The News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington • A3

thenewstribune.com Thursday, May 31, 2012 A3 IN Immm km msim sftgp ss (MP imss EDGEWOOD Woman, 75, hurt Inpurs8snatchtry A 75-year-old Edgewood woman was in serious condition with a head injury Wednesday after being knocked to the ground Monday during an attempted purse snatching, Tacoma police reported. After the woman left the Tacoma Mall just after 2 p.m. and walked to her car, a woman approached her, tried to grab her purse and knocked her to the ground, police said. The victim has not regained consciousness and was listed in serious condition at St Joseph Medical Center. "It's just wait, watch and see now," said the victim's daughter, Suzanne Yanak.

"We're worried, but she's a fighter." She thinks her mom was possibly shopping for a bridal shower or wedding gift. The would-be thief did not get away with the victim's purse or bags full of new dishes. The thief was described as a black woman about 18 to 25, 5 feet 9 with a thin build. She had her hair in a ponytail and was wearing a dark jacket, jeans and either glasses or sunglasses. Anyone with information is asked to call Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers at 253-591-5959.

stacia.gLenn thenaostribuneom OLYMPIA Pol shows governor canddBtBS won Washington's leading candidates for governor are running about even, as Republican Rob McKenna is showing more strength in the state than his parly's presidential nominee, according to a new poll released Wednesday. A survey of likely voters by Strategies 360, a Seattle company, found McKenna getting 43 percent of support compared with 39 percent for Democrat Jay Inslee, but that's within the poll's margin of error of 4.4 percent The poll found that McKenna has higher favorability ratings, with 37 percent saying they have a positive opinion of him and 29 percent saying they have a favorable opinion of Inslee. The survey of 500 likely voters was conducted last week. The Associated Press LUI mWONCVSktfpfarfograpter Chflrin Mattfnsty, iyfit of Tacoma and J(Mh Ainato, loft, of Rfo ara ffodtsd WBdnoiday by ftia Rinwrfifc an Party syrniuJ at ftia frBfltBr Tacoma Convufition irBuB usnor on nw oay or nw mmgnin sdd rapracm uohwiuuil Same-sex marriage foes have enough signers to get on ballot CONVBfTION: It's the first time party has met here since 1988 BY JORDAN SCHRADER Staff writer In Tacoma for the first state Republican convention in years in which he's not running for anything, Dino Rossi looked relaxed Wednesday, wearing a button proclaiming, "Dino Knows Mitt is It" Rossi, who co-chairs Mitt Romney's campaign in the state, is very familiar with the Tacoma area. The former state senator spent plenty of time here while challenging U.S.

Sen. Patty Murray in 20 10, and while Murray defeated him by a comfortable margin, he managed to eke out an win in Pierce County. "If an important county, it really is, and I think it's trending to the Republican side," Rossi said. "Candidates just need to do what I did, which is show up." Other Republicans also brimmed with confidence that the South Sound will be fertile ground for Republicans, who on Wednesday lacked off their first convention in Tacoma since 1988. Republicans fill five of the seven Pierce County Council seats and over the past four years have picked up four seats in the county's delegation in the Legislature, where Democrats still outnumber them.

Pierce County GOP Chairman Bob Lawrence lias a piece of trivia about the latter accomplishment He says his is the only county in a blue state west of the Mississippi River that added Republican legislators in the 2008 and 2010 elections. The county backed Rob McKenna for attorney general in 2004 and again in 2008 as he cruised to an easy victory over Pierce County Executive John Lad-enburg. This year, the GOP hopes McKenna can win the governor's seat "Rob McKenna's not going to win if we don't get Pierce CountyT said Andrea Innes, a GOP state committeewoman from the county. This is where it's at for the Republican And the convention will be a "mag-See GOP, ftjgeA5 reject it, they will overturn the law. Opponents of same-sex marriage brought in the first 150,000 signatures without contributions from paid signature gatherers, said Joseph Backholm, president of Preserve Marriage Washington.

He said the group did pay some professional gatherers, just in case, but those petitions aren't included in the 151,338 count He said the campaign mailed petitions to 1,500 churches and thousands of households. "A lot of people worked hard to make it happen," Backholm said. jardanxhrader thenewstribune.com The group trying to challenge the state's new same-sex marriage law said Wednesday that it has surpassed the 150,000 signatures recommended by the state elections office to put Referendum 74 on the ballot With the June 6 deadline still nearly a week away, the announced signature count of 151,338 and counting builds in a substantial cushion beyond the 120,577 valid signatures that Preserve Marriage Washington needs to earn a spot on the November ballot If Washingtonians approve R-74, they will uphold the law passed by the Legislature this year recognizing same-sex marriage. If they Mass transit dispute still simmers in Sumner BUSES: Some on council say opting out was unwise BY SARA SCHILLING Staff writer The City of Sumner no longer falls within Pierce Transit's boundaries, yet controversy lingers over whether opting out was the right call City Council members Nancy Dumas and Randy Hynek say it wasn't. And they say Mayor Dave CORRECTIONS Accuracy is important to us at The News Tribune.

