Jerry Cornfield started as a crime reporter in San Francisco and spent the better part of the last four decades covering politics and government in California and Washington. He worked in media for 12 years in Santa Barbara, reporting for daily and weekly newspapers, serving as editor-at-large for Santa Barbara magazine, producing and hosting a daily radio talk show, and appearing regularly as a political commentator on network TV. In 2004, he joined The Daily Herald of Everett where he worked 20 years as the statehouse reporter before helping launch the Washington State Standard in May 2023.
[00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of The Political Life. Today we go all the way to the state of Washington. Of course, Maggie and I are not there. We wish we were, but we're not. But
[00:00:24] Maggie had the idea with the primary coming up, we needed to talk to an expert and an expert she found. A longtime reporter, Jerry Cornfield with the Washington state standard. It's part of the
[00:00:38] state's newsroom organization and he could tell us a little bit about that. We are going to talk all things Washington and give you an update on the primary. Jerry, welcome to the show.
[00:00:52] Well, thank you for having me. Well, before I hand it off to Maggie, because Maggie covers all 50 states and I don't. I guess the first question I would ask if you want, you could tell us a little
[00:01:05] bit about the Washington state standard and then maybe just give people an overview of how the primary system in the state of Washington works. Okay. But so the Washington state standard we're pretty young. We launched in May of 2023. So this is as an organization, our first election.
[00:01:27] We're four people and we are one of the, it's part of an online nonprofit, online news organization and there's presence in all 50 states and so it's, and we're free. So there's no paywall or material at Washington. It can be used and read by folks. We have a DC
[00:01:48] Bureau that provides us copy is covering the Republican National Convention will cover the Democrat National Convention, but our focus is mostly state government. That was what that was created to fill the gap here in Washington. We've seen the forces, a number of reporters
[00:02:05] have just gone down from when I arrived in 2004. We had our near two dozen reporters covering the state Capitol during a legislative session. We're now down to, we can, we can pretty much fill a
[00:02:20] Subaru and travel to events together. And sad to say that as of this point, Associated Press has not had a reporter full time in the Capitol for a couple of years now. Seattle Times had
[00:02:33] four that are down to one. That's the kind of drop off we've seen across. So, so we're trying to fill that gap that three of our three reporters and now our primary system is
[00:02:46] coming up. The voting is actually starting on, I guess it starts July 19th and then it goes through until August 6th, because we're a mail ballot state, we'll be counting ballots, anything close
[00:03:01] could take another week to figure it out, which frustrates folks on the East Coast on election nights in November. When they want to know who's winning in Washington and I tell them,
[00:03:11] well tonight so-and-so is ahead, but check back in a week and we'll tell you the final results. And we also have it's a top two primary system, which means that two people with the most votes
[00:03:23] in the end will advance to the November election. They can be of the same party and it does happen in some state races, some of them statewide races and congressional races where
[00:03:33] two people of the same party will face off in an area. So, it's also a state where we've pretty much the lawmakers over the years have made it as easy as possible to vote and pretty much everyone
[00:03:49] is eligible to register to vote. So they've changed the folks who come out of state prison or eligible as soon as they come out. Folks who want to wake up on election day and vote,
[00:04:00] they can do it. You have same day to show up, you register, get a ballot and vote. You're 17 during the primary, you can vote as long as you're 18 in November and if you're in high school
[00:04:11] you can register now, you'll get a ballot when you turn 18. So there's all kinds of things, we do drop boxes, so now you're going to ask me I'm sure how high is your turnout in the
[00:04:23] primary? It'll be not too high. So even though we have lots to vote on, 45%. And high accessibility. Yeah. Just aren't interested but in a presidential year we'll get to 80, 85%. I mean it's, everyone's watching in a presidential year. So yeah.
[00:04:46] In addition to it being a presidential year, I look at Washington State and the primary in particular as being one of the most important that you probably had in a dozen years. You've got an
[00:04:57] outgoing governor that has served for I believe over a decade and then that kind of creates this domino effect among the statewide offices that we've seen with the candidate pool that you
[00:05:11] have. Can you maybe focus on the statewide races that are up here in a few weeks? And then also we have a number of listeners in the DC area with Representative Kathy McMorris Rogers deciding to exit just to touch on federal races as well.
