Final Results

Here are the final results of the Nov 2010 election in District 6.  Both races were close, even though both Republican candidates won, it was not by much.  Now they need to figure out how to represent all of us - even those who didn't vote for them.

Results

The election results are in and, yes, I am disappointed with Spokane.  Baumgartner won and I think he will do well.  He is intelligent and shows a genuine concern for this area.  He said that even if you didn't vote for him please feel free to stop by his office and let him know what your concerns are.
 John Ahern was the surprise.  Because of his inappropriate behavior last time he was our Representative, his lack of attendance at most debates, his belief that getting rid of no-fault divorce is the answer to the high dropout rate in Spokane High Schools, and his mixed idea that government should get out of most things yet play a huge part in social issues, I am dismayed that he got over 14,000 votes to make him our Representative once again.

With that said we now need to look to the future.  Let's see what the Republicans can get done in the next two years.  The people have spoken.  Will the newly elected be held to their campaign promises?  There were a lot of them.  Can we come together in our concern for this Country instead of making each parties agenda the most important?

Please come back to this blog often.  Next I would like to explore the education challenges in District 81.  I would like to hear from any teachers about their insights on the problems and solutions.

What Now

It's just about over, election day is here. After months of wasted paper, half truths, lies, anger, passion and an incredible amount of work it comes down to counting the votes.

No matter who wins, I would like to wake up the next morning to a country that realizes we must find a way to get along, that it is time to get away from the disrespect and degrading anger that is continuing to weigh us down.  Let's move forward with the betterment of our country in the forefront instead of the interest of political parties.  Let us all exhale a hopeful sigh remembering that we can stop the kind of negative campaigning that has permeated this election season.  Only the voters can demand that the candidates live up to a higher standard.  Let's see what campaign promises will be kept and which will be discarded.

After all the signs come down, the phones stop ringing and the vicious ads are deleted then the real work will start.   We need to find a way to work together with respect, we need to bring harmony to our schools and businesses. We need to heal this nation.

Election Day

It is a strange political and social time we are in.  If you have any doubts about heading to the polls, this video should help get rid of them.

And if you have any friends or family who you think might not vote, please send them the video to remind them why staying home is not an option.  

Sensationalism, lies, hate, exclusions, disrespect and fear should not be part of the election process or part of our electorate but that's what we have and now we must deal with it.  So VOTE!

My Candidates

I am tired of the mailers, attack ads, and voters guides.  What a waste of paper.  Imagine, these things actually work or the candidates would not be spending so much money on them!  I hope my endorsements work as well.  By now you should have read all the interviews and hopefully attended some debates.

Between Driscoll and Ahern the pick is simple.  They are both against raising taxes.  Driscoll is a moderate Democrat who seems genuinely concerned about Spokane and wants to stimulate job growth and balance the budget.  Ahern seems much more concerned with his Party's platform and his religious beliefs.  He wants to privatize everything, ban abortion as well as no-fault divorce.  A vote for Driscoll would be a vote for Spokane and making progress towards the 21st Century instead of trying to go back to some previous era.

The choice between Marr and Baumgartner is not so easy.  They are both intelligent, caring men who seem to be concerned with the future of our state.  My biggest problem with Baumgartner is that he pledged to uphold the Spokane County Republican Platform.  Seems to me he would be putting his Party before the greater good of this City, State and Country.  Regardless of the fact that he says he disagrees with some of the Platform, he still signed it.  If he would sign that to get the Republican Party endorsement what else would he do and then insist that he didn't mean?  I think he has a political future but maybe he should wait until he is stronger and more focused on doing what he truly believes in.

Spokane County Republican Platform

I urge all of you to read the 2010 Republican Party Platform for Spokane County.  Before the Party will endorse candidates they are asked to sign a pledge to uphold the US Constitution and their party platform.  Both John Ahern and Michael Baumgartner signed it.  Baumgartner told me that he told the Party he disagreed with some of the platform BUT he signed it anyway.  John Ahern said he agrees with everything except getting the US out of the UN.  Kevin Parker, running for reelection for legislator in the 6th District without an opponent, did not sign it. 
 
Spokane County this is 2010, isn't it about time we drop the word "men" and replace it with "people"?

Here are a few quotes from this Platform...  (This Platform is very different from the King County Republican Platform.)    I am not anti Republican but I am against any Spokane County Republican who signed to uphold this document.

the absolute right to own, possess and carry a firearm with out the permission of any branch of government.  All stored records of registration, whether in printed or electronic form, be destroyed in order to be protected from confiscation. 

Support abolishing no-fault divorce for the sake of the children involved

Abolishing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Withdrawal of the United States from the United Nations

That Congress shall withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization

Eliminate the U.S. Department of Education

Repeal the Endangered Species Act

Allowing increased responsible drilling and mining within the 50 states, as well as offshore

Climate Change and warming and cooling trends are natural processes, not induced by man

Revoke all laws regarding carbon dioxide emissions, carbon footprints and carbon sequestration, we reject the EPA's agends to control carbon emissions

We must reject the United Nations Agenda 21 in all its forms, including sustainability, smart growth,cap and trade and Y2Y

There are things I disagree with in both Democrat and Republican platforms  but this Spokane County Republican document is very backward thinking.

Will getting rid of no-fault divorce make people have better, more functional relationships or force them to stay in bad ones longer?  I thought Republicans want less government control.

Destroy ALL gun registration??

Even if you don't believe global warming is "induced by man" we should at least be conscious of other ways we are destroying the earth and that we do need to learn to live more sustainably.

What do YOU think?

Compare again...

Gary asked:  Would you buck your party to support or oppose an issue if you believed it was in the best interest of your constituents?

Baumgartner:  Yes, absolutely.  Constituents certainly come before party.
Marr:   First of all, I think it is a rare occurrence when there isn’t an elected official that at some point votes against their party.  My record has been pretty clear. I don’t think we should just look at the party, we need to look at the stake holders.   If you’re a democrat you have labor stake holders, environmental stake holders, in addition to the party line.  The answer is yes.  On unemployment insurance hikes to increase eligibility for voluntary quits and raising the multiplier, myself and about 6 other moderate democrats voted against my party and killed that proposal on the floor with the head of the state labor council and the higher ups standing in the balcony.  I proposed a worker’s compensation reform bill that Senator Brown actively worked to get every member of my caucus not to sign onto.  I indicated to Boeing I was willing to go ahead.  The Republican caucus, Senator Hewitt, said he wouldn’t have any of his people sign on it because it was a democrat bill.

