Hanging with Pierce County greenies

I guess I'm not retired enough yet. I still like to hang out with politicians - enough to spend a lovely summer evening Tuesday at a gathering of pols and wanna-be pols courting the green vote at the leafy Fircrest home of local enviro godmother Helen Engle.

The occasion was a sort of pep rally for Pierce Conservation Voters, the local division of Washington Conservation Voters – the coalition of environmental groups that bestows the official "green" endorsement for candidates in Washington.

No surprise - they tend to endorse Democrats. Lots of liberal Democrats (is there any other kind in Pierce County?) showed up to pay their respects.

Surprise guest was Freight Mobility Farrell, the infant daughter of Tacoma Port Director Tim Farrell and Jessyn Farrell, executive director of Transportation Choices. F.M. Farrell (actual name, Emaline Muriel) said little but gurgled happily. I believe she favors stronger limits on polluting emissions from all those diesel-fueled ships docked at the port.

Note: This is a longer-than-usual post, but don't miss legislative candidate Marlyn Jensen's reported comments on global warming cited below.

Okanogan rancher Peter Goldmark, the Democrat opposing two-term GOP incumbent Doug Sutherland in the race for state lands commissioner, preached to the choir. Goldmark faces an uphill fight, but he's pinning his hopes on the anticipated big Democratic tide in November and a spate of bad publicity dogging Sutherland of late.

Sutherland, former Tacoma mayor and Pierce County executive, has a bit of a sexual harassment problem that made the news this week. And his stewardship of the Department of Natural Resources has come into question in a Seattle Times series that portrays DNR as failing to enforce logging rules intended to prevent the erosion and landslides that occurred last winter on forest land clearcut by private timber companies.

But the best entertainment was state Sen. Derek Kilmer's informal keynote speech mocking Marlyn Jensen, the Republican hoping to unseat one-term incumbent Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, in the 26th District House Position 2 race.

Kilmer drew guffaws reading Jensen's responses to a Kitsap Sun questionnaire for candidates posted on the Sun's Web site. Kilmer told me later that Jensen evidently thought better of her initial responses and amended her answers to the Sun. Below, you'll find two Jensen responses that drew hoots from the enviro-Demo crowd, followed by the amended version now found on the Sun's Web site. (Typos are Jensen's.)

Q: Is the state doing enough to protect environmental quality? Are you concerned that further efforts, especially any move to clean up Puget Sound, will require either additional taxes to pay for it or could impose new restrictions on how people use their property?:

A: I think Puget Sound is one of the cleanest places on the planet. There are more important problems to adress than finding jobs for Evergreen College graduates.

Q: Should the state take action independent of the federal government to address global warming concerns? If so, are there specific policies to address global warming that make sense to pursue on a local or state level?:

A: Before we spend a dime on this questionable science, I would have to know how much it is going to cost, and how it's going to effect the economy of this state. I also resent the fact that politicians are content to destroy our ecconomy when very few if any other nations feel the same urgency to destroy theirs. Personally, I think we could use a warmer climate. Plants thrive on CO2. Also we're getting signifcantly longer growing seasons in northern latitudes. This could be a blessing in disguise if we are to feed a growing world population.

And here is the amended version:

Q: Is the state doing enough to protect environmental quality? Are you concerned that further efforts, especially any move to clean up Puget Sound, will require either additional taxes to pay for it or could impose new restrictions on how people use their property?:

A: Yes. I believe that there are enough regulations placed on businesses and property owners enabling Puget Sound to remain clean. I am against any additional taxes placed on our citzens and regulations restricting property rights. Citizens and property owners have always been the best conservationists and stewards of the land. More government intervention is not necessary.

Q: Should the state take action independent of the federal government to address global warming concerns? If so, are there specific policies to address global warming that make sense to pursue on a local or state level?:

A: No. Our state should not increase government spending or use current revenue on global warming issues. There has been much debate about the cause of global warming, to try to implement plolicies or address concerns at this time would be financially irresponsible.

Democratic Pierce County Councilman Calvin Goings is getting the Conservation Voters endorsement for Pierce County executive – a nod he earned by engineering a number of successful county initiatives for open space and parks, as well as taking a generally strong stance in favor of growth management.

Goings upset some enviros during the big blowup last year over the inclusion of the Cross Base Highway in the doomed "Roads & Transit" ballot measure. He's on record as supporting it; enviros detest it.

But evidently Goings' general track record was good enough for Conservation Voters. Democrat Pat McCarthy, the Pierce County auditor

also going for county executive in the first ranked-choice election in November (no primary, remember) is handicapped – or helped, depending on your point of view – by the lack of a track record on anything except voting issues.

As auditor, she is responsible for running all elections in the county. Some political types think that McCarthy will benefit in November from having two countywide elections for her office, from having a generally favorable image as auditor, and from being a female candidate in an otherwise all-male field.

But with ranked-choice voting – you pick your top three choices – who knows?