Dirty campaign season already started

The first dirt in Thurston County’s election this year has already been thrown by Roger Erskine, chair of the Thurston County Democrats.

Erskine has accused Thurston County Auditor Republican Gary Alexander, who is the county’s chief elections officer,  with trying to squelch voter turnout in the county.  Erskines has tried to tie Alexander to a 25-year old comment by a right-wing Republican saying that he didn’t want everyone to vote.

In the meantime, Thurston County’s chief elections officer has been a Republican for the last 30 years and voter turnout in the county has reached 80 percent – – one of the top voter participation rates in the entire United States.

For those last 30 years Republicans have been the chief election’s officer in Thurston County – – two of them – – Sam Reed and Kim Wyman – – have gone on to become Secretary of State and the state’s chief election’s officer.   When Wyman ran for Secretary of State last year she carried Thurston County by more than 22,000 votes.  An over-whelming endorsement of a Republican in a Democratic county.

Democratic chair Erskine said that Republicans hate the fact that “we have 80 percent voter turnout .  They hate the resounding success of our voter turnout in Thurston County.”

All of which have come under Republican auditors who have been at the forefront in encouraging voter turnout.

Erskine is pushing Alexander’s opponent, Mary Hall.

Endorsing Hall, and in essence endorsing Erskine’s rhetoric are Lacey councilmembers Jeff Gadman, Cynthia Pratt and Andy Ryder.

Other local elected officials endorsing Erskine’s remarks are Sandra Romero, Steven Drew, Shawn Myers, Sam Hunt, Pete Kmet, Nicole Hill, Tom Oliva and Jim Cooper.   They all signed an endorsement ad for Mary Hall