When voting in the midterm elections please remember that the longtime goals of the GOP is the rule of law, individual liberty, and a well informed citizenry; as well as promoting the best human qualities and virtues, faith, patience, courage, honesty, justice, etc. We believe that local, state and national government work best when following the ideas set out in the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and State Constitution. Key concepts such as: limited government, the separation of powers, federalism, checks and balances, free enterprise, peace through strength, a safe people, property rights, love of country and maintaining our God given rights are basic tenets of the Republican party.
Politically speaking, it is very evident that this is one of the most important times in the history of our state and country. Perhaps someday we will have more common ground and true unity, however the Democrat party continues on with a tax and spend ideology; and at the state level implementation of a new state income / capital gains tax, carbon tax, energy tax and gasoline taxes are paramount. Please do your research, most races have stark differences between candidates as many of the Democrats wish to implement their socialist plans. Make sure to vote and tell your friends to Vote Republican in this crucial General Election to halt the progressive / "regressive" agenda and needless new taxes!
Democrat leadership and their candidates are not only specifically advocating for more and higher taxes, much of their left-wing policies take away our freedoms and destroy our Constitution. Additionally liberals keep calling out for their goals to be achieved through the strategic use of an "the ends justify the means" ideology by oftentimes using Alinsky like tactics that by now are all to well know. I.e. the easily predicted Judge Kavanagh farce, the Honduras caravans with arranged bus operations, organized accosting and chasing Conservatives out of restaurants / movie theaters, Antifa movements, Mob violence protests, the biased liberal mainstream media's continued onslaught and use of vicious rhetoric, Dem leaders like U.S. House Rep. Maxine Waters encouraging harassment, former Attorney General Eric Holder's comments to "kick them", etc.
At the same time Democrat strategists are attempting to implement their policies via more subtle means with new state initiatives, please be on the lookout for deceptive tactics to gather signatures, as well as cleverly written ballot measures. Here is a summary of what is on the ballot for the general election:
Initiative 1631 Carbon Emissions Fee and Revenue Allocation: In 2016 Washington State voters defeated Initiative 732, another similar carbon tax initiative with 59.3% of the vote, but the Dems are trying it again. These potential new taxes are unnecessary, regressive and hurt working families as they would be passed to the consumer and add substantial costs to electric bills and gasoline. I-1631 is supposed to reduce pollution but not surprisingly it exempts many of the states largest polluters. Money taxed would be put in the hands of a group of Governor Inslee appointed committee members to be decided how it is to be spent. VOTE NO on I-1631.
Initiative 1634 Affordable Groceries: Washington state does not tax groceries, but a loophole allows local governments do so. Remember the Socialist Seattle City Council 65 % Sweetened Beverage Excise Tax? I-1634 would prevent local governments from enacting new taxes, fees or assessments on food and beverages that we consume every day. Help keep groceries affordable. VOTE YES on I-1634.
Initiative 1639 Firearm Restrictions: I-1639 attempts to amend and revise current law in such a way as to limit the rights of the people to lawfully own firearms, to restrict the rights of the people to defend themselves, and to impose undue restrictions of firearm ownership endowed to the people by both the US Constitution and State Constitution. If this passes, the new law would make it a Class C Felony for the gun owner if the owner does not lock up and store their firearm in their own home. VOTE NO on I-1639.
Initiative 940 Mandates Law Enforcement Restrictions: I-940 is destructive to the law enforcement community. If voted into law it would amend the standard for justifiable use of deadly force by law enforcement, including adding a "good faith" standard and requiring independent investigations. The purpose is to make it easier to prosecute police officers who find themselves in unfortunate deadly force encounter situations. It would also require all state law enforcement personnel to receive violence de-escalation and mental health training, which is redundant to already established laws. Vote NO on I-940.
Below is the SCRP recommended list of candidates for the 2018 General Election Contested Races:
LD 10 State House Rep Pos 1: Norma Smith
LD 10 State House Rep Pos 2: Dave Hayes
LD 39 State House Rep Pos 1: Robert Sutherland
LD 39 State House Senator: Keith Wagoner
LD 40 State House Rep Pos 1: Michael Petrish
US Senator: Susan Hutchison
Congress 1st CD: Jeffrey Beeler
Congress 2nd CD: Brian Luke
State Court of Appeals Judge: Tom Seguine
Skagit Superior Court Judge: Rosemary Kaholokula
Skagit County PUD Commissioner: Joe Lindquist
Skagit County Auditor: Mike Urban
Washington State Supreme Court: All of this years Supreme Court justice candidates are very far left on the political spectrum. The Washington State Republican Party has done extensive research and is recommending to not support any of them, our County Party feels the same way as there is no good choice.
ADVISORY VOTE: Advisory Vote #19 Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 6292. This is a misprint on the ballot, supposed to be SB 6269. This was a good compromise deal between the oil companies and the environmentalists (passed 42 - 7 in the Senate); whereby a tax is payed to the state by the oil companies on tankers and petroleum pumped from pipelines. The concern being that if it is repealed a Democrat controlled majority may substantially increase this tax. Keep in force, please Vote to Maintain.
Proposition 1: Home Rule Skagit's goal is to eliminate our Skagit County Commissioner form of government by changing it to a Charter form of government (similar to King, Snohomish, Whatcom, etc.). They organized their campaign beginning in 2017 and chose to to submit their petition on the very last day possible in August 2018. Be forewarned as several were furious when they learned they had any opposition at all. They advocate for Agenda 21 / Agenda 2030 and Envision Skagit 2060 policies. Their Freeholder candidates are from the left whose desire is to write a new county constitution and participate in a completely new county government.