On environmental issues there are some strains between myself and the environmental community because I have supported a more flexible, renewable energy standard.  They have been very rigid in ideology which I don’t think serves the citizens of the state.  I have been willing to vote against taxes.  I did vote for some. I did vote for the tobacco tax.

If you look at where I am in my caucus relative to my labor voting record I’m down a scale.  If you look at where I am in terms of the expectations of business I’m down the scale.  I think I’m rated in the one third lowest spending legislators by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation because I pick my spots.

I do see a prevalence of legislators who come in and who watch score cards and take total caucus direction.  If you look at the floor of the house or senate and see people look at their laptops many are looking at what the AWB, NFIB or NRA score card tells them they should be voting on issues.  I think that is more troublesome than following the caucus line.  Shouldn’t people be voting the interest of their constituents?  The answer is yes. 

I think that on the bills that matter to me that have to do with things like the business environment and how it affects economic growth and vitality, those are specifically the areas that I am more inclined to break with my caucus.  As a whole, locally my local democrats have been understanding about that.   I think as you go over to Seattle, some of the stake holders there, they have been less so but it’s the folks here that I represent.



Rob asked:  List the two most important issues that you think you can make a difference on if elected and how would you do that.

Marr:  One is restoring economic vitality.  I am talking about Spokane related issues.    My background is around economic development.  I have been involved in every significant economic development initiative in this community over the last decade and a half.   Specifically, the north/south freeway, revitalizing downtown, creation of the University district, aerospace by the airport.  I would say the two are: transportation investments particularly around the north/south corridor and highway 195, and the second thing, growth of the university district and our Health Sciences sector.  Those are the two areas locally I think I will make the most impact on.

If you want to scale up to a statewide level, I would start with us having a more rational economic development strategy which focuses on our strengths as a state.  Our state revenue structure tends to be fixated on a time when we were an agrarian economy.  Many of our tax breaks are focused on things like heating for poultry farms and things like that.  Frankly you can take that $1.8 million and move it to biotech or aerospace and we would be better off as a state.  One is resetting our economic development strategy to line up with the recovery and the other issue is around making reasonable changes in things that drive costs for business.  That’s why I’ve been a proponent of UI reform, worker’s compensation reform, energy reform because I think those represent costs for business.  If we can find a way to bring them down, I think jobs grow.

Bringing a voice to business issues in a reasonable way, not in an ideologically bound way, to my caucus is a role I play, one that needs to be played because there are very few people in either party who have signed both sides of a paycheck.   I have paid worker’s compensation premiums for 20 years, I have been a part of workers comp retro group before so don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.  If you want to deal with transparency in fixing it, fine but don’t do away with worker’s comp retro programs when you don’t know what they do for safety in the work place.  Those are the types of things I think I can correct.

Baumgartner:  The 2 key issues are: the need to fix our state budget process so it’s sustainable.  Right now we have an unsustainable state budget that’s misaligned.  We have increased total state spending $17 billion in the last 4 years since Senator Marr has been in office.  Now we are faced with record tax increases, record spending increases and now we have record cuts so the whole system is out of alignment.  We do need to restructure and slim down government. That’s issue number one.  The way we need to do that is we need to take state employees and move from having them pay 12% of their benefits up to 20% of their benefits.  That would save over a billion dollars, that’s a big deal.  I think we should freeze state salaries right now while we are in this recession.  In general slim down the government in sectors where it doesn’t need to be in or we can’t afford it to be in.  The priorities of government should be funding education, funding road transport, and public safety.  That’s what I would do in those areas and I would help facilitate that process.

The other big issue of why I’m running is we have to get state economy going and to do that we need to make the state more friendly for small business.  I have been endorsed by the leading small business organization, the National Federation of Independent Business.  This is the big difference between me and Chris Marr.  He has F ratings from our state’s business associations.  Kevin Parker has about a 90%from the state business association, John Driscoll has about a 75% rating, Chris Marr has a 43% rating, an F.  What we do to make the state more business friendly is, first, worker’s compensation reform.  Washington State is one of only 4 states that doesn’t have choice in worker’s compensation.  If we allow choice it will bring down cost and give better products.  Right now Labor and Industry has increased costs dramatically even though the total number of claims has gone down.  They are now playing games with the system, they are not going to release how much people’s L&I costs are going to increase until after the election because I know they are going to go up.   It’s a poor system and mismanaged.   We need to modernize it.  So that would be a big issue to move as well. 

I also think we need fundamental reform of our Business and Occupation Tax.   Right now the B&O tax is on a gross basis so it’s very difficult for small businesses and low margin businesses where you can lose money and still have to pay a tax.  B&O Tax can be very low as a percentage on a gross basis but I have one of my supporters who estimates that he pays a 9% corporate income tax right now because he pays 1.7%, or whatever percentage it is, of his gross tax.  I think on a revenue neutral basis we should transform that to a net tax.  Those are 2 things I would do for business.

A third thing would be we should try is to bring down health care costs.  They are very high for small businesses in Washington State because we have one of the highest number of mandates of any state.  If we could allow portability and assurance that insurance could be sold across state lines, that would reduce the cost for small business.



Anonymous asked:  What is your solution to the high dropout rate in Spokane High Schools?

Baumgartner:  The first thing that needs to be done about the high dropout rate is have people measure it and know what it is.  I hear figures anywhere from 35% - then I talk to Superintendents who say, no, that figure is wrong because we’re not tracking when they move to other school districts and they say it’s more like 10%.  The citizens of Spokane have to demand that we know what the dropout rate is to begin with, so let’s get that fixed.

The other issues, we just need to improve our education system overall here in Spokane.  I think we need fundamental reform in education.  More of our education dollars have to go into the classroom.  I think now we spend $11,000 per student on education.  So you think at 25 students in the classroom as a base line, that’s $250,000.  That should be enough to get a great teacher with a great salary, get books for the kids and extracurricular activities.  But right now less than 50% of that is going to the classroom so I’d like to see that focus.  We need to let principles have more control over their budget and more parental decision making, less decision making in Olympia and Washington DC.  What that would do is allow more tailored specific solutions in the classroom for those kids that most need it. I also think we should try some innovation in education here that we’ve seen happen in other states.  I think we should try Charter schools.  It would be really neat if parents were trying to see what kind of student they have and where they want to go, if somebody wanted to open a school that taught in French or a school that went from 8-5 with longer periods for music.  I think with the competition, vision and choice you’re going to get more tailored solutions.  The dropout rate …I went to Gonzaga Prep for my first two years and to Pullman for my last two years.  We had a real neat vocational ed program there, a really good metal shop class.  There were a lot of kids who might have been dropouts or gone to an alternative school but with some of that vocational ed teaching, kept them engaged.  It was really teacher dependent.  They had a really neat teacher who did vocational ed.  It wasn’t just a teacher but a mentor to a lot of kids and gave them a skill in the welding and metal shop.  So it’s something we certainly need to address.

