Letters for Oct. 20, 2022

Support Waldref for county commissioner

Amber Waldref is the best candidate to serve in the newly created District 2 for county commissioner. Her combined experience of eight years as a City Council representative and her current and past experiences working for nonprofit organizations provide a solid foundation for her to continue to help Spokane work through current issues and prepare for the challenges of the future.

Amber’s foundation for her campaign is serving “all,” not special interests or those with the most money or loudest voices. Her experiences growing up in northeast Spokane, serving as a neighborhood leader, as a City Council member and with the Zone at the Northeast Community Center have enabled her to remain in touch with the voices of those she services, specifically their concerns about community safety, homelessness and economic opportunity for all.

Amber has worked diligently meeting her constituents in their homes, answering their questions and sharing her vision. Her caring, common-sense approach to this work will serve both her district and all of Spokane when she is elected.

Please support Amber Waldref for county commissioner.

Ramona Griffin

Spokane

Fire station comes first

The city is planning to build three new dog parks in Spokane. Why do we need more of these when we need a new fire station in Eagle Ridge and surrounding areas? I think priorities are out of order in this city!

Larry Jess

Spokane

Vote for Idaho Democrats

Electing reasonable, freedom-supporting politicians in Idaho is an urgent matter. A woman’s freedom for health care decisions and bodily autonomy is gone, birth control freedom is threatened, free speech at our universities has been quenched, and the Supreme Court threatens to make our votes meaningless! The state of Idaho, the Idaho “Freedom” Foundation, and the Idaho Republican Party are leading the nation with their freedom-restricting laws.

However, reasonable people are still in the majority, and if we vote for candidates who want to preserve our freedoms and do good for the people of Idaho we can still stop the craziness. Vote to return David Nelson to the Idaho Senate. He supports the above-mentioned freedoms and has introduced bills to reduce the reliance of our schools on the property tax, and allow our seniors and disabled to remain in their homes. His opponent’s single issue is to limit a woman’s freedom. Another supporter of our essential freedoms is Tim Gresback, who is running for House Seat B in District 6. Tim firmly understands the value of educational opportunities in improving people’s lives, and pledges to increase opportunities in vocational and higher education for all Idahoans. His opponent has voted in lockstep with IFF to limit Idahoans’ freedoms. Trish Carter-Goodheart, running for District 6 House Seat A, has worked tirelessly for the welfare of our children. As a rural resident, she understands the unique problems not shared with city dwellers and pledges to fully address them.

Vote for Idaho, vote Democrats.

Al Poplawsky

Moscow, Idaho

IRS will audit wealthy

During the last president’s administration, the IRS budget was cut by 20%. That decrease made it difficult, if not impossible, for the IRS to adequately audit the complex, costly and time-consuming returns of the very wealthy and large corporations. Add to that the fact that the tax cuts of 2017 benefited those same two groups almost exclusively. Since then, these two groups have not been paying their fair share of taxes. The current increase in IRS staff levels will make it possible to audit those returns, and will more than make up for the increase in funds necessary to pay for the larger staff levels.

It’s only fair to present both sides of an issue, especially during election campaigns. The ads I’ve heard so far have not done that. I want to rectify that with this letter.

Gail Matthews

Kellogg

Vote for Republicans

I see the Democrats are up to their old fear lie that Republicans will get rid of Social Security. I sure wish they had done that decades ago before my generation was forced to “invest” in the worst pyramid scheme known to man.

Imagine if instead we had been allowed to invest that money ourselves. We’d have hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, in our own retirement program. Why would anyone want to put their retirement in the most unreliable peoples’ hands, politicians? Why would anyone want to be reliant of these most irresponsible people? Just look at what they have done running everything else!

The country is over $31 trillion and counting in debt. These people cannot be trusted. We should do our children a huge favor and get them out of this hugely failed “investment” since we have already saddled them with a huge debt to pay back. The people who would lose are those who helped politicians drive up that debt with their votes. They – we, I’m 55 – should be the ones responsible for paying it, not our children. One way to help pay is to eliminate the burden of paying for Social Security in the future. People should be allowed to make their own choices, especially in education and investments. Sadly, authoritarian politicians (mostly Democrats) can’t afford to allow personal responsibility or choices.

