So, who to vote for in the upcoming election?

Well, as a Republican, I will only vote Republican.  That may not necessarily mean voting for the Republican running or the Republican incumbent, but each and every vote I take will be a Republican vote.

Feel free to vote for the candidates that suits you.

Generally speaking for me, the safest bet is to oppose anyone the local democratian endorses.  They only endorse democrats or RINOs, in this case, for example, they have not endorsed a single candidate who didn't buy into their CRC/Loot Rail resurrection scam and no conservative would ever do that. Think of it as the perfect litmus test for candidates.

The rag could care less about you or this community: they've proven it year after year with their lies, exaggerations and personal attacks against political opponents.

With, for example, their endorsement of Scott Weber for county clerk, they even showed they knew he was a liar and endorsed him anyway.

There's no excuse for that.  But then, the rag has never been real big on integrity.

So, without further ado...

Crain's RINO and non-Republican endorsement list

US Senate: Doesn't matter

Sadly, Maria Cantwell will easily win reelection.  That said the rabid support by local conservative haters like Carolyn Crain simply disqualifies Hutchinson from my endorsement.

Crain is the main thug behind the lie-filled letters attacking conservative PCO's in the PCO elections and, of course, is best known for her fake GOP PAC's support, both in 2015 and this year, of non-Republican Marc Boldt.

That is also something many past RINO party chairs engaged in, with 5 of them endorsing Boldt against a GOP candidate (Rep. Liz Pike) in 2015 and 3 of them endorsing Boldt against the only Republican on the ballot in this primary election, who also happened to be a conservative. (Eileen Quiring)

Is that hatred of conservatives, or what?

Congress:  Writing in Sen. Ann "Gas Tax - Property Tax" Rivers.

Regular readers already know of the disdain I have for our local congresswoman... and Rivers, as far as that goes.

Of Herrera's many betrayals and her total failure to accomplish anything related to our cross-river transportation issues (Which are ENTIRELY Federal in nature due to the fact the river is a state line) her decision to vote AGAINST the repeal of Obamacare stands as the worst possible of those betrayals.

Additionally, Herrera also joined with the democrats in trashing then Candidate Trump and, to the left's delight, joined with them in her condemnation of Mr. Trump which resulted in her subsequent decision to write in Paul Ryan for President.

Further, this idiot isn't even all that sure how'd she'd vote if it came to a Trump impeachment.

Well, fair's fair.  I've always thought of Herrera as a politically clueless sockpuppet of Cathy McMorris, even from the days she was parachuted in here to run against Brian Baird over ten years ago.  Since Herrera set the example back then with her vote for president, I simply cannot ignore that and I will use my write-in capability for another Republican just like Herrera, and that is Rivers.

Rivers, best known for yoking the people of Clark County with $700 million in additional gas taxes... which has led to the price we pay for fuel to be the second highest in the entire United States... and her efforts to appease the WEA by adding several billion to our state's budget, causing our property taxes to explode...  has long wanted to be congresswoman.  Until she screwed the pooch with the Republican budget that she crafted to screw us back in 2017, she had a great chance... but now?  Not so much.

She's the perfect foil for Herrera, and the local GOP's COMPLETE lack of accountability for her actions merely serves to accentuate their RINO underpinnings.

So, I might just be the only vote she EVER gets for Congress.

County offices.

Treasurer: Robert Hinds

One of the many stupid things the local GOP failed to do... of the many stupid things they failed to do... is to make sure that EVERY available seat was covered by a candidate to run, including County Treasurer who the clueless moron running the local GOP was sure was a Republican until after I used this blog to slap him around a couple of times and get him to change the listing.

Screen capture of the former GOP candidate page

The result is that when Lasher surprised everyone (except Van Nortwick) and announced he wasn't running for reelection, the local GOP had no one available to run for that seat.  They were caught COMPLETELY by surprise.

Again.

The same thing applied to the two House seats in the 49th, where the incumbents ran unopposed.  That meant the democrats could use those two seats to launder money to other democrat candidates... for example, Stonier's $40,000 to the House Democrat Campaign Committee.

Of course, the PDC fine she had to pay also came from her campaign funds as did her legal fees, but hey, it's not like she needed them to campaign or anything, right?

Topper is a downtown mafia democrat.  She ran for state representative in 2016 and lost, despite raising the most money in the 49th and having the Cowlitz launder almost $30,000 through a Dave Barnett PAC.

Treasurer is a non-partisan position but by dumping her fringe-left roots, Topper hides her true politics and she will do everything she can to weaponize the position for the left.

Hinds is perfectly capable of running that office. But as always, the GOP has shown an inability to line people up to take over.  This instance is yet another example of the many where the incompetence of the local GOP cannot be overstated.

Frequently, the GOP has shown an ability to GET power... but not much of an ability to KEEP it.

