The Primaries Plus
At least once or twice surely every one of us has been guilty of procrastination. Don't let procrastination keep you from filling out your primary ballot (State of Washington) and mailing it in today (to be sure it is postmarked before the 8PM Tuesday deadline) or (perhaps better) driving by and dropping it in one of the Drop Boxes. Click here for a listing of Spokane County Drop Boxes. If you've already sent yours in check at MyVote.wa.gov to confirm that your ballot has been accepted. That website also features an electronic "Voters Guide"--there is no paper guide for the Primary.
DO NOT vote for Chris Armitage for U.S. Representative from Congressional District 5 (currently held by Cathy McMorris Rodgers). Mr. Armitage has dropped out of the race.
I've published the next four paragraphs twice before, but, just in case you missed:
If you, like I, find the candidate statements in the Voters’ Guide rather bland and nonspecific, check out FUSE Washington’s progressivevotersguide.org. I find their endorsements detailed, rational, and convincing.
If you have time to dig more deeply, you can listen to interviews with candidates pertinent to Spokane County by searching candidate names at https://www.spokanepublicradio.org/search/google#stream/0.
The League of Women Voters did Zoom interviews with many area candidates; These videos are available here: https://my.lwv.org/washington/spokane-area/article/view-videos-august-2020-primary-candidate-forums
For candidates at the state level you can determine who is funding there candidacy by visiting the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission website: https://www.pdc.wa.gov/ Navigation on that site takes some learning, but there is a lot of interesting information. For example, one can quickly see that only six of the thirty-six candidates for Washington State governor have significant financial backing: https://www.pdc.wa.gov/browse/campaign-explorer.
Every candidate for whom I would consider casting a vote in this Primary is listed as "Prefers Democratic Party." That has not always been true for me, but it is certainly true this year.
I believe we need a very broad re-set, an electoral pummeling, for Republicans to realize what they have become and what they have decided to condone.
The local Republican Parties set the table for right wing extremists, people they cannot renounce for fear of losing the support that keeps them in office. Many on the far right have connections to Matt Shea, the soon-to-be-former State Representative from Legislative District 4 (Spokane Valley north to Mt. Spokane). Matt Shea has morphed into a preacher of radical far right political "Christianity" at the Covenant Church in north Spokane. These are the same folks, intertwined with Shea, who present themselves as The Church at Planned Parenthood--Spokane, a Republican political interest group masquerading as a church (and carrying guns). Caleb Collier, former City of Spokane Valley city council member, frequent flier and associate of Shea at Covenant, and executive field coordinator for the extremist John Birch Society, recently made front page news in the Spokesman for his work in placing local billboards in opposition to mask wear. Anyone who gives these people the nod should be voted out of office.
Vote!
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P.S. Some specifics for LD4 voters: Currently on the ballot in LD4 we have the Matt Shea mini-me, McCaslin Junior, whose father, Bob McCaslin Sr., before he died wrote in a letter to the Spokane County commissioners, “I wish to state that under no circumstances would I support Matthew Shea for any public office." Bob McCaslin Junior rode into office on his father's good name--and followed Shea's lead on everything he has done in the legislature. So much for listening to one's parents. Like Matt Shea, who consistently refused to be interviewed by Spokane Public Radio and the Spokesman, McCaslin rarely consents to an interview. You can see him, however, at the League of Women Voters in a Zoom Q and A for the three candidates. Lori Feagan is my clear choice. She is clearly the best prepared.