2003 Candidate Questionnaire

 

SECTION I               

 

BASIC CANDIDATE INFORMATION

 

1.      Name as it will appear on the ballot

 

First Name

Middle Initial or Nick Name

Last Name

Stan

I

Lippmann

 

2.   Office sought (include office, jurisdiction, position/district number):

 

Seattle Popular Monorail Authority Position 8

 

3.   Are you the incumbent?                                No

 

 

4.   How long have you resided in this district/city?

 

8 years

 

5.   How long have you resided in King County?

 

8 years

 

6.   Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan?         Nonpartisan         

                                                                                                                       

7.   If partisan, please indicate party:       

 

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

 

Campaign Name:

Lippmann for Monorail

 

Address:

 

4500 9th Ave NE, Suite 300

 

City/State/Zip:

 

Seattle WA, 98105

 

Campaign Phone:

 

(206) 860-6809

 

 

Campaign Fax:

 

(206) 442-1405

 

 

Campaign E-mail:

 

stan@silq.net

 

 

Campaign Website:

 

www.monorailistan.org

 

 

POLITICAL BACKGROUND

 

1.   Beginning with the most recent position, please list public offices which you have held.  Include positions on appointive Boards or Commissions.

 

Public Office

Elective or Appointive?

Dates Held

Leadership Role (if any)

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

 

2.   If you ran for public office but were not elected, please list those races below:

 

Office Title

Year of Run

Seatlle Mayor, Seattle City Counci (2x)

 

97,99,1

 

Attorney General

 

2000

 

Congress 7th CD

 

98-02

 


 


SECTION III

 

In this section, we are seeking responses that reflect the four ratings criteria: involvement, effectiveness, character, and knowledge.  These are defined as follows:

 

  • Involvement: What has the candidate done previously in family, neighborhood, community, volunteer work, employment or public life to suggest readiness to accomplish challenging objectives? How do these activities demonstrate readiness for the challenges unique to the office sought?

 

  • Effectiveness: Has the candidate demonstrated promise of being productive in the office sought?  Has the candidate shown the ability to work with other people?

 

  • Character: Do the candidate's personal traits show the ability to take on the responsibilities of campaigning for and holding the public office she or he is seeking? Is the candidate a leader, participant or observer?  Is the candidate trustworthy, reliable and candid?

 

  • Knowledge: Has the candidate demonstrated the willingness and ability to learn and adapt?  Does the candidate understand the duties and challenges of the office sought?  Does the candidate have a firm grasp of the issues important to his or her constituency and their potential effects?

 

 

1.      In a page or less, why are you running for this office?  (Note: the interview committee will be given a copy of this statement before your interview; at the beginning of your interview you will have the opportunity to expand on this statement in any way you wish.)

 

It is a critical time for for setting the direction of public transportation in this region.  I have been advocating for a county-wide monorail system for the past several years, and it is critical that the Green Line succeed as a good beginning, in order gain the public trust in expansion to a city-wide and then regional high speed mass transportation system.  Already, the Board is losing the respect of the public in terms of its finance plan.  I also see problems with the Board's lack of engineering depth, leading to its release of unrealistic artists renderings with are misleading the public as to the true impact of the tracks.  The board is not focusing on the technology issues which play into the decision on the selection of the main DBOM team.  Instead, it seems fixated side issues on the private agenda of board members,  like the diversity program, which may even result in a lawsuit.  Also, the exhorbitant salaries of staff members need to be reduced, and the Board needs to move to a faster transition to elected members.  It is important to have political outsiders like myself on the board because insiders could not suggest sensible things like merging the Sound Transit light rail money into a unified monorail system without stepping on the toes of those that appointed them. I view this project as the first step in a $20 billion reigional solution, and am doing what I am able to bring this vision to reality.

 


 

2.      Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.

 

I have backrounds in both technical (Physics) and social (Law) arts.  This gives me a unique perspective of envisioning how a comprehensive transportation solution would work, while safegaurding the mission by detecting the self-interested motives of the human beings involve.  I am in independent business now, after having worked for a large corporation, so I know about the problems of corporate politics, but am now free of any proprietary influence on my thinking.

 

3.      Please describe in sufficient detail, one to three accomplishments or contributions of which you are most proud.  These examples should illustrate effective skills and capabilities you think apply to the office you are seeking.  These accomplishments may have occurred at any time in your personal, professional, or public life. 

