Fan Mail from Some Flounder?

With apologies to Boris and Natasha, here's a message from our CD4 Fear(ing)less Leader. Highlights pertain to our ballot.

Central Washington colleagues:

Primary ballots have arrived throughout central Washington. Best wishes to our candidate, Jay Clough, and to other Democratic candidates in central Washington: United States Senator Patty Murray; Carol Moser, candidate in the 8^th Legislative District; Ed Lisowski, candidate in the 14^th Legislative District; Paul Spencer candidate in the 15^th Legislative District; Tom Silva, candidate in the 15^th Legislative District; Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Andy Miller; Douglas County Auditor Thad Duvall; Franklin County Treasurer Tiffany Coffland; Franklin County Auditor Zona Lenhart; Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Lowe; Franklin County Clerk Mike Killian; Kittitas County Treasurer Jerry Pettit; and Skamania County Commissioner Jamie Tolfree.

Jay Clough travels to the other Washington this week to raise money and introduce himself to his new home.

A curious Washington statute reads that, if a candidate for judicial office receives more than fifty percent of the vote in a primary election, the candidate gains the judicial seat without the need of a general election. Therefore, votes in the primary for judicial positions are critical.

Judicial seats are nonpartisan. Nevertheless the Building Industry Association of Washington, through donations and seven-figure ad campaigns, has purchased two seats on the Washington Supreme Court. The two seats are held by Judges Richard Sanders and Jim Johnson. Sanders and Johnson routinely decide important cases on the side for which BIAW files amicus briefs. Both are respectively challenged by fair minded, ethical judicial candidates, Charlie Wiggins and Stan Rumbaugh. Please encourage your friends and neighbors to vote for Rumbaugh and Wiggins.

George Fearing, 4th CD Chairman

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.

Vote YES for libraries
On the August 17 primary ballot is a measure which will lift the lid of the current library levy. If the measure passes, libraries within the Fort Vancouver will be able to restore lost operating hours and purchase new books. In order to pass, the measure requires a 50% plus 1 voter approval.

Below is a Q & A provided by the Fort Vancouver Library District. Additional information on how to be involved in the campaign is available at http://voteforlibraries.com/.


Q. Why are you asking property owners for more money?

A. FVRL, along with most other public agencies, is facing declining revenues and increasing costs for maintenance and operations. The decline is in part due to a severe reduction in construction, which in the past provided the district a cushion against tax limitation measures through taxes collected from timber sales and new construction.

Declining revenues are especially concerning for libraries. In hard times more people turn to public libraries to cut household costs such as book purchases, magazine subscriptions and Internet access. They also need libraries more than ever to sharpen marketable skills and search for employment. More people are using FVRL libraries: circulation increased 8 percent in 2009 and continues to rise.

We implemented severe spending reductions in 2009, but we also need to address long-term funding. The only operational funding tool available to libraries is the levy lid lift.

The library board voted in late 2009 to accept a decrease in base property tax funding for 2010 rather than invoking a clause in the state's tax limitation laws that would have allowed us to raise property taxes a small amount without voter approval. Putting a levy lid lift measure on the ballot lets voters have a say in whether the library will make further cuts to services, hours and book purchases.

Q. What would the tax increase pay for, and how much will you collect?

A. Raising the levy rate to the allowable $0.50 per $1,000 assessed valuation would provide approximately $3 million in 2011 to fund:

• District-wide restoration of library hours that were lost in 2009
• The purchase of additional books and other materials to keep the library's collection up-to-date and sufficient to meet growing demand. The district's book-purchasing power has been stagnant for about 10 years.

All FVRL libraries would benefit from the increased revenue, with restored hours and/or more books.

We expect that a levy increase at this level will cost the owner of a $250,000 house approximately $20 more per year.

Q. Will you be adding movie DVDs, music CDs and downloadable e-books?

A. Our focus for building up the collection will be on existing types of materials. We haven't added entertainment DVDs and music CDs in the past due to the high initial cost of acquiring a reasonable selection. A successful levy will allow us to consider new formats and types of materials, as well as fulfill unmet needs for current types of materials.

Q. What will happen if the measure fails?

A. Without additional maintenance and operations funding, we won't be able to restore library hours cut in 2009 or increase the book budget. We also won't be able to hire the staff required to open the larger new main library with the current six‐days‐a‐week schedule. The new building will be open only five days a week. Additional cuts in the future to hours and services across the district are very likely.

Q: Why has the library district picked this time to announce a new tax measure?

A. Library funding constraints are a long-term problem that reached a critical point in 2009. Over the past year, the library district has had to reduce its operational expenses to a level that impacts basic library access (hours) and services. The situation is not anticipated to improve in the foreseeable future. The district is now giving voters a chance to decide whether to restore library funding to a higher level.

Q. When did FVRL last go to the voters to ask for an operating tax increase?

A. 1993 - 17 years ago.

Q. What other solutions have you implemented to address reduced revenues?

A. FVRL substantially reduced its operating budget in 2009 -- including cutting 10 percent of staff positions and reducing hours at seven libraries -- in response to severe revenue declines.

