Washington's GOP is reaching out for more votes: Today So Far

• Washington's GOP hopes to gain more Latino votes.
• Washington's winemakers are adapting to the smoky summers we've had over the past few years.
• Closing the homeownership gap in Washington state.

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for October 4, 2022.

We can't avoid this anymore. It's October. It's time to start talking about elections.

With about a month to go, we won't be able to escape sensational campaign ads from our mailbox to our TVs, or the online bickering, or the last-minute "surprises" planned just in time to swing a few votes. Beyond all that, the issues are real and so are the candidates, which sounds odd since conspiracy theories are still driving a lot of voters — particularly election fraud and anything that sows doubt. In the Northwest, you'll hear candidates promote "election integrity" as an extension of this.

Another story that has come through KUOW's newsroom is the concerted effort by Democrats and Republicans in Washington to gain Latino votes. After every election, Democrats always seem so surprised that every single vote in the Latino demographic did not go their way. While it's true that, statistically, Latino votes generally favor Democrats, locally and nationally, there are communities that lean right. With the economy not doing so well, and a few other points, Republicans are looking to open up more votes in their favor.

“Religiously, economically, they fit, I think in my opinion, much better on the Republican side of the political spectrum,” said Republican Congressmember Dan Newhouse who is running for re-election in Washington's Fourth District.

“This is a big voting bloc that is very much open to considering voting for Republican candidates,” state GOP Chair Caleb Heimlich said.

This is not just GOP campaign rhetoric. There are political analysts in Washington who have noticed a slight sway to the right in recent elections. Republicans have noticed too. That's why state Republicans have opened an office in Wenatchee, and have hired a full-time employee with the purpose of reaching out to Latino communities in Yakima and the Tri-Cities. Read more here.

Washington's winemakers are adapting to the smoky summers we've had over the past few years. While smoke is great for sunsets, it's not so great for wine grapes which soak it up. That smoky taint stays with the grapes throughout the winemaking process and gives an ashy flavor. Many winemakers have a mission to mitigate this taint. Some have blended the 2020 crush with other wines to get past the smoky flavor. But there is another effort to get technology to help out. Some new work out of Washington State University has uncovered the undesirable smoky compounds that are causing the problem. The goal now is to develop a way to remove them. Read more here.

The homeownership gap between white and Black residents in Washington is worse than it was in the 1960s. That's one finding of a new study from the state's Department of Commerce, which was initially ordered up by the Legislature. Black, Indigenous and people of color would have to purchase more than 140,000 houses to achieve parity with white homeowners. The study is meant to inform future policies to help bridge the gap.

Michael Brown with the Seattle Foundation's Black Home Initiative tells KUOW that its "focus on home ownership isn’t just a nice thing – it’s meant to be transformative.” That's because homeownership can feed into other benefits, like financial and community stability. Brown promotes subsidies to help low-income people buy homes. He argues that the market will not come up with such housing on its own, so it has to be intentional. Read more here.

AS SEEN ON KUOW

The Seattle Kraken recently unveiled its first ever mascot, Buoy, a sea troll inspired by the Fremont Troll. (Courtesy of the Kraken)

DID YOU KNOW?

Turns out, October is a very aware month. It's National Apple Month and National Applejack Month (the drink, not the cereal or the pony). It's also National Cyber Security Awareness Month and Disability Employment Awareness Month. Apparently, it's also National Sarcastic Month ... which I am sooo excited about.

I am going to cover a few October things to be aware off, starting with — squirrels! Yep. It's Squirrel Awareness Month. You've probably heard by now that squirrels were intentionally brought into many city parks as an attraction in the 1800s. Parks were becoming all the rage, so why not have a few cute and fluffy friends to feed as well? It worked for a while, a little too well. There are stories of squirrels getting so fat from people feeding them that they fell out of trees and couldn't get back up.

When some squirrels do get away with a tasty nut, they generally hide them to eat later. Some squirrels, specifically the gray squirrel, is known to pretend to hide its food. Despite their efforts, squirrels lose about a quarter of the food they hide, to other squirrels or birds, etc. It appears they realize this loss of inventory so they engage in "deceptive caching." Basically, squirrels pretend to bury food — dig a hole, pretend to drop something in it, then fill it back up. Then they do it over and over again with the goal of fooling any thieves who could be watching.

ALSO ON OUR MINDS

Loretta Lynn, country music icon, has died at 90

Loretta Lynn, the country music icon who brought unparalleled candor about the domestic realities of working-class women to country songwriting — and taught those who came after her to speak their minds, too – died today at her home in Tennessee. She was 90 years old.

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