Marr:  I think we have ed reform wrong.  As a policy maker you think the best answers can be forced down from above.  We have to look at what’s happened to education over the last 10 or 20 years.  First we haven’t funded it.  It used to be about 50% of our general fund now it’s about 40%, so we know it’s a resource issue.  The second thing we’ve done is try to force mandates and our idea of reform down from the top.  Legislators love to go to Olympia and pass laws to insure those in the classroom are doing what we think they should be doing.  Yet we don’t make sure those dollars get to the classroom, either a, because we don’t provide enough money to education to begin with or b, we’ve provided it for the wrong reasons.  Some of these are very well meaning but if you provide mandates around nutrition and all these other requirements does that necessarily get to the classroom?

I’ve become more of a proponent of putting the educators in charge of education.  I think education has become test fixated and too focused on things outside the classroom.  I think teachers struggle, I don’t buy into this whole notion of blame the educator or this idea that educator’s pay should be linked to test scores.

(for the sake of shortening this blog I am editing out Marr’s talk about the documentary “Waiting for Superman”)

We shouldn’t play blame the teacher any more than we should play blame the parent.  But if you really want to blame somebody I think the responsibility starts with abdication of parental responsibility.  Who’s responsible for sending their kid to school clothed and fed?  Who is responsible to make sure Johnny is in by ten or that Suzy does her homework?  It’s the parents.  I think we are in a society that wants someone else to do their work for them.  I believe that about the whole education process.  And for us to blame teachers as a general group, is a wrong headed approach.  It is a circular thing to get involved in blame the parent because it doesn’t help the kid any more than blame the teacher does. 

At the end of the day the more we can do to put resources in the classroom and assure success for kids not necessarily based on whether or not they get a 4 year college degree.  For some reason we’re fixated on this notion that every child’s definition of success should be walking away with a Masters or a PHD.  I have a Master’s, I was a regent at Washington State University.   I know all this elitism around higher education.  Education was designed to provide the best possible outcome for each child based on his or her abilities.  We do not do that now. What we do is say, about the kids who drop out, maybe if we could excite them about going on to a 4 year college degree we’ll solve the education problem.  What about finding out what makes that kid a success? Is it a technical career, is it a certificate program, is it learning how to function in the outside world?  Kids aren’t widgets.  The problem with ed reform is that it is driven by the business roundtable and these folks at the top.  They know how to run businesses.  I’m not convinced that we know how to run education.   What’s sad to me is when I sit with teachers and we talk about reform at the end many are turning to me asking what should we do to fix education?  I said, you’re asking me?  I came from the business world.  I would ask my employees who are closest to the customers.  So I ask you, what should  we do to fix education and the answer is more resources, let the teachers be mentors.  I’m here because I was raised by a single working mom.  I had a junior high school teacher that was my mentor.  He taught me a lot about social responsibility, civic engagement.  He had the opportunity to be a mentor and a life shaper.  We do not know the damage we are doing to the social fabric of this country by making teachers test givers and absentee parents. I think we will learn at some point unless we wake up and decide that education is about a willing mind and a committed teacher.  Yes, there are bad teachers, we need to get rid of them but to damn the whole process and say they have enough , they have enough support, they have enough money all they need to do is get rid of the bad ones and do their job is a total over simplification.  It  really riles me as you can tell.

My Take on All This

Just a thought...

Hopefully we can all agree on somethings.  We live in a beautiful city filled with diverse, amazing people; we want to build a strong community that is safe, healthy and prosperous; we want ethical achievements we can be proud of; we want good education and a balanced budget.

What we disagree on is how to acquire these things.  Opposing views and debates are good - they expose us to differences and new ideas.  Yet, throughout the country, this campaign season has not done that.  It has been filled with exaggerations, rudeness, total untruths, lack of transparency in financial contributions and way too much money.  And why?  Because it works.  We have become so lazy that we would choose to believe a 30 second blip that tells us the reasons not to vote for someone instead of doing research on why to vote for someone.  We are easily swayed by sensationalism.  Why?  We have become complacent.  We want our party and our ministers to tell us how to vote, we have given our power away.   Continuing to vote Party lines will only keep us in this vicious circle.  One thing we need is to respectfully talk to each other, not argue but talk.  After we talk we need to listen.  We need to be open to other ideas with the understanding that what makes a nation great is the sum total of its citizens coming together and understanding that although they might not agree they can respectfully and compassionately disagree and then find a way to work together.  Isn't democracy worth it?

Now Let's Compare

Answers by John Driscoll and John Ahern running for state Representative for the 6th District

Gary asked:  Would you buck your party to support or oppose an issue if you believed it was in the best interest of your constituents?
Ahern:  I go for the constituents first.  That, at least with the Republicans, is extremely rare.  They wouldn’t come up with a bill that I would definitely oppose and my constituents would be for it.  But yes, if push came to shove I’d put constituents first.

Driscoll:   I want to represent my constituents. Here is the order that I go in when I have to make decisions about any bill I vote for, my first filter is I vote the way I believe my district would want me to vote.  My voting record is that I voted on Party line about 70% of the time which is an unusual voting pattern.  Most people tend to vote more along the party platform. The party's position is the last thing I consider.  So first I ask, is it good for my constituents and is it sensible and sound from a policy perspective?




Rob asked:  List the two most important issues that you think you can make a difference on if elected and how would you do that.
Driscoll:  What is most important this year, begins with getting our budget balanced.  That is going to be our highest priority.  The other big issue is jobs.  They relate to each other directly.  We need to get people back to work, reduce our unemployment rate in order to recover our state's revenue and stabilize the state's economy.  The question then becomes: what can you do in government to stimulate job growth.  I'm a strong believer that the way government can stimulate job growth is through targeted incentives for hiring.   For example if you give a tax credit for new hires or if you create some incentive for employers. 