[00:05:30] All right, so as you probably know and probably many of your listeners know too that this is the left coast. So Washington not surprisingly has a Democrat governor and the legislature is currently
[00:05:43] controlled by Democrats and vote the House and Senate and just the big picture I don't know that that's going to change in state government this year. And as you mentioned our governor is
[00:05:53] three terms and probably on the running for a fourth but is retiring. He did run for Jay Inslee, did run for president in 2020 got a little attention there too. But by him stepping out,
[00:06:06] it means for the first time in 12 years Washington's going to have a new governor and we have 28 people on the ballot. But the two big names that I expect to emerge we have the Democratic
[00:06:19] Attorney General Bob Ferguson he's been waiting to run, he's in it and then we have a former Republican or former Congressman Republican Dave Reichert is in the race so that's going to those two should get through should be an interesting November. The last couple of times
[00:06:36] we've had an open race for governor it's been very close. If you go back 2004 it was it took three recounts the last one by hand and was 129 vote difference between the Democrat winner Christine Gregoire over the Republican Dino Rossi so that's kind of the featured statewide
[00:06:56] race because an open seat but now with Ferguson running for governor the Attorney General race is open. We have nine statewide elected offices they're all on the ballot so the superintendent of public instruction the insurance commissioner is going to change because the current one is
[00:07:11] retiring so yeah we are going to have a number of new positions the lands commissioner is running for Congress so that seat's going to be open it's there's a potential for a lot of
[00:07:25] change and I did them recently in the state legislature if I looked I think we had close to 20 lawmakers were either retiring or running for higher office so the potential for change in
[00:07:36] our state legislature is also very great. So but the big race is going to be the governor the attorney general will be interesting although I expect the Democrat will hold that seat
[00:07:48] in the end. It could be it could be two Democrats that emerge from that primary I think polling indicates that you may have two Democrats in November. I'm sorry? You may have two Democrats
[00:08:02] in November. It's possible in the attorney general there's two Democrats the state senator and the former U.S. Attorney and former counsel the J. Inslee those are the two Democrats there's one Republican and he's kind of high profile he represents he created a firm called Silent
[00:08:19] Majority Foundation they've been filing and involved with a lot of suits on on social issues and gun issues. I think the Republican will get through we've got a good 38 to 40 percent of voters who will always cast a ballot for a Republican so the Democrats will probably
[00:08:35] split the election and only one go through so that one but we have in the lands commissioner it's possible you could get a couple Democrats there's like six candidates in the race all of whom
[00:08:47] are raising some money two Republicans four Democrats it's also possible you could end up with two Republicans if all the Democrats split the vote so that one will be interesting. That race just for folks there's going to be a name that folks in Washington DC will recognize former
[00:09:06] congresswoman Jamie Herrera Butler she served six terms and then she lost she voted to impeach former president Trump and her voters took it out on her in 2022 so and she's running for
[00:09:20] lands commissioner so she's she wants to get back in the game. And before I move to some of the federal races you are spot on that with left coast it being a very progressive legislature
[00:09:36] and what I have observed from from afar is that you know you've got the the moderates and then you've got a lot of the progressive lawmakers kind of determining the future of the tenor
[00:09:48] of the legislature and just any observations on open seats and and the dynamics between maybe those two factions underneath the Democratic Party. Well it's it has been a greater tension in past years this year we're seeing that the two of the best known moderate state lawmakers
[00:10:10] running for higher office and so one of them Mark Mullet is running for governor and he's been kind of just sidelined by his own party and I don't think he's going to make it
[00:10:22] out of the primary and so then he will be out of elected office because his term expires this year and another one state senator Kevin Vandaway running for lands commissioner that's a hard
[00:10:34] one to predict but if he doesn't make it out he's also you know done he's not running from what we like to call a safe seat so he won't be back. And that to your point I think that
[00:10:45] will turn the state senate will be slightly more progressive they have stopped some uh some measures that were sought by progressives the last couple years but and so it will on paper it will look and saying more progressive but I know if you look to November there's some
[00:11:03] initiatives on our ballots and those initiatives all target Democrat policies and so we could have this weird situation where Democrats are in control a more progressive legislature and yet the major uh climate policies and tax policies they've adopted are gone and the voters
[00:11:24] could wipe them out so voters could put Democrats in but take away all the things some of their biggest wins. Could you go through and this has always fascinated me the ballot initiative process
[00:11:35] like it's like a nomination process and then it gets to the voters like I find this process fascinating and you're right there are some major issues that will be considered by the
[00:11:45] voters in November so maybe process and then like top line I forget if you're like six big ballot initiatives this year but just the headlines on which what issues will be considered.
