Democrats rule supreme and Jefferson County is paying the price for their almost two decades of monopoly power.
Just look at the city and county elected officials in every office. Only one is not a Democrat. All the various boards of the county and city are appointed by one party. No decision is made in Jefferson County that does not conform to the tenets of the Democratic Party.
What has been the effect of this domination? Answer: the problems we have now that we didn’t have when there was a viable two-party system in this county.
We lack good jobs more than ever. Our children have to leave to find employment. Don’t believe me? Ask your neighbors and friends with children who graduated from local high schools why their kids are gone.
Not only do we lack jobs, we also lack affordable housing more than ever before. There have been no apartment buildings built in a very long time. While we have over 300 subdivisions in Jefferson County none have been created in many years. Starter homes are in terribly short supply and their cost is skyrocketing.
The other side of the coin on housing affordability I’ve already mentioned: we don’t have jobs that make it possible for people to afford the housing that is here.
We do not have businesses moving to our area. When it is big news is that a commercial kitchen opened in Port Townsend so a couple food trucks have a place to prepare sandwiches you know there is a problem. Where is the news of a shoe store opening, or a clothing store or a manufacturing company that offers solid blue-collar wages?
There are many who say, “GOOD. We do not want all that. We’re here to get away from that world.” There is a certain amount of merit to that for a privileged few people who really do want to escape the world of young people with good jobs, roofs over their heads and who are building new families. These are the people with the money to buy their Nirvana. But, the result is that the value of property soars and the local people who need jobs and have families get squeezed to the point that they have to leave. So the entire county gets gentrified. This, in fact, has been a conscious policy goal of the elite Democrats in Port Townsend.
All of this has been written and talked about before. What has been ignored is the real reason it is happening. The answer is the people who run the Democratic Party.
Face it. We live in a dictatorship of a single party, kind of like those “Banana Republics” we hear about. One party, one rule. Do it our way or take the highway!
What we are lacking is an opposing view. Our nation was established to allow the view of even one person to be heard. It is quite important to have a forum for disparate views. But, it is just not hearing those voices that is important. We need the give and take that happens when one party does not control everything. Sometimes that give and take is messy. But, in the end it establishes a society that is much fairer and healthier.
One party rule does not work in the long run. The current one-party regime has lasted for over 15 years. When it collapses, which it will, there will be reverberations that could be avoided if the party in power had listened to the other side. One way for other voices to be heard is to simply appoint a wide range of politically and ideologically diverse people to the various boards that advise decision makers. Long term what would be much more fair and reasonable would be to establish a county charter so that county commission districts in the county elect their own representatives to reflect and serve their distinct interests. But, that might threaten the Democrats’ monopoly control and they will use their dominance to keep their grip on their monopoly power even though the county would benefit.
Craig Durgan is an engineer and businessman who has been instrumental in moving the Hadlock Sewer Project forward. Craig was recently elected Chair of the Jefferson County Republican Central Committee.
I lived here and graduated from PtHS in 1961. This was a real working town. We had a shoe store (I worked there.) and numerouse outh businesses to support a small town. A lot of the people who came up here in the 70’s got in cheap or free (squatters) and the change started. Now they’re the priviaged who own “Hobby Businesses” and don’t need to make a lot of money and keep thier remployees working full time at a decent wage. All this and they think they have a Touriest Attraction. They don’t They won’t let in any business that could house tourists. They don’t have a Civic Center to hold major events or ample parking. The stores don’t even stay open in the summer past 5:30 pm with people walking the streets looking for a place to drop their money. You might ask how I know. I worked for a very active Chamber of Commerce in Oregon and the city government that made it happen. Guess where a large part of out tourist traffic came from…..Seattle.
It is easy to demonize a political party.
But one must look beyond a political party to the voters who elected the officials. It is clear that the majority of the electorate in this County prefers (and prefers by a very comfortable margin) officials from one party.
Is it possible the majority of the electorate could find favor in a candidate from what is now a minority party? It seems unlikely right now. Even if such a candidate were both extremely charismatic and a reasonable center-road moderate, the prejudices against the minority party would be very difficult if not impossible to overcome.
And frankly, the minority party in this County seems to have taken such extreme positions as to make it unlovable to all but the party faithful. One might think that the first step to getting its members elected would be a pivot to the center. That would require eliminating the extreme ideas that divide and emphasizing the moderate ideas that unite.
At any rate like it or not the County is getting the government it deserves. Recall the following quotes:
Thomas Jefferson: “The government you elect is government you deserve.''Joseph de Maistre: "Every country has the government it deserves." (written in French 15 August 1811)
H.L. Mencken (newspaper man): "People deserve the government they get, and they deserve to get it good and hard." (early 1900's)
If affordable, probably the best solution for a government one does not like and cannot change is to become a political refugee. That would include moving to a jurisdiction more in line with one’s values. That’s a tall order for anyone who likes most everything about a community except its politics.
Do we really deserve what we have got?
The electorate simply isn’t buying what the Republicans are selling.
If Republicans want to get elected in this County, Republicans need to have a much more moderate message.
This was not strictly about partisan politics. It is more about divergent views. But, of course the partisans will stay that way.
Well said! I’ve watched this town become really gentrified and the gap between the haves and the have nots has grown exponentially. It’s just not sustainable. I used to work downtown at the deli, the bakery, the health food store, the cafe, and today every one of those businesses are now gone.