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From the Columbian
Okay, I’m confused. She was asked point blank, do you think it can be built without tolls?
After rambling on a couple minutes, she says yes, she thinks so under one plan, but is not going to advocate that plan, but also the tolling plan should be sold better?
Follow up will appear in Tuesday’s Columbian
Classic Jaime, squarely on top of the fence.
Lew, She said she thinks we need another crossing, or fix the present one; and that can be done without tolls. If the vote fails the need does not go away. There are other solutions out there and they can be done without tolls.
Jaime has here head screwed on right. Let’s get behind her.
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Sorry Robert, but my opposition to her is personal, thanks to her, Casey Bowman and some others.
I will not vote for a Democrat.
Just as my stated frustration with the WSRP cherry picking McKenna and all but announcing endorsing him, ignoring and if need be undermining other Republicans, a strong conservative was thrown under the bus in order to ensure Herrera got the nod. Some of the backstabbing was even directed at me because I did not drop a good conservative and jump behind her.
Maybe Casey Bowman should rethink labeling someone who documented her record through through public documents and a dozen editorials as a liar, if they ever expect me to support her.
I will state if I think she did something agreeable, but she is well known for straddling the fence.
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My opposition to her is political: she’s an idiot.
Relying on a miniscule CTran vote as some sort of barometer of how her “constituents” feel about this just re-enforces to me that she’s a blithering, total, idiot.
In the last CTran vote, tens of thousands of us were excluded from having a say… but not from paying the tax.
If she wants to know how we feel, then she should demand that we get, at minimum, a county wide vote, at maximum, a try-county vote so all of the 65,000 commuters and their families get a say.
Anything less is Barbie-doll dress up.
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Kelly and Lew, you guys have been in the forefront of the battle all these years and you have taken a lot of shrapnel on behalf of the rest of us who have stayed in the shadows. I respect that. Please let your wounds heal a bit.
Jaime is our last best hope of stopping the CRC and redirecting the efforts toward real and less expensive solutions for our region.
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Robert, I understand what you are saying.
But I wouldn’t put too much dependence on Jaime. She has shown time and again that she has the spine of a jelly fish.
She should have put her foot down long ago on a county-wide vote, not put her finger in the air to see which way the wind blows.
She will likely be reelected. I won’t vote for the Democrat and so far, no real conservative has stepped forward to challenge her that I would support.
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With her positions… or lack of positions… she sends a message that is ambivalent at best. She is no hope to curtail this. She, in fact, supports it. All of it.
Let me make it clear: she supports the entire CRC project, including light rail. She supports tolls. She will, under no circumstance, do anything to stop it or even slow it down… because if she was GOING to do that, she already would have.
What she’s trying to do is find a way so she can be PERCEIVED as opposing any part of the project and tolls so that the unwashed masses believe that to be her position while simultaneously pleasing her union buds and developers who will finance her campaigns.
For example, the idea that she demands a vote, on the surface, is designed to make people believe she actually cares what we think on the subject, when, in fact, she already knows that most people here oppose it.
That she only wants a “CTran DISTRICT” vote instead of a county wide vote, a vote that would blow the CRC to pieces, puts the lie to her observation that
“she’d like to see an overall up-or-down vote on the entire project,”
All she has to do is send a letter to CTran that says, in essence, that without a county-wide, up-or-down vote, you ain’t getting a dime of federal money. Believe me, they’d find a way to make that happen.
And her bizarre observation that “Should the measure pass, then she said she knows her constituents support the plans as they stand.”
How can she even make that conclusion when, at best, only around 15% “of her constituents” under HER plan WOULD BE ALLOWED TO VOTE ON ANY ASPECT OF THIS?
Her handlers are not total dolts. She’s a vacuous puppet, doing what she’s told, which is why she lacks the guts to hold town hall meetings, something hundreds of other congress members and Senators seem to be able to manage without too much difficulty …because they don’t want her to be asked any questions that she’s ill-equipped to answer… which means most of them.
