Just a brief note as the next primary election rolls in upon us.

I became politically active in Clark County back in November of '88, I believe it was, when I volunteered for the Bob Williams campaign. I spent 30 years on that course.

I ended my active political involvement roughly 5 years ago with my final term as a PCO as I moved to Cowlitz County. Along the way, I served as a District Chair (17th) delegate to the county and state conventions, legislative assistant in Olympia and Executive Director of the State GOP. I consulted on campaigns for years (It was my business for 14 years) and won more than I lost. My degree is in government/political science.

Unlike some (Kathy McDonald or Jon Russell) I never sold out for a paycheck and, on occasion, walked away from money on the table.

There were candidates I refused to support or work for. They were crooks or liars. They were dishonorable. And when I found out, their party didn't matter. I was done. (Which, come to think of it, is why I opposed Jaime Herrera from the moment she was parachuted in here to run against Brian Baird)

I learned a lot and saw a lot, I observed the worst in people and occasionally, the best.

And the thing I regret the most is this: There is, essentially, an almost complete lack of accountability on the part of those we elect.

They have one job: to represent us. They are SUPPOSED to be our voice. And all too frequently, they forget all about us. They forget all about the promises made to GET elected as they become coopted in the positions we put them in.

They make horrific decisions that hurt us but benefit them directly. Some, like Steve Stuart, former Clark County Commissioner and current city manager of Ridgefield, NEVER represented us in his deliberations. Due to the almost complete lack of accountability of our electeds there was no need, and he admitted his position on video at a county council meeting:

"And I've said it before: I don't speak for the people... I will NEVER speak for "the people," I speak for Steve and some of you are going to agree with me and some of you aren't."

I give him props for telling the truth about THAT at least. But I'm pretty sure that's not particularly what the Founding Fathers had in mind back in the day.

I mention all of that to set the table for the most important thing I'm learned about campaigns.

When I first got here after I left the Army, (Nov '87) campaigns were, to put a point on it, quite different.

When people ran for office, they'd generally tell you with some specificity what they would do and what they wouldn't do.

Most of it was rather straight forward: pledges such as "I will not vote to raise your taxes."

Or "I oppose funding illegal aliens in our colleges." Or this classic: "I will oppose the CRC Scam."

Straight forward. Easily understood. Boxes that could be checked. Promises made that could be ran on as an incumbent.

If the promises were kept.

Sometimes, these people we trust(ed) lied to us. The easiest example that comes to mind was Ann Rivers' Senate campaign back in the day, where she promised to oppose any gas tax or tab fee increases.

And she did.

Until she didn't. And then, she lied about WHY she didn't.

But, like most politicians, even today, she calculated that the voters of the arguably arch-conservative 18th District, who never would have elected her at all had she ran on a platform of increasing our taxes (which she did more than once) would not remember at ballot time, and she would be easily reelected.

And she was.

That was an example of zero accountability.

And along the way, the promises of campaigns changed. Subtly at first. Now, blatantly: Candidates (not just Rivers, pretty much all candidates) sank to the level of non-specific glittering generalities.

They would say or pledge something like "I support the 2nd Amendment"

What they rarely to NEVER do was tell you HOW they'd support it.

Would they run a bill protecting our rights? What would be in the bill? How would it work? What would it do? What bills would they stop?

That part gets left out. And it gets left out on purpose.

Why?

Zero accountability. The more specific candidates are? The easier it is to hold them accountable. Solution? Leave out the specifics.

As our ballots come to our mailboxes in our easy fraudulent mail-in-only voting system, I urge you to do the work. Do more than read the soap-sales garbage candidates put in the voter pamphlets.

Identify the issues important to you. Do the work to find out if YOUR representative represented YOU or OPPOSED you.

Otherwise, you have to settle for a Steve Stuart, never-been-a-voice -of-the-people type.

And that rarely ends well for us.