[00:11:58] Okay so for just the process Washington has sort of a two lane process to bringing the voters can bring somebody to the ballot to essentially get around the legislators one's called an initiative to the legislature and they they write one up they get the signatures
[00:12:14] they get enough signatures secretary Tate says lawmakers you can take you can adopt it save some time and money otherwise it's going to the ballot we had six of those pass qualify this year I mean that was just an unheard of six initiatives of a legislature lawmakers the
[00:12:31] Democrat controlled legislature essentially looked at those and said holy crap we gotta do something here one of them dealt with police pursuits they had changed the law to where police were very limited when they could pursue a suspected criminal this was going to roll back
[00:12:47] the law they said you know what we don't want voters in 2024 thinking about public safety so they went ahead and adopted that they had a parent's rights and they had one that said you local governments cannot do an income tax folks don't know we don't have an income
[00:13:02] tax in Washington don't move here because of it but we don't have an income tax and they looked at the same thing it said wait we don't want to an anti-tax measure we don't want to have these things
[00:13:14] that are very popular ideas so they went ahead and adopted those three three more are going to be on the ballot and one of them was going to repeal a capital gains tax which is paid by folks
[00:13:25] who make a lot of money when they sell their stock and another one is going to roll back the major climate policy that has you know it's it's governor Inslee's signature achievement really
[00:13:39] it it will cap pollution but it charges those who pollute they've got to buy credits for their polluting so it's that one could go away and the third one's a little more convoluted but there's
[00:13:51] a it's a payroll tax people are mandated to pay and then they a couple years from now they can cash in and use it for long-term care it's a benefit program it's mandatory now this
[00:14:04] initiative would make it voluntary and most folks figure if you're if you have a choice whether or not to pay for long-term care when you're 35 years old you probably will say no and they think
[00:14:14] that if this measure passes it'll kill the program because so many people will say no i don't want to do it right now and uh so those are the three big ones there's a fourth one coming
[00:14:24] that deals with natural gas one of the laws passed in the middle of the night and the last legislative session was to tell the state's largest utility hey you need to get off the use of natural
[00:14:37] gas more quickly and switch to wind solar and other sources of power you need to put a you know heat homes with heat pumps electric powered heat pumps etc and the initiative says no we're
[00:14:50] going to roll that back we want to undo that we don't want you going after our natural gas right now and so that's very popular um now my experience is initiatives are really hard we have done a
[00:15:03] lot of big stuff in washington with initiatives we legalized sale of cannabis initiatives we used to have a ban on liquor being sold in cosco and other stores the voter said no
[00:15:14] we're going to change that um and we also adopted huge and pretty strong back you know background checks for guns by the ballot so um they can't happen but these initiatives are a little bit
[00:15:26] complicated and i'm you know i'm i'm interested to see how much money is spent to pass them because you have to spend money to educate people on these initiatives and i don't know
[00:15:37] if they're going to be able to get them through so we'll see i should say i should say that all those were um passed over objections of every republican in the legislature so this is
[00:15:50] clearly these are democrat drawn up initiative uh subjects map that are being targeted and um and this is one of those uh you know people try to figure out what's going to happen in
[00:16:02] november in washington or trying to figure that what will people who just want to protect natural gas or they see the climate policy is driving up the price of the gasoline uh
[00:16:13] you know if they if that motivates them will they then go down the ballot and vote for you know donald trump for president and a republican for governor and a republican farther down and so that's the hope that these initiatives will draw out the sort of the moderate
[00:16:30] conservative and republican voters in november and create kind of its own little um down ballot victories for the republican party because republicans don't have strong candidates this year except for one or two in my opinion so they really need help to get to draw out
[00:16:50] voters yeah so you um you mentioned that you're on the uh the left coast then you have the perception of being very liberal um but yet if you talk to we've achieved it for good reasons
[00:17:03] well what you talk about you know repealing what they the limits on police chases and some of the other things you've mentioned the voters seem a little bit more you don't have an income tax
