Letters for Oct. 2, 2024

Vote Conroy for women’s rights

Our 5th Congressional District representatives have included Democrat Tom Foley, who rose to U.S. House speaker, and a lackluster Republican, Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

We face a similar stark contrast this year: Carmela Conroy, an experienced former U.S. diplomat, vs. Michael Baumgartner, a self-promoting Republican.

While in the state Legislature, Baumgartner tried unsuccessfully to make Washington a “right to work” (anti-union) state. He fought paid family leave and raising the minimum wage to $12. State voters disagreed, voting in 2016 to raise the wage to $13.50.

His proposed answer to rising child care and education costs? Repeal the wage increase and reduce teacher pay.

Filings from Baumgartner’s 2024 congressional race show he was paid more than $5,000 (while serving as Spokane County Treasurer) by the Washington Policy Center, a persistent foe of public sector unions whose columns appear twice monthly in The S-R. Baumgartner resigned his WPC consultancy in early 2024, but his wife, Eleanor, continues her WPC work through the millionaire couple’s consulting firm, Crestview Partners.

Baumgartner also opposes women’s abortion rights. In a 2024 Spokane Republican Party questionnaire, he wrote, “Life begins at conception.”

In contrast, Conroy, born into a Hillyard union family, is a strong advocate of workers’ rights and reproductive rights. She has been endorsed by the National Security Leaders for America based on her diplomatic record. She wants to codify Roe into law, nullifying the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. If Baumgartner is elected and Republicans control Congress, Washington women’s rights will be in grave peril.

Karen Dorn Steele

Spokane

Matthews for lieutenant governor

I am writing this letter to ask and encourage you to vote for Dan Matthews for lieutenant governor. I met Matthews earlier this year before he decided to run for office and was impressed not only by his resume, but also by Matthews’ dedication to faith, family, civility and service.

Matthews served in the Air Force as a pilot in combat theaters during two wars, retiring as a lieutenant colonel after 22 years of service. He also flew for 31 years as a commercial 747 pilot and served as an instructor pilot and examiner.

I support Matthews because he embodies the qualities we need to see in our elected officials: servant-leader, team builder, statesman and peacemaker. Matthews served as an elected Shoreline School Board member, an elected member of the Snohomish County Charter Review Commission, and in other leadership roles such as parliamentarian, founder and chair of a nonprofit and as a leader in his church. Further heeding the call to service, he ran twice for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District.

These and other leadership roles provide the foundation for his service-oriented mindset that he will bring to the job of lieutenant governor.

If elected as our lieutenant governor, he will help tackle the tough issues facing our education system, the state economy and public safety. He can help fix what is broken.

You can read more about him at electdanmatthews.com. Please vote Matthews for lieutenant governor.

Tony Martinez

Mukilteo, Washington

Vote Van Winkle for superior court judge

Harold Clarke says vote for Fennessy because Andrew Van Winkle’s ideas for modernizing Spokane’s superior court are too expensive and impractical. Clarke misses the points of valid criticisms.

Every superior court in the counties surrounding Spokane allows parties to e-mail documents to the judge. Spokane is the outlier, having just adopted a local rule requiring documents to be physically printed and delivered to the judge. Allowing parties to use email is budget neutral. Government and business have been using email for decades. Why won’t our judges?

For unrepresented parties delivering documents in family law cases, every trip to the courthouse is burdensome. It’s another trip to Office Depot to print documents. It’s more money in the parking meter and another missed shift at work, often unpaid. We need judges who will listen to their customers in the community–not to the lawyers who practice in front of them.

Each of the undersigned has had a case before Spokane County Superior Court in recent years. We can attest from our personal experience that small changes, like allowing people to email documents to the judges, can have an outsized impact on making the court less burdensome and easier to navigate.

If Clarke’s letter is any indication of Fennessy’s attitude, the community would be better off with Fennessy joining Clarke in retirement. Vote for someone who cares about people who have to go to court without representation. Vote Andrew Van Winkle for superior court judge.

Eric Coltrain, Kyle Spencer, Cindi Valenti and Cody Lytle

Spokane

Restricting books is responsible, adult

The picture included with Friday’s front -page article of The Spokesman-Review “Freedom to Read in Spokane” exposes the lies of the premises of both that article, about banned books and the companion piece regarding Washington laws about banning books. The fact that the Spokane Library can build a public display of “banned” books shows the books are not banned. That the largest newspaper in the region can include the picture on the front page and no government agents rushed to the library to seize the books and arrest the librarian is confirmation the books are not banned. All of those books are available for purchase online and in stores anywhere in the U.S.

The books discussed in the articles have not been banned anywhere. What has occurred is that the access of children to certain books has been restricted. The discussions and actions taken are about whether or not some books are appropriate for young readers and how/when they should have access to such materials.

Restricting children’s access to certain books – based on the content of the book, the age and maturity of the reader and parental/community values – is not banning books. It is the responsible, adult thing to do. It is disappointing that Spokane libraries, and The Spokesman-Review, are promoting the misinformation that books are being, or have been, banned.

Chan Bailey

Colbert