Ahern:  I have rang doorbells on 13,000 houses so far.  I always ask the question: do you have any questions or concerns?  I tell them who I am and ask for concerns.  Invariably if they want to talk, in a lot of cases they do, they either roll their eyes or ask if I have half a day.  It’s the economy more than anything else:  the fact that the state and federal government is way over spending.  We are 13 trillion dollars in debt.  I think one of the key things I want to do when I get back to Olympia is give some ideas on how to get rid of this huge deficit that we keep coming up with.  That is basically privatize, privatize and the third thing is privatize.  Privatize as much as possible.

The first thing that will be privatized is going to be liquor.  Initiatives 1100 and 1105 get the government out of the liquor business.  Also need to get the government out of the ferry system just like in Vancouver, BC and Alaska and they are starting to do it in Europe.  A lot of people don’t realize that Europeans countries are starting to go from left to right of center and as a result they are starting to realize that socialism just doesn’t work.
There are a couple of bills I’d like to run this next session. One, would be to get rid of statute of limitations for start up businesses in the State of Washington.  We have the third highest startup rates per capita and the second highest failure rate in the nation.  The problem with the State of Washington is that it is very,  very anti business.  The other thing I can mention too, I’ll stray a bit here, is Initiative 1098, tax .  That’s the one that’s going to tax high earners.  They did a survey of businesses just recently.  The survey asked what they would do if Initiative 1098 passes.  Two percent said they would be leaving the state, 30% said they would not be able to hire new people, they just have to keep what they got.  So we have a lot to do in this state.

The other area I’ve been involved in is criminal justice.  As you probably know, I passed the felony DUI Bill in 2006 first year of implementation the state patrol said we saved 24 lives. The other area of criminal justice I’d like to do is to get rid of the statute of limitations to prosecute adults who rape children under 18.  Right now the threshold is if you are raped by an adult you’ve got to the age of 24 to file a criminal charge.  That seldom ever happens.  The victim usually figures they are at fault and don’t really realize who is at fault until they are in their 30’s.  I had that bill a couple of years ago and I finally got the Prosecutor’s Association to go along with that, they said you have a good bill.  That’s a huge one I want to get passed.

Marci asked:  Who is your biggest campaign contributor?
Ahern:  I would say Duane Altman, he backs me 100%, just recently $1600 and half was from his wife.  And the guy who owns the Swinging Doors, he gave me $800 one time and again $800, that was Bob Materne.  Those are the top so far.  I’m not a rich guy.   As a matter of fact if I want to get everything done, which I will, I’m going to need another $1200.  So if you’d like to contribute…(we both laugh).

Driscoll:  We have campaign limits at the state level so that the most any one individual or corporation can give is $800 per race, so that's $800 for the primary and $800 for the general.  There are a certain amount of people who have given me that much.  There is a public website http://www.pdc.wa.gov/  with all that information (discusses what is on website). We have to report every week as our campaign contributions come in so it is very current.  It also lists how the money is spent and where it's coming from.

Anonymous asked:  What is your solution to the high dropout rate in Spokane High Schools?
Driscoll:  I believe the dropout problem begins in Middle School.  I think if you wait until the time they're in High School,  intervention to reduce the dropout rate at the High School level is too late, you have probably already lost the kid.  I'm a strong believer that we need to do 2 things.  One, we already did, eliminate the high stakes test. That caused kids to say if they could never pass the test why stay in school. It contributed to the drop out rate so we eliminated that test. My wife was a sixth grade teacher for 25 years plus I have a graduate degree in psychology.  So what I know is every human learns differently from every other human. So you need well trained teachers who understand that one kid is good at reading and bad at math. You need guidance counselors who understand this, someone who will sit down with the kid and look at what they are good at and give them some ideas of what career they could go into.  That is one of the most important things that is missing.  Our education systems is based on the fact that everyone will go to college.  That's not true.  Only 20% of Americans have a college degree, 80% don't.  What are we doing to help that 80%.  There are apprenticeship programs, a lot of things we can do at the high school level, job skills training.  I think those would help, if we give the kids a reason to stay in school, a reason that they believe in.

Ahern:  The solution is and I have talked this over with a lot of teachers while ringing doorbells, almost universally and it’s lack of parental control.  In other words parents really don’t give a darn.  You have a 33% dropout rate.  I don’t blame the teachers, I don’t blame the administrators.  Although we are top heavy with administrators.  We have over 140 administrators in the Spokane area that are drawing $100,000 or more.  I blame it on the legislature for all the mandates they put on schools.  The number one thing is lack of parental help in the schools.  I went to parochial school up to the 6^th grade, my mother was a teacher, my grandmother was a teacher, my dad was a lawyer.  After dinner, at 7:00 you’re in that room studying, no television.  I did the same thing with our kids, they did their homework and they are highly successful.
The reason we have lack of parental control is that today you have so many broken families.  You have drug addiction.  When I was in High School in the 50’s, I lived in Maryland.  I think the average divorce rate was about 5% and gradually moved higher as you moved to the West Coast, 25 % in California.  Today it’s 50 to 55%, less on the East Coast but on average it’s 50%.  Families are breaking up, it’s devastating for the kids, they think it’s their fault.  One thing I’d like to do is get rid of No-fault Divorce that we have in the State of Washington.  It’s too easy to get a divorce.  If we went back to the system we had before it would require 90 days counseling or 6 months counseling and draw it out a little bit, give couples time to think things over.

Bob asked:  How would you change the state tax structure?  Would you be in favor of state income tax?
Ahern:  Absolutely not!   You get that state income tax here and businesses will be out of here in droves.  The number one selling point for the State of Washington to draw any business into the State  is we continue to advertize that we do not have an income tax.  If that passes we’ve lost our big selling point.  We sell two things: the quality of life in the State, it’s beautiful, that and the fact that we have no income tax.  So those are draws for businesses.

Driscoll:  I am absolutely opposed to any tax increases at this time.  I voted against all of them so far in my two year career.  First a disclaimer, that's a non legislative effort.  The legislature has nothing to do with initiatives.  So my views are as a private citizen.  I look at the initiative on the ballot right now and think it is very unbalanced. I think we are hitting less than 2% of the population.  And one of the complaints I hear about sales tax is how unbalanced that is.  The low income person may pay as much as 15, 20% of their income in sales tax.  So we've been trying to eliminate sales tax because it hits low income people worst.  I look at this one as opposite but the same phenomenon with hitting a small segment of our population.  So as far as tax reform overall I think we have a broken system.  So what I would do in a revenue neutral way, meaning don't raise taxes, but I would eliminate the Business and Occupation tax completely and I would limit the sales tax severely, I don't think we can get rid of it but I think we can reduce it.  Right now we have property tax, sales tax and B&O tax for our main revenue sources.  I think we get rid of B&O, do something with sales tax, and we need a revenue neutral, net revenue taxation system. Will we ever get there?  I don't know.  What I just said has been talked about in the state of Washington since the 30's.