[00:17:13] they seem a little bit more moderate uh than the perception that than we have of washington state yeah it's i mean if you lie over washington you look down on there's 32 there's 39 counties
[00:17:28] and but king county where seattle is is like the largest and you have like 30 counties that could almost fit in the king county population i literally so there's a very red part of the state
[00:17:42] in terms of republican area but there's no six to eight counties that will always vote democrat and um it's sometimes the lark but and it's the king county one and ever since i've been here they've
[00:17:56] always said to win a statewide race you need to win and if you can get 40 41 percent of the vote in king county you'll probably be able to get through because you'll clean up everywhere else if
[00:18:06] you're a republican and i think that's sort of the that hasn't really changed yet but yeah there's it's interesting it causes uh some tensions um because there's a group of folks i want to say
[00:18:19] rural but they're just that are outside the urban areas that feel like the urban areas are dictating things that they don't agree with but um in the you know when you don't have the numbers
[00:18:33] you just can't win and then you have to have the numbers so yeah to your point like that is why there are competitive races i think i read polling this week that um general furgusson's at like 42
[00:18:45] percent the republican wiker it says is in the 30s so it is a competitive race even though there is that that advantage d um always probably in washington at this point yeah it is i think our
[00:19:01] elections less than others um you know some states the presidential they nationalize everything in a presidential year they try to tie everything to the presidential ticket usually and democrats do a better job tying the republicans to the whoever the republican candidate is who has
[00:19:18] generally been unpopular um and even though you know i mean and i don't know that it'll change greatly this year i mean it's uh the candidate furgusson is tying mr riker to uh donald trump
[00:19:32] every chance he gets um he may back off a little bit because i have a feeling that mr trump coming out of the republican national convention is going to have some much higher numbers than
[00:19:41] he did going in and uh you know so that he may have to change his strategy but uh yeah it's just really hard to find close ones um in the state when it comes down to it because people get
[00:19:56] turned off um there's also a lot of moderate republicans right we we had years ago republicans proposed income taxes we've had pro-choice republican candidates um that hasn't really happened in recent years and a state like washington for example even though abortion's
[00:20:14] not on the ballot the voters made it legal here in the 90s so it's been here for so long that when one party's candidates don't embrace it or at least acknowledge that they don't oppose the
[00:20:29] law um you know they're losing lots of votes women will vote more women will vote than men that's a big issue uh i'm surprised myself in 2024 there aren't more republicans they basically say
[00:20:43] we don't want to change the law but voters don't want to hear that they want to hear that you're going to keep the law and it gives the democrats a chance to always attack their
[00:20:53] republican opponent as if this person gets in they're gonna roll back um one of those core issues i mean i don't know the climate will change you know abortion will beat out climate any day when it comes to painting a republican and democrat candidate so
[00:21:11] yeah and in the gubernatorial race um besides the presidential election um is there any what is that is there a top issue being discussed well the the democrat candidates had kind of an interesting road uh he's not as liberal as the democrats who are going to elect him
[00:21:33] he's been kind of uh he's not a conservative or even a moderate he's a lawyer right and so he's and he's and he's a chess master so he's very calculated everything he does so when he kicked
[00:21:44] off i was at his kickoff in september and his first two issues sounded strikingly like the republican we wanted to hire more police officers because public safety was a concern and he wanted to lower the price of housing and gasoline because affordability was a concern
[00:21:59] and those are two issues on people's mind today he gets it he knows what people are concerned about so that's an interesting one because he those are the issues right they continue to be issues
[00:22:10] around the country and uh so he's aware of that but when he was at the state democratic party convention he did not mention police and public safety he did not mention affordability he did what the party likes to hear and that's identity politics abortion um extremist president and
[00:22:28] using that language language we probably won't hear now after the senate or what happened and in the at the rally in the shooting so but um yeah i think public safety people are really
[00:22:41] doesn't matter how many reports come out um the price of milk and eggs isn't going down gasoline here is going down but going down here it's still 430 a gallon right uh you can find