This entire act is being done ONLY so she can play BOTH sides. She wants us to think she gives a damn, but she continues to do absolutely nothing that will make any difference in the ultimate outcome… an outcome she could, by herself, determine if she was so inclined.
As long as this complete embarrassment is in office, there is no way…. NO WAY the wounds her continued inaction cause will ever heal. If she’s successful in her plan, we and our families will be paying for it the rest of our lives.
And she won’t care, because she doesn’t live here and won’t have to pay the toll, like most of the bridger/looters shilling this rip off.
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I wonder publicly, if we keep that video around for her next election, may be it JUST might sink her??
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Robert Dean – why so patronizing?
Are you associated with Jamie’s re-election campaign in some way? (Just asking.)
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I am sorry that your encounter with her has caused you such greif.
I will say that her argument for a vote of the people is exactly what I want from her rather than Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell’s position of “aren’t I great” type responses when they have been told that I don’t agree with them at all on an issue.
I also feel that our benevolent Mayor Leavitt should consider minding his our chicken house rather than trying to tell outher legislators how to do their job.
Just saying…
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Carolyn, she is right that we need a vote, but I’m not all that confident that she supports a county wide vote or a vote on the entire project, given the quotes I’ve heard from her.
“While she said she’d like to see an overall up-or-down vote on the entire project, she said that legally and practically, a C-Tran vote on the operations and maintenance of light rail is the best route.”
I’d prefer something a little stronger than “she would like.”
Also, I’m leery of relying on the vote for operations& maintenance, given it is most likely going to be another gerrymandered sub-district.
I’m also not too pleased she voted for NDAA or Obama last debt increase. We all were sold out on that one.
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Martin, Patronizing? Perhaps it’s my nature. Many of us have been fighting the City and the local establishment for the past year only to be stymied, ridiculed and marginalized before they ignore us. Besides Jaime, Tom Mielke and Jeanne Stewart who else has taken a stand against the CRC juggernaut? Not one of the three I’ve mentioned is perfect but at least they have had the guts to take a stand on this one. I have no reason to throw her support back in her face. And yes, I’d be proud to help her get re-elected if there was anything I could do to help.
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Robert, just in case you are not aware, Larry, I and many others were fighting the bridge nonsense and loony rail for YEARS now. You and few others might be still the youngin’s in the group long before Tim or Jeanne Stewart stepped forward.
So you might say, your building on all of the other community members work. And Sharon Nasset is still younger than some of us have been doing this for a long time….
Now on to Jaime:
What gasses me up was the whole string and commentary from Jamie about various subjects like she didn’t know her OWN community and the standards we hold dear.
And add further to it my own experiences calling her office and shifted to some other office professional to leave a message. And email going unanswered, even simple, nice things I thought would get a simple thank you.
I always got some form of acknowledge from Brian’s staff or associates here in Vancouver when he was the representative a year ago… Now, I get nothing.
And a lot of times now when I hear her speak, it sounds so scripted like some fed, baited and train her what to say in front of the crowd. Honestly, I’ll Jim Moeller as our representative than another year of Jaime or her staff.
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Lew,
You’ve got to cut her some slack! She stood up to holding out on raising the debt limit as long as she could under the circumstances. The media were painting our debt/spending crisis as a debt ceiling crisis. The Republicans would have been blamed for the debt because they refused to raise the debt ceiling. They can’t take a principled stand unless the national media is with them.
It reminds me of when Linda Smith voted to raise the minimum wage because “the workers deserved it.” Teachable moments go begging if the press won’t report them.
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Robert, the only slack she deserves or will receive from me is I won’t campaign against her. Not unless a real conservative ran against her, which is not likely.
If you go back and look, Republicans were blamed anyways. It doesn’t matter what stand we take, liberals will always blame Republicans and our spineless elected representatives cower back instead of standing up to them. Our side negotiates from weakness, not strength.
As for Jaime, I opposed her when i researched her record and saw she supported and twice voted for a very pro-SEIU bill to force childcare centers into the union. She called me at home th evening of Feb 9, 2010 to ask why I wasn’t supporting her and I told her about that bill.