A vote for Republicans is a vote for freedom and true choice. Democrats view freedom as a threat to democracy.

Rob Leach

Mica

Vote Christian, Cummings and Hill

Campaign signage for Rob Chase, candidate for the state Legislature in the 4th District, states that “Truth Matters.” Let’s examine the truth about Rob Chase.

Chase is a conspiracy theorist. He’s promoted QAnon, claimed the 2020 presidential election was a fraud, and believes the COVID-19 vaccine is not a vaccine but a conspiracy created by groups who want a smaller global population. He’s convinced there’s a “deep state” running the government, including the one that he’s a part of.

He claims that he “stands by Matt Shea,” including his determination to create a 51st state in Eastern Washington. Residents of the 4th District are basically getting another Matt Shea, just less bombastic.

Chase is a terrible choice for the Legislature. Fortunately, there’s another Republican candidate in the race who has his feet firmly planted in reality. Leonard Christian has served capably in the Legislature, and has common-sense solutions to challenges facing our district. He’s not wasting his time on legislation that never gets out of committee, the fate of nearly every bill sponsored by Chase.

In the other 4th District race, vote for Ted Cummings. He’s a smart candidate with sound ideas to serve the people of Eastern Washington. His opponent, Suzanne Schmidt, is opposed to Washington’s abortion law, and would limit access to abortion. That position plays well in Idaho, Suzanne, not in this district.

Finally, don’t vote for Cathy McMorris Rodgers. She wants 20 years in Congress, with nothing to show for it. Vote Natasha Hill.

Joe Pitt

Liberty Lake

Choose redistricting Map No. 1

I attended the Oct. 4 Redistricting Board meeting along with several Spokane residents who testified to voice their concerns about the four maps being considered for redistricting. Map No. 1 was the overwhelming choice by those who completed the board survey and attended the meeting. The task of the board was to focus on simple boundary and population adjustments, not to overhaul the existing City Council districts. These requirements, as well as those listed in the state law, were best met by Map No. 1 out of the four map choices. Map No. 1 contains only minor boundary adjustments and provides the most equal distribution of population between the districts.

A repeated issue discussed at the Oct. 4 board meeting was Map No. 2, created and submitted by City Councilman Zack Zappone. This particular map made significant boundary changes, most important, redistributing neighborhoods between the three districts that favor Zappone in his own district and his party overall. Zappone is also an advisory member to the board, and will approve the final map as a city council member. These conflicts of interest raise ethical questions of unfair advantage and potential inappropriate influence on the board, and were mentioned frequently during public testimonies at the meeting.

The board did not answer or address these questions at this meeting or at any earlier time. In order to ensure trust in the process and fair play in our elections, the City Council should approve the recommendation of the Redistricting Board and choose Map No. 1.

Emily Ling

Spokane

Re-elect Haskell

The choice is simple. Today when some are calling for defunding the police and prosecutors are deciding not to charge some crimes, The Spokesman-Review says “Haskell is focused on victims and accountability for offenders …” So, Larry wants to enforce the criminal laws that you, the voters, had your representatives enact. He should. He wants to do the job for which he was elected.

His opponent, Deb Conklin, according to quotes in the Spokesman, wants to “utilize pretrial resources to support defendants, diversion programs and specialty courts.” Public defenders, defense attorneys and social services agencies are the ones that should suggest those programs. She should want to support victims as they endure the system. When she was a deputy back in 1987, a serious molestation case was dismissed because of her misconduct, the court saying, “We cannot characterize the state’s actions concerning that order as other than egregious misconduct. The state’s advice to the children’s custodians cannot be interpreted as other than encouragement to disobey a court order.” Not what you want in a prosecutor.

Vote for Larry Haskell, the one who has done and will continue to do the job.

Don Brockett

Former Spokane County prosecuting attorney

Spokane