Vote for Darcy Burnder

How you get ahead in this society: You're born in Alaska and adopted by a family in Nebraska. The father had enlisted in the Army after high school. The mother, who already had two sons, wanted a girl. But Darcy was a tom-boy geek. (A second daughter was a girl-girl, now a nurse.)

Darcy applied to Harvard and worked her way to a degree in computer science. Then to Seattle and Microsoft where she wrote code and rose to become manager of a significant project and a successful product.

When Darcy decided to run for office she went to see one of the oracles of the Congress who told her to concentrate on fundraising. Instead, Darcy Burner joined a number of significant organizations including the Afghanstan Study Group whose report on ending the war was endorsed by Republicans as well as Democrats.

A few weeks ago, Burner was impressive as keynote speaker at the Netroots Nation conference. More impressive than Elizabeth Warren, running for the Senate in Massachusetts. Darcy has been going around the new 1st Congressional District with Retired Major Gen. Paul Eaton, who was a leader in Iraq. Recently they talked at the Blaine Senior Center about the cost of the Afgahanstan war in money and lives. Here's a summary in a devastating New Yorker article – July 9-16 issue – by Dexter Filkins who was co-winner in 2010 George Polk award for coverage of this war:


After 11 years, nearly two thousand Americans killed, sixteen thousand Amerricans wounded, nearly four hundred billion dollars spent, and more than twelve thousand Afghan civilians dead since 2007, the war has come to this: mission not accomplished.


Burner and Eaton note that 80 percent of Americans are against this war, as measured by opinion polls. They argue the end should be now rather than 2014, as the President has projected.

The trend in TV ads and direct mail is for candidates to keep the message simple, easy to understand by children of all ages. Examples are the mailing pieces we are getting daily from Suzan DelBene and Laura Ruderman. Darcy Burner's brochure is a small book that covers the major issues.

The 1st Congressional is a district that was structured – not gerrymandered – for an equal contest. There are six Democratic candidates.

With phone calls and knocking on doors we have been surveying voter attitudes. Many are disgusted with the lack of substance. Darcy Burner is a candidate who is showing the way to better politics.




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Nosin' Around for News

The new Birch Bay Cafe and Bistro will open in about a month in the building we know and love as the “Blue Fish.” This according to Mr. Yoon, the proprietor, who I met Wednesday evening. He was working hard and sweating from cleaning the place up but smiling as he pointed to the liquor license application on the door.

But the picture is bleak at the Beach House that many are wistfully calling Stefanie's again. I'm hearing that, if new management doesn't appear soon, the season will be lost. A former employee explained that when Wynstra folded the leasing company pulled out all the equipment and that will take time to replace.

Down the drive, the CJ Wijns space was purchased by 'Grand Bay' condo owners who are advertising for an operator. There, too, nothing is left – including that nice furniture.

Word is the golf course is an impossible situation because the high cost of water to keep the grass alive could never be covered by green fees.

Turning to the beach, we understand Birch Bay and Blaine have been separated in a petition by ReSources to require participation in stormwater permit requirements. There was consideration that Blaine does not have enough population to be included but that, we understand, has been resolved. This is a WIN for the folks who run the Blaine city government – Dept. of Ecology pressure will enhance their stature of having the 97^th worst polluted body of water in the state.

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New Precinct Map

This map shows the new precinct alignment; you should have received a card from the Auditor that states which precinct you are now in. We've circled all those that relate to Birch Bay. Parts of some are outside the existing Urban Growth Area. Because we are “county,” the precinct delineation process made no effort to fit the new lines into the UGA as was done with cities. The Birch Bay Community Council will want to deal with this when the growth plan is reviewed.

Comments are encouraged.

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How to address your Congressman

At the February OFA convention in Everett, Congressman Rick Larsen was asked how to communicate with him.

Write me directly; I tell my staff to pay more attention to an e-mail from an individual constituent than to one forwarded by 500 people, is the gist of what he said.

In a remarkably thoughtful talk, Larsen went on to discuss the importance of the contest for the refigured Congressional District 1 seat as one of three Washington Democrats need to win to take back the House.

“Having run against John Koster twice and beaten him twice, I don't think he's a good fit for that new district,” said the Congressman. (Observers suggest that Koster, a Snohomish County commissioner and a Tea Party favorite, is more right wing than most voters in the southern end of the district.)

In what seemed more reality than a prediction, Larsen said the field of Democrat candidates for District 1 – are there now five or six? – needs to be narrowed by the filing deadline of May 18. He recently endorsed Suzan DelBenne.

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Can Persuasion Prevent Legal Action?

At the last Wednesday meeting of the BBWARM advisory board, sitting as a Shellfish Protection District, George Boggs, executive director of the Whatcom Conservation District, and Rachael Vasak presented their plan to improve water quality in Terrell Creek and Birch Bay.

Ms. Vasak, who is popular in the community as Executive Director of NSEA, the Nooksak Salmon Enhancement Association, has been interviewing landowners in the Terrell Lake basin and other areas of possible pollution of Terrell Creek and found that most don't have concern for clams in the bay and don't think leaking septic systems or their animal waste is important. So she and Boggs are forming an advisory committee to identify 30 owners for persuasion with modest monetary incentive. They cite Nancy Lee, as their guide. She is the principal of Social Marketing Services, Inc., based on Mercer Island, has been “Influencing Behaviors for Good” since 1993.

Meanwhile ReSources for Sustainable Communities is petitioning the state Department of Ecology to include Birch Bay (and Blaine) in national stormwater regulations that would put enforceable restraints on polluters. BBWARM relies on voluntary compliance. Doggie bags are available at key points but if a dog poops on the beach the owner might get yielled at by clam diggers, but no sheriff’s citation.

Ms. Lee's website (www.socialmarketing service.com) has a long list of persuasion accomplishments including Storm water Runoff, EPA and Seattle Public Utilities; Natural Yard Care, King County Department of Natural Resources and Seattle Public Utilities; Leaking Toilets, Seattle Public Utilities; Proper Disposal of Grease and Cooking Oils, City of Victoria, B.C. But she's not fervent, noting that a law was necessary to stop texting while driving when persuasion failed. 
Boggs and Vasak have grants totalling a million dollars. Don Monfort, BBWARM's math whiz and chief cynic, noted that is $33,000 per persuasion tartet. Ms. Lee counters that if a significant number of those 30 change their ways, others will be persuaded. How do you compute that?

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