Washington State Primaries

The Washington State Primaries are tomorrow. This is the first time Washington has had a closed primary meaning you can only vote in one parties primary. Before this year we had what was called a blanket primary where you could vote for anyone you wanted regardless of party. I guess the Democrats and Republicans were afraid someone would sabotage their primary and sued the state to change the system and ... viola! Personally I feel if the politcal parties are so interested in demanding a certain type of system they should pay for the primary themselves.

Anyway. There are two races in the Democratic Primary that I am particularly interested in. The race for governor and our 36th District State Rep. In both races the person I'm voting for was not endorsed by the major local papers, but my picks did coincide with the recomendations of a local biweekly Eat the State. (Which is a great alternative free paper - go visit and donate to keep them going)

My recomendations are:

Governor

Both of the Democratic candiates for governor are qualified Christine Gregoire is the Attorney General of Washington so she has a handle on state wide issues, and Ron Sims is the King County Executive so he has experience running the second largest government in the state (after the state govenment. The deciding factor for me was that Ron Sims wants to try to reverse the regressive tax structure of the state by implementing a state income tax, eliminating state sales tax, and reworking the business taxes. Gregoire things the idea of a state income tax is ridiculous and will not even consider it.

My vote: Ron Sims


36th District Rep

Helen Sommers has been one of the two reps for my district for 32 years. She is the longest serving state rep and chair of the comittee responsible for writing the state budget. Alice Woldt is a former chairman of the King County Democratic Party, founding member of S.N.O.W., Puget Sound coalition for peace and justice and most recently Executive Director, SAGE (Seattle Alliance for Good Jobs and Housing for Everyone). Woldt is a little more liberal than I usually lean, a little too peacenik, but Sommers doesn't seem to have the right budget priorities. She allowed funding to be cut to important social services and didn't implement voter initiative mandated teacher salary increases. I understand that money is tight but maybe if we had planned a little bit better in the past we'd have money for these priorities now. Anyway after 32 years I think a little change is in order.

My vote: Alice Woldt