This afternoon (Wednesday) we’ll have Sen. Derek Kilmer,
defending his Dist. 26 seat in the primary this August, in front of
the editorial board with challengers Kristine Danielson and Marty
McClendon.
Kilmer‘s the
Democratic incumbent from Gig Harbor,
Danielson is a Port Orchard resident who filed a “no party”
preference, and McClendon is also a Gig Harbor
resident, running as a Republican.
Like I mentioned last week, we have some priority questions for
the candidates and our community board members also are invited to
ask what they’d like to know. But if you have any suggestions, post
below and I’ll try to fit them in.
We’ll have an item on tomorrow’s Opinion page introducing this
season’s plan for editorial board interviews, but here’s your sneak
preview.
Just like the 2009 campaign, our editorial board meetings with
candidates will be shown live on our website, and archived for your
review. The first is tomorrow at 1:30 p.m., with the three
candidates for the 23rd District House seat.
That interview, and all others during the summer and fall, may
be seen at www.kitsapsun.com/live-video. In the next few weeks
we’ll also get our online elections database together, which we’ve
used in the past to allow each candidate to express their views on
the issues. Those questions are being prepared for circulation now,
and I’ll let you know when the site lives again.
Here’s the piece going in tomorrow’s paper:
OUR VIEW | Political Season Begins on Kitsapsun.com
Well, the season has returned — not summer, despite the solstice
passing on the calendar and a bit of warmth on Tuesday, but the
start of political campaigning.
On Wednesday we’ll begin showing editorial board interviews live on
kitsapsun.com, the second year we’ve added that to the Sun’s annual
election coverage that we start planning after filing week is
finished. We’re aiming to have all 2010 candidates in contested
local races into our office at least once, and in some cases we’ll
bring back those before the general election.
We began showing you our election interviews during the 2009
campaign for a few reasons: First, to uphold our mission of
transparency by giving our readers a window into what our editorial
board’s political endorsements are based upon; and also to offer
voters another forum to hear from the candidates and help make an
informed choice.
You’ll be able to watch each interview at
www.kitsapsun.com/live-video, so bookmark that site and watch this
page for announcements as we schedule more candidates. All video
interviews will be archived on kitsapsun.com as well as we update
our elections information, so if you miss a live discussion you’ll
be able to review each candidate’s answers when you receive your
ballot.
Our first meeting will be with the three residents aiming for the
23rd District House seat, currently held by Christine Rolfes. That
race is between Rolfes, a Democrat from Bainbridge Island; James
Olsen, a Republican from Bainbridge; and Aaron Winters, a
Republican from Poulsbo.
We’ll begin the interview at 1:30 p.m., and our meetings usually
last an hour. Our editorial page endorsements will not be published
immediately, rather we’ll wait until closer to the time when voters
have ballots in hand for the August 17 primary.
We hope you’ll join us online this week, and stay tuned for more as
election season gets going.
Larry Croix didn’t think we’d even read the letter of
inquiry he wrote in November 2008 when we issued a call for
editorial board members. His humble selling point at the
time was that “I am probably very different from the individuals
who normally apply for this position.”
Well, there isn’t a mold we look for in community editorial
board members, other than folks with a level head, an interest in
local issues and the ability to discuss those civilly in a group.
We also try to maintain a balance of political viewpoints,
backgrounds and place of residence so the county is fairly
represented. Larry, seen at left, a retired Port Orchard resident
who had been a frequent commentor on kitsapsun.com (and frequent
critic of the Port of Bremerton), fit that criteria far better than
he had speculated. So we invited him to join the board, and didn’t
regret the decision.
Near the end of his one-year term — during which he proved
himself to be thoughtful when listening, informed when asking
questions, patient in taking a stance and vocal when sticking to a
belief — he asked to write a
“My Turn” column.
But rather than returning to posting his opinion on stories
after his term on the board expired, Larry offered me more columns.
We’ve published a
few
of
them
this
year. He’s taken a shine to writing and crafting an opinion,
and now, 18 months after meeting Larry, we’ll start publishing
those more frequently.
Larry is joining our stable of community columnists in
Thursday’s paper, and you’ll see his work twice a month on
Thursdays for the foreseeable future. I’d invite you to offer any
feedback you have, either to me or straight to Larry. Sun Opinion
page community columnists — currently Pam Dzama, Larry Little, Rob
Woutat and occasionally Roger Koskela — don’t write at my direction
or at the behest of the editorial board, so he’ll learn how to deal
with that part of having your mug in print.
