Whithering Right Or Standing Strong

Following up on my previous posting about the Washington state Republicans who voted for the transportation bill that I-912 supporters want to kill, I thought I'd go ahead and simply list the names of the legislators.

House:

Glenn Anderson (5th District)
Tom Campbell (2nd)
Jim Clements (14th)
Richard Curtis (18th)
Larry Haler (8th)
Shirley Hankins (8th)
Bill Hinkle (13th)
Fred Jarrett (41st)
Mary Skinner (14th)
Rodney Tom (48th)
Beverly Woods (23rd)

Senate:

Alex Deccio (14th)
Bill Finkbeiner (45th)
Mike Hewitt (16th)
Joyce Mulliken (13th)
Dave Schmidt (44th)
Dan Swecker (20th)
Joseph Zarelli (18th)

For my part these folks are to be commended for their courageous vote that obviously flies in the face of today's Republican leadership. These 18 legislators understood the dire need for transportation infrastructure improvements. They recognized we needed to pay attention to the long term needs of Washington state. They realized that taxes are not popular, yet they are sometimes necessary, and that this transportation bill's gas tax increase was the tough sacrifice we all needed to make so that we could fix our bridges, patch and expand our roads, and ease our traffic problems.

I would urge all those that oppose I-912 to contact each of these legislators, especially if they are your district's representative, to remind them of the importance of their "yea" vote on this bill, commend them for it and challenge them to stand strong in the face of the misplaced vision of their party leadership.

Rodney Tom being one of my 48th District representatives recently received the following email from me:

Dear Representative Tom,

I am deeply troubled that your party has decided to officially oppose the landmark transportation bill passed last spring by endorsing I-912, the initiative that would effectively kill it's primary source of funding by repealing the gas tax.

This is a bill you voted for, along with 10 of your Republican colleagues in the House, and I am grateful to have a representative who understands the need to make hard, tough decisions for the betterment of us all in the long term, regardless of party affiliation.

However, this official stance by your party leadership is an affront, and undermines my faith that the Republican representatives in the House and Senate can be relied on to hold firm to their conviction that the transportation bill was necessary, and their vote in favor was the right one. We need strong leadership in Olympia, not leadership that wavers with the wind for cheap political gain at the cost of the health of our great state of Washington. Did the Gulf Coast disasters teach us nothing about the need to ensure our infrastructure is maintained appropriately?

I would like confirmation that my representatives, yourself and Ross Hunter, are standing strong against I-912, with an understanding that we must continue to aggressively pursue transportation improvements locally and statewide.

Sincerely,

Daniel Kirkdorffer