The district's ability to purchase books and other items has diminished over the years due to rising costs that have exceeded revenue growth. For example: the number of items purchased for the collection in 2008 was less than the number purchased in almost any year in the past decade. This situation has made it difficult to keep pace with a growing population's increasing demand for library books.

The district has made more than a dozen other cuts or service reductions in the past few years in its efforts to work within available revenue.

Q. What makes you think you can win with a tax measure, given the bad state of the economy?

A. In a district-wide poll recently conducted by the political action committee Citizens for Better Libraries, 62 percent of voters indicated that they would vote 'yes' for a library levy lid lift, which requires 50 percent + 1 to pass. The survey results were made available to the library board of trustees as they considered whether to proceed with a funding measure. The success of the February 2010 school levies also provided a timely indicator that voters might be willing to invest in the future by supporting a library measure.

Q. Who gets to vote on the library measure?

A. All registered voters who live withih Fort Vancouver Regional Library District can vote on the August 17 library measure. The district encompasses all of Skamania and Klickitat counties, all of Clark county except the city of Camas, and the city of Woodland in Cowlitz County.

Spotlight on Victoria Allen

Those who have been following all the hoopla about property assessments will be happy to know we have an excellent candidate for Assessor this election. Over the last 7 years, Victoria Allen has worked every job in the Assessor's Office except actually going out to assess property. She knows where operations need improvement, has ideas about how community relations can be improved, and is enthusiastic about educating county residents about the assessment process. She is shown in the photo answering questions at the County Nominating Convention, where she was formerly nominated as the Democratic Candidate in this race.

Victoria moved to the county with her husband and daughter in 2003 to take a job in the Klickitat County Assessor's Office, and to be closer to her parents in Kennewick. They live on 7 acres about 10 miles outside of Goldendale and enjoy the rural lifestyle. Besides learning every aspect of the Assessor's Office, she has volunteered on the levy committee for the Goldendale School District and on the youth soccer board. She also sings in her church choir and with the Community Cantata during the holiday season. Victoria can also be spotted at her daughter's sports events, band and math competitions.

If you are one of the lucky people who have heard Victoria speak about her potential candidacy in recent months, you know what we're talking about. Her years of experience interfacing with the public on assessment matters show in her calm ability to explain a sometimes complicated and baffling process. If not, look out for your opportunity to talk with Victoria during the upcoming election season.

If It Isn't Broken, Don't Fix It

There was a misleading and poorly thought out editorial in the Thursday Seattle Times regarding our method for re-dictricting in Washington. Luke Esser and Dwight Pelz wrote the following letter-to-the-editor as a response. It will run next week.

Washington should enact changes to rules governing legislative redistricting

Letter To The Editor

The guest editorial on legislative redistricting by Bill Finkbeiner and Krist Novoselic emits an hysterical alarm for a phantom problem. They charge that “Washington needs to put in place safeguards against the abuse of our imperfect system. . . . .and wrest control of our democracy from the hands of the political parties.” They refer to the political parties’ “raw lust for heavy power.” It sounds like a steamy romance novel.

The calm truth is that Washington has a balanced, bipartisan redistricting system that is the envy of the nation. It was brought about as the result of a citizen initiative passed overwhelmingly in the 1980’s, and it has served our state well in the years since. Each majority and minority leader of the State Senate and State House appoints one member of a civilian Redistricting Commission. A fifth, nonvoting member is appointed by the four voting members to serve as chair. The result historically has been a fair map which favors neither party.

Re-districting can be a shameful exercise in partisan political power in other states. In overwhelmingly Republican states the Republican majority can draw the new districts with no input from Democrats. In overwhelmingly Democratic states the Democratic majority can draw the new lines with no input from Republicans. But in Washington neither party can force their will on the other. The bipartisan members of the Redistricting Commission either have to agree on a map that is fair to all, or the responsibility for drawing the lines is turned over to our State Supreme Court. It’s hard to imagine a system that could be more fair or ethical.

The voters got it right when they passed our current redistricting system into law. This system promotes openness, cooperation and bipartisanship. Our state’s process for redistricting not only isn’t broken, it’s a shining example of good government that other states would do well to copy.

Dwight Pelz is the Chair of the Washington State Democratic Party

Luke Esser is the Chair of the Washington State Republican Party

May Meeting in Goldendale

Klickitat Democrats are invited to the May meeting at the Goldendale Library, 5:30 pm on Friday, May 21st.

The program will include a brief business meeting, introduction of Tomas Villanueva, candidate for State Senate in the 15th LD, a video message from Sen. Patty Murray, and the History Channel's production "Renewable Energy". Please join us for this timely discussion!

From Netflix:

Renewable Energy(2006) NR

With an eye on the future, this thought-provoking History Channel special examines the potential of wind, water and the like to literally change the way we live. The higher gas prices climb, the more people look to alternative energy sources that are reliable and renewable. Could harnessing the power of biofuels, geothermal energy, the sun and shifting tides be the key to humanity's long-term survival?