By Ralph Schwartz
I just got off the phone with Luanne Van Werven, outgoing chairwoman of the Whatcom Republicans (and by “outgoing” I mean soon to leave office).
During a conversation on a couple topics, including the new county party leadership (to appear in a future blog post and The Bellingham Herald), I asked her about the new majority caucus in the state Senate, which includes all 23 Republicans and two conservative Democrats. They have taken over the Senate, outnumbering the remaining Dems 25-24.
Here’s what Van Werven had to say about the changes in the Senate:
I think it’s great news, and I think there’s definitely going to be a philosophical alignment to the right. I am concerned, though, because we still have a very liberal House of Representatives, and of course the governor is a Democrat. I don’t know, is it going to look a lot like what we see in Washington, D.C.?
(She said here she was happy to learn that Sen. Doug Ericksen (R-Ferndale) was named co-chair of the Energy and Telecommunications Committee.)
I think those are all very positive moves. I’m hoping that down there in Olympia, our state legislature is ready to get some things done.
This is Sad news indeed. Ericksen is not a good fit for WA government.
“I don’t know, is it going to look a lot like what we see in Washington, D.C.?”
Bingo. Adequately funded public education as ordered by the state Supreme Court? Forget it. Instead, these inmates now running the Senate asylum will make one quixotic attempt after another to overturn the Growth Management Act, try their hand at union-busting, and push a 1950s-style social agenda. None of it will pass, but nothing reasonably adult will pass either. We’ll having nothing left but Jay Inslee making executive orders. Thank all that is good in heaven that Rob McKenna didn’t get elected.
It matters who you elect to all levels of government. Not just the Federal level.
Democrats should not be worried about Ericksen. He’s really just a Democrat lite, with an undergraduate degree from Cornell and a post grad degree from Huxely. Ericksen spoke on KGMI last year about his support for funding the SEIU contracts and the WEA insurance for teachers. You Democrats should love the guy.
Oh, he also was the first politician in the county to go on record supporting the coal terminal even before most of us knew it was a going to be a coal terminal.
As for Luanne Van Werven leaving office, she worked hard at destroying the Republican party in Whatcom County by doing Craig Cole’s bidding. Luanne worked closer with Craig Cole than she did members of her own party.
Interesting statement Mr Galt. Can we encourage you to elaberate on the Van Werven – Cole connection?
I have nothing but disrespect for the ignorant pseudo Dems who crossed over and I wish them ill. I also have nothing but disrespect for Van Werven or any of the lunatic fringe Republicans which is all that seems to remain of their party, especially in this retarded county. But that is Whatcom. Outside of Bellingham, it is a virtual intellectual wasteland in my opinion. I’m sure there are those who will be happy to tell me to move or quit whining. I can’t describe in detail what I would like them to do with themselves, I can only act as if all this is just normal ebb and flow of politics. But bottom line , more and more I feel nothing but anger and disgust for our so called leaders and the foolish and confused voters who elected them.
Cole made promises to Van Werven of truck jobs at the GPT terminal. Van Werven’s husband is a truck driver, who often makes the trip to the Westshore terminal. Cole promised that there would be the same type of truck traffic to the GPT terminal. Van Werven allowed Cole to do one of his dog and pony shows to the Central Committee and refused to allow any time for the opposition to be heard. Actually, she flat out refused to even discuss any opposition to the coal terminal, even though she admitted that she knew that the terminal would not be good for the residents around Ferndale and that the roads “out there” were not built to support that kind of truck traffic. She carried the banner for Craig Cole all year, even allowing one other supporter to denounce any PCO who refused to support the coal terminal and politicians who supported the coal terminal after Ericksen lost the County Executive race.
Cole later denied the promise of trucks to the terminal after I pointed out that SSA would be responsible for road improvements for the planned truck traffic. The original argument was that there wasn’t enough track through the South end of Bellingham for all the necessary trains, so truck traffic would be inevitable.
Right now, the Whatcom County GOP is dominated by union members, both public sector and trade unions. The GOP union members were convinced that if the GOP stood behind the unions on the union issues, the unions would support GOP politicians. Even after the local GOP was trounced in the mid-terms, they stayed with the unions.
I guess that the local GOP philosophy is to cut spending as long as the cuts don’t impact unions.
Political parties in WA State mean nothing because there is no core ideology that unifies them.
We have Libertarians (who work inside both Democrat and Republican parties) who support unions and even belong to public sector unions themselves. The Democrat Libertarians are often atheists who support abortion, free birth control, gay marriage, legalized marijuana, and open immigration, but voter ID.
We have Libertarian Republicans who oppose abortion, and gay marriage, but support sector, again because they are often a member of a public sector union, and also support legalized marijuana (that’s always a biggie).
Both of these self-identified Liberatarian groups support the coal terminal, claiming that it is a property rights issue (even though in this case it is corporate property rights). Property rights is always a big issue with all types of Libertarians and that is where the Libertarians part company with the Democrats. Libertarians don’t think that gophers should take priority over private property use, though in some cases they might think that a pile of manure is a more serious problem than a giant pile of coal.
The point is that WA State is Balkanized along specific local interests rather than political ideological boundaries. Everyone is fighting for self rule, against a State centralized control. Even Bellingham is fighting for self rule over the coal trains against the Democrat Party, who is behind the terminal.
Donna Shaw aka “John Galt” your disturbing rant is filled with lies and misinformation. Try getting your facts straight before you go off on a foolish tirade. Spew your hateful rubbish somewhere else… although I doubt anyone else wants to hear your crazy talk.
Not sure that this is an improvement.
Why do Republicans insist on supporting elected officals who have a track record of bad behavior?
We have Pam Roach – The Olympian Politics blog reminds us that sanctions backed by both parties have prevented her from communicating directly with many Senate staffers, but Tom said he now expects the Senate’s Facilities and Operations Committee to lift the sanctions — just months after the committee settled a hostile-workplace lawsuit in part by recommitting to the sanctions. Tom said it’s “time to move on” from the 2010 sanctions.
It’s time to move on? The woman pulled a gun on one of her staff members a few years back. It’s time to eject her from the Senate!
Maybe, just maybe, in the future, we will be able to elect individuals who are grounded and responsible. Meanwhile… we reap what we sow.
Think twice before you cast that emotionally charged vote.
Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/2012/12/11/2349260/senate-reveals-power-sharing-partnership.html#storylink=cpy
Why did she pull a gun on one of her staff?
She had a temper tantrum when someone moved the roses on her legislative desk.
Am I the only person that is convinced that Roach is a menace to everyone who works in the Senate?
LuAnne – You defended Craig Cole, saying that you knew that Craig Cole was telling the truth about the coal terminal jobs because your husband was a truck driver who often made trips to the Westshore terminal and saw all the people working at the Westshore terminal.
Now, if you would like to withdraw that comment, it should be done publicly. Were you making up stories out of whole cloth to defend your support of Craig Cole? Did Craig Cole even tell you that there would be truck jobs at GPT or did you make that up, also?
Are you aware that Obama is making the infrastructure expenditures that would fund the GPT terminal, part of the debt negotiations?
Make WA the next right to work state and open all those potential coal terminal jobs to the Whatcom County unemployed.
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