Debbie: Anything you want the voters to know that you haven't been asked yet?
Driscoll:  Those were all good questions.  Back to the first question.  I have a six year old grandson.  His name is Frankie.  He is actually John Francis Driscoll VI.  I have a straight line, 6 generations of first born male John F Driscolls.  My grandfather and great grandfather are buried side by side here in Spokane.  My father is 83, I'm 53, my son is 32, my grandson is 6.  I look at that succession, we are Spokane people.  I look at my grandson and he is my touch stone for all my decisions.  I want to make sure he has good schools and all those job choices and opportunities.  I want to do my best to create a world where my grandson gets a great education here, a good job, can afford to live here and raise his family here so we have more generations of my family making this their home.

Ahern:  I think I’ve been asked everything under the sun.  One thing I tell the voters is that in the eight years I was in, I had a felony DUI bill and I was instrumental in getting the Veteran’s Cemetery here in Medical Lake.  So therefore, our mantra is this: experience counts.  It’s right here on my card…(we laugh again as he hands me his flier).

More with John Ahern

Bob asked:  How would you change the state tax structure?  Would you be in favor of state income tax?
Ahern:  Absolutely not!   You get that state income tax here and businesses will be out of here in droves.  The number one selling point for the State of Washington to draw any business into the State  is we continue to advertize that we do not have an income tax.  If that passes we’ve lost our big selling point.  We sell two things: the quality of life in the State, it’s beautiful, that and the fact that we have no income tax.  So those are draws for businesses.

Debbie asked:  Should the State get out of the liquor business?
Ahern:  Yes.  The first thing that needs to be privatized is going to be liquor.  Initiatives 1100 and 1105 get the government out of the liquor business.

Debbie: Anything you want the voters to know that you haven't been asked yet?
Ahern:  I think I’ve been asked everything under the sun.  One thing I tell the voters is that in the eight years I was in, I had a felony DUI bill and I was instrumental in getting the Veteran’s Cemetery here in Medical Lake.  So therefore, our mantra is this: experience counts.  It’s right here on my card…(we laugh again as he hands me his flier).

John Ahern

I would like to thank John Ahern for meeting with me and and answering our questions.  Ahern is a friendly, cheerful and humorous (that's my opinion) candidate running for State Representative.  He willingly answered each question without dodging any answer.  I recorded the session.

Gary asked:  Would you buck your party to support or oppose an issue if you believed it was in the best interest of your constituents?
Ahern:  I go for the constituents first.  That, at least with the Republicans, is extremely rare.  They wouldn’t come up with a bill that I would definitely oppose and my constituents would be for it.  But yes, if push came to shove I’d put constituents first.

Rob asked:  List the two most important issues that you think you can make a difference on if elected and how would you do that.
Ahern:  I have rang doorbells on 13,000 houses so far.  I always ask the question: do you have any questions or concerns?  I tell them who I am and ask for concerns.  Invariably if they want to talk, in a lot of cases they do, they either roll their eyes or ask if I have half a day.  It’s the economy more than anything else:  the fact that the state and federal government is way over spending.  We are 13 trillion dollars in debt.  I think one of the key things I want to do when I get back to Olympia is give some ideas on how to get rid of this huge deficit that we keep coming up with.  That is basically privatize, privatize and the third thing is privatize.  Privatize as much as possible.

The first thing that will be privatized is going to be liquor.  Initiatives 1100 and 1105 get the government out of the liquor business.  Also need to get the government out of the ferry system just like in Vancouver, BC and Alaska and they are starting to do it in Europe.  A lot of people don’t realize that Europeans countries are starting to go from left to right of center and as a result they are starting to realize that socialism just doesn’t work.

There are a couple of bills I’d like to run this next session. One, would be to get rid of statute of limitations for start up businesses in the State of Washington.  We have the third highest startup rates per capita and the second highest failure rate in the nation.  The problem with the State of Washington is that it is very,  very anti business.  The other thing I can mention too, I’ll stray a bit here, is Initiative 1098, tax .  That’s the one that’s going to tax high earners.  They did a survey of businesses just recently.  The survey asked what they would do if Initiative 1098 passes.  Two percent said they would be leaving the state, 30% said they would not be able to hire new people, they just have to keep what they got.  So we have a lot to do in this state.

The other area I’ve been involved in is criminal justice.  As you probably know, I passed the felony DUI Bill in 2006 first year of implementation the state patrol said we saved 24 lives. The other area of criminal justice I’d like to do is to get rid of the statute of limitations to prosecute adults who rape children under 18.  Right now the threshold is if you are raped by an adult you’ve got to the age of 24 to file a criminal charge.  That seldom ever happens.  The victim usually figures they are at fault and don’t really realize who is at fault until they are in their 30’s.  I had that bill a couple of years ago and I finally got the Prosecutor’s Association to go along with that, they said you have a good bill.  That’s a huge one I want to get passed.

Marci asked:  Who is your biggest campaign contributor?
Ahern:  I would say Duane Altman, he backs me 100%, just recently $1600 and half was from his wife.  And the guy who owns the Swinging Doors, he gave me $800 one time and again $800, that was Bob Materne.  Those are the top so far.  I’m not a rich guy.   As a matter of fact if I want to get everything done, which I will, I’m going to need another $1200.  So if you’d like to contribute…(we both laugh).

Anonymous asked:  What is your solution to the high dropout rate in Spokane High Schools?
Ahern:  The solution is and I have talked this over with a lot of teachers while ringing doorbells, almost universally and it’s lack of parental control.  In other words parents really don’t give a darn.  You have a 33% dropout rate.  I don’t blame the teachers, I don’t blame the administrators.  Although we are top heavy with administrators.  We have over 140 administrators in the Spokane area that are drawing $100,000 or more.  I blame it on the legislature for all the mandates they put on schools.  The number one thing is lack of parental help in the schools.  I went to parochial school up to the 6^th grade, my mother was a teacher, my grandmother was a teacher, my dad was a lawyer.  After dinner, at 7:00 you’re in that room studying, no television.  I did the same thing with our kids, they did their homework and they are highly successful.