We take care in our reporting and editing, but errors do occur. We want to correct them. If you believe printed information is in error, please call 253-597-8432. exclude other areas with little or no service, took effect in early May. Other East Pierce cities that now fall outside the boundaries include Bonney Lake, Buckley and Ort-ing.

Pierce Transit's board initiated the boundary revisions last fall in the wake of the cuts. Elected officials were picked from within their communities to settle on a new boundary map, which went to a See SUMNER, Page A5 and they didn't," he said. Enslow said it wasn't fair for Sumner residents to contribute a 0.6-percent sales tax the same as other communities inside Pierce Transit boundaries yet receive little service. He said the city now can pursue other transit options. Pierce Transit, faced with recessionary losses and the failure of a proposed sales tax increase, made significant service cuts in the last year.

The new boundaries, which also Enslow acted on his own to withdraw the city as part of the boundary revision process, never seeking formal council direction. "This was too critical of an issue not to bring to the City Council for a vote," Dumas said. Enslow, however, says he kept the council updated throughout the process and sought members' input, but never got much interest "There were many, many opportunities for the council to state an opinion (about wanting to stay in), 1-1183: Lower liquor prices were never the point come off the liquor shelves Friday, some consumers will be looking for someone to blame, and it wont be themselves. So corporate backers must now re-engage their spin machines, tossing out various excuses for high prices, such as that the private sellers are installing higher markups either because they can or because they are trying to recover start-up costs quickly. Some are even blaming the state for passing rules that follow the initiative's dictates.

When all else fails, they assure us that markups and prices will come down as the new system settles out and competition is sparked. Maybe. But it might just be that the initiative was crafted to win the election and to transfer profits from the state to private sellers not to lower prices for consumers. peter.callaghanthertezvstribune.com 253-597-8657 blog.thenezvstribune.compolitics CaUaghanPeter Thanks to Washington's liberal initiative laws, voters here get to be just like politicians, for better and for worse. Better because it is empowering to decide what passes and what fails.

Worse because, just like legislators, voters might have to compromise to get something passed. That's what happened with Initiative 1183, which shifts Washington from a so-called liquor-control state to private distribution and sales. Except the initiative that kicks in Friday isn't an example of pure free enterprise and probably wont lead to lower prices. The reason? Compromises. And these compromises weren't crafted by those sneaky legislators in Olym-pia.

They were crafted by the corporate sponsors and their consultants, then approved by voters. 1-1182, adopted in 2011, is the offspring of I-1100, defeated in 2010. The consultants advised that pretend firefighters to combat the opponents' firefighters and pretend firefighters. The measure was compromised to attract more votes. But the changes were so broad they risked chasing away core supporters -those who either believe in privatization on principle or who assumed it would produce cheaper booze.

So proponents didn't talk much about price, relying instead on buzz phrases such as free enterprise and competition in hopes voters would assume that meant cheaper spirits. Opponents were so intent on trying to reanimate the dead issues of corner liquor stores and cuts to public safety that they didn't run with the fact that the new initiative might have no effect on Washington's notoriously high prices. The state Office of Financial Management did an analysis suggesting prices might actually increase because of the fees imposed by 1-1183 arid the fact that private sellers want a profit, too. It turns out private sellers in California the Holy Grail of privatization have higher average markups than the markups imposed by the state under our old system. Prices in Washington were higher not because of inefficiencies of the state monopoly but because our lawmakers placed much higher taxes on booze than their California counterparts.

All of those taxes stay in place under 1-1183. The OFM study was buried in the small print of the voters pamphlet. News articles detailing the math were dismissed as evidence of anti-I-1183bias. The campaign strategy worked. Backers needed to move only a few percentage points to alter the result They gained 12 points and had an easy, though expensive, victory.

Now they have to deal with the inevitable anger of many voters who thought they were voting for lower prices. When the curtains PETER GALLAGHAN if liquor privatization were to pass on its second try, it had to be changed to disarm opponents. In 2010, 1-1100 opponents succeeded by exploiting the specter of minimart liquor sales and by warning that reducing state profits would reduce support for government programs, especially public safety. So the second Costco-drafted and -funded measure said stores had to be at least 10,000 square feet to sell liquor. 1-1183 also imposed new fees to replace the profits collected by the state.

Backers even lined up their own firefighters and.