UPDATED: Why I will not support Julie Olson for State Representative.

Originally posted July 10, 2012.

I was kinda hoping that Julie Olson would win in the 17th; after all, I'm not interested in electing a fringe-left Obama super-delegate teacher to, well, much of anything.

Until tonite.

First, I admit that I'm a Republican Precinct Committee Officer... Precinct 620 to be precise.

My default vote is always going to be Republican.  But it goes to a conservative only.

Olson has already shown a lack of political awareness when she threw Sen. Don Benton under the bus a few weeks back.  Then tonite... I read this nonsense in the democratian:

Columbia River Crossing

Stonier and Olson agree that the Interstate 5 River needs to be replaced, but they disagree about whether the Columbia River Crossing project should include a Portland light rail extension into Vancouver.

"I would be in support of a new bridge," Olson said. "I drive that bridge a lot and it's a mess, and it really is a choke point" for traffic.

Eliminate the light rail component of the bridge, and project planners might "not need exorbitant tolls," Olson said.

Stonier said she will support what voters decide about the light rail component of the project, although she thinks it would be smarter to pay for light rail on the bridge now than have to pay for a separate light rail project later. She also said if Clark County residents have to pay tolls to cross the bridge while on their way to work in Portland, then they should pay less in tolls, perhaps through a tax credit.

"I think tolls would be unfair for Clark County residents," Stonier said.

Homola did not return multiple calls and an email request to be interviewed for this story. In a previous interview with The Columbian for a story announcing his candidacy, Homola said he worried that using tolls to pay for the CRC would raise the prices of goods and services for consumers in Clark County.

Olson's position is based on multiple sets of ignorance.

First, the bridge is not a choke point.  Delta Park is a choke point; the bridge replacement, besides screwing us out of $10 Billion, will accomplish nothing to relieve congestion or increase freight mobility.

Second, we all know, and Olson should know, that this whole thing is a scam to ram loot rail down our throats.

Third, this means that Olson supports tolling 65,000 residents of this area $1300 each, their families and their children with an ever-increasing burden on them and on the small businesses depending on that $100,000,000 per year she wants to permanently vaporize.

Forth, there will be no bridge without loot rail: support the bridge and you support light rail... because you ain't getting one without the other.

Fifth, she didn't say anything about putting this to a vote of the people of this county.

I will not ever support someone who assumes democrat positions to get elected when they claim to be a Republican... not her... not anyone.

Just sayin'.

As a result, I'm supporting Matt Homola.  He doesn't say much, but that's a virtue compared to someone so politically inept and tin-eared ignorant.

UPDATE:  Olson called me after this originally appeared and indicated to me that there was some confusion about her position on the part of the newspaper.  I offered her the opportunity to send me a statement, which I would have posted unedited (as is my policy) or to set up a meeting to hash this out... but I had an engagement and couldn't discuss it further.

Additionally, I called Olson back yesterday to set up the meeting or whathave you, and she has not replied.

The option for Olson to restate her position is always available here: but when someone attempting or in public office is wrong, I'm going to call them on it.

UPDATE 2:  At the latest LWV Forum, when asked:


Question Number 2 concerns the CRC project.

It involves the states of Oregon and Washington along with the Federal Government... as a new state legislator, how would you represent the interests of your district?

Olson replied:

"Uh, yeah, as a representative, certainly we're looking to represent the interests of our district, and so I'm looking forward to seeing this vote this fall, but the problem with the vote this fall is it's not binding... it's just really are we gonna... there's a certain portion of Clark County coping to approve a percentage sales tax increase to help fund light rail maintenance and operations.... but that's not going to be a binding vote.

So if they (The voters) say "no, we're not going to support that," they're going to try to find another way to raise taxes to manage that, so I think we need to find a way to have the citizens of Clark County's voice heard on this project, but also understanding that it is a federal highway system; it is one of the few, actual, interstate bridges where you're literally going across the bridge to get from one state to the other, there's only a couple of those in the country so it's a critical project and it impacts freight mobility, it impacts commerce, it impacts our local commuters.... So there's opportunities that we have to have to look at this.... this particular project though is difficult to support.... um.... so, in terms of representing the district, I, uh, we have to reach out and make this process transparent and at this point, I don't think it has been, so it will be interesting to see how this goes... my concern is that it will not be binding and it will be difficult to represent our constituents when we're not involved in the process.

What's left out? Everything.

Parsed words, no position, nothing about tolls, nothing about a county-wide vote, nothing about what she would do to put a stop to it... just a lot of words that do nothing to stop the impression that she's Jaime Herrera-ing this thing.