New Whitman County Republican Headquarters

From the Whitman County Republicans:

News Flash!

Whitman County Republican Headquarters will be open for business Monday, June 30th thru Thursday, July 3rd from 10 am to 4 pm. at 242 E. Main Street in Pullman. The office will be open Monday thru Friday after the 4th.

We are located between Dr. DeVleming’s office and the Smoothie Shop.

As we incorporate more volunteers into the schedule, we anticipate being able to keep the office open until 6 pm.

Please let us know if you are available to help at headquarters – days and hours. You can email in a reply to mailto:vangeeh@peoplepc.comor leave a message on the phone at HQ: 334–0460.

We are still looking for more folding or stacking chairs and small folding tables to borrow.

If you have office supplies or other things that you wish to donate – I will be at Headquarters tomorrow, Saturday June 29th for several hours. Time is not certain, yet. If you want to come by, either reply to this email or call me at 509-595-3478

If you are delivering something – there is a back door. It is white and has a Dino Rossi bumper sticker on it. We do have two designated parking places marked as 242 E. Main St. If you have something heavy to unload – you may temporarily park by the door.

Our candidates are still in the process of getting their campaign materials, donation envelopes and yard signs to us. We will soon have everything in its place!

Please drop in if you are downtown Pullman next week – the coffee pot will be on and we will have some cold drinks, too. Someone may even bake something – who knows?

Keep an eye on our Whitman County Republican Website – for updated information: http://www.whitmancountyrepublicans.org/

Vangee Harrison, WCRP Headquarters Coordinator

IMPORTANT DINO CAMPAIGN ALERT!

From the Whitman County Republican Party:

First Gentleman Mike Gregoire in Rosalia tomorrow for Battle Days

7:00 – 10:00 am Boy Scout Breakfast at Fire Station

9:30 am Parade line up at Catholic Church on NORTH end of town.

10:30 am Parade starts.

Take a little time out of your busy schedules to show support for Dino. The parades are fun and a great way to show our neighbors that Whitman County Republicans really support our Republican Candidates. You can ride in the parade, walk in the parade or cheer for our candidates from the sidewalk!

Many of our candidates will be in the parade. Show your support for all! This really is the “fun” part of campaigning!

Note: We have Dino t-shirts for all and candy to distribute during the parade. If you will attend the breakfast and wear a t-shirt Call Susan Fagan at 509-979-3083 to get your shirt.

Whitman County Party still has a few “Re-elect Dino” tee shirts available for sale only $20.00 – Contact Vangee (vangeeh@peoplepc.com) to get yours.. If you want it mailed to you it will be $25.00 to cover cost of mailing.

Let’s go MAD!
(go make a difference)

"Van Dyke drops plan to challenge Partch"

Challenging two-term incumbent county commissioners who just landed Whitman County's first ever shopping mall is not an easy task. Many have been interested, but all have withdrawn thus far.

From yesterday's Whitman County Gazette:

Steve Van Dyke of Rosalia has decided to drop plans to challenge Greg Partch for the district one county commissioner seat. Van Dyke, who has already filed papers with the Public Disclosure Commission, said he opted out of the challenge because he will need to commit hours of time while serving as executor of the estate of his mother, the late Elaine Van Dyke.

Van Dyke, 53, serves as transportation supervisor of the Rosalia School district where he has served for 30 years. A 1972 graduate of Rosalia High School, has earned a degree in automotive and heavy equipment repair at Spokane Community College before joining the staff at Rosalia.

Van Dyke said he could very well be interested in making a run for the commissioner’s seat in another four years.

Squibb drops challenge to Partch for commission job

According to the Gazette, Rick Squibb is dropping his well-intentioned but misguided attempt to challenge Whitman County Commissioner Greg Partch in the Republican primary in August because he is moving out of the county.

Squibb had been running on the platform that the commissioners have been investing too much money on the corridor and not enough on the small towns in the county. This is a patently silly argument.

The commissioners did not choose the location for the Hawkins development. In retrospect, I bet the commissioners would have preferred Hawkins to be as far away from Moscow as possible. But once Hawkins selected its location (the absolutely most logical location for a large retail development on the Palouse,) the commissioners rightly did everything they could to support it because of the enormous tax revenue that will be generated that can benefit the whole county.

