Saturday, April 03, 2010

Do we EVER see principle, integrity and Herrera in the same room?

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As previously shown, Jaime Herrera has the political sense of a board fence. Her idiotic co- sponsorship of the now infamous SEIU bill Herrera then voted for that would force day care workers into collective bargaining; her campaign's deliberately false and misleading defense of that vote; her equally clueless support of democrat efforts to increase spending by striping out what little is left in our state emergency fund, and now her failure to, literally, stand up for an amendment to a bill that would have resulted in legislators sharing our pain.

Talk, as Herrera shows us, is cheap.

Cutting state employee in the midst of a horrific recession makes sense. But that means ALL "state employees," including state representatives, should take a hit.

So, here's the call by the Tacoma News Tribune Friday's article:
Also rejected was Williams’ amendment to lop lawmakers’ own expense reimbursements in the same proportion as the mandatory worker layoffs are expected to hit legislative staffers – costing potentially more than $1,000 next year.
The “per diem” expenses amendment failed, and Williams initially failed to win a roll call vote on it because only 13 members stood to demand one. Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera of Camas was among those who argued that lawmakers should share in the pain but did not stand to insist on the recorded vote; Hunt and Republican Rep. Gary Alexander of Thurston County did stand with Williams.
So, what we've got here is the good Representative speaking out and taking a position. But when the time came, literally, to take a stand for her views, what did Herrera do?

Nothing.

She sat it out.

Now, to me, the problem wasn't her position on the issue. To me, the problem is that when the time came to take a stand, Herrera, who had so eloquently spoke about "sharing the pain," was no where to be seen.

How can anyone speak for a bill, or an amendment to a bill, and then disappear when it might matter; in this case, to secure recorded votes on the amendment instead of a voice vote that killed it?

Why didn't she stand?

What's the point of this kind of political cowardice?

Cross-posted on Jaime Herrera Watch.
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1 comment:

Lew said...

Thinking back a little, in all the back and forth with some of her supporters, I have yet to see much from them on just what she stands for, what is so great about her two years in Olympia that prepares her for a return to D.C. or what strengths she has.

Ever her stands on her issues page are as vague as any I have ever seen, such as her newly installed stand on immigration.

If she had any political courage, she would stand and state the why of co-sponsoring HB 1329, instead of sending her campaign manager out with a smoke & mirrors memo trying to convince voters the bill does do what it says it does.