County Auditor: Tiffany Couch

Couch is the forensic accountant who's work illustrated the depths of the corruption, mismanagement and policies that were deliberately designed to keep the public out of the downtown mafia's efforts to ram this multi-billion dollar waste of money known as the CRC/Loot Rail scam that would have resulted in a $100,000,000 hit to the county's disposable income by a commuting public working in Oregon.

Many in the Establishment have problems with Tiffany. But the fact is, without her efforts that horrific, inexplicable waste of our money would be in the process of being built right now.

The incumbent, Greg Kimsey, is a RINO extraordinaire and he fully supported the CRC rip off scam.

He, no doubt, supports the hated resurrection of that same scam that every local government has seemed to show themselves incapable of listening to their constituents by endorsing this same, sorry effort... as if the reasons to kill it back then have somehow changed now.

County Assessor:  Given history, I was prepared to vote for Wertz.  But after giving this race some thought, I have determined that I'll vote for Van Nortwick.

When Peter first ran, the local daily democrat did their best to trash him.  Their scumbag former editor, Lefty Lou Brancaccio, did everything he could to humiliate the man, including endorsing his opponent, even though she had never bothered to vote in the entirety of her life.

I beat on Lefty like a drum.  He came back at me, using his column like a club... as if it ever mattered.  And, of course, Van Nortwick won.

Both candidates claim to be Republicans.  Van Nortwick, for his part, has been endorsed by the local GOP (but is that reason to vote for him... or against him?) but he has also endorsed the democrat running for County Treasurer.

Balancing that, Van Nortwick was pivotal in trying to warn us that the budget crafted by Wilson, Rivers and Paul Harris in the House would cause our property taxes to explode in the face of the assurances of Wilson and Rivers that our property taxes were going down THIS year.  Rivers, who bears a huge responsibility for this property tax mess, actually blamed Van Nortwick for our property tax explosion.

And how'd that work out for us?

County Clerk:  Writing in Bain Wilson.

Sadly, Scott Weber felt compelled to lie to get elected the first time he ran.  That he won is meaningless: that he lied about that means he could lie about anything.

Bain is Weber's deputy.  She ran for the office the term before Scott.  She can do the job and likely is, for the most part, anyway.

As the rag put it when they endorsed Weber (Which automatically makes him suspect)

In 2010, as a political novice, Weber ran for the office with the platform of abolishing it. For that election, he wrote in the voters’ pamphlet: “We need to manage our public money better. One way to do that is to eliminate elected offices that have very limited functions. … If elected I will work to eliminate the office which will save the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. While I work to phase the office out, I will do everything I can to save taxpayer money.”

Now Weber has a different view of the job, which has an annual salary of $114,509. 

For $114K, who wouldn't?

Don't misunderstand me: I don't care if the office is elected or not.  I do care that someone would lie about what they will do once elected... only to fail to follow through.

Haven't you had enough of that?

County Council

Chair:  Eileen Quiring.

This wasn't a slam dunk for me by any means but the reality is that Eric Holt has merely devolved into a poster-child for every leftist theme and cause known to politics.

I had supported him in the past when he ran against "Gas Tax, Property Tax" Rivers because I will never support a liar with the exception of using her name to stay Republican in the Congressional race.

I've learned my lesson and it's all Republican, all the time for me now.

The Olson/Green interchangeability index

Council District Two: Elisabeth Veneman

This is no contest.  Julie Olson has done an absolutely horrific job as counselor, representing the downtown leftists far more than either the Republican Party or her district.

In fact, had her opponent back in 2015 (Chuckie Green, owner of the fringe-left hate site "Clark County Leftists for Good Leftist Government) actually won, his voting record would have been the same as Olson's now.

If there are any differences between the two, I don't see it.

Look at this dual endorsement of yet another RINO/Leftist, John Blom.  It certainly speaks to Olson's fake GOP veneer as well as Blom's.

Olson, for her part, represents the special interests of downtown Vancouver.

Veneman will listen to and represent the people of her district.

Because any politician supporting the CRC scam is damned sure NOT supporting the people of Clark County.

Council District One: Writing in Anson Service

Look, I think that Temple Lentz is a hoot.

Telling Lefty Lou Brancaccio to go fuck himself a few years back after she was Tim "The Liar" Leave-it's campaign manager back in, oh. 2011 or so shows she's not the run-of-the-mill leftist whack-job.  But she had no problem working with that lying scumbag Jimmy Mains who absolutely... and falsely... claimed to the world back in 2012 that the reason I opposed Marc Boldt, my brother-in-law, for reelection to the county commission was because I was being paid by David Madore to do so.

I'm pretty sure the technical term for that is defamation.... or libel.... or slander.... or something like that...

...since it was 1000% untrue.

