it Bergie vs me. I can get all the republicans, most independents, plus progressives who don't want to flunk out 95% of minorities. My handshake polls in democratic Seattle events tell me I can beat number 1. I just need enough money to get better than these copy shop fliers and some real signs. I promise not to spend a half million dollars and have the WEA kick in another half million to win in a state one-fifth the size of CA. My website hu4spi.com, I got $100 out of the county convention, please do better than that this weekend!
Republicans issue call for unity
by David Postman, Ralph Thomas and Dionne Searcey Seattle Times staff reporters
SPOKANE - Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge said as he prepared to speak to the state Republican convention last night that he knew his star power didn't come just from his six-year record as governor but also from his spot on the short list of possible running mates for Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush. Gov Ridge.......
But an even hotter commodity was Arthur Hu.
Arthur who? Hu, a Chinese-American Republican from Kirkland who is running for state schools superintendent, drew yesterday's biggest ovations with his rapid-fire, joke-riddled campaign speech. Hu held up a photo of himself and Gov. Gary Locke, and said to the crowd, "I'm his mirror image in reverse, from left to right."
He called Washington's public-education system, and particularly state standardized tests, Orwellian.
Hu, wearing a Dilbert tie and handing out Beanie Babies and other McDonald's Happy Meal treats as campaign trinkets, then spent hours holding court.
Hu, a software engineer, said he has a chance of becoming the underdog story of the year and announced that he would use the top educator's post as a stepping stone toward becoming the nation's first Republican Chinese-American governor.
"This could be really big," he said. "I'm a total nobody going in."
Ted Choi, who keeps telling me I really should try for school board first instead, gave me some tips on how to catch the crowd.
Before this, the WEA, AFL/CIO COPE had invited me to speak as SPI candidate, but the King County Republican convention didn't return my calls, and the Pierce County didn't give me a spot. People said I was the 2nd best speaker at the COPE convention, and Spokane County encouraged me to come out and speak, there Cobb complained it was tough to follow up after Harold Hochstatter and Arthur.
The Mainstream also let me speak, but it seemed they were a bit hesitant, understandable since one guy was really concerned about gay issues, and they had endorsed Terry Bergeson last time. Don Benton was there and said they wanted information on me, he said the party wanted to support me.
The state party finally let me speak and take out a booth. I showed up Thursday night for the wine and cheese. Turns out I missed out on getting my bio in with the other statewide candidates, or putting up signs up high in the hall. I'm telling ya, no respect. Stayed with Joanne McCann, a Spokane teacher who has been on top of the ed reform disaster since the 1980s, ended up spending lots of time inhaling all of the books in her extra bedroom.
My legislator Kathy Lambert was there, and good friend and Chinese Brother Conrad Lee was passing out stickers, and even took a check for me when somebody evidently mistook him for me. I put in word for Conrad and Allen Huang (who couldn't make it) in the speech as our first shot to even out the Asians in state government to 3 Republicans to 3 or 4 Democrats. No sign of school board challengers Fred Jarrett (vs Conrad) or Janice Linville (vs. Lambert). Kirby Wilbur master of ceremonies said "Arthur, you were magnificent", quite a change from after he told me "Arthur, you'll have to make it worth my time" when I asked when I'd be on this show. Still, I didn't hear his convention coverage on Monday. Also met the guys for Everett's KRKO 1380 Republican Radio and Marcus Hoffman of KITZ1400
I tried to make up for my joke at the expense of Ron Taber by telling everybody that I was doing this for Ron, he was taken down by the bad guy in the beginning, but she'll get hers in the end. Missed Horowitz, but I did see him signing books. Only had one lady come up and say we should keep the WASL. One log cabin guy asked what I thought of the platform, he wanted local control, I gave him an answer I thought he liked, I don't like blanket condemnations, and the language is stronger than I'd like to see. The party platform does finally call for fixing or killing both the WASL and the Certificate of Mastery attached to it, though no other candidates mentioned either.
Send to: DAMMONS@AP.ORG rthomas@seattletimes,com dsearcey@seattletimes.com angelagalloway@seattle-pi.com ap olympia david amons david postman seatimes dave patrick 53-862-3130 june 25 4pll marcus hoffman 360-692-3463 kitz 1400 Matthew Poeske 206-570-7152