Editor:
If you vote for any incumbent in our district, expect more of the same that we have been getting and they will assume your vote is in favor of their status quo politics. Whether we are talking about crime, taxes or the amount of money we are funding (40% of our property taxes and another state 20% tax) toward bad ideas in our school districts, a vote for the current incumbents gets us more of the same old, same old.
We have representatives who have been in office for a minimum of 10 years and as many as 30 years. When those who have made decisions that affect the safety of all ours lives including what our children are having forced on them in our schools, our representatives no longer make decisions based on the greater good of the community, it’s time to consider a serious change. You know who your representatives are since they have been around a very long time.
In the midst of summer, let’s not put a pause on what we know to be true about crime, not just in our area but neighboring communities like Lynnwood and Everett where crimes have become increasing violent. If you ever wondered how we got here, it’s important to note all our elected state and county representatives who thought defunding the police would ever be a good idea, never spoke with any of us, but led our communities into a cyclical battle. A catch and release mentality that will never work.
When a person(s) breaks the law, follow the law and prosecute according to the law if found guilty of crimes committed. Do not base it on “diversity” as is the status quo. We have watched over the last few, but very long years what homeless drug addiction has done to various communities and somehow leaders think that allowing drug addicts to possess x number of drugs, should be given a pass. This is absolute insanity. What did it lead to? More drug use and abuse. These folks need help and in the olden days judges would offer up a choice of jail time or treatment. Mothers of users on the streets told me they would rather their sons be in jail rather than dead. Getting COVID no longer means a death sentence since the CDC says it will probably be a reasonal virus, like the flu, so we need to drop the narrative as an excuse to release criminals from jail or prison.
With jails at 50% capacity in Snohomish County and criminals as repeat offenders, our “leaders” have been sending the wrong message to criminals. “Commit a crime, be out in no time.” That has been an absolute disaster of epic proportions as we have seen what’s happened in Seattle and with murder on the rise in our neighboring communities of Lynnwood and Everett. Our leaders should be doing everything they can to stop crime in its tracks. If we have representatives who are soft on crime, we aren’t going to be any safer anytime soon. Any representatives in Snohomish County who voted to defund the police and take a soft on crime approach doesn’t reflect what the community at large wants. If we don’t force this change through how we vote, then you know what our representatives will do. Be part of the solution and not the continued problem. Thank you.
Cindy Gutierrez
Edmonds
Just wondering if this is a Republican rag. I didn’t see the name of the person who wrote the letter to the editor.
Just wondering if we can build enough jails with no money. Thank the Republicans for that not the incumbents. Has the trickle down reached us yet?
Thank you Cindy for this LTE. Your first sentence captures the problem we are facing by voting the status quo. Our status quo elected officials and legislators have failed us. Just a few that come to mind; Senator Patty Murray has been in office for 30 years. She is fine with our open southern border. Millions of illegal immigrants are crossing our border bringing with them huge amounts of fentanyl, cocaine, … Convicted criminals, human traffickers, child rapists cross our borders daily and U.S. Sec of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas tells us our southern border is safe and secure – but he says “we are working to do better”. Rep Rick Larson of the 2nd Congressional District is serving his 10 term in the House. He has been presented to me as a centrist, a moderate who works with “both sides of the aisle”. A simple Google search revealed that he has “agreed on 99% of votes in the 116th Congress” with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Look at where these votes have gotten us. We have more crime, our police feel disrespected and unsupported and leaving the profession by the droves, we have the highest inflation in over 40 years, locally we pay 40% of our taxes to education and the states another 20% toward education and look at where our children rank in reading and math – shameful – we can do better. Former Mayor Jenny Durkan put Seattle in the national spotlight with her Summer of Love in 2020. The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 13, 2020 stated, “The mayor will go down in history for allowing protestors to create a police-free Capitol Hill Autonmous Zone (CHAZ) in her city.” Two people were killed during this Summer of Love. So much for taking care of her city and providing public safety. Closer to home I went to Jason Cummings website. Mr Cummings is running for Snohomish County Prosecutor.
I will continue my comments in another post below.
The letter to the editor said nothing about a political party. If all you see in this letter is, “did a republican write this?” then you didn’t read the letter.
There is nothing wrong with taking a different approach to voting. The current status quo is “if this candidate disagrees with one thing I believe in then I won’t vote for them.” We are left with a bunch of politicians that don’t stand for anything and condemn anyone who does.
Please read each candidates statement and experience. Ignore the R,D, and I. Make it a point to have a connection with a candidate that speaks to you when you vote for them. But don’t stop there…
Hold the candidate accountable and communicate with them or their office when they fail to represent you.
Regardless of the R, D, or I we need to hold our elected officials accountable to our needs.
Mr Cummings website states that he has spent 25 years at the Prosecutors Office serving as Chief Civil Deputy for the last 14 years. In these last many years we have seen crime go up, criminals walk away with minimal or no jail time., used needles, drug paraphernalia, used condoms, and feces and urination in public spaces. What does the Prosecutors Office, or Mr Cummings, have to show for keeping the public safe and public spaces safe for our children to play in?
Mr Cummings website states, “As your prosecutor I will prioritize the safety of every neighbor, ensure the Prosecutors Office provides accurate and unbiased legal service and will exercise prosecutorial discretion to better serve our diverse community.” This statement scares me. As a Hispanic woman, registered nurse, mother, grandmother and citizen I can say unequivocally that I don’t like the sound of this woke and virtue signaling language. Race, ethnicity, social standing should not figure into how one is treated in the legal system. The crime should be considered, and any previous crimes, rap sheet.
