2013 Election Recommendations

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Al Bergstein

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4 Responses

  1. Ellen O'Shea, on October 22, 2013 at 3:10 pm said:

    AL, Well you certainly have made it clear that you are no environmentalist..or concerned about direct democracy. I was a registered democrat until last week. I worked hard to get Obama elected and was part of “On the Bus” project to register young voters so Obama would win. In Jefferson County we have the democractic party machine that smacks of Daly’s Chicago machine that beat up Anti-war peaceniks in the 60’s. We are poisoning the earth, destroying the economic and cultural lives of millions, throwing away the young and destroying the democractic process in the US, and you do not want the people in this county to have a chance to stand up to all this. Yes! On Home Rule…! Please remove me from this so-called concern for the environment group.

    • Al B., on October 22, 2013 at 4:57 pm said:

      Al here: I’ll be glad to remove you from the email alert. But that you can judge my environmental creds on a single issue is quite interesting. Not sure where you were in 1968 when you make a claim that we are living under a “Mayor Daly”(sic) regime, but I was on the streets in Chicago in 1968, as a young aspiring photojournalist. I watched the police beat a SunTimes photographer in front of my eyes for photographing a demonstration, along with hundreds of other protestors. So, I think I can say, with certainty, that this is not Chicago under Richard J. Daley.

      Getting a charter county will not guarantee to upend the political system in this or any other county. King County has a charter, and there is hardly a more apt description of a modern Democratic machine than that and Seattle! You seem to forget, or perhaps you weren’t here, but we lived under a very different regime of Commissioners just 13 years ago. Those folks gave us Pit to Pier. To hammer our current commissioners, who have taken the Net Pen issue far beyond where it should have been taken, when they could have folded on that issue and passed a strong SMP was something you should be proud of. While they were pursuing that, developers were going after any parcel that could be developed under the old rules. It could be argued that they gave away more than they gained. By the way, I sat on the SMP Citizen Advisory Committee (my name for it) for a number of years, helping craft the current SMP. I don’t remember meeting you at any of the public meetings we held. Would be more than willing to meet over coffee and explain what we all did during those years to protect our shorelines.

      No one can work in the political and environmental arena without losing some battles. My greatest mentor was Kathy Fletcher who ran People For Puget Sound for 25 years. While I was on the board of that illustrious pioneering environmental group I learned that you have to know how to actually accomplish goals, and how you have to sometimes decide to retreat and live to fight another day. How to garner allies and how to keep your friends close and your enemies (which you seem to painting me as) closer. Building alliances and working for the long view is hard, but effective. How to take a loss of your position, and come back to win later. I hope that whatever the outcome of this election, you will continue to fight for environmental protection. Overall, we are losing far more battles than we are winning on behalf of the environment. Puget Sound and our environment does not pay lobbyists to go fight for her protection. You have to do it because you believe in it. Personal attacks on people you don’t know, never change anyone’s mind. Anger rarely accomplishes anything constructive. You may find you need others in the environmental movement to achieve your goals. Better to mend fences than burn bridges.

      Peace be with you.

  2. Mary Marinkovich, on October 22, 2013 at 1:54 pm said:

    The democratic county commissioners are not friends of the environment. The corporate interests that would normally line up with and provide perks, cash for campaigns, etc..to the GOP…line up with democrats in Jefferson County…a county that will chronically elect democrats. I’ve been one all my life, and before I moved here, I lived in states where I could register to be a democrat. In any event I voted for Obama the last two elections. I have run referenda back in the midwest, and a mayoral campaign. I am not naive politically. I will go head to head with anyone who writes or produces this newsletter on issues of local, state or national politics–for political literacy. It is the arrogance of the Democratic Party here in Jefferson County that has driven many of us to a point of frustration. The commissioners insulted good members of this community who pleaded with them to stop the Glyphosate (RoundUp spraying in the county. John Austin said “Pick up your trash when you leave.” When we unrolled an advisory petition with over 4500 petitions at a County Commissioners meeting. The Commissioners (check the public record) consistently bundle every controversial agenda item into a consent agenda and pass these items with a block of routine matters. This is contrary to the intent of the laws of Washington, and subvert democracy. A consent agenda means there has been no legal public discussion among the commissioners. It is a rubber stamp on issues that intelligent folks KNOW needs some debate. I feel deeply sorry for Republicans in JeffCo. This IS a democracy…and they are citizens. But they have no voice. All a charter does is give the citizens of this county the freedoms that 99 percent of other American citizens have to put ideas to public vote on the ballot. Is Jeffco REALLY so democratically fascist/corporat *the mill, monsanto’s minions on the weed board; –that Oympic peninsula environmenta news is going to PRETEND to be in favor of the environment? We have some of the dirtiest air in the country. We have a Mill that scoffs at the regs in Washington for landfills. Give me a royal break. Until I see you working to get the air monitors that are locked away in closets, up and running around here…you cannot pose as anyone who gives a rat’s ass about the health and welfare of this region.

    • Al B., on October 22, 2013 at 3:05 pm said:

      Well, choosing sides in an election is always certain to draw controversy. As to whether we pretend to be for the environment, this blog has been publishing since 2007, at no charge to you, nor any advertisers. The public is free to check on the stands we have taken, the calls to action that we have advocated. The election choices we advocated last year, for example, are listed right under this year’s recommendations. You can see that we were very much correct in our choices and our choices got elected, almost entirely. That we are unwilling to support the Charter County proposition does not mean we do not assume that, right or wrong, it won’t succeed. The fact that San Juan County went charter and moved farther to the right because of it seems to not worry you at all. But let’s be clear, the Commissioners you rail against took a very comprehensive look at the CAO and SMP, especially the SMP, over a long period of time, and took enormous political heat for their choices in approving it. They have fought publicly for environmental protection written into county law, far more than most people, including this writer, has. We look for people who have delivered results, not promises, or “hope”. Regardless of whether you want more environmental protection or not, what the commissioners have *delivered* to this county, is far greater environmental protection than 99% of the counties in this State, and likely the country. To pillory them for not agreeing with your single issue stand, is really, like advocating throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

      We would like to see actual data to support your contention that this county has “the dirtiest air in the country”. We have seen the air quality (and actually lobbied for better monitoring of the mill, at many levels of state government). Please point us to the data that backs your comment. We have seen the EPA data, and know that it is bad stuff coming from the stack. The issue is the plume. No one has ever actually done ongoing monitoring of it. As to the air quality throughout the county, give us the data and we’d be glad to post it.

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