Sen. Ericksen
Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, who is running for Whatcom County executive, told attendees of the Whatcom Progressive Solidarity forum that he supports creation of a guest-worker program for farm labor.
“Well, we’re working with the farmers to make it legal so they can bring in guest workers,” Ericksen said. “It would be nice if they were able to have a visa from the federal level to be able to do that. So a guest worker program would be good for our farmers … That’s my view on it, making it legal so they can get people in to help them with their farm is important. You need land, water and labor for farms.”
His opponent, Jack Louws, didn’t attend the forum.
Here is the video with Ericksen and Christina Maginnis at the forum (Maginnis is running against council member Sam Crawford, who didn’t attend the forum):
Maginnis received an endorsement from the group. Ericksen didn’t get an endorsement or recommendation from the group.
Here is what the group said about Maginnis:
Christina Maginnis won the endorsement for County Council seat #2 due to her passion and willingness to use her knowledge of hard science to protect the Lake Whatcom watershed into our future
Maginnis
Maginnis and Ericksen aren’t running against each other, but they had an interesting debate over the issue of exempt wells. Under state law, landowners can sink a well that takes up to 5,000 gallons of water a day for a home. Ericksen said he supports the rights of rural landowners to be able to build a home on their property; he said state law also gives farmers a right to water for their cattle, too.
Maginnis, who works for the state Department of Ecology, said the law is a problem, because it lets people sink wells that reduce available water for farm operations.
So I guess this is an admission there are jobs Americans won’t take, even in this recession….does Doug not realize he is working against the very argument his ilk have made for decades?
Why not dump the subsidies the entire north county lives on, raise food prices to their real level, raise the minimum wage to $15. or better and then see if the out of work construction workers will get off the dole, and reap the benifits to health costs of a leaner populus who won’t race to Jacky B’s for a heart clogging Whopper for 99 cents.
Did they run a spell check on their banner….. “endorces” “counsil”…. really ?
@Darcy, It is sad, isn’t it?
Now this is REALLY funny!
The progressive posturing with school curriculum over the years is now evident!
I certainly hope the proponents of this group are profoundly embarrased.
And for those that received their “support”?
PLEASE take it and run with it!
You’ll only show others that even you didn’t recognize the banner and have no clue!!!
that looks like it was added to the video. The white board behind the candidates was blank.
Steve,
Someone might be profoundly “embarrassed”, not “embarrased”. I wouldn’t be embarrassed by your misspelling — I du it all the time.
Yep, that text was added after the video was shot. Just for the record: I didn’t write it.
Jared