I posted this question in another thread weeks ago. During the King County budget debate, Dwight Pelz (my KC council member) came across as an unpleasant jerk. As a result, I wonder if the Republican party (BTW, I'm not a member) plans on sponsoring an opposition candidate in the next election?

FWIW I realize this doesn't really belong here, but I sent the KC Republican party an email and never received a response.

-- Brad (knotwell@my-deja.com), January 03, 2000

Answers

Brad:

I am interested in your comment about lack of response from the KC Repubican party. Last August when the county Republican officials (two representing each county) voted at the state Republican convention to have the state party officially support 695, both Spokane County representatives were among a very few who opposed supporting 695. I wrote both of them critical letters taking them to task (in a firm but polite way -- don't be abusive)and never received a reply, either. Lo and behold, just last week one of the county officials I wrote to had a letter to the editor in the paper in which he said, in essense, that the public has spoken with regard to 695, and now it's time for elected officials/bureaucrats to stop with the baloney and serve the public.

I don't know how much, if anything, my letter had to do with any of this. When I read his letter, my conclusion (and my suggestion to you) was that it's important to be persistent in a polite but no-nonsense way. Politicians DO read their mail. My personal opinion is that they take hard copies of letters more seriously because they imply more work and effort (stamp, delivery, mailing etc.) than e-mail, but they definitely scan their e-mail as well for trends, changes in the way the public is thinking, etc.

IMO, you are also on the right track. Republicans have disappointed me more than once, but the party is still stumbling in the direction of less government and lower taxes (Democrats aren't), and that is the direction we need to take.

"There are two things the people should not see being made: sausage and the law" Otto Von Bismarck -- 1896

-- A.C. Johnson (ajohnson@thefuture.net), January 03, 2000.