Ballots Have Arrived

Primary ballots arrived in the mail yesterday (in White Salmon, anyway). Our votes are critical to getting our candidates through the Top Two Primary, so PLEASE be sure to vote. The Republicans are counting on us to give up on this election, and we will start with the Primary to show them we mean business. You can learn about the candidates via the Online Voters Guide.

The first item on the ballot is the Library Levy, for which we urge a YES vote. Details on the Library Levy appear in the previous blog post to this one.

On the county candidate level, Dani Burton is running uncontested for County Treasurer, but Victoria Allen has two Republicans vying for the County Assessor position. If you missed the recent Candidates Nights, Victoria did very well conveying her vast experience in the Assessor's Office. She will not need to spend any time learning the job, and already has working relationships up the line to the State and down the line to the taxpayers. She has played a key role in reorganizing the operation to perform annual assessments instead of the 4 year assessments that caused so many problems with recent valuations.

One of her opponents has experience in only one facet of the operation, as an appraiser. The other has multiple degrees and business experience, though not as an Assessor. Though her credentials are undeniably impressive, in this writer's opinion, she has shown that she is willing to manipulate statistics to mislead the voters in order to make political hay with a 2008 report. Both Victoria and Dell responded to the Enterprise to set the story and accompanying letter to the editor straight, but even at the Candidates Night, this candidate and her supporters (with handouts) continued to repeat, as gospel truth, misleading facts. If you'd like another view, check out the analysis done by Dell Rhodes on the Klickitat Democrats website. Victoria needs our support, so please mark your ballot for her, and encourage your family, friends and neighbors to do the same. We will get her through to the general election, but it is going to take a lot of work to put her over the top in November. She won't win the 'sign battle' but she sure can win the race with our votes.

Candidates on your ballot endorsed by the Washington State Democrats Central Committee include:
Senator- Patty Murray
Congressional District 4- Jay Clough
Supreme Court- Stan Rumbaugh and Charlie Wiggins

We have a local running for LD 15 position 1, currently held by Bruce Chandler. Paul Spencer lives in Skamania County and is making his first bid for elective office. Learn more about Paul and his views on the Klickitat Democrats Election page.

Our next meeting of the Klickitat Democrats is on Tuesday, August 3rd, 6:30 pm at the Columbia Bank meeting room in White Salmon. We will have a guest speaker about the Library Levy, and a representative from the Coordinated Campaign coming from Yakima. The main focus will be on the primary election, and getting out the vote. We will also be making plans for our booth at the Klickitat County Fair. Please join us.

Signs Signs Everywhere Signs

Our sign supply is growing! We now have Allen for Assessor signs and Library Levy support signs available at Dell's in White Salmon and Jim's in Lyle. Let us know if you need a sign, and we'll get you set up!

Where can you place signs? This handy guide was in the Enterprise recently. Signs are valuable, so please don't put them someplace illegal. They'll be confiscated! Also, our Democratic candidates look bad if we put signs where they don't belong...

Under WA Administrative Code 468-66, temporary political signs are allowed on private property visible from state highways. The property owner must consent, and the sign must comply with the WAC, as well as any local regulations. They must also meet the following requirements:

• Maximum size of 32 square feet in area
• Removed within 10 days following the election

Keep in mind that signs are NOT allowed in the state highway right of way.

• Utility poles are typically located inside the right of way. So, NO signs between the pole and the state highway.
• Where a fence separates the right of way from private property, NO signs between the fence and the state highway.

If you are not sure about the boundary lines, you can check with WSDOT Outdoor Advertising Specialist Pat O'Leary at OLearyP@wsdot.wa.gov. You will need to provide the state route number and the name of the nearest intersection or approximate milepost.