Arthur Hu's Bothell / Snohomish Voter Guide Endorsements

I live in Bothell, WA in state legislative District 1, so here's how I recommend my votes.

If you're liberal, you might consider voting the OPPOSITE of me, except for Superintendent of Public Instruction, where both Democrats and Republicans (and "corporate" types of both stripes want to keep) want to dump Terry Bergeson who has failed miserably by sticking with WASL and fuzzy math, and going for Dorn.

YES Initiative 985: Transportation. This is the Eyeman initiative this year, I don't neccesarily agree everything in it is a perfect idea, but it does emphasize that transportation money should be used to ease congestion rather than to get people to stop driving cars.

NO Initiative 1000: They call it death with dignity, but it's doctor assisted suicide. Last time I checked, suicide was still something you're not supposed to do, I don't like the idea of getting a permission slip from your doctor to kill yourself.

NO Initiative 1029: Certification for long-term care workers. I wasn't aware there was a crisis in underqualified care workers, or sudden need for 75 hours of training. Not surprisingly, supported by the people already in the field that it would end up protecting their jobs and raising barriers to entry. I don't see this a neccesary in exchange for the increase in cost and fees.

President: John McCain / Sarah Palin. Some people think Palin should be at the top of the ticket. Sure she's a little rough, but the main reason people say she's unqualified isn't because of her actual experience, which as a governor is as much or more than Obama who won't be a heartbeat away, but running AS president. They don't like that she's not a professional politician, she's not married to a politician, she shoots animals like the Indians used to, she's pro-life, and pro-christian. McCain may be dull, and you can attack Palin all you want over bridges, clothes, and firing people, but they don't advocate raising taxes on the rich to pay for handouts to people who don't owe taxes, they didn't have to quit a church that preached God d---- America, they never worked with a guy that used to bomb America in his youth, they didn't hire as advisors the same Fannie Mae CEO's that ran the economy into the ground, never bought a house with the help of a convicted criminal, or attended a dinner for an Palestinean apologist professor, and never had to pretend he never had two muslim dads, one of whom enrolled him in school as a muslim and took him to the Mosque to pray. Never mind that Obama doesn't know a thing about botched tanker deals or Littoral Combat ships, or why the Vietnam war was badly run. If you want to voter for hope and change, go with Obama. If you want experience, integrity and character, I'm sticking with McCain.

Runner Up: Bob Barr (L) Dorey Monson has a point that Washington is probably far enough away from McCain getting the points, Bob Barr, who opposed the bailout, would be a good libertarian minimalist government vote. Don't bother with the socialists, you've got one in Obama.

Congress Dist 1: Larry Ishmael.(R) He recognizes Democrats pass environmental laws that raise the cost of energy. Inslee was one of the few like Obama to oppose taking out Saddam Hussein's regime, still wants to "end the war in Iraq" (how??), wrote a book comparing energy to the Apollo program, which is a silly "if we could go to the moon we can do anything". Apollo was a textbook implementation of 1960s technology that didn't have to make economic sense.

Governor: Dino Rossi. (R) Frankly, the anti-Gregoire ads annoy me, but not as much as the anti-rossi ads. Gregoire ads don't make any sense to me to try to convice the far-left that Rossi is really a conservative republican. Rossi on the other hand makes the case Gregoire did a poor job regardless of what party you are in. Rossi wants to end the WASL, which was my idea for SPI back in 2000, now I'm not the only one.

Lieutenant Governor: I like that Marcia McCraw (R) speaks mandarin, french, spanish and Japanese, served on the board of just about everybody, and doesn't like Olympia coming up with expensive programs to fix everything.

Secretary of State: Sam Reed. Everybody like this guy (R). Osgood complains about bar-coded ballots and vote counting machines nobody has had problems with.

Attorney General: Rob McKenna (R), another popular guy, he investigated the oil companies to conclude they're not just a bunch of crooks, the same thesis of my high school study of the energy crisis when government regulation gave us gas lines, not just high prices.

Commisioner Public Lands Doug Sutherland (R) Another republican with broad support and approval, Dan Evans and democrat house speaker likes him.

Superintendent of Public Instruction: Randy Dorn. I was the first guy to scream bloody murder over the awful WASL test which claims to set high standards. What I could see putting math problems this MIT guy couldn't solve in a half hour on a alleged 4th grade test, and she just approved math standards that have kindergartners doing multiplication, and a crazy music WASL test that expects all 5th graders to sight sing from sheet music. Now Dorn realizes how badly bungled the WASL is, as well as the ridiculous no-arithmetic mathematics standards Bergeson pushed with the WASL. Dorn is a democrat that was part of the original misguided outcome-based education reform law of 1993, but at least he's willing to kill the worst parts of it. Bergeson has been in too long, and her program revolves around the WASL, even as the original EALR standards and Certificate of Mastery have been abandoned here and in other states as unworkable.

Insurance commissioner: John R. Adams.(R) He's an insurance guy who runs an agency who recognizes that bad regulations that make companies leave the state and doctors leave their practice. Kreidler has been school board member, state rep, state senator and US congress - impressive but what does he know about insurance other than "fair treatment at a fair price" which means making it tough for insurance companies to do business in this state?

State Senator Dennis Richter (R) Rosemary McAuliffe (D) is an arch-supporter of the WASL, though even she recognizes it punishes all kids. Richter is a Boeing electronics engineer who doesn't like the WASL, though I wonder about the monorail.

State Rep District 1, pos 1 and 2: Arthur Hu write-in (live in Bothell, ran for SPI 2000, just missed 2nd place, won primary for Lake WA school board in 2003)
There is no republican or any other opponent for either Al O'Brien (12 yrs) or Mark Eriks (2 terms), this is a district where Joshua Freed (R) got nearly 50% of the vote, now he's on the city council, so we have two reps and a senator who all have very liberal voting records. At least O'Brien doesn't like Bergeson's WASL either, but I would provide Republican / Libertarian balance to keep the budget under control and limit government to what it has to do best. Write-ins aren't counted though unless you pay the filing fee. 2 year term so I could run with Freed for these positions. GOP spends a lot for Kirkland ,but not trying hard at all in this district.

Supreme Court Justice:
None of the above: Mary Fairhurst, Charles Johson, Debra Stephens - All unopposed, supported by the usual liberal groups - firefighters, conservation voters, state labor council, so I'm leaving blank.

Robert Leach - at least he has Slade Gorton (but so does Terry Bergson ugh)

Snohomish Superior Court - George Appel (R) is backed by Koster and Stevens, well respected conservatives, various law enforcement groups. Wilson is backed by the liberal sherriff, democrats and labor council.