Let's face it. Businesses build where the people (i.e workforce/customers) are. Does anyone really think that Hawkins would have located in Lacrosse or Rosalia if only the commissioners had tried harder? I hope and believe that Whitman County's small towns will attract companies to locate there. But that is a vast, perhaps impossible, challenge. A business recruitment expert has stated that Whitman County's high housing costs and limited vocational training are major obstacles in attracting manufacturing firms. Workers at high-tech firms could more easily manage the high housing costs, but they also have more options for where they want to live (in other words, maybe not a tiny and remote farming town).

It is much more realistic that new businesses in these towns will be small, home-grown ventures. And tax money from Hawkins can help with that.

From yesteray's Whitman County Gazette:

Tekoa’s Rick Squibb, the lone announced challenger for the District 2 county commissioners seat, Monday withdrew from the race.

Squibb, a long-haul truck driver, said his company, Western Distributing, offered him a local truck driving job in Denver. The move forced the Republican to cancel his bid to unseat incumbent Greg Partch, Garfield Republican.

“I hated to do it; I do not want to move,” said Squibb. “But their offer was just too good to pass up. Plus I can be at home every night.”

Squibb was running on the platform that current commissioners have focused the county’s resources too much around Pullman at the expense of the rest of the county.

Though not opposed to the county’s financing of infrastructure at the Hawkins Companies’ state line strip mall site, Squibb questions such an investment’s return for residents who would have to commute to Pullman to take such jobs.

“For the students, this will be a great thing,” said Squibb. “But as high as fuel is, I don’t see how it benefits the people of our smaller towns.”

Squibb said the county needs to ensure that its resources are distributed to communities like Tekoa, Rosalia and St. John. It is vital, he added, that those towns have viable employment opportunities for their citizens and receive a fair amount of the county’s resources.

The current commissioners’ focus on Pullman, he added, leaves the incumbents vulnerable in this election.

“I hope someone comes forward to go against him,” said Squibb. “Because there are a lot of issues that need to be brought up.”

However, he said, those efforts around Pullman might make it difficult for a challenger to best the incumbents in the county’s largest voting base.

“The way things are lined up, I honestly don’t think I could have beaten him in Pullman,” Squibb admitted.

Squibb lost a 2004 bid to unseat Partch, who was then running for a second term.

The Whitman County Republican Convention: My Take

UPDATED 3/10 to include podcast link - tf

Yesterday, Ron Paul spokesman Jesse Benton stated that Paul knew his presidential race was over, but believed, "We still think we can influence the debate and build an organization moving forward that brings the GOP back to its roots."

Paul said "We must remember, elections are short-term efforts. Revolutions are long-term projects."

Today, that "revolution" came to the Whitman County Republican convention in Colfax.

The Public Service Building auditorium was packed with 78 delegates seated. That's almost as many as were elected in the caucuses last month. Certainly all of the 20 Paul delegates were there, as well as all the alternates.

Things got off to a lively start when some objected to one of the Paul supporters podcasting the convention. Click here for podcast. A vote was taken and the natural freedom-loving spirit of Whitman County residents kicked in. The camera stayed on.

Next came the election of state convention delegates. Geoffrey Sechter, a WSU student and Paul supporter, started a rebellion movement of sorts last week, attempting to get a bloc of state convention delegates elected who did not back John McCain. I supported that effort, in principle. As you know, I have not bought my tickets for the "Straight Talk Express" yet. I believe tremendous pressure needs to be put on McCain to bring him more in line with the conservative base of the party. But I ultimately feel this is futile. My focus this year is going to be on our state and local races, and not the presidential race. Sechter put together a list of 11 candidates, all of them Ron Paul supporters. A flyer at the convention stated they were for:

- putting America first
- supporting Washington state Republicans
- NO amnesty for illegal immigrants
- lowering taxes AND spending
- protecting 2nd amendment rights
- supporting a conservative, constitutionalist Supreme Court
- protecting the value of the dollar

All very admirable values; all ideas that will take the Republican Party back to its traditional Reagan base. Sechter obviously followed my advice about Paul supporters getting involved in state and local races as well.

