Kayaker Carrier in action
David Carrier ended last night’s election tally with a very respectable 47% of the vote against Benton. Benton is an incumbent with gobs of special interest money. Carrier is a newcomer to politics with limited resources and lots of energy.
Why is Carrier giving Benton a run for his money (pun intended)? It seems the tired old Republican talking point of “no taxes” is not resonating any longer with the voting public. And that is pretty much all the Republicans can come up with anymore for what they are about.
Nobody likes taxes. But death and taxes are inevitable and in the case of the latter, play an important role in the quality of our lives. Without reasonable taxes, our community is bound to suffer adverse consequences such as having a poor educational system, overcrowded roads, underfunded police, etc.
The emphasis should not be simplistic slogans against taxes but rather working towards a government that efficiently makes things better for its citizenry. Government that is accountable and efficient are the keys to a better future, not starving government to the point that it no longer can operate in a fashion that is beneficial to us as a community.
David Carrier has tapped into this and based on last night’s results, it is resonating well with the people of the 17th legislative district.
Surf on over to his website and find out why life is about more than death and taxes.
Carrier press release on primary results (collapsible, click to view)
While some try to keep the public’s focus on taxes, the real hits in SW Washington have been energy deregulation (Enron and its affect on our monthly electric bill; mine has roughly doubled), encouragement of sprawl (Vancouver can basically afford only to keep up its arterial system now), deregulation of the financial services industries (insurance, investment funds, mortgages, credit lending), and a huge overhang of unfunded mandates from infrastructure and maintenance needs to misguided educational directives . That is not to mention an ill planned, incompetently directed, money sucking war. We need more folks like David, Tim Probst, Deb Wallace, and Debbie Peterson to show us the way through this in our cities, counties, states, and nationally. I’m glad that we are getting some well qualified people to run for office regardless of party or party partisanship in lieu of common sense (basically a church in Elephant or Jack Ass form).
That should stir the hive up John!