The candidate forum this evening was a good one. It will be much better on Btv10 as it is rebroadcast many times this month. For the live audience, the two TV cameras were really in the way. Check the
Letters not printed in the Herald that seem to meet their criteria has been an issue for years. Now, answers are coming to light explaining why some letters do not get printed. There could well be mor
The Bellingham Herald editorial today is excellent. It raises the basic questions about the newly proposed Lake Whatcom land reconveyance deal to make a park on the very steep hillsides at the south e
Let us be glad our Whatcom County Sheriff, Bill Elfo, is a fellow who has common sense and is not afraid to think. When I was publisher of the Whatcom Independent I got to know him a bit. We have a go
First a bit of news. It seems ACB will not be moving to the outskirts of Ferndale for their expanded manufacturing space. Instead they are negotiating with the Port to move into the soon-to-be-vacant
Tom Pratum has some good information on the proposed - and still mostly secret - Lake Whatcom land reconveyance plan. He posted it on the North Cascades Audubon Society website, which he runs. It outl
The Herald continues to sit on the letter criticizing the racist cartoon in the Sat, Sep 15 paper. Last week, editorial page editor Scott Ayers said on his blog that he was out of letters and planned
The October surprise is a week early. Today’s Herald has the carefully managed news of the land swap that John Watts alerted us to on Sep 11 - and which was then denied by the McShanes, Mitch Friedman
Scott Ayers complains in his blog this morning that he has so few letters to the editor that next Monday he may not have any to print. Yet I know of one letter he has been sitting on - not from me an
One concern about today’s candidate forum. The sponsors have not provided specific information on how the forum will be conducted - and all the sponsors are liberal organizations endorsing candidates.
First candidate forum is tomorrow evening. Just a reminder. It starts early - at 5:30 pm with snacks and the actual speaking and questions starting at 6 pm. They are putting county candidates first -
Sam Taylor, political reporter for the Herald, appears to have a new type of news feature in today’s paper. He is reporting small but important bits of campaign news in one article. This format, if co
A racist political cartoon in today’s Bellingham Herald shows very poor judgement by the editors. Or else a misunderstanding of what constitutes racism. Or, perhaps the editors are unaware of their ow
Will you be traveling after October 18? Know someone who will be - and not be here to vote? Working in Alaska? Traveling to Europe? Well, you can vote now - today - at the counter in the Auditors offi
Tom Pratum has a letter in the current issue of the Cascadia Weekly on page 4 that pretty much demolishes the ‘facts’ in Dan McShane’s letter of last week. No letter of correction from McShane. Pratum
Rather than answer several emails individually, this post will clarify a couple things. First, why is yesterday’s post by John Watts that I praised any different from his late July post that I critici
An astounding post by John Watts this afternoon on his HamsterTalk website. He has what amounts to a prediction of an October Surprise - implying strongly that it is intended to affect the election. H
The letter by Dan McShane in the current issue of the Weekly has a few errors in it regarding how Dan voted and such. He wrote the letter to defend his actions on the county council regarding Sudden V
A sunny Sunday and an interesting time listening to a local politician show how to get on both sides of every issue and not ever be accountable for his own actions.
Tim Johnson likes to play loose and cute with the facts. His Gristle in the current Weekly is a good example. The first four paragraphs describe the Whatcom County Boundary Review Board’s recent decis
Writer's notes: The candidates for State Representative in the 40th District Position 1 are: Dusty Gulleson (prefers Republican Party,) Chuck Carrell (prefers Republican Party,) Doug Revelle (prefers Happiness Party,) Mike Newman (prefers Republican Party,) Kristine Lytton (prefers Democratic Party,) Tom Pasma (prefers Democratic Party,) Thomas Boucher (prefers Democratic Party,) Justin Van Dyk (prefers Democratic Party,) and Donna R. Miller (prefers Republican Party.)
What follows are the two responses to questions I submitted to Chuck last Mon, Aug 2.
Why should I vote for you?
"I’m running this year because the Legislature and Governor continued their out of control spending habits despite our troubled economy, and we need to stop it.
The only way it will stop is to start electing strong leadership to the Legislature that can make the hard choices that will be needed.
I will not support any new taxes unless they will completely eliminate an existing tax and make the amount less overall to the people they affect.
I think people are taxed to their limit right now and the real long term solution is to have the state and local governments cut their spending and get back to the essential functions of what state government is supposed to do.
I will not accept money from, or be a representative for, any PAC or special interest group. That’s important when figuring out where to trim at least $3 billion dollars from our state’s budget next session.
When making cuts, these candidates will feel obligated to keep unnecessary programs due to the financial aid they received during their campaigns. The problem was highlighted this year, and electing those types of candidates will only bring the same issue to the next Legislative session."
What is important to you?
"The most important thing to me this next Legislative session is getting our fiscal house in order.
We need to simplify the tax structure and then get an accurate assessment of what the state budget will be.
Then we need to REALISTICALLY balance the budget. This means that we fund our most important things such as education and public safety first and then continue down until everything is funded or there is no more state money left.
When the state budget is down to zero then we stop funding programs. No matter how badly we want to fund a program, if the state budget is spent then they will have to get their funding someplace else besides state government.
Even within our top priorities we need to look at how to consolidate these agencies and programs to make them more efficient. We also need to look at reducing the middle management in these agencies and what I term “inner bureaucracies.”
Years of these types of hiring practices by state and local government has created an enormous drain on our resources and is not sustainable. Nor can we rely on Federal grants like we did this year to balance the budget."
