User:SlimJim/Carlson

John Carlson is a popular American conservative talk radio host on KVI, a Seattle talk radio station owned by Fisher Communications. His show airs during the afternoon drive time.

Politics
Carlson is "right leaning" or "conservative" and disagrees with much of what he terms the "Seattle liberal elite." Carlson has consistently criticized liberalism and the left leaning political trends that permeates much of urban Seattle as too tolerant of criminal behavior.

Biographical
Carlson was born in June 1959 and graduated in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Washington. He was later listed as one of the University's one hundred most influential graduates of the century.

He worked as the Communications Director for state GOP under Jennifer Dunn and co-founded Washington Institute Foundation in 1985 and served as president until 1994. Carlson also became a KIRO-TV commentator on a debate segment called Point-Counterpoint from 1986 to 1993 and a newspaper columnist in 1990. He then shifted from TV to radio in 1993, taking the afternoon drive-time slot on KVI. Carlson's show, from 3:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. Pacific Time, is preceded on the air by Sean Hannity and followed by Bryan Suits.

In 2000 he ran against Former Washington Governor Gary Locke and lost by a substantial margin. For figures, see Washington gubernatorial election, 2000.

Political activism
In 1998, conservative activist Tim Eyman launched Initiative 200, which attempted to prohibit affirmative action. The campaign was soon was handed over to Carlson, who took over. The initiative received enough signatures to earn a place on the ballot, and in November of 1998, voters approved it.

He successfully promoted the passages of several other citizen's initiatives including the "Three Strikes You're Out" measure in 1993, which began putting three-time violent criminals in prison for life, and the 1996 initiative for "Hard Time for Armed Crime," which increased sentences for felons caught with weapons.

He unsuccessfully promoted a citizen's initiative in 2005 to roll back a nine-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax passed by the State Legislature.

Hobbies
Carlson rides a Harley-Davidson and works with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's Climb to Fight Breast Cancer.