That she'd work with scum like Mains is enough to prove, IMHO, that's she's unfit for any elected position, but that's just me.

Stuart, for her part, has mainly been a disappointment since she helped Boldt roll back most every tax and fee restriction that David Madore put into place.

That means she's been instrumental in jacking up our taxes and fees in a big way... hardly standard Republican fare.

OTOH, she's continued to stand steadfast against that horrific scam that the other 4 councilors have indicated support for: the resurrection of the CRC/Loot Rail scam.

I appreciate that.

But I also know of her part in the 2015 election designed not to win, but to keep David Madore from winning by getting her name on the ballot and splitting the vote.  She did that out of her intense dislike for Madore... and that's her privilege.  It certainly was her privilege then just like my writing in former candidate in the 49th Ansen Service for her spot is my privilege now.

The end result of her action was the enabling of the 3 years of agony inflicted on this county by Boldt.

And that simply cannot be forgiven.

Service, for his part, ran a strong campaign in the Vancouver Soviet for Representative a few years back.  He would do a great job as a county councilor.

State Representative: District 18 Seat One - Writing in John Ley

Over the years, John Ley forgets more about the issues confronting the people of the 18th District before 9 a.m. than Brandon Vick actually knows.

Vick barely defeated someone in the primary that no one had ever heard of (51.8% to 48%) even though he had every advantage, from money to a 4 year incumbency.

Where Vick screwed up... badly... is he sold us out on his vote to resurrect the CRC/Loot Rail scam.

The people of this county do not want the I-5 bridge replaced with the 4 decades of horrifically expensive, ever-increasing tolls and lack of impact that light rail project would cost the 75,000 or so commuters of the voting public.

His support of that scam is exactly the same as that of his democrat opponent.  So why vote fake democrat when you can get the real thing?

The failure of Vick to vote conservative in arguably one of the most conservative districts in the state caused conservatives to simply blow his race off.

Ley could easily do a better job and his early reaction supporting "Gas Tax - Property Tax" Rivers efforts that have helped make our gasoline among the most expensive in the country aside, Ley buries himself in the most critical elements of transportation policy and history that Vick simply cannot grasp.

18th District - Seat 2: Writing in Liz Pike

The hand-picked RINO, Larry Hoff, was humiliated in the primary, where, oddly enough, it would appear that roughly 1400 people voted for Vick... only to turn around and vote AGAINST Hoff.

Everything about Hoff's campaign has been wrong. He was picked and endorsed by almost every RINO in politics around here, including a couple who have no business getting involved in this district (Kim Wyman, Secretary of State (Does she really think her endorsement matters?  Because it CLEARLY didn't matter here, did it?) and Jaime Herrera, who is many things but conservative certainly isn't on the list)

He's surrounded himself with ignorant RINO's such as the Wilsons, Steve Nelson, and others who simply don't know the district or the people.

This seat... both of these seats... have been a lock.  The performance of both of these seats in the primary has been miserable; the worst in, perhaps, the last 20 years.

They should get a message from that.  Nothing I've seen indicates that such message has been received and they are both at risk.

If/when they lose?

They'll have no one to blame but themselves... and in Hoff's case, the bad advice he got from the Wilson crew.

17th District - Seat 1: Vicki Kraft

Kraft takes stands and votes the establishment and downtown mafia, hate.  She puts the R in representative, more so than any other representative running in SW Washington.

And to me, that is THE critical element in the job, which is SUPPOSED to be, "representation" after all.

17th District - Seat 2: Writing in Don Benton

Harris sold us out on the budget scam that caused our property taxes to explode.

For example, the WEA REALLY, REALLY liked his betrayal of his district:

See, when you sell out your party and your people, you get a WEA cookie.

Paul's democrat opponent, Damion Jiles, Jr, was recently outed for a domestic violence issue.

Given democrat hypocrisy about how women are treated, unsurprisingly, it appears that Jiles is still endorsed by the local democrat party.

Color me surprised.

For his part, Benton is... Benton.  Hated by the democrats and the RINO establishment types alike, our differences notwithstanding, he'd be far superior to Harris.

Now a member of the Trump Administration as Director of the Selective Service, Benton would be a welcome change.  (And yeah, I know about the rules concerning holding these two jobs at the same time.)

Public Utilities Commissioner: Jim Malinowski.

Is that even a question?

Initiatives:

Following the lead of the Republican Women (where I proudly claim an associate membership, which I immediately made with the departure of Jesser) I agree with all of their positions on these initiatives.

I-940: handcuffs law enforcement - NO

I-1631: Inslee's wet dream to jack up our taxes another mile - NO

I-1634: A reaction to Seattle's idiotic soda tax that let Starbucks off the hook, this gets rid of that and keeps other greedy local governments from doing the same on that or any other food item. - YES

I-1639:  The gun-grabber/California initiative. - NO