Here's why Joe Tanner will fail to take out Tom Mielke.

The problem that Joe Tanner has is three-fold:

He's a democrat in what will arguably be a Republican year.

He's a former democrat legislator, which means he has the typical tax and spend voting record.

He's a wholly-owned entity of the Downtown Vancouver Mafia/CRUDEC/CRC/Chamber of Horrors/pro-toll crowd.

Decoding what he was quoted as saying in the Columbian:

Tanner said he decided to challenge Mielke to help lower Clark County’s current double-digit unemployment figures. Economic development will be his No. 1 goal, he said. “I did it before and I can do it again,” Tanner said Monday.

Of course, he offered nothing to indicate what he would do differently in that regard, so this is pure election year babble.

Tanner said Stuart and Boldt have shown they can work out compromises, but Mielke is too often the odd man out.

“I feel like I can work very well with Steve Stuart and Marc Boldt,” Tanner said. Both are well-respected, he added.

“If north Clark County was represented by a commissioner with equal respect, I wouldn’t be in the race,” Tanner said.

Boldt, of course, has abandoned almost many pretext of being and voting like a Republican: so what Tanner MEANT to say is this:

"I'm sick of Tom Mielke representing the people.  We need THREE democrats running every one's life in Clark County, not the two we have now.

"I'm sick of Mielke fighting to keep taxes and fees low, his efforts to demand a county-wide vote on the CRC scam, and I will be DAMNED if I'll support anyone who doesn't want to yoke 65,000 commuters with a $100,000,000 in tolls every year for the rest of their lives to blow a crippling hole in our local economy."

Tanner will be everything politically that Mielke is not.  He would support every tax and fee increase, likely the same way he did in the legislature; he'd help Boldt, Stuart and Leave-it to get the CRC/Light rail/bridge scam up and running, and he'll make no bones about it.

As a democrat, he'd likely support the Cowlitz casino scam and end the county's support of the lawsuit.

And he will also get slaughtered at the polls as a result... for the same reasons Linda Smith kicked his butt.

Remember: like Leave-it, you can only be what you are.  Running a Leave-it campaign, as Tanner will have to do, would get him no where.

This will, no doubt, be the typical Tanner campaign: viscous, well-funded by the downtown interests who own him like the 13th Amendment was never passed, and more of the Dotzauer hit pieces the democrats are so famous for (lies, exaggerations, twisted facts... all irrelevant, because what they are not going to want to do is have Tanner run on his record and his downtown connections... you know, like Brokaw?)... a campaign funded by the CRC contractors through direct and special interest PAC money.

Good luck, Mr. Tanner.  I'm looking forward to your candidacy.

And when your web page goes up, could you link to your entire legislative voting record?  It would save a lot of time and embarrassment on your part if we just got that out of the way to start with.  That way, folks will just be able to see up front that you are

Thanks.