[00:22:56] a couple of gas stations no names it'll be under four dollars you know but otherwise everybody's in the four dollar range which i don't think most of the rest of the country is so um you know they
[00:23:07] it's here uh and those issues are real uh that people feel uh it takes a while to overcome that so so on those federal races like he's let off what you've got some notable members that
[00:23:22] have taken some um hard votes um that um the voters you know responded to and then with you know mcmorris uh rogers i think you know with her leadership role on on energy and commerce
[00:23:36] huge vacuum in the leadership apparatus out in washington dc but just any insights or a preview of the congressional races um set for the primary or november yeah live i think there's three i mean
[00:23:50] first i just want to say i was surprised that uh representative you know mcmorris rogers didn't run again i don't i mean i haven't covered her closely but she seemed to be continuing to ascend or at
[00:24:03] least to cement a voice and there aren't a lot of women uh is that in the leadership of the house republican conference so that was probably disappointing for eastern washington at a level that i don't understand so now it's a wide open race i think there's 10 candidates 11 candidates
[00:24:18] there's a half dozen republicans um we have a republican running in that race who's a state representative who received the endorsement of the state labor council i mean she comes from labor
[00:24:31] and if she can get through the primary that will be interesting to see if uh you know they could be two republicans get through but that's it that was a one uh it's just for an interest
[00:24:41] level we had another lesser known but he was the uh former uh chair of uh whatever the moderate caucus of democrats is the new democrats uh darick kilmer he chose not to run again and so we have
[00:24:56] a you know that's an open seat of people are wondering what's going to happen in the primary it's a it's a democrat district so a democrat will hold that seat um but there's a state senator
[00:25:06] and the lands commissioner both running uh and there's been interesting emily randall the state senator has received support from senator patty murraya and several members of several women congressional members but she took a little heat recently um her campaign manager she had to fire
[00:25:25] her because she had some social media that was sort of seen as pro-palestinian and anti-israel and that cost her some some attraction but the one that might be the highest profile and is the one
[00:25:41] it could it could determine the majority in the u.s house and that's the third district in southwest washington it's this rematch potential of marie glucin can peres political neo fight in her first
[00:25:53] term she's kind of i mean boating with biden and the dems on some against him on others being very opened about being amongst those things he should go and not run um she's gonna face joe kent
[00:26:07] who had trump's endorsement two years ago doesn't have it yet this year uh pretty conservative and a woman named leslie lawalin who has the moderate republican support but she's a first time you know congressional candidate so i'm watching that one because i expected to be um really expensive
[00:26:25] come the fall uh republicans want that seat back uh it's a the district favors republicans i mean trump won it by four percent i think god for you in 2020 so it's not a democrat district
[00:26:40] so that's uh um i think that's that's the biggest on the congressional race uh and as i'm talking about that race remind me that it won't get my headlines outside of washington it won't get
[00:26:51] my headlines in washington except we did have a redistricting battle that could find its way uh to this u.s supreme court in the near future too but uh and it kind of affects the third district
[00:27:05] we they they rewrote a district and was all republicans which is now and then did it in a way that could turn into three republic three democrats in the state legislature but it also created some pro democrat energy in the third congressional district the way they redid it
[00:27:23] it's inspired democrats and so uh that could you know that'll help her uh it'll help her as hold her seat because i think she's you know she's gonna face a challenge uh that that one's
[00:27:35] going to be a big ticket one that i'm watching one observation when you talk about send a randall i i believe she was the whip uh most recently and so she's going up against the
[00:27:46] lands commissioner hillary franz who started for governor dropped out that's right and then now so but you've got kind of a in the senate you talked about you know the push pull of of moderate versus progressive when i think about you know our audience and whatnot just working
[00:28:03] in you know multi-state um government affairs the fact that you have that many potential leadership changes in a chamber is also something that is um i think noteworthy um with the ag candidate
[00:28:17] and also send a randall if you go through the state senate you're right because you had you had first year retirements like in the spokane area that senate majority leader retires andy billig emily randall's a whip you have the deputy majorityator monka dingress running for attorney