She tried a song and dance that wasn’t making sense so I ask her to email her explanation, and I would post it unedited and in full, just as she wrote it which she promised to do. I have never received it to date and after Victoria asked me about it one afternoon on her program, the next day I received from Casey Bowman the copy of a news release labeling what I said as “spreading falsehoods.” Never mind I documented my claims from editorials around the state and from legislative documents.
https://lewwaters.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/herrera-campaigns-attempt-at-damage-control/
https://lewwaters.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/did-herrera-even-read-hb-1329/
After securing the nomination, in an interview with the Vancouver Business Journal, she labeled her support and vote for that particular bill “an outlier moment.”
But don’t forget, I was spreading falsehoods mentioning it.
She sided with Democrats in our legislature to raid our rainy day fund, which she claimed was to stop tax increases. We got the tax increases anyway.
And I haven’t even got to how 4 county Republican parties back stabbed and undermined another Republican who had conservative credentials and actually served in the Bush administration in the Veteran’s Administration and Department of Homeland Security.
One member currently on the board physically ran when I tried to introduce her to that man. She wouldn’t even say hello to a Republican candidate.
I was accused of only supporting him in order to get me a good job in his office (I am a retired auto mechanic, what sort of job would there for me in an office?)
But who was given a six figure salary as Jaime’s district manager? Ryan hart, Chair of the Clark County Republican party during the campaign who told me it was unethical for him to endorse candidates in an open primary, but was the first to endorse Jaime in the less than 2 hours it took her to throw her hat in the ring once Brian Baird announced he was not going to run again. This was after 6 months of telling the other campaign she was not going to run and felt she was not properly experienced just yet.
Don Benton was labeled a liar in a letter to the editor when he mentioned some his misgivings on her candidacy.
This is just some of they why and what caused me to leave the Republican party and resign my PCO position. The party even let me know they weren’t too pleased that I continued to support another Republican after she decided she would have an easier run with Baird not running again.
No, she receives all of the slack she is do from me. Believe me, I don’t go after her half as much as do others who have even more intimate knowledge of her.
As I said, I have no doubt she will be reelected this year, deserving or not. She and the GOP didn’t need my help before and she doesn’t need it now. I must stand on principle in this.
I won’t actively oppose her, but I won’t support her either.
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Lew, May be you may want to write this up as a blog post? It sure looks pretty nice and thought out enough to be put up again.
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Thanks, Lew.
I guess politics is messy – glad I stayed out of it.
What would Jaime have to do to regain your trust?
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Honestly, Robert, I do not know. Unfortunately, I’m a Libra and we are well known to be grudge holders 😉
Some public apologies and acknowledgement of what and how they did would be nice, but as you say, politics is messy and acknowledging they accept the nomination under such pretenses is a part none will ever state.
A funny part I didn’t say, weeks ago I received a phone call from the Clark GOP asking if I would be willing to come back as PCO.
Funnier yet, the candidate I did support and who was so undermined lives up in the new 10th district. He too was called by the GOP to see if were willing to run as a GOP candidate.
What short memories some people have 😉
That is why I promote conservative ideals, not the party line. If they fall in line with each other, that’s good. If not, I stick to conservatism.
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Jeremy,
I hear you on your longevity – and yes, I am a newbie. Although, my wife and I argued with Brian Baird for about 45 minutes at a business dinner back in about 1998. We wanted a new bridge and he didn’t think we needed one back then. We didn’t expect this boondoggle though.
Since then, I have stayed in the shadows because I wasn’t a citizen until 2007 and I felt I had no right to speak up if I didn’t vote. I know now that was wrong.
I also sent letters and emails to Brian Baird and he did used to respond – at least with a canned response. When Jaime first got elected and her staff were just finding their feet she didn’t respond to any of my letters or emails – even with a canned response.
Lately, though, I have been getting responses from her staff.
It makes me think how important a simple thank you note is or a birthday wish. I think it was my marketing professor who told me the three most important words in business are please and thank you.
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