Sun Spots: NASCAR gets permanent "no" from key senator

Granting that not everyone considers the prospect of a NASCAR speedway in Kitsap County to be a big deal, but most people are watching closely enough to have an idea about how things seem to be going in the legislature.

Apparently, the editors of the Kitsap Sun need some help in determining what is newsworthy about the speedway proposal.

In today's print edition of the Kitsap Sun is an Associated Press article comparing the situation for the speedway and another proposal in the legislature involving the professional basketball arena in Seattle.

So far, I haven't found the AP article on the Sun's web site, but it is available at the King County Journal, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and The Olympian.

In fact, a very important part of the article is available on those three newspapers' web sites which is not in the Kitsap Sun's printed newspaper.

Referring to the speedway's chances for legislative approval, the Kitsap Sun included this part of the article:

The company, however, will still face a major roadblock for its plans in 2007 -- namely, Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton.

The Sonics' bid for an improved stadium appears to stand a better chance with lawmakers.

The article as published in The Olympian, the Post-Intelligencer, and the King County Journal contains a bit more:

The company, however, will still face a major roadblock for its plans in 2007 -- namely, state Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton.

Prentice, chairwoman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee, thinks the raceway's boosters have not satisfied several concerns about the project, including worries about traffic flow.

``From now on, the answer permanently will be `no,''' she said. ``It will not get past my committee.''

Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, a supporter of the NASCAR raceway plan, said Washington will be missing out on an economic boom if it lets the proposal slip away.

``What an awful mistake we would make if we literally let it go to Portland,'' he said. ``That would be a huge mistake.''

The Sonics' bid for an improved stadium appears to stand a better chance with lawmakers.
[Emphasis added.]

It sure looks as though Sen. Prentice intends to prevent the enactment of anything resembling the proposal made by International Speedway Corporation (through their subsidiary, Great Western Sports, Inc.) for the construction of a speedway in Kitsap County.

She isn't just talking about this legislative session, unless she has a peculiar understanding of the word "permanently."

It was clear from earlier articles that Sen. Prentice was, indeed, a "major roadblock," but this AP story indicates that she is an immovable obstruction. That's newsworthy.