So thank you Cindy Gutierrez for bringing this subject to my attention this morning. We need to look at every candidate running for office and decide, look at what they have done for their constituents while in office, and then decide how we will cast our vote.
Bothe Ms. Gutierrez, and Ms. Hutchison’s opinions are well reasoned and well stated. Thank you both.
Personally, I’m just kind of done with voting for anyone based on what political party they affiliate with. I’m going to try to base my votes on whether I think someone has basically good ideas that may solve some real problems or bad ideas that are likely to have no results or unintended consequences if they take hold. In my analysis of current political parties, there isn’t much difference between the two, other than extremes of rhetoric mostly based on lies, over simplifications, and self-serving actions to get or keep cushy government jobs with good benefits. America has become a Plutocracy run by the rich, for the benefit of the rich. We worship wealth and power and often equate them. Powerful forces are currently pushing for us to become a serial Dictatorship/Theocracy. This was as much caused by Clinton and Obama saving the rich while actually abandoning the poor as the Bush’s, Reagon and Trump doing the same thing during their respective times in power. Biden’s and the Dem’s current problem is that they made a bunch of big promises to the working class and Blacks that they claim to represent, but really don’t and/or can’t. As we will soon see with Trump and his misguided cronies, the rich get good lawyers and off, while the poor get little or no representation in Courts and usually convicted, guilty or not. Unfortunately justice is not blind and never has been pretty much anywhere. With all this, we are still better off than most in the world as a nation and there is still hope for Democracy to prevail. We are definitely on thin ice though.
Clinton, I always appreciate your more nuanced takes on the current political situation. I agree that to vote a Party ticket no longer makes sense in the current atmosphere, and that means citizens have to dig deeper into the intentions of candidates. Read their statements, research their affiliations and look beneath the surface to find out what kinds of policies they may try to put in place for us.
Thank you Cindy and Theresa for your excellent points! People need to stop voting the party line. Why do people keep voting in that Left wing socialist democrat Patty Murray and then expect a different outcome. Of course that is a definition of insanity. We have been watching the demise of Seattle for a number of years. Our taxes have gone up and up with no accountability of the money spent, look at what has been spent on over budget light rail let alone public schools. But sure just keep voting the party line since it has been working so well.
Well said Cindy and Theresa. I could not agree more. Shameless career politicians that have been in office 20-30 years saying they are part of the change needed are so out of touch. It’s very sad and scary they actually believe their own BS. What is even more concerning is people voting for the same thing year after year and expecting different results. This November is one big IQ test for our country. Let’s hope we can pass as not sure how much longer we can handle status quo.
Don, I could not have said it better than you did. I have the same big concerns you and theresa mentioned. The career politicians don’t even try to hide what they represent. It’s just crystal clear it’s not about constituents if it ever was. The nonsense about taxing the rich but sticking it to the middle class is blatantly obvious. The open border crisis Theresa mentioned is such a low point for our country with all the fentanyl crossing the border and costing so many their lives. Turning a blind eye to all this just won’t do.
Thanks to all for making my points here. Voting for people based on which party they support has not served us well since the party system came into being. What also is not serving us well is having no term limits on most legislative positions. If Patty Murray wins, which she most probably will, and completes her term she will have 36 years in the Senate. That’s 36 years of being paid by us well over $100,000 per year and totaling well over $3,600,000 (Current pay for both Fed. Senator and Representative is $174,000/Yr. so her actual take is much higher than the number I mentioned). The average working class Joe, making $20/Hr. would make $1,382,000 over that same 36 year period. The average Joe may or may not have health insurance or any sort of union representation or retirement benefits beyond SS. Being elected to national office is roughly equal to the average Joe winning the lottery. Now my biggest problem is if I decide not to vote for Patty again because she’s been there long enough, do I have to vote for some Right wing nut job Trump supporter and enabler which I cannot do and still sleep at night. Under our two party system the choice always seems to be the lesser of two evils.
I think voting for the lesser of two evils in game theory always leads to more evil.
Penn Jillette
Nationally, how do you choose between a mentally diminished Narcissist, or and mentally diminished Puppet. Why can’t we do better?
My quandary exactly!
Assuming he isn’t indicted and convicted which is highly unlikely with our weak kneed Dem party and Attny General, I hope Trump gets nominated and Cheney runs against him as an independent creating some sort of Centrist 3rd party movement. That would at least save some semblance of a Democratic government perhaps. Strong man, Christian based Plutocracy doesn’t appeal to me any more than athiiestic Communism.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result…
…just sayin’
Donald, I agree with that! One comment here re “things ever getting bad enough for change here” I think we don’t need crime to get worse in neighboring communities or edmonds. I cannot stand the murders that have taken place anywhere in this state. Seattle is close enough! When the precedent shows people getting let out having committed violent crimes that’s enough for me! No catch and release. We have to take a firm stand on crime!
It’s absolutely no surprise we are collapsing. I’m not really sure things could ever get bad enough in this area to cause a change. Food shortages and housing collapse are around the corner and we own it all.
We have an age requirement to run for President so perhaps we should have an upper age limit for not being able to run. We impose age limits on numerous jobs including pilots (age 65) which seems to be causing some of the pilot shortage now.