Given Her Message, Cantwell Came To The Wrong Place

Maria Cantwell chose Okanogan County for the first major press event of her campaign for the U.S. Senate. With an obvious lack of knowledge of the issue, she chose a mining project in our county as a focal point. Her stated opinion on the project appears to be based on what she has been told by a very small minority opposed to most activities in Okanogan County’s resource-based economy. Cantwell apparently chose the Crown Jewel project for its value in exploiting emotions in Washington state’s urban areas.

Cantwell didn’t attempt to contact local government leaders or personnel from Battle Mountain Gold Co. to help her assess the mine project. Nor was she interested in talking to people from the community when they attempted to try and add clarity to the issues she was discussing.

A vast majority of county residents support the mine proposal. Residents have spent 10 years and contributed thousands of hours of their time in independent research and meeting attendance to understand the proposal and ensure environmental protection. Sen. Slade Gorton’s efforts to help us were due to one federal bureaucrat changing the rules after 50 permits were obtained. It is unbelievable, but true, that after state and federal agencies and Battle Mountain Gold Co. spent eight years in the permitting process, the administration changed the rules.

Okanogan citizens would not support an activity that threatens the environment their lives depend on.

If West Side politicians are going to write us off as unimportant they should at least realize that what we produce is important to urban people. Everyone needs food and timber, and the aerospace and technology industries could not exist without mined minerals. The questions are who’s going to provide them, how are they going to do it and where are they going to do it? We do it better than it’s done anywhere in the world.

We have families in Okanogan County that have lived here for over a century - largely because they like the environment. Our families have been the stewards of the environment that urbanites have recently realized is worth protecting.

It is unconscionable that Cantwell is willing to sacrifice the well-being of Okanogan County to promote her political future. Our county has family incomes far less than half of those in the Seattle area. The average annual wage in Okanogan County is $15,000 to $16,000. Our unemployment rates are seldom single-digit. The mine is one of the few economic opportunities we have. In the meantime, Maria Cantwell is deciding whether she will write a check for $3 million, $4 million or $5 million to fund her campaign.

Cantwell chartered a plane to bring Seattle media to her staged event. She even changed a meeting place at the last minute to avoid facing real people. This is not about a mining company or a senator, it’s about the survival of people in Okanogan County.

Cantwell should be ashamed for promoting herself at our expense and the media should not have allowed her to do it.