Welcome to the August 2 primary ballot & recommendations

Gentle readers and political junkies.

The ballot is so very big this time that I am going to a different format. I have trouble believing that anyone would actually read the reams and piles of material that I have compiled about all of these candidates. So I’m going to provide thumbnail sketches and my preferences, and further down, for the deep researchers and masochists, I will provide the complete documentation. If you really care, you can scroll down and find it all.

And as always, here’s the basic information:

Ballots must be returned no later than August 2.

            You can mail your ballot as long as the postmark is on or before August 2.

            Or you can drop your ballot into one of 5 special collection boxes at:

            Island County Elections Office           400 N Main Street            Coupeville

            Oak Harbor City Hall                           865 SE Barrington            Oak Harbor

            Trinity Lutheran Church                      18341 Hwy 525                 Freeland

            Ken’s Corner Red Apple                      4141 Hwy 525                  Clinton

            Camano Annex                                    121 N East Camano Dr    Camano

For questions, contact  elections@co.island.wa.us

or phone 360-679-7366  M-F  9:00 – 4:00

Just so we’re all on the same page, this is a Primary election, in which the rather large field is narrowed down to 2 candidates, who will then face off in the General election in November. Because Washington is a “top 2” state, those 2 candidates can be from any party or none. That being the case, there is a certain amount of political gamesmanship to be considered. The big question becomes whether to vote for the “good enough and most likely to win” candidate, or the one who, while quixotic, really speaks to your values. I’m going to be offering my opinion on both of those this time around.

Throughout the state level office discussions you will find references to “McCleary.” For those of you who are not political junkies or educators, McCleary is the name of a lawsuit settled by the State Supreme Court in favor of schools and teachers, directing the State of Washington to fully fund K-12 education. The state failed to do that and the court slapped it with a $100,000.00/day fine until it comes into compliance. Needless to say, this is doing interesting things to the state’s budget. Repubs are claiming they have already met the McCleary requirements (they haven’t) and Dems are saying there has to be tax reform to raise the kind of money McCleary requires. Which is why you will see much discussion of a state income tax and a state bank.

If you’re wondering about the seemingly random order of the candidates in the crib sheet, I got an advance copy of the ballot and put them down just as they appeared on the ballot.

I am thoroughly bummed at having once again been bested by technology. In the Word version of all of this I had cut and pasted in portrait images of all the candidates (except for the very few who did not provide them). I was so proud of myself for having figured that out. Evidently I didn't figure it right because when I cut and pasted the Word docs into the blog format, all the images disappeared. If you really care, you should be able to find them on the various web sites I have included.

 Its a huge and somewhat intimidating ballot, which is why I have broken up the crib sheet into 18 separate posts. Have fun, and fill your coffee cup before starting.