From Stark
Democrat Suzan DelBene, former director of the Washington Department of Revenue, will be in Whatcom County Saturday to campaign for the 1st District seat in Congress.
Thanks to the redrawing of Congressional districts, most of Whatcom County outside Bellingham is now in the 1st District.
Like some of her Democratic rivals for the Congressional seat, DelBene is far better known in suburban Seattle. She ran a close but unsuccessful congressional race against Dave Reichert in 2010 before Gov. Chris Gregoire named her to the Department of Revenue post.
DelBene told me she’s looking forward to hearing from Whatcom County residents before she takes a position on the Gateway Pacific Terminal project at Cherry Point.
I’ll post more of my interview with her on Monday.
I’m so excited – not. This person was a Gregoire appointee, at the Dept of Revenue? Devoted to tax-tax-tax. I talked to a guy packing up and leaving the state the other day… The left is killing the golden goose, you know?
If you’re a Democrat, you can meet Laura Ruderman, Suzan Delbene, and Darshan Rauniyar (candidates for WA-01) at the 42nd LD Democrats meeting Saturday morning.
Pyewacket, at the risk of not having you pack up and move away, I’d like to point out that the overall tax rate in WA has been slowly going down for the past 40 yrs.. In the ’70′s it was up around $125/$1000 of income, now it’s below $100/$1000 of income.
I went to the meeting to hear from Ruderman, Delbene, and Rauniyar.
Rauniyar exceeded expectations, and had well thought out ideas and responsive answers. He didn’t give guarded answers, and he backed up his ideas with specifics.
Ruderman was able to point to her elected track record of proactive results and history of direct responses to all constituents. She also got sincere laughs and nods for her quick-wittedness.
Delbene? If she had been the only candidate, I would have thought she would do a swell job, but with the better known Darcy Burner, and the more accomplished Laura Ruderman in the race, Delbene would need to really stand out more. It’s not that she’s bad, it’s that the bar is set high with the competition. Nice and smart will not be enough. Inspiring and aggressive are already on the table.
Not to mention that the two additional candidates who are still currently in the legislature have not even fully engaged this election yet. Goodman is not known up here. Hobbs is very aggressive, and he is somewhat known up here, but not entirely in a positive light.
You have a point: The Department of Revenue is definitely devoted to taxes. Dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it.