While I’m on that topic, if you’re interested in joining that
group, or know a local writer who would be a good fit, I’m always
willing to listen (or read, perhaps). We added illustrator Abell
Smith last
Sunday, who will draw two cartoons per month for the Opinion
page, and more Kitsap voices on that page improves the local
conversation and furthers the relevance of the forum we offer. My
email address, as always: dnelson@kitsapsun.com.
And to Larry: You didn’t think we’d be interested the first
time, but we were and you didn’t disappoint. Now we’ll try it
again. How’s that for pressure? (Good luck.)
As promised, this morning our editorial board
interviewed Rep. Norm Dicks, who is in town during the
Congressional recess. If you missed watching the live
video, here are the archived versions. (Even broken into two, each
will still require your patience as it loads).
Despite the pleadings from some of our letter-writers and
community columnist, don’t hold your breath for another town
hall meeting anytime soon. Dicks was pretty clear he won’t host
that type of forum to continue debating health care reform,
at least until some “implementation” of the new measure has taken
place. He was also pretty clear that any such meeting must be
constructive, saying “civility needs to be reinforced” in the wake
of last August’s heated town hall in Bremerton. He labeled the
majority of that night’s crowd the 30 percent of voters who don’t
usually back him anyway, and said that anger was not representative
of the comments and questions he’s received.
Here’s my quick notes on some the other topics covered, with
some markers if you need a cheat sheet to help navigate the lengthy
videos:
— Earmark reform: “It’s moderate, sensible, but
perserves our ability to protect our districts.” He also explained
a program in development that would separate for-profit companies
applying for federal contracts from the current earmark system, and
how that could apply to defense contractors. (13 minutes or so
in)
— Health care reform: “We had to do something.”
Dicks was clearly in support of the bill, but did push for measures
to make Medicare reimbursement more equitable across the states. He
also said the bill could add 21 community health clinics, like
Peninsula Health Care Services in Bremerton, to the district. (19
minutes)
— Town hall meetings: See above. (31 minutes)
— Stimulus funding: He’s a Keynesian, and wouldn’t
be opposed to more stimulus spending on infrastructure, like
wastewater system upgrades, or sometime like the old Civilian
Conservation Corps model for outdoors projects. (37
minutes-ish)
— Climate change: “A huge problem,” with a primary
threat for this region being ocean acidification and how it affects
shellfish and other marine life. (41 minutes)
— Locally: Proposals to keep Hurricane Ridge road
open year-round, add wilderness to Olympic National Park, and
continued work at the shipyard (47 minutes)
We’d like to have Rep. Dicks in again this year as the campaign
gets going, hopefully opposite Doug Cloud, the announced Republican
challenger for the House seat. I’ll let you know, and until then
we’ll let civility reign here on the desk as well.
Tuesday’s opinion page did not include a column from
Star Parker, who we typically pair with Richard Reeves.
Parker has decided to run for Congress, in hopes of representing
California’s 37th Congressional District. She’s unopposed in the
Republican primary. Given that political involvement, her column
will not appear on our pages for the duration of the campaign.
In Parker’s place Tuesday was
a column by Ann McFeatters, a Scripps Howard
columnist who has covered politics in Washington, D.C. for nearly
25 years. You’ll see McFeatters there for the immediate future,
though we may try a few other voices out in that space over the
coming weeks and months to see if there’s a better match.
If you’d like to suggest a columnist to see in that slot, or if you
have feedback on McFeatters’ work, comment below or send me an
e-mail: dnelson@kitsapsun.com.
— Another change you may have noticed on this page over the past
month was the addition of a local editorial cartoon, which we’ve
published here the past four Sundays. Abell Smith, a Kingston illustrator, is the man
behind that commentary, which has ranged from bikini coffee stands
to state tax policy. We’ll feature a fifth from him this coming
Sunday. The next decision is whether we retain that local editorial
cartoon, a tradition the Sun has been without in recent years.
Abell may be our guy, and I’m asking for feedback on that before we
make the final call. E-mail address is above if you’ve got
something to say.
— Finally, on Thursday morning we’ll host another live online
editorial board meeting, so here’s fair warning. Rep. Norm
Dicks will be in the Sun office for an interview, which
you can tune in to and watch live at www.kitsapsun.com. There will
also be a window hosting comments during the video, to allow
further discussion between viewers. We’ll begin at 9 a.m.
