Readers Roundtable with Candidates:
For this year’s primary races, our readers are invited to ask candidates questions and add comments in an interactive exchange below. Here’s your chance to probe local office-seekers in a relaxed public forum where you’ll even get the chance for a couple rounds of follow-up questions!
Participating candidates have agreed to engage with commenters for at least three days following publication. Candidates can expand upon and clarify their views; voters can get a deeper look into what they have to offer. The candidate will reply daily to each posted comment during the 3-day period. Candidates can reply as expansively or as briefly as they want, optionally writing collective replies to multiple similar comments or commenters who post multiple times during the same day. Comments that violate PTFP commenting policy will be blocked or removed by moderators so won’t qualify for candidate replies.
All contenders in local primary races with at least three candidates were invited to participate in these roundtables —
Jefferson County Commissioner:
Jon Cooke, Greg Brotherton, Marcia Kelbon
WA State Representative, District 24, Position 1:
Sue Forde, Mike Chapman, Matthew Rainwater
WA State Representative, District 24, Position 2:
Steve Tharinger, Darren Corcoran, Brian Pruiett
————————–
B R I A N P R U I E T T
I’m Brian Pruiett. I grew up here in beautiful Washington state where the blue-green sea meets our forested hills and white-capped mountains. My wife Kathleen and I have four children and six grandchildren, and a dog named Maggie. We live on a small farm in Clallam County where I propagate heirloom varietal fruit trees and produce a natural hay crop. After retirement I started rehabbing single homes and duplexes for low-income housing. I’m a member of CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), Carlsborg VFW, and Jefferson County Sportsmans Club.
I am currently in my third year of campaigning to be your State Representative for Position 2, in our 24th Legislative District, which spans from Brinnon to Port Townsend to Cape Flattery to Ocean Shores to Elma. In my first attempt at running, in 2020, I won 47 percent of the district vote. My prospects are very good.
The questionable behavior of our current ruling party in Washington State during the recent Covid crisis and never-ending Gubernatorial emergency powers indicates it is time for a change. Solid, successful leadership is what I bring to change troubled times into better living. My national and international level experience provide the way ahead, TO DO what needs to be done.
I’ve had three career paths, which I believe will add value to my service to you, in Olympia:
In the military, I learned how to work hard and smart. I was recognized with over 30 awards including the Bronze Star Medal for service in Afghanistan. I was selected for promotion ten times and retired as Lieutenant Colonel, Battalion Commander. I also served a three-year appointment as Inspector General, implementing organizational excellence, inspections, investigations, also dealing with corruption, crime, and malfeasance.
I have real-life experience in Natural Resource Management through my work at the U.S. Department of Interior. I have lived and worked in the Powderhorn Wilderness Area, in Colorado. I served as reclamation and soil scientist for three mining companies in Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming. I’ve facilitated endangered species surveys, fought fires in Wyoming and South Dakota. I facilitated rangeland management for the northeast quarter of Wyoming, including oil and gas development of roads, pipelines, powerlines, compressor stations, well locations, and rehabