Political tidbits

The endorsementof Jon Halvorson by the Olympia Master Builders and the Lacey Chamber of Commerce, should come as no surprise.  He’s the best of the lot and the only one other than Sandra Romero who stands a chance of becoming our next Thurston County Commissioner.

These business groups are just watching out for their own self interest.  Make no bones about it, Jon Halvorson is a liberal democrat who will look for government and new taxes to solve the financial mess the county is in.  But Romero is a radical environmentalist.  Her membership and leadership in Futurewise has cost the county more than a million dollars in lawsuits defending itself from this Seattle-based radical environmental group.  The election of Romero to a county leadership post will cost us money and jobs and will create a long term problem we’ll never work our way out of.   With the top two primary the other three candidates don’t stand a chance.  Halvorson is the only hope business has.   Besides, although he is a retired state employee, he does run his own business and has been a member of the Lacey Chamber for more than 20 years.

What’s up with The Seattle Times.   This election season it seems to be out of touch with its liberal Seattle market.   The Times has written several front-page stories critical of Governor Christine (call me Chris) Gregorie.  Then, this week, it endorsed Michael Boyd for the Washington State Supreme Court over incumbent Judge Mary Fairhurst.

In making its endorsement of Boyd The Times pointed out Fairhurst’s record on open public meetings and public records requests.  In all of those cases, Fairhurst sided with government over the rights of the people.  Obviously The Times has come to realize that Fairhurst is a government-first and a people-last candidate.  Maybe it also realized that we can’t afford four more years of Democratic control of our legislative, executive and judicial branches of state government.

Chief Justice Gerry Alexander of the Washington State Supreme Court has endorsed Robin Hunt for the Court of Appeals.  But making junk phone calls on her behalf is beneath the dignity of the top judge in the state.  If I were Justice Alexander, I’d ask the Hunt people to stop the calls.

It’s a little early yet but the 12 candidates running for District Court Judge to fill the vacancy left by the death of Kip Stilz, are trying to separate themselves from the pack.  I’m backing William R. Bayness for the job, but trying to get name recognition and support is difficult.  The voting public is still trying to get a handle on the new top two primary and the District Court race isn’t on the ballot until November.  I’ll be telling you more about Bayness in the coming weeks.