[00:28:33] general you have one of people running for congress as a republican so he's not in leadership but that would change that cock you do have a the republican lead on the budget writing committee she's retiring
[00:28:47] so yeah both sides are going to have but the democrats have a number of changes uh that are going to come in and some of those changes are going to come from the house and there are
[00:28:57] people who chair house committees are running for the senate seats so that's going to create some openings over in the state house um but yeah that's uh you know they but then of course
[00:29:10] they could all lose uh we have one senator patty kudor is running for insurance commissioner i expect she'll win but she's been leading the housing efforts in the state and given what's
[00:29:19] happened at the u.s supreme court housing um here and everywhere is going to be a central issue particularly in there so yeah we're going to have a new senate majority leader
[00:29:31] and uh voices so more about maybe you um i feel like i've gotten my reason i don't know about you jim on on washington's primary um i'm always curious you know when we talk to journalists about
[00:29:46] you know you're in a new publication but you are a veteran journalist like you are not four years into your career just in terms of the stories that you've covered and the evolution of
[00:29:56] kind of media and politics just you know what's the most interesting story that you've written or covered in your um long career and observations on just the push pull between um the electeds and
[00:30:13] the media these days yeah i've i've been doing it long enough sadly that i think i say sadly that the conversations changed uh in a way both between reporters and the sources and the reporters and the readers and i mean i know the terms misinformation disinformation all
[00:30:40] that gets thrown out but in the end we've reached a point because we don't have as much we don't have grant newspapers the way we used to people don't read the way they used to they
[00:30:49] didn't take the time to kind of you know everything so much faster and shared that um we just don't have the relationship i don't know if it's it's not so much trust i mean sometimes that's what
[00:31:00] folks will say oh we don't trust this network we don't trust this newspaper we trust that one i don't know that it's trust as much as the worst relation of information maybe going towards them
[00:31:11] yeah i just think folks who just don't want to make relationships with where and the people who write and provide them the news and where they get it from so i mean i think our organization
[00:31:24] right we're an online news outlet we're free it's everything that people would want to get you know it doesn't cost us we can get our news we don't provide a lot obviously we're focused on
[00:31:33] politics in general but we're you know if we can we're boring we're not trying to have you know a slant we don't have an editorial page for example we don't do letters to the editor
[00:31:46] we don't do those things that can we don't take comments on stories so all of those things can create a relationship with readers but it also can create a relationship and an opinion and i think
[00:31:58] we're trying to just be information based so that's hard but we'll see where we go we're young my career i mean i've been very fortunate i've know i've done you know i can check every box
[00:32:12] that a reporter would want to check have you interviewed a president yes have you covered a tragedy i mean i was in i've covered the earthquake in san francisco was in 1989 you
[00:32:21] know i've i've covered big fires and then the then elections i was on the radio on 9 11 i and another reporter we did 12 hours straight of on air radio and television and they used it into
[00:32:37] writing where i was at the time and i'm and i did work in santa barba california for a while so i i was able to check off a list of have you interviewed these celebrities yes all of them
[00:32:48] except for oprah winfrey i must confess i worked at a magazine that did a uh sit down with oprah winfrey and they took everybody except me and we have very small staff because everybody else was you know
[00:33:00] whatever reason i didn't get to do that interview so i did not interview her but you know it's it's hard i don't know that i would i don't really know that i have like stories that stand out
[00:33:14] as much as conversations and experiences you know my first job i did little league baseball i didn't have a driver's license yet the newspaper i worked at i could bite to and all we did was rewrite
[00:33:28] results but my editors that time i one smoked a cigar charlie zeno and he was the old guy in the neighborhood everybody knew him he was there forever and there was an assistant editor by
[00:33:40] name of steve lopez who went on to you know win awards with the philadelphia inquire now is a columnist with the la times and i think about how these guys in this little town have conquered california
[00:33:54] you know they were such personalities and they stayed with it and did it for a lifetime i think they kind of inspire the idea that you know there is a calling aspect to this industry
