Sigh: now I might have to vote for Mike Briggs.

I've never been a big fan of Brandon Vick for the many reasons set forth in this blog... but this? This is beyond the pale and I now find myself in a position where I may very well vote for Mike Briggs.

Seriously.

I've stated repeatedly that I wasn't planning on voting for either one of them.  But this?

Vick is a state rep for many reasons... and all of them are the wrong ones.

Brandon, or "Lumpy" as he's known in Olympia, is all about Lumpy.

He's SUPPOSED to be all about US.

Unfortunately, for whatever the reason, people actually voted for this slug in the last election, instead of John Ley.

I say "unfortunately" because this is the primary thought process that motivates Vick: food.

 Originally published August 22, 2014 at 11:13 PM | Page modified August 23, 2014 at 3:34 PM

Some legislators have an insatiable hunger for free meals 

An anti-hunger activist finds the neediest of all are in the state Legislature. 

By Danny WestneatSeattle Times staff columnist 

Richard Hodgin is spending his retirement volunteering at food banks. So he sees his share of hungry people jockeying for a bite. 

Still didn’t prepare him for the Legislative Ethics Board. 

“Man, they really want their free meals!” Hodgin said the other day. “I had no idea when I got into this I would find it was the state legislators who so badly needed nutrition.” 

Hodgin is the fellow who filed an ethics complaint last year saying state lawmakers are taking too many free meals from lobbyists. Such freebies are supposed to be “infrequent,” state law says, but they are rampant — one senator last year construed infrequent to mean “62 in a four-month period” (about one free lunch or dinner every other day). 

Hodgin says he knows gratis steak dinners are hardly the biggest problem in democracy, not when billionaires are dumping unlimited cash into campaigns. But there was something about it that stuck in his craw. 

Hodgin, of Seattle, has been going to Olympia with a faith group to advocate that more money be spent feeding the poor. In the annual budget banquet, this is begging for table scraps. 

Yet the first time he was there, in 2013, the news broke that the state’s top lobbyists had spent $65,000 on free meals for lawmakers just that session, and nearly half a million on entertainment.

Then this year, he was there the day legislators gave themselves a 33 percent raise in their per diem expense rate, to $120 per day. 

“So here I am, getting emergency calls from feeding programs, about how they can’t handle the demand, and it just seemed like legislators were taking care of their own needs,” Hodgin said. 

So he filed a complaint. That was tossed on procedural grounds. But since then a state ethics panel has been tied in knots of agony trying to answer this question: How many free meals are OK? 

And I do mean knots. Here was the proposal before the panel last week: 

“Two meals per calendar year (or) three meals in even-numbered years and five meals in odd-numbered years (or) twelve meals per year (or) sixteen meals per year with a maximum of four meals per quarter (or) fifty two meals per year with a maximum of one meal per week.” 

What’s clear is lawmakers really want to keep the buffet train going. 

One, Rep. Brandon Vick, R-Felida in Clark County, actually argued that doing away with free food could have a chilling effect on constituent outreach. 

“I mean, do you meet with Constituent X if you know you’re going to have to pay?” he asked during a hearing. “Do you go out there on your own dime, and have the meeting anyway and leave frustrated?”

More:

(I added the boldface.)

I met with hundreds of constituents while I was Marc Boldt's legislative assistant and I ALWAYS paid my own way.

So, you want action from Lumpy?  Troll a hot dog in front of him and he's your guy.

Otherwise, this clown is "frustrated."

I've never been a big fan of Briggs while he's been running his campaign.  But I've got to tell you, I'd rather have a hard core leftist in that seat who will actually DO something BECAUSE he's a representative then have Vick there with the feed bag, demanding that you fill it or otherwise, he'll be "frustrated" and YOU'LL be out of luck.

Related

Legislator meals and $120 daily allowances.

I may be one of the very few in Clark County who brings the perspective I have to the table:  I was Marc Boldt's legislative assistant and unlike most, I worked and lived in District during the interim.

I took the job in 1995 for around $2100 per month if memory serves.  From that pay for that way-over full time job, I in fact did have to pay rent both in Vancouver and Olympia at the same time and $400 a month in child support.  Unlike any other state employee similarly situated, I never received a dime in any allowance until a $20 per day allowance during part of the last session I worked there (2000).

Legislators received something on the order of $78 a day then if memory serves because apparently, legislators had to eat and staff didn't.  For the most part, legislators didn't care and made no effort, including Marc Boldt, BTW; to do a better job of helping staff deal with the exact same issues that they had to deal with.

Yes, I resented that.  No, there was no justification for legislators getting more money during session for living in Olympia than staff.  None.  And now, as I understand it, legislators get 3 times as much as staff for these allowances ($40 for in-district staff in Olympia during session.)

That said, like these legislators, I knew going in what the job paid.  I knew going in it was going to be a horrific struggle to pay rent for two places, (Around $700 total) and $400 child support, food, gas, insurance, cell phone, clothes, and miscellaneous.  

I have, as a result, no more sympathy for legislators complaining about this sort of thing than legislators have for staff who face the exact same issues and must make do on a great deal less: roughly $2400 per month less now... just to live.

So, mark me down as one of those who really don't give a damn if legislators get this cash or not. Lumpy's whining earlier this year on this stuff was sickening:

One, Rep. Brandon Vick, R-Felida in Clark County, actually argued that doing away with free food could have a chilling effect on constituent outreach. 

“I mean, do you meet with Constituent X if you know you’re going to have to pay?” he asked during a hearing. “Do you go out there on your own dime, and have the meeting anyway and leave frustrated?”

I just saw Brandon doing stand-up comedy at a town hall meeting:  he doesn't appear to have missed any meals lately.

Cut off the allowances and free stuff altogether.  None of these people would quit the hob.

For a comparison of Washington with other states, check this page here:

Many of them do a much better job of representing their districts than cardboard cutouts like Vick... and many of them do that job on a great deal less in pay and allowances than the $54,000 per year total for this job that those complaining around here actually get.

Lobbyist meals get them access that we don't get.  They are up there during session while we are down here.

My heart bleeds for those whining about the pay: don't like it?

Quit.

It's what I tell prima donna teachers... it's what I tell legislators.