Only one of their candidates, however, was elected as a delegate. Four others made it as alternates, including our own Ray Lindquist.

The problem for the Ron Paul supporters is that their more fringe beliefs always come back to bite them in the butt. There were numerous amendments to the platform presented today for legalization of medical marijuana, abolishing all foreign aid, declaring the line item veto unconstitutional, thinly veiled attempts to condemn George Bush for pursuing a "war of aggression" and making the President "prove" the need for an Executive Order, and lastly, the whole enchilada of having the U.S. not pursue "military adventures, interventionism, preemptive war, and nation building." All of these amendments failed miserably. The Iraq War is still supported by a majority of GOP members, and I'm sure that proportion is even higher in ultra-red Whitman County. Everyone would comment on how nice it was to see the young faces in the crowd and the enthusiasm (it was), but those nuttier positions really turned people off.

When Paul supporters talk about taking the party back to its roots, they often compare Paul to Ronald Reagan. But that overlooks one very salient fact (forgivable, perhaps, considering many of them were not yet born or were infants when the Gipper was president): Reagan pursued an extremely aggressive, activist, interventionist foreign policy, greatly increasing military expenditures on distinctly non-defensive weapons like the MX missile, cruise missiles, B-1 bombers, modernized WWII battleships, aircraft carriers and quadrupuling the size of the Special Forces. From supporting the Contras, invading Grenada, landing the Marines in Beirut, attacking Syrian targets in Lebanon, bombing Libya, snatching the Achille Lauro hijackers, and escorting oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, it would be hard to find a modern president who believed more in "military adventures." There are other significant differences as well. Reagan strongly supported the line-item veto and was responsible for launching the War on Drugs.

For these reasons, I had to part company with Mr. Sechter and his "revolution." I did not vote for any Ron Paul supporter.

Here are the delegates elected today:

Joel Benjamin
Don Cox
Francis Benjamin
Vangee Harrison
Joe Schmick
Ann Heath
Nancy Gregory
Aaron Crandall*
Cheryl Brock
Jared Webley

Alternates:

Ray Lindquist*
Alex Marcelo
Steve Passmore
Roger Carter
John Goyke
Geoffrey Sechter*
David Stueckle
Jonathan Fletcher
Willard Davis*
Jim Kuzsnir*

*One of Sechter's rebels.

I did not wish to be considered a candidate for delegate because I am going back to Virginia that weekend to move my daughter out to Pullman to attend WSU (Yes, I'm excited! Dad-daughter cross-country roadtrip.) Plus, even if I was in town, I couldn't go and vote in good conscience for McCain.

If the Ron Paul supporters truly wish to take us back to our Reagan roots, they are going to have to engage in coalition building, just the way Reagan did. They are going to have to ditch the out-of-the-mainsteam fringe positions and the pseudo-Republicans and focus on the more popular and paltable messages of limited government and fiscal responsibility.

In other business, party planks were amended to reflect true conservative positions on parental notificaton of abortion, stem cell research, allowing concealed carry at public universities (Geoffrey's,) eliminating the death tax (mine,) and getting rid of the "prevailing wage" on state contracts (Ray's.)

We also heard speechs from Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland and Attorney General Rob McKenna who are both seeking reelection this fall, and representatives for Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dino Rossi. Of course, the words "Dino Rossi" were constantly on everyone's lips.

Whitman County Commissioner Michael Largent served as the convention chair and he did a great job. Michael's approachibility, quick wit and folksy sense of humor make him an outstanding politician. I see great things ahead for him,

I mostly enjoy these events for the chance to see my friends like Michael Echanove, Greg Partch, Jerry Finch, Ann Heath, et. al.

A special congratulations goes to my four-year old daughter Megan, who patiently endured the eight-hour marathon of "talking about America," as she put it. Dr. Forbes is in Shanghai, China for a Spring Break faculty/student trip to help Chinese orphans with speech and hearing problems.