"No On Charter" was created just over 2 months ago to represent our existing form of government and was reluctivity given less than 30 hours to write and submit a voters guide statement. Per last months October Chairman's Corner Newsletter, there are many reasons why Prop 1 is a bad idea as a similar ballot measure was tried in 2003 and failed by over 70 % of the vote. After you Vote NO on a new proposed Skagit County Charter form of government, it is still important to vote for good Common Sense Conservative Freeholder Candidates (all opposed to a new Charter) should the worst case scenario happen and ballot measure pass. For more info please see: http://nooncharter.com.
Commissioner District 1 Freeholders: #1 Danielle Thomas, #2 Annie Lohman, #3 Roger Mitchell, #4 Mark Hurd, #5 Matt Miller, #6, Don McMoran, #7 Michael Petrish.
Commissioner District 2 Freeholders: #1 Kirk Duffy, #2 Ron Wortham, #3 Mark Hulst, #4 Rob Janicki, #5 Dick Reitsma, #6 George Eusterman, #7 Navor Tercero.
Commissioner District 3 Freeholders: #1 Eric Johnson, #2 Clyde Williams, #3 Brian Lipscomb, #4 Joe Franett, #5 John Janicki, #6 Keith Wagoner, #7 James Cook.
Over the last few weeks, as the Campaign Manager for LD 40 State House Rep Candidate Michael Petrish, I have received several inquiries from the Democrat opposition who are asking: "How can a tribal government be considered a 'Special Interest' group?" It is very simple, tribal governments actively lobby, and have the rare advantage to be able to file lawsuits while claiming "Sovereign Immunity". Also, tribal governments are considered NOT to be "governments" for the purposes of elections, and can contribute funds to political candidates. No other American governments may directly contribute funds to our national, state and local elections.
Additionally, this state's tribal governments are very well funded to the tune of millions of dollars per year by "tax except" casinos. Tribal government casinos enjoy this "tax exempt" status because in 2005 Gov. Christine Gregoire (D) negotiated a gambling compact that costs Washington State hundreds of millions of dollars per year in lost tax revenues. ALL the other states in the union with tribal casinos have tax revenue sharing agreements from tribal gambling.
At the national level, after spending $20 million in a campaign attempt to impeach President Trump, Billionaire liberal activist Tom Steyer is reportedly spending another $136 million in the midterm elections to assist Democrats candidates nation wide. Also New York Billionaire, Michael Bloomberg has committed over $100 million to try and flip Congress from the Republicans, he also has spent nearly $4 million into our state's general election. So far Bloomberg has spent over $3 million targeting 8th Congressional District Candidate Dino Rossi via two PAC's and spent over $700,000 against 3rd District Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Butler. Additionally, House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi is working with two groups that have spent more than $5 million against Rossi. So far a total of over $16.2 million has been reported to have been spent solely in opposition to Dino, mostly on fabricated attack ads. Steyer and Bloomberg (via PACS's) combined total invested in 2018 politics is now estimated to be around $240 million.
Not surprising to Republicans, the Congressional GOP tax and regulation cuts are working well to spur on unprecedented economic growth. All the while the booming United States economy continues to impress and set new records as business investment keeps increasing. With a substantially lower corporate tax rate jobs are coming back to the US from overseas; the nation's jobless rate is at a 49 year low and wages are at an all time high, this includes Woman, African Americans and Hispanics. With more people working and off of food stamp it is not surprising that credit scores are also at an all time high, the FICO average is at 704. Additionally, 3rd quarter U.S. GDP grew at a rate of 3.5%, and personal consumption expenditures grew by 4% besting most economist expectations.
Thanks again to all the SCRP volunteers who have been sign waving, phone banking and door-belling for our good Republican candidates. The SCRP will have volunteers sign waving at the Skagit County Courthouse (on the corner of 3rd St. and Kincaid) from noon to 2 PM this Saturday, November 3rd. All GOP volunteers and 2018 candidate signs are welcome!
A big thank you to SCRP Secretary Rod Eggerling who volunteered and served the GOP cause well; Rod has moved to Seattle to follow his career path so we will be actively looking for a new party Secretary beginning in January. Also a huge thank you to SCRP Treasurer Janet Dahl, Janet has done Yeoman's work for the past 4 years and will be retiring in January. SCRP PCO and Sedro-Woolley Councilmember Judith Dunn-Lee who has extensive experience working as a bookkeeper, on GOP campaigns, and with the Public Disclosure Commission has agreed to replace Janet, so also a big thank you to Judith!
Welcome back to long time SCRP Precinct Committee Officer Connie Munsey. Connie recently moved back to Skagit County from Oak Harbor and now resides in Mount Vernon. At the last Central Committee meeting I appointed Connie as the new PCO for Mount Vernon 310.
Our next Skagit County Republican Party Central Committee Meeting will be on Thursday, January 10th at 7 PM. Located at the SCRP office headquarters, Valley Business Center at 2021 East College Way, first floor conference room in Mount Vernon. This will be our County Party Organizational Meeting. All Precinct Committee Officers are requested to attend as we will be voting for new officers for the next two years.
Respect & Blessings,
Bill Bruch, SCRP Chairman
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