On winning and losing, and loyal opposition

To the Editor:

It's true: I expected to win, but then, why would I have run if I thought I was going to lose?

The real news is this: my opponent expected me to win, too¹. Why? Because during the campaign he heard me and a variety of authors of letters to the editor explain, clearly and frankly and not in a negative way, a number of hard truths.

We discussed ways the current Board of County Commissioners has let the citizens of Kittitas County down². We explained how the economy now and going forward is far different than the one in the recent past, and how this will require new thinking³. We pointed out that CWU has been ignored as an important part of our county economy and as a key part of our path to a better economy⁴. We noted that many citizens don’t feel county government has been listening to them.⁵ We emphasized that we need to move away from our current development-based boom-and-bust economy.⁶

All of this is true, and wishing or pretending otherwise won’t make it not true.

The major issues of the campaign will follow the new Board of County Commissioners as they begin their work after the first of the year, and their performance in dealing with the issues will be used to judge them in the next election⁷. The Commissioners deserve as much help as we can give them in getting Kittitas County back on track. I’ll be doing my part by, among other things, continuing to write my blog about county issues, http://whathappensinthecourthouse.blogspot.com , where readers can find a more interactive version of this letter.

Finally, I am grateful for and humbled by the help⁸, ideas⁸, time⁸, and money⁹ contributed by so many to my campaign.

Steve Verhey
Ellensburg

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Footnotes
¹As we waited for the vote tally to be announced, Obie was standing about six feet away from me, talking about how he had been too busy to do much campaigning, and generally making excuses. He was genuinely surprised when the result was announced.
²See Well Moratorium Summary, for example.
³The housing development boom was funded by toxic mortgages that contributed to the banking crisis and required a bailout by the Bush Administration. That kind of money will (hopefully) never be available again.
⁴Our local politicians' lack of response to CWU budget cuts was adequately addressed during the campaign, and doesn't need to be repeated here.
⁵I heard much more of this in meetings with voters. Don't forget that "listening" and "hearing" are two different things -- citizens actually don't feel heard.
⁶There is an opportunity cost to paying as much attention to development as the county has done. The county was blindsided by the first wind farm application because they had been distracted, for example, by development-related issues.
⁷Voters should not accept experience without real accomplishments.
⁸Scores of people helped in one way or another.
⁹Obie raised over $11,000 from 24 donors, including his party; I raised about $7800 from at least 40 donors (my donors aren't as easy to view, because I filed by mail instead of electronically; to see them, this link might work. $5500 of Obie's money was from the Republican Party, and about $3700 came from the real estate development industry (my favorites were $500 checks from Northland Investment Inc and from Northland Investment LLC).