[00:34:05] i don't know that it's there now i think there's a lot more folks who get in it to tell a story as opposed to you know sort of report um and it's difficult i mean the new york times watching
[00:34:18] posts they have some resources they can do more but in the neighborhoods the communities that's probably a regret of some ways of that's what i got out of unfortunately i'm not covering city councils and local governments and that's really vital stuff that i don't know who's
[00:34:37] going to do that is there an interview that stands out wow um you know he's done so many conversations over time and i'm trying to think you know i it's funny because they're never
[00:34:56] political um the most that's fine but what what interview stands out the most to you well john cleese i had a chance to sit down i mean and you know for this magazine it was a q and a to do it
[00:35:12] and and we got way off topic because i don't know why but he didn't want to talk about anything i was supposed to ask him about you know acting and money python but he he was just he just
[00:35:24] want to talk about horses and you know and and where he lived in santa barba area and which restaurants he wanted to go to and it turned out um that he just he proved to be
[00:35:36] he broke down the idea that these guys who are have been at levels of fame just want to be normal and he just provided me the gut check that's like everyone's just don't put them on
[00:35:50] don't build them up and don't put them on a pedestal just talk to them and treat them like a regular person and and and that's how i've kind of done my business right just everybody in front
[00:36:02] of me the governor is just saying equal as the person at the supermarket if i in my interviews i mean i obviously i know but they're not and they're political power but um gotta treat them the same
[00:36:15] which president did you have a chance to interview well i don't want to say long interview i mean press conference of a bill clinton in the bill clinton did several events where i was at
[00:36:27] you know i've been at george bush at an airport i never got to ronald reagan but we had to go stay in the santa barbara airport when he flew in and out for what back then i
[00:36:36] assume they still do it and it was just to make sure the plane didn't crash and the plane got off uh you know we didn't get any access there so i didn't i mean i did donald trump and ever
[00:36:48] it didn't in an interview but you know you're just covering these guys and barack obama these guys you know that's all yeah part of the job yeah i mean you're just part of a crowd but at the same
[00:37:00] time it's you know get a cc how it works yeah throw a question out or try to shout a question out and uh so it's um yeah and uh jerry so when you started you said back in well the latest
[00:37:14] round you know i think you mentioned 400 reporters or just a lot of reporters at the capital and now there's there's obviously not um what what what impact do you think that that has had
[00:37:28] on policy um um with such a drop off and obviously there is a pickup with um you know we have x or twitter and you have all these individuals out there um but what what impact do you think it has
[00:37:46] had i don't know i mean folks want to put an impact on the policy of people are getting away with things i mean i think that's that's what you don't know is who's having conversations and
[00:37:57] doing things because you can't you don't have enough people in enough places with eyes but washington also has a very strong public record so it may not be rapid but you can get copies
[00:38:09] of information you can track things down uh so i guess the decline is well basically you just have generally less coverage where if you have three reporters from the seattle times and associated
[00:38:24] press at one point had four or three three reporters you know if they're all writing a story that's six stories of six things happening in olympia washington on a day in the legislative session
[00:38:34] potentially if you have one out of that six left you just have by quantity you have fewer things being shared i you know all those stories may be out there you may know about them but you're just
[00:38:47] not getting them because no one's writing them i mean that was kind of the goal behind these state's newsrooms if put a couple more people to get the number of stories back up and give people
[00:38:58] an idea of what's happening uh but you know like anything you don't know who's tuning in to these issues at some point if they only care about housing issues there's a million ways to
[00:39:08] find out about what's going on in housing you just may not use the traditional media for your sources and i think that's the rise of these other organizations has multiplied yeah well um to our
[00:39:24] listeners out there this is ben we've been sitting down and talking to jerry cornfield from the state of washington he is a reporter out there and we've been talking about the primary
[00:39:36] we will have links in the notes to his um his online newspaper um and the website and information about him jerry we appreciate you coming on and for our listeners out there we will see you next monday