 

I have about 50 articles which I authored or co-authored in the area of plasma physics of fusion devices and stars.  I was motivated to work in the fusion program because of my concerns for the past quarter century about the bad effects of the fossil fuel based economy: destroying the environment, stifling economic development, and debasing our politics to the level of mass murder in the Middle East and police state fascism developing here.  Someday fusion may be a solution, but now I am an advocate for wind and solar power, for investing trillions in new and clean infrastructure as the only way to improve the quality of life on this planet.  I have also created awareness the the vaccine program is killing many more people than it is saving, leading to parental questioning which has probably saved hundreds of lives so far in the region.


 

4.      Please list or describe your current and past activities in the community in which you have acquired skills that relate to the office you seek.  Include your role in the activity and the year(s) in which you were involved.  Involvement consists of many areas such as family, neighborhood, community, employment, or public life.

 

I have been active in Seattle politics since working on the Nader for president campaign in 1996.  As a candidate for Mayor in 1997, I publicly encouraged support for the monorail initiaive. In 1999 as a candidate for City Council, I was the only candidate at the beginning of the campaign to ask what the City Council was doing about the 1997 initiaive, but got others to start asking the same question.  In 2000 as a candidate for Attorney general, I again advocated for the monorail, and in 2001 as a candidate for City Council, I published a comprehensive countywide monorail map, foreshadowing the current King County monorail initiative.

 

 

  1. Please describe the duties of the office you seek.  Which are the most important duties and why?

 

The Seattle Popular Monorail Authority Board is responsible for the development of the 14-mile green line.  The most important job is to make sure that the project is built right within the law passed by the voters.  If more tax needs to be raised to build the promised line due to the miscalculations of those now in charge, I would seek a new vote to add funds.  I would seek to promote eventual integration with a countywide monorail system and a move to mag-lev technology, which would result in a quieter and faster and thus more popular more sucessful system. 


EDUCATION BACKGROUND SUMMARY

FOR PUBLICATION IN CANDIDATE EVALUATION REPORT

 

The Municipal League’s Candidate Evaluation Report is distributed to voters in print and/or on our website.  It includes a summary of the candidate’s education.  Please summarize your education in 120 characters (letters, punctuation, and space all combined).  The League will delete material that exceeds the space limit by beginning with the last entry.  Suggested order is (degree)  (subject)  (school)  (year, if desired). 

 

Note: If this question is left blank the League will not include education information in your candidate profile.

 

B.S., Physics, New York University, 1981, Ph.D., Physics, Johns Hopkins University, 1989, J.D., Law, UW, 1998

 

CIVIC INVOLVEMENT SUMMARY

FOR PUBLICATION IN CANDIDATE EVALUATION REPORT

 

The Municipal League’s Candidate Evaluation Report also includes a summary of each candidate’s civic involvement.  Please summarize your civic involvement in the space below.  We will make every attempt to include the information in the Candidate Evaluation Report as submitted.  Due to space restrictions in the Report, your response is limited to 500 characters (letters, punctuation, and spaces all combined).  It is important that you list your involvement beginning with the most important and ending with the least important.  If you exceed the length of response permitted, or if the League should find it necessary to shorten responses for publication purposes,  deletions will be made beginning with the last item listed. 

 

Note: This information will appear verbatim on the League’s Candidate Evaluation Report.  If this question is left blank, the Municipal League will not include information on your civic involvement in the Report.

 

  Check here if you would like the Municipal League to copy the first 500 characters from Question 4 to paste into this section.

 

     

 

Finished!

If at all possible, send your response to the Municipal League electronically as an attachment, or insert it into an e-mail message (rebecca@munileague.org).  Mail and fax numbers are listed below.  If the League has not contacted you to schedule an interview, please call the League office at your earliest convenience.

 

Don’t forget to send the following to the Municipal League:  a resume, a photo, campaign literature, and, if you are an incumbent, constituent newsletters and other materials.  Please use the check-off list on the cover sheet of this packet to indicate which items you have sent.

 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION AND GOOD LUCK IN YOUR CAMPAIGN!

 

THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE OF KING COUNTY

 

Candidate Evaluation Coordinator:  Rebecca Cooper

 

810 Third Avenue, Suite 224                  Phone: 206-622-8333                Email: rebecca@munileague.org

Seattle, WA 98104-1614                        Fax: 425-671-0506                        Website: www.munileague.org