The reason we have lack of parental control is that today you have so many broken families.  You have drug addiction.  When I was in High School in the 50’s, I lived in Maryland.  I think the average divorce rate was about 5% and gradually moved higher as you moved to the West Coast, 25 % in California.  Today it’s 50 to 55%, less on the East Coast but on average it’s 50%.  Families are breaking up, it’s devastating for the kids, they think it’s their fault.  One thing I’d like to do is get rid of No-fault Divorce that we have in the State of Washington.  It’s too easy to get a divorce.  If we went back to the system we had before it would require 90 days counseling or 6 months counseling and draw it out a little bit, give couples time to think things over.


Come back for more Q & A...

More with Michael Baumgartner...

Anonymous asked:  What is your solution to the high dropout rate in Spokane High Schools?
Baumgartner:  The first thing that needs to be done about the high dropout rate is have people measure it and know what it is.  I hear figures anywhere from 35% - then I talk to Superintendents who say, no, that figure is wrong because we’re not tracking when they move to other school districts and they say it’s more like 10%.  The citizens of Spokane have to demand that we know what the dropout rate is to begin with, so let’s get that fixed.

The other issues, we just need to improve our education system overall here in Spokane.  I think we need fundamental reform in education.  More of our education dollars have to go into the classroom.  I think now we spend $11,000 per student on education.  So you think at 25 students in the classroom as a base line, that’s $250,000.  That should be enough to get a great teacher with a great salary, get books for the kids and extracurricular activities.  But right now less than 50% of that is going to the classroom so I’d like to see that focus.  We need to let principles have more control over their budget and more parental decision making, less decision making in Olympia and Washington DC.  What that would do is allow more tailored specific solutions in the classroom for those kids that most need it. I also think we should try some innovation in education here that we’ve seen happen in other states.  I think we should try Charter schools.  It would be really neat if parents were trying to see what kind of student they have and where they want to go, if somebody wanted to open a school that taught in French or a school that went from 8-5 with longer periods for music.  I think with the competition, vision and choice you’re going to get more tailored solutions.  The dropout rate …I went to Gonzaga Prep for my first two years and to Pullman for my last two years.  We had a real neat vocational ed program there, a really good metal shop class.  There were a lot of kids who might have been dropouts or gone to an alternative school but with some of that vocational ed teaching, kept them engaged.  It was really teacher dependent.  They had a really neat teacher who did vocational ed.  It wasn’t just a teacher but a mentor to a lot of kids and gave them a skill in the welding and metal shop.  So it’s something we certainly need to address. 

Bob asked:  How would you change the state tax structure?  Would you be in favor of state income tax?
Baumgartner:  I am opposed to a state income tax.  This is why: I think it would cost jobs and hurt our economy because there are a lot of folks in this state that already have a high tax burden or have companies that are formed as S Corps. , folks that say no on income tax or we’re out of here. So it’s not good for any of us in that respect.  Secondly I think it is fundamentally unfair for a majority to impose a tax on a minority.  I don’t think that’s how America should do its politics.  And thirdly I think it would be the nose out of the camel’s tent.  Every other state where this has been introduced that we are just going to tax the top 1% eventually it comes down and the legislature spends more money in good times and they don’t want to make cuts in bad times so they increase taxes.  I think that’s what we’ll get here. 

The way that tax is being portrayed, I don’t think it’s being portrayed in an honest way.  Bill Gates, Senior gets on TV and says it’s going to cut 20% of people’s property tax.  Well, it’s going to cut 20% of the state portion of their property tax which is about 4% overall.  It does have a provision for being a tax reform.  I do think that needs to be looked at and also, as I said, I do think we need to reform our B&O system. 

One of the arguments of people in favor of the income tax is, one, that people think it makes income more predictable for the state.  I think the evidence doesn’t say that.  The other is it is unfair to the poor to have such a high sales tax in this state.  I think there is some merit to that because the consumption tax like our state sales tax does hit a higher percentage of income.  I think we do need some tax reform but we need to start on the spending side so we get spending in check and have a reasonable amount of money and look at some of those things.

Debbie asked:  Should the State get out of the liquor business?
Baumgartner:  Yes, I do think they should.   It is one of those areas that the state doesn’t need to be in.  It is an archaic system based from the post prohibition era.  Now it is a source of state funding and a place for state employees to work.  That’s the reason why folks are fighting it.  I think if we privatize we’ll save money now.  The Office of Financial Management study that came out, that my opponent Chris Marr sites, only talks about the loss in revenues.  It doesn’t talk about the savings in costs.  I think if we privatize liquor it will allow liquor enforcement board to focus on enforcements and safety issues instead of running a government monopoly.  It was interesting after yesterday’s debate a guy came up and said he works in a liquor store.  He said “I only have to work 8 hours a week to get my full benefit package.”  I think and he was saying this, that is an abuse of the taxpayer and the public trust.  That’s the kind of thing I want to get fixed.  I don’t want to cut the government out of the essential things government needs to be doing, helping the needy, helping schools and that kind of stuff.

Debbie: Anything you want the voters to know that you haven't been asked yet?
Baumgartner:  I think the thing that I would like them to know is that I know not all the voters are going to agree with me.  This will be a close election.  Two things, one, I really come at this with a sense of public service.  This has been a ten month job interview for me, taking away from things I could have been doing.  And quite a process for a job that, although $42,000 isn’t insignificant, it is less than I could be making doing other things.  I feel the same way I felt when I left college and had some good opportunities but decided to go to Africa and work as a volunteer for free and when I left my private sector career in 2007 to go to Iraq, in the sense that there are things out there that are bigger than I am, there are problems I see and want to help.

Then what I want the voters to know is that even if they don’t vote for me I need their help if I do win.  I do want to hear their ideas.  This has been a contentious election and it’s a bigger government vs smaller government view.  So I hope the people who don’t vote for me reach out with their ideas because the state is going to be facing a $4billion shortfall, we have a lot of challenges and it’s going to take all of us get it improved.

Michael Baumgartner

I would like to thank Michael Baumgartner for meeting with me and and answering our questions.  Baumgartner is a young, charismatic, good looking (that's my opinion) candidate running for State Senate.  He willingly answered each question without dodging any answer.  I recorded the session.


Gary asked:  Would you buck your party to support or oppose an issue if you believed it was in the best interest of your constituents?
Baumgartner:  Yes, absolutely.  Constituents certainly come before party.

