Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Friday, June 06, 2008

I'm Sorry, Say What?

More than 10,000 folks signed PARD's petition against Wal-Mart, including more than 6,000 Pullman residents and 4,000 others who shop here. That is six times more people than the total of all voters in most Pullman city elections.
- TV Reed, Letter to the Editor, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, July 28, 2007
[PARD] claims to represent about 10,000 Pullman residents who oppose the 2004 decision and subsequent rulings allowing the store to locate at its proposed location.

[TV] Reed said there is not a formal roster of residents who support PARD, but that "hundreds of folks" have attended meetings since the group's conception in 2004.
"PARD mulls appeal to higher court," Moscow-Pullman Daily News, June 6, 2008

Let's try 5,400, and even that number is highly, highly dubious. And the petition signers only promised not to shop or work at a Pullman Wal-Mart Supercenter, not support PARD on costly and pointless appeal after appeal after appeal.

But in any case, let's put Reed's overweening boast in perspective:

  • 10,000 votes in the last two Pullman City Council elections would have given PARD candidates a majority and the ability to pass Wal-Mart stopping legislation like big-box and living wage ordinances.

  • 10,000 letter to the editor would have flooded the pages of local newspapers.

  • 10,000 people donating just $4.50 (the cost of a latte) each would have paid for a comprehensive traffic study for PARD.


  • Technorati Tags:

    4 comments:

    Satanic Mechanic said...

    Is there an actual copy of these 10,000 signatures? Are they willing to show it? They throw this damn number at us all the time.
    How many are residents of Pullman? How many are students? The students who signed, are they still here in Pullman? Are these legit signatures? Did the dead vote?
    PARD should not be afraid to take out an ad in the paper and publish the 10,000 names. I am calling their bluff.

    Unknown said...

    April has a copy, as well as the city and Wal-Mart. It is public record, as it was submitted as evidence at the public hearings.

    April's wonderful analysis of PARD's petition can be found here.

    As far as whether students who signed it are still here of if the names are legit, someone would have to grab the petition and a phonebook and start to work. But I suspect that since most of these signatures were obtained in early 2005, most of the students who signed are long gone.

    Unknown said...

    I should also mention that Wal-Mart sent a mail survey to every permanent resident of Pullman (about 9,000). Wal-Mart received back 6,000 responses. 4,000 of those respondents supported the Supercenter project, a ratio of 2 to 1. Wal-Mart also contacted more than 1,000 registered Pullman businesses and an even larger majority expressed support.

    I have the results of that survey in my possession, so unlike PARD, BREO has a concrete roster of those who support Wal-Mart, not some speculative guess as Lupke accused on Dnews.com

    April E. Coggins said...

    Another thing to remember is that PARD lied to many people to get their signature. PARD wasn't just misinformed or misdirected, they lied about known facts. Such as, Wal-Mart was going to clear cut the old growth? trees in the cemetery. And Native American's are buried in the field that Wal-Mart was (now is) going to build. PARD has been willfully misleading people. It's now caught up to them and they need to pay back to the community for the harm they have rought. I intend to hold them accountable.