Pierce County Council members are sensitive to the suggestion that politics plays a role in key votes. But sometimes it’s hard to conclude otherwise.

Take Tuesday’s discussion of proposed new ethics rules, which featured three of the four candidates for Pierce County executive.

Councilmen Calvin Goings and Shawn Bunney cast the only votes against tabling an ethics ordinance Tuesday. Perhaps not coincidentally, both are running for county executive.

Goings, a Democrat, has been pushing ethics reform for months. He makes no secret of his plans to set the agenda for the executive campaign.

In private,

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It’s been a couple days since Joe Turner and I made it over to Pritchard for an extended coffee session. This morning, I missed the good old days of going over bill introduction sheets, blogging and harassing lobbyists.

Today, I grabbed the (now much slimmer) packets and found this gem, with bipartisan support.

HB 3313 would designate coffee as the state beverage. It’s currently sponsored by 14 lawmakers.

Now … let’s make a little bet on which beverage lobby will jump all over this. My guess: Craft beer makers.

Sen. Patty Murray today endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.

Here’s a link to the story on our home page.

And here’s the Clinton campaign’s press release:

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Les Blumenthal wrote a story that quoted Reps. Adam Smith and Brian Baird on their reasons for voting against the economic stimulus package developed by the House and the White House.

Here’s the full statement released later by Smith’s office:

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I just got off the phone with Luke Esser, who heads the state’s Republican party. He tells me that he’s spoken with the regional campaign contacts for each of the major Republican contenders, and he has some good news.

“What most have said is, count on us coming to the state of Washington,” he said.

He said he’s “encouraged” the campaigns to schedule visits and joked that he considered it “soft lobbying.”

Yes, I did ask. And no, that doesn’t mean he’s filed with the PDC …

For Democrats, similar good news,

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Ballots for the Feb. 19 presidential primary go in the mail to most Washington voters on Friday (Pierce and King will operate poll sites as well). That means some of you may cast a vote this weekend.

And the state party caucuses are Feb. 9. So it’s about to get real busy around here… I’m working with politics reporter Niki Sullivan, wire editors, page designers and online producers to develop a coverage plan designed to help you make an informed vote (or votes, if you go to a caucus and vote in the primary) over the next few weeks.

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It appears that Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul can get anything he wants at Alice’s Restaurant.

Exceptin’ Alice, of course.

Normally we wouldn’t rush to blog with yet another endorsement announcement. But when Arlo Guthrie – son of Woody, friend of Alice, father of Abe and Sarah Lee – endorses a candidate and that candidate happens to be Ron Paul, well we couldn’t resist.

“I love this guy,” Guthrie said in a press release issued by the campaign. “Dr. Paul is the only candidate I know of who would have signed the Constitution of The United States

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Pierce County Council spokesman Brad Chatfield says the council likely will postpone action on a major ethics overhaul when it meets at 3 p.m. Chatfield says a flurry of last-minute amendments has convinced council members they need more time to study the matter.

As currently written, the measure would prohibit county employees from accepting most gifts and require lobbyists to register and disclose their finances.