 Rob asked:  List the two most important issues that you think you can make a difference on if elected and how would you do that.
 Baumgartner:  The 2 key issues are: the need to fix our state budget process so it’s sustainable.  Right now we have an unsustainable state budget that’s misaligned.  We have increased total state spending $17 billion in the last 4 years since Senator Marr has been in office.  Now we are faced with record tax increases, record spending increases and now we have record cuts so the whole system is out of alignment.  We do need to restructure and slim down government. That’s issue number one.  The way we need to do that is we need to take state employees and move from having them pay 12% of their benefits up to 20% of their benefits.  That would save over a billion dollars, that’s a big deal.  I think we should freeze state salaries right now while we are in this recession.  In general slim down the government in sectors where it doesn’t need to be in or we can’t afford it to be in.  The priorities of government should be funding education, funding road transport, and public safety.  That’s what I would do in those areas and I would help facilitate that process.

The other big issue of why I’m running is we have to get state economy going and to do that we need to make the state more friendly for small business.  I have been endorsed by the leading small business organization, the National Federation of Independent Business.  This is the big difference between me and Chris Marr.  He has F ratings from our state’s business associations.  Kevin Parker has about a 90%from the state business association, John Driscoll has about a 75% rating, Chris Marr has a 43% rating, an F.  What we do to make the state more business friendly is, first, worker’s compensation reform.  Washington State is one of only 4 states that doesn’t have choice in worker’s compensation.  If we allow choice it will bring down cost and give better products.  Right now Labor and Industry has increased costs dramatically even though the total number of claims has gone down.  They are now playing games with the system, they are not going to release how much people’s L&I costs are going to increase until after the election because I know they are going to go up.   It’s a poor system and mismanaged.   We need to modernize it.  So that would be a big issue to move as well. 

I also think we need fundamental reform of our Business and Occupation Tax.   Right now the B&O tax is on a gross basis so it’s very difficult for small businesses and low margin businesses where you can lose money and still have to pay a tax.  B&O Tax can be very low as a percentage on a gross basis but I have one of my supporters who estimates that he pays a 9% corporate income tax right now because he pays 1.7%, or whatever percentage it is, of his gross tax.  I think on a revenue neutral basis we should transform that to a net tax.  Those are 2 things I would do for business.

A third thing would be we should try is to bring down health care costs.  They are very high for small businesses in Washington State because we have one of the highest number of mandates of any state.  If we could allow portability and assurance that insurance could be sold across state lines, that would reduce the cost for small business.

Marci asked:  Who is your biggest campaign contributor?
Baumgartner:  On an individual basis, individuals can do up to $1600 for legislative races.  I have a number of folks who have done $1600.  The biggest overall would be the Republican Party, $50,000, maybe a little more.  KXLY just did a story on campaign contributions, talking about how much more of my money is from Spokane and from individuals.  Twenty-five percent of Chris Marr’s money is from out of state.  Twelve percent of my money is from out of state.  Chris Marr has something like 190 donors from Seattle and 110 roughly from Olympia.  I have 7 donors from Seattle, one is my brother, one is his fiancé, the other his roommate.  I have 3 donors from Olympia.  So the vast majority of my money has come from Spokane.  That’s one of the reasons I beat Marr by 6.6% in the primaries because I have more local support.  This is the most expensive race in the State and I have done it all with local contributions.  I have more sub $500 to $250 contributions.  Marr has raised more money from special interest groups than anybody in State history.  

As a first time candidate, one of the most unusual things about politics is all this money you have to raise and what a challenge it is but what I find, is that it’s not about raising money for me, it’s about raising money for our ideas that I share with the donors, which is the strong desire to make Washington State more fiscally responsible and a more friendly place to do business.

Come back for more Q & A...

Ferris Debate

Way to go Ferris Leadership Class!!  The debate tonight at Ferris High School between Marr and Baumgartner was very well organized and ran smoothly thanks to the organizational skills of Jennifer Walther and her Leadership Class.  The kids were energetic, polite and good looking in their debate t-shirts.  

The questions were good.  Marr and Baumgartner were both articulate in their answers but I got tired of the constant telling of what they thought their opponent believed.  They both wasted too much time on that.

Watching the people file in, I had the opinion that most people were there to support their candidate and had already made up their minds.  Leaders of both campaigns were their with their leaflets and signs. 

I am meeting tomorrow with Baumgartner and Friday with Ahern so come back soon for the rest of the questions...

More with Chris Marr...

Marci asked:  Who is your biggest campaign contributor?

Marr:  The Senate Democratic Caucus Committee has given me $5000.  The Senate Republican Caucus Committee has given my opponent, I think around $60,000.  Beyond that the people who have maxed out early:  The State Hospital Assn, the Associated General Contractors, Boeing.  The ironic thing is I have been criticized by my opponent for not scoring high enough on the business score cards and yet I have financial contributions from businesses.  Business can show their support by giving a high score card rating – I don’t pander to score cards – or they can step in and say we can work with this guy so we’re going to support him.  I have a lot of organizations and individuals who have given the maximum amount of $1600. I have turned down tobacco money. 

I have 1500 contributors as of a week ago who have contributed an average of $287.  You can find this out online.

Anonymous asked:  What is your solution to the high dropout rate in Spokane High Schools?
Marr:  I think we have ed reform wrong.  As a policy maker you think the best answers can be forced down from above.  We have to look at what’s happened to education over the last 10 or 20 years.  First we haven’t funded it.  It used to be about 50% of our general fund now it’s about 40%, so we know it’s a resource issue.  The second thing we’ve done is try to force mandates and our idea of reform down from the top.  Legislators love to go to Olympia and pass laws to insure those in the classroom are doing what we think they should be doing.  Yet we don’t make sure those dollars get to the classroom, either a, because we don’t provide enough money to education to begin with or b, we’ve provided it for the wrong reasons.  Some of these are very well meaning but if you provide mandates around nutrition and all these other requirements does that necessarily get to the classroom?

I’ve become more of a proponent of putting the educators in charge of education.  I think education has become test fixated and too focused on things outside the classroom.  I think teachers struggle, I don’t buy into this whole notion of blame the educator or this idea that educator’s pay should be linked to test scores.

(for the sake of shortening this blog I am editing out Marr’s talk about the documentary “Waiting for Superman”)

We shouldn’t play blame the teacher any more than we should play blame the parent.  But if you really want to blame somebody I think the responsibility starts with abdication of parental responsibility.  Who’s responsible for sending their kid to school clothed and fed?  Who is responsible to make sure Johnny is in by ten or that Suzy does her homework?  It’s the parents.  I think we are in a society that wants someone else to do their work for them.  I believe that about the whole education process.  And for us to blame teachers as a general group, is a wrong headed approach.  It is a circular thing to get involved in blame the parent because it doesn’t help the kid any more than blame the teacher does. 

