The latest fund-raising reports are in, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee still has the lead with $5.36 million. But as expected, fund-raising took off for Republican Rob McKenna the moment the Legislature adjourned and restrictions were lifted. In this race, he’s roaring out of the pits. Meanwhile, the reports signal that business is getting behind Tim Eyman’s latest effort to reimpose restrictions on the Legislature that make it harder to raise taxes. BP, Tesoro and Conoco/Phillips have each put up $100,000, and Equilon, which does business as Shell, has put up $50,000.

PubliCola, once one of the most promising Web ventures in Washington state’s political realm, is going dark, and Washington State Wire’s Jim Boldt offers his epitaph. Might sound strange coming from us, but it saddens us deeply.

Wendell Cox, a nationally recognized expert in urban planning, hits hard at the smart-growth policies that have come to dominate the thinking in the urban Puget Sound area. Growth management, rail transit, greenhouse-gas reduction — keep it up, Seattle, and it won’t just be the Sonics that move to Oklahoma City. Washington State Wire presents the full text of his speech last week at the annual transportation luncheon of the Washington Policy Center.

PubliCola, the trendsetting Seattle political website, bites the dust. Advertising alone just wasn’t sufficient to keep it going, and apparently no progressive angel stepped forward. The site’s political leanings might have set some on edge, but in its three-and-a-half-year run, it became a must-read for political junkies of all stripes. Now writers Josh Feit and Erica Barnett are off to Seattle’s Crosscut, where publisher David Brewster says he hopes to raise enough money to keep them employed. It’s a tough business, this Internet.

The Washington Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday in a case that aims to keep those state liquor stores open. And it was deja vu all over again, as arguments that were sounded in the campaign got their day in court some six months after the fact. Voters didn’t know what they were doing, opponents say, and somehow must have missed all the TV ads that aired during the record-shattering $35 million initiative campaign, the most expensive in state history. The court is the last resort: D-day is June 1.

All four announced candidates for state auditor have filed papers to run for the position, making the race the biggest bloodbath of the year. At least two sitting members of the Legislature are certain to lose their parking spaces at the state Capitol come January, possibly three.

During its sprightly three-and-a-half-year run, Seattle’s PubliCola website had quite an impact on Washington state politics, and demonstrated that a website that operates on a shoestring can compete with the largest of news media organizations. Founder Josh Feit reflects on the site’s successes and failures, and the day he says he got under Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt’s skin.