I find it unbelievable that we in the 3rd Congressional District still cannot find a good conservative candidate to run. Democrats and a RINO have held the seat for far too long.
Democrat Brian Baird held the seat comfortably for several years with no challenger coming close to defeating him.
That seemed to change in 2010 when then chair of the Clark County GOP Ryan Hart requested I find out what I could about an Olympia area Republican stepping up to run against him and begin blogging in support of him. I met David Castillo shortly after and saw that we finally had a strong conservative with impeccable experience who was willing to step up and confront Baird.
Whether or not he could have defeated Baird became academic when Baird announced he was not going to run for reelection in 2010.
Castillo, who had been campaigning for 6 months at that time, knew well that Jaime Herrera, then state representative for the 18th district was the sweetheart of the GOP and being groomed for higher office. Castillo and members of his campaign repeatedly contacted her to ask if she was going to run during that 6 month period, receiving the reply each time of she felt she wasn’t ready yet and did not have the adequate experience to be a congressional representative, a claim she has lived up to.
Within 2 hours of Baird’s announcement, Jaime threw her hat in the ring ignoring her own admissions that she was not experienced enough or ready yet as did the GOP who engaged in some of the dirtiest, backstabbing, underhanded campaigning to ensure Herrera gained the nomination over Castillo.
Herrera won the nomination and defeated Democrat Denny Heck and true to her earlier word, has shown her inexperience as well as her ability to straddle the fence on important issues affecting the 3rd CD, such as the Columbia River Crossing project and Portland’s financially failing light rail. Of late, she seems more in support of the project which is contrary to conservatives in the district.
It goes without saying that since I did not support Herrera in 2010, I will not support her in 2012.
If any have read my comments in the Columbian’s comments sections you may have noticed I was becoming favorable towards Democrat Jon Haugen and was seriously considering voting for him as he has the right idea on the CRC. I was not too pleased with the rest of his stand on other issues, but was intending to request a meet to see if he would be receptive to moderating some of the other stands.
That is off the table now as I received a copy of an email exchange between him and local outspoken activist, Larry Patella. Larry, as we all well know is outspoken and at times may sound over the top, but is harmless even though he has been known to ruffle feathers.
Most of us receive Larry’s frequent ‘Local mailing List’ emails and do what we do with them. We know Larry disapproves of Barack Obama and like many others throughout the country, sees that Obama looks favorably upon the religion of Islam. Favorable enough that many believe he actually is a Muslim masquerading as a Christian.
It is a fairly common belief based upon documented and recorded statements Barack Obama has made.
Larry wrote a letter to the editor of the Reflector that was published and apparently Jon Haugen read it and sent the following email to Larry, described by Larry as “Jon Haugen’s Nasty Gram.”
From: Jon Haugen [mailto:jthaugen@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2012 8:33 PM
To: Local Mailing List
Subject: WA-03 Larry Patella, bigotSunday, 22 July 2012
Hi Larry,
I know you are bigoted toward our President probably because his skin color is not white. You had a letter published in The Reflector claiming Barack Obama was a Muslim when you knew he was not, you lied.
I do not know you well but I have not attended local Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) because of your association with that group.
I hate to say that a fellow retired Navy Commander is a bigot but you have proven your self to be a bigot.
Please remove my name from your mailing list. I do not wish to be associated with you.Jon Haugen
Commander, Naval Reserve, Retired.
That Jon Haugen accuses Larry of “lying” doesn’t really concern me so much as seeing the first thing Jon does is throw out the race card, accusing Larry of being a “bigot” and opposing Obama based upon skin color.
In none of Larry’s emails has he ever made a racist comment towards Obama or anybody. Conservatives oppose him based upon his socialist views and lack of leadership.
In short, it is not racist to oppose Obama’s policies any more than Blacks who opposed or voted against President George W. Bush are racist for opposing him. But it does show me that the race card is used by Democrats to create a smoke screen in an effort to hide a very pathetic term as President that has left the country much worse off than it as when he was inaugurated.
That Jon Haugen now is so quick to play the race as he did tells me that his judgment is also flawed and he would be just as bad as Jaime Herrera is in office.
Any notion I had of supporting and voting for him is gone!
There is also Norma Jean Stevens running again, but her alliance with Ron Paul disturbs me and even she admits her run is more of a statement than a concerted effort to win.
Even though I will not support Herrera, I have little doubt she win the general election in November. Not because she deserves it but because the redistricting of the 3rd Congressional District favors Republicans.
I also know my Republican friends will not appreciate this post and that my Democrat friends won’t care about it. But I have to follow my own conscience.
Therefore I am left with no choice but to write in Elmer Fudd. Even a fictitious cartoon character would take stronger stands on issues than Herrera has so far.