At the end of the day the more we can do to put resources in the classroom and assure success for kids not necessarily based on whether or not they get a 4 year college degree.  For some reason we’re fixated on this notion that every child’s definition of success should be walking away with a Masters or a PHD.  I have a Master’s, I was a regent at Washington State University.   I know all this elitism around higher education.  Education was designed to provide the best possible outcome for each child based on his or her abilities.  We do not do that now. What we do is say, about the kids who drop out, maybe if we could excite them about going on to a 4 year college degree we’ll solve the education problem.  What about finding out what makes that kid a success? Is it a technical career, is it a certificate program, is it learning how to function in the outside world?  Kids aren’t widgets.  The problem with ed reform is that it is driven by the business roundtable and these folks at the top.  They know how to run businesses.  I’m not convinced that we know how to run education.   What’s sad to me is when I sit with teachers and we talk about reform at the end many are turning to me asking what should we do to fix education?  I said, you’re asking me?  I came from the business world.  I would ask my employees who are closest to the customers.  So I ask you, what should  we do to fix education and the answer is more resources, let the teachers be mentors.  I’m here because I was raised by a single working mom.  I had a junior high school teacher that was my mentor.  He taught me a lot about social responsibility, civic engagement.  He had the opportunity to be a mentor and a life shaper.  We do not know the damage we are doing to the social fabric of this country by making teachers test givers and absentee parents. I think we will learn at some point unless we wake up and decide that education is about a willing mind and a committed teacher.  Yes, there are bad teachers, we need to get rid of them but to damn the whole process and say they have enough , they have enough support, they have enough money all they need to do is get rid of the bad ones and do their job is a total over simplification.  It  really riles me as you can tell.

Bob asked:  How would you change the state tax structure?  Would you be in favor of state income tax?
Marr:  I’ve come out as a state income tax.  My opponent has said let’s change the B & O tax system to a Corporate income tax.  I think there is a better way.  The fact of the matter is that they are going to have to move an income tax down scale into other incomes.  We need to have an honest discussion about that. Here is what I see.  This state has 567 tax loopholes, preferences, exemptions, whatever you want to call it.  Anything there is a tax charge on, sales tax, B&O tax, property tax, certain industries  get let off that or pay a lower rate. Many of these go back to our agrarian based economy.  That’s why so many of our tax exemptions are handed out to agriculture.   Once tax exemptions are handed out they become an entitlement.  Business and Industry defend it vigorously.  Republicans have said if you try to take one away it is a tax hike and you can’t do that.  Okay, let’s ask ourselves are they significant?  Yes, $54 billion a biennium, in state tax revenues, $42 billion a biennium in local tax revenues.  What does this consist of?  It consists of some things that I think are justified.  I like the aerospace B&O tax preference rate.  I go by the airport and see there are a lot of aerospace and aviation jobs that are going to be good jobs in the future.  On the other hand do I think the $53,000 we pay the Mariners every year to maintain Mariner Stadium is a good investment?  No.  Do I think the $73,000 they get for Quest Field for maintance is a good investment?  No, I think it’s a bad investment.  Do I think we should be paying $180,000 a year for bedding material for chickens? No, I don’t.  Those examples don’t amount to a lot but what about heating assistance for poultry farms, $1.8 million.  I’d rather spend $1.8 million to help school districts to heat schools.  That’s my idea. 

There is a middle ground here and that is putting integrity back in our tax structure, having a darn good reason when we let one industry or individual off the hook.  We need to stop handing them out like they’re candy, have a 5 year sunset on every one of them and if you don’t keep your end of the deal we should get our money back.  I think there is a solution that hasn’t been talked about.  Will some call it a tax increase?  Yes.  As far as I’m concerned it’s the tax payer’s money and they have to decide the best use for it.  We shouldn’t have handouts.

Debbie asked:  Should the State get out of the liquor business?
Marr:  I think it’s a fair question to ask if it’s a core function of government.  There is a public safety element that I think justifies that in the case of hard liquor.  We have a tremendous amount of alcoholism out there right now.  In other states, we know that compliance with liquor laws is much higher in control states than in non control states.  A lot of people are laboring under the impression that these people who work in state liquor stores make $60,000 a year.  They make about $28,000 a year.  That still doesn’t make it right if it’s not a core function of government.  I do think that control of hard liquor is a legitimate state function.  I am willing to have the discussion about beer and wine because we don’t control that now.  Here’s the bottom line, by various estimates, $120 to $160 million a year in state revenues go away and no one has come up with a solution for that.  I am worried about the impact on the state budget at a time when we can’t afford it without any savings.  This is being sold to the public on the basis of savings.  There are no savings, there are costs.  If we can raise per capita consumption of hard liquor in the state to a high enough level we will make money.  Is that a good policy choice?  I don’t think so.  I think there are other places we can get the state out of business.

Debbie: Anything you want the voters to know that you haven't been asked yet.
Marr:  A lot of people ask about this particular election, the nature of politics especially coming down to the last 3 weeks of the campaign and why it’s so negative.  The difference in lack of journalism coverage compared to 4 years ago is astounding.  I had stories starting in December the year before my campaign.  This year it’s very late.  There really isn’t any research by the newspaper publications- very little.  People are very responsive to a fear based message now because it’s a fearful time.  That’s why you see a lot of negative stuff being put out there so I think it’s up to people to decide for themselves.  People have to do more work.  Democracy is worth that.  I often think about these 70 year old vets that say I gave my life for democracy and then see this stuff they get in their mailbox and they say: I risked my life for this?  We need to be more thoughtful and value democracy enough to say maybe I should do more work. Instead we want to blame the people who put it out there.  Yes, they are to blame too but why do they put it out there?  Because we make ourselves susceptible.  Why do we knock on doors?  I’ve knocked on about 9500, because for some people that is the only involvement in this process.  That’s it.  They make their judgment, I’d like to think on my knowledge of the issues but so few of them do.  It’s based on: he came to my door and I saw him smile.  I think  you should do whatever you can to encourage people to go beyond that and ask questions, that’s why I think town halls are good, the Spokesman has put raw footage online where you can compare.  I think that’s much more valuable for folks.  People need to go out and do that.