Greetings Conservatives!

Fair Debrief

Fair results posted in the Sounder here.

A statement by SJC Republican Party, passed as a resolution of the Central Committee, and signed by 12 conservatives myself included, was published in all three papers (here in the Sounder). We received more harassment at the county fair than in any year previous. It will be in the print versions this coming week.

The paper also ran a short peice about the protestors at our booth, which was the most commented article I’ve ever seen. Thank you to Michelle Loftus for standing up on that thread. I was there working alone the night the protesters came, along with my girlfriend who didn’t want to be home on a Friday night (a decision she regrets I think). I went out and talked to the protesters, introduced myself, shook hands, smiled, laughed — afterwards I noticed a blogger taking footage looking pretty disappointed.

Still, one man did get in a shouting match with a Republican walking by, and another was pretty mouthy despite the organizer’s stated wish of a quiet protest. Most were polite, even accomodating me by telling me that they wern’t coming back the next day. Overall I didn’t particularly mind, though it was in bad taste. It was the daily harassment from random people that was the biggest problem.

You may have seen our car tab price reduction initiative petitions in our fair booth, backed by Tim Eyman. When discussing whether we would make this initiative available to people coming to our booth, I asked Mr Eyman what the service being cut would be if we reduced the tax. He said it would be Sound Transit. Sure enough, this week I saw the headline “Sound Transit’s Lynnwood extension running $500M over budget.” Bloated budget, inefficient routes, Sound Transit is indeed a disaster. But while they get plenty of funding, our Ferries go ignored.

Shockingly, Sound Transit actually does political advocacy. Yes, you heard that right. A public entity that receives tax dollars actually gives to political campaigns. Washington Policy Center analyzes it here.

In any case, many of you came by and said hello. We met with hundreds of conservatives. There were also many polite liberals who stopped by. Overall, it was a good week, despite feelings somewhat embattled.

Immigration and the “Sanctuary County” Measure

Even as the Trump administration moves to expand deportation dragnets, he also moved to push for immigration reform — which he actually got criticized for anyway — our own county has passed a measure (Sounder) designed to oppose the application of our country’s immigration laws.

Many of us did oppose it. We had very little time to do so, literally two weeks from the time it hit the news to the time the county council passed it. I know that people in liberal circles had heard about it, but it just shows how divided American political life really is that I never heard a peep about it — nor did any other conservative.

Hayley Day, in her editorial for the Journal noted this failure of the media, and also noted that the substantial objections and reasoned concerns by many, most notably County Prosecutor Randy Gaylord, went entirely ignored. You can watch the Aug 15th meeting here.

Originally the press was reporting that there was no opposition, but this was changed after we called them on it. Overall, the local media has turned out to be pretty critical of how the county council handled all this. Many locals did speak out:

My letter, in the Sounder here and the Island’s Weekly. “Opposition to sanctuary county measure”
Kathy Schwartz in the Sounder here or Journal: “Shocked by immigration initiative passing”
Barry Cave, in the Journal, “Against immigration initiative”

We also had a small committee to put a “con” statement in the voter’s guide, which turned out to be unnecessary, and several people at the county council meeting (thanks to one couple, you know who you are!).

It might be worth looking at the County Council Update: “Over the last month, the San Juan County Council has discussed issues including population projection, a local immigration initiative and protection of Southern resident killer whales.” (Island’s Weekly)

You can read the text of the resolution on the County Council’s website here (pdf download), from this page.

Housing Markets in the NW

“King County home prices grow $100,000 in a year for first time; West Bellevue jumps 41 percent” (Seattle Times). Reflecting that, “Housing bubble fears stronger in Washington than in any other state.” (also Seattle Times) Two relatives of mine recently went house shopping in Seattle, and even a very high income buys a very modest house.

Amazon is a big part of that: “Thanks to Amazon, Seattle is now America’s biggest company town.”
Two articles, here and here covered Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods.
When we think of big Seattle area companies, we are used to thinking of Boeing and Microsoft, but Amazon has a larger presence than them both. Amazon is also building brick-and-mortar bookstores (Seattle Times). Seattle residents make up an important part of tourism here.
Seattle is struggling to cope with it’s housing issues associated with its economic prosperity: “A candidate for Seattle mayor says the city should consider taxing nonresident homebuyers and a City Council member has looked into it. But city lawyers say it would be illegal and the King County assessor says it could stoke discrimination.”
- In reply, “Seattle mayoral hopeful Cary Moon hit back at opponent Jenny Durkan Tuesday as the candidates sparred over how the city should deal with its affordable-housing shortage.” Yes, it’s far away, but how Seattle handles this may impact how our county council handles our own housing issues.
In our county, the Journal ran an article “Understanding the valuation process for your real estate.”

In her quarterly review, our county auditor released an article discussing two related trends in our own county, as she puts it: “The flip side of all this prosperity is the very real, and increasing, problem that people cannot afford to live here.” You can read her article here.

Local and State News Digest

“Please go fishing,” Washington state says after farmed Atlantic salmon escape a net broke between Anacortes and San Juan Island.

The Seattle Times published an editorial titled “Keep a sharper eye on farmed-fish industry.” Salmon are anadromous, meaning they spawn in rivers (as every NW resident knows).
The mixing of local stock with farmed fish (marketed as “Atlantic”) as they head for rivers is a disaster for the industry, though it remains to be seen how severe.
Our local news addressed this too, see the Island Guardian here. The Sounder has an in depth article on this as well, found here.
WDFW encourages anglers to fish for escaped Atlantic salmon in the San Juans here. Report catches here.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to reinstate former Bremerton High School football coach Joseph Kennedy, who lost his job after he refused to stop praying on the field after games. Seattle Times.

In what the Seattle times called “A fitting tribute,” the Olympic Wilderness was renamed for former Republican Gov. Dan Evans. The ceremony took place on Hurricane Ridge, surely one of the most beautiful places on earth. Seattle TImes.

Seattle has an unusual system whereby residents get vouchers that they can give to candidate campaigns of their choice. The first major accusations of corruption surfaced this week, when a candidate was accused of defrauding the democracy-voucher program. Seattle Times reports.

Hyak out of service next Wednesday, Aug. 30. Sounder Reports.

There is a vacant fire commission seat, Journal reports.

Popeye, the harbor seal, bites a tourist, Journal reports. Be warned: violent mammal attacks may cause collapse in local tourism. Not really. Just trying to find a way to justify including this. The seal actually jumped out of the water to grab hold of the tourist’s arm. The port director responded here.

This nondescript article in the FreeRepublic offers one remarkably plausible explanation regarding the Scaramucci, Priebus, etc. events. First line: “Apparently, liberals and never-Trumpers are so isolated in their political circles that they have no concept how things work in the real world of business and corporate America. For example, they completely fail to grasp the concept of the “hatchet man.”

WA State Republican party released a statement on Charlottesville, posted on our website here. Fox News had an excellent opinion peice on Charlottesville here. Note also CityJournal, “Whose Next, George Washington?”

Calendar

SJC Council Monday Meeting
August 28, 2017, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM @ Council Hearing Room

SJC Council Tuesday Meeting
August 29, 2017, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM @ Council Hearing Room

Noxious Weed Control Board Meeting
September 1, 2017, 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM @ WSU – Skagit Campus