Padden wrongly labeled

Jeff Baxter supporters, through letters to the editor, verbally and in the blogs, are engaging in a strategy to falsely label Mike Padden as a “professional politician.” This is an inaccurate and false characterization! By definition (Merriam-Webster) such a person is “engaged in party politics as a profession,” i.e., permanent career.

For the 14 years he represented us in the state House of Representatives, Mike Padden was a citizen-legislator (just as Baxter was this last session) spending the majority of the year in Spokane building his business (attorney in private practice) and making arrangements to hold it together for the few months out of the year he served us in Olympia. His profession and main income was definitely not politics.

During the 12 years he served as a District Court judge, he was prohibited from engaging in any political activity (as all our judges are). While our judges are elected, they are nonpartisan offices. In other words they are not connected to any “party, faction, cause, or person.”

This is done in an effort to preserve objectivity, remain unbiased and look for the truth in every situation.

Mike Padden is the kind of man we need to get back into politics.

Skip Snyder

Veradale