"Tekoa’s Rick Squibb plans to again challenge Partch"

Whitman County Commissioner Greg Partch will have an opponent again in the Republican primary this August. For reasons I have stated earlier, I have to disagree with Rick Squibb's platform of criticizing efforts to develop the Pullman-Moscow corridor. Whitman County has limited financial resources and must concentrate them where they will have the most impact: in the corridor. For that reason, I give my strongest endorsement to Commissioner Greg Partch.

From last Thursday's Whitman County Gazette:

Tekoa truck driver Rick Squibb announced Monday he will challenge incumbent Greg Partch, R-Garfield, in the Republican primary for the District 2 Whitman County Commissioner seat this fall.

Squibb, 48, served as mayor of Tekoa from September of 2000 to October 2002, and was on the city council off and on from 1989 to 2000.

Squibb also challenged Partch in 2004 when the Garfield incumbent ran for a second term.

Squibb received 31 percent of the vote in the Republican primary election that year.

Squibb pointed to efforts to drive Tekoa’s economy as an example of what could be done for other towns throughout the county.

“That town has come a long ways. By using that example, we can work to make the whole county more vital than what it is,” he said.

He cited the Tekoa business incubator on Crosby Street, which provides a low-rent building for startup businesses to establish themselves. The incubator spawned three companies that now employ several Tekoa residents.

“If you can do that in all the small towns in the county, that could create 50-60 jobs,” he said.

He claimed that would be more beneficial to the county than a concentration of jobs in and around Pullman.

The current commissioners, he said, have focused their efforts on developing the Pullman-Moscow corridor, at the expense of the rest of the county.

“Development in Pullman is great, but not if the rest of the county is suffering for it,” he said.

With fuel prices continuing to rise, Squibb questioned the benefits of jobs in Pullman if people have to drive nearly an hour to work there.

“The Pullman-Moscow corridor is an important piece, but that doesn’t help the people of Tekoa who need jobs,” said Squibb.

He criticized the commissioners’ recent decision to bond public money to develop infrastructure that would allow the Boise-based Hawkins Companies to build a 714,000 square foot shopping center on the Idaho stateline.

“If it does work out it could be a great thing,” said Squibb. “But if it doesn’t, are the taxpayers of Whitman County on the hook for it? Why put it on the backs of the county to help out a private developer?”

He also criticized the commissioners’ withholding of county .09 economic development funds. Those dollars, withheld by the current commissioners for possible needs in the corridor, need to be distributed to other towns, he said.

“We need to get back to where the .09 funds are benefiting our towns, and not just going towards the port’s private reserves,” he said.

That is something Squibb feels the incumbent has not done.

“Greg seems to feel like he should give everything to the port, but they have their own sources of money, they can do their own thing,” he said.

Also on Squibb’s agenda is better compensation for county employees.

“They made a promise they haven’t kept,” he said. “Sure they’ve built up the county’s cash reserves, but they did it on the backs of county employees.”

He worried that, without a marked increase in pay, finding a replacement workforce when current county employees retire would be difficult.

“I worked for the county for six months, but I couldn’t survive on the pay,” he said. “No one is going to want to work for what they pay.”

A 1977 graduate of Tekoa High School, Squibb now works as a long-haul driver for Colorado-based Western Distributors. He lives in Tekoa with his wife of 13 years, Holly, and 11-year old daughter, Mandy. Squibb’s older daughter Diana, a 2005 Tekoa graduate, currently resides in Arizona.

Enough of the Bellyaching

It had to happen eventually. I agree with Pullman League of Women Voters president Alice Schroeder. From last Friday's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

League of Women Voters President Alice Schroeder said both political parties fought in court to have the right to conduct separate primaries.

"People forget the parties are private entities," Schroeder said. "They have the right to demand only members of their party vote on their ballot."

"Basically if people are unhappy they have the right to establish a new party," she added.

Exactly. This is NOT a general election. Open primaries, in general, are very bad, as they often allow the opposition to choose a party's nominee.

The only legitimate beef that anyone has is that state taxpayers have to pay for the primary today, which for Democrats is meaningless and for the Republicans only selects 19 delegates. Either get rid of the primary or make the parties pay for them.