Mulling Over my Ballot

The candidate I want most to win is Christina Maginnis who is running for County Council against Sam Crawford, the conservative who presently heads the Council. At first, she struck me as a pixie who could do standup. Second, I found her to be an intelligent woman and an expert on water quality who could make an important contribution to saving Bellingham's Lake Whatcom water supply.

After the Birch Bay Candidates' Forum, I chastized Maginnis for not emphasizing her education and experience in testing water quality. She said for many county voters “environmentalist” is a negative. Instead, she is pounding Crawford on “Trust and Transparency,” including use of expensive TV ads. He claims to have “lost” messages from his developer clients to his official county e-mail address.

If Maginnis and the two other Council candidates slated by the Democrat party–Alan Black and Pete Kremen–win, they would form a liberal majority on the Council. Mr. Kremen should win easily, despite Tony Larson's Tea Party support. If Alan Black (a good man) wins, it will really be because Barbara Brenner loses. Has this longest serving member of the council worn out her welcome?

As a former city boy–Philadelphia and San Francisco– I admit to ambilivance about Ms. Brenner. Although at the end of my time in San Francisco, I stood on street corners with a victorious city supervisor, most of those years in the cities I rarely had contact with politicians–to be in the same room was an experience. It was really an experience to walk in to the BBCF and be hugged by Brenner whispering, “You're one of the few people I know here.” None-the-less, I expect Mr. Black will be a council member who will be respected for weighing issues and making careful decisions.

About the County Executive candidates I am not ambilivant. A couple of years ago, at a “Farmers Growing Trees for Salmon” dinner, Ruth and I found ourselves sitting across from Doug Erickson without knowing who he was. It took an hour to find out and another hour to learn his views. He is a born politician with a pleasant personality who, I expect, would be good for Birch Bay, working to get the berm built and making Whatcom a county that many in the state, looking for an effective governor, would admire. (Only three counties in the state have County Executives.) One of the things I like about Erickson is that he doesn't equivocate. His flier contains a 10-point checklist that includes “Build new jail,” “[Support] Gateway Pacific Terminal,”“Streamline county permitting process.”

Of course, this progressive could not vote for Doug Erickson. Nor could I vote for Jack Louws, who strikes me as being mostly full of himself. So I wrote in David Stalheim, whom Bellingham liberals should never have allowed to lose in the primary. If the Democrat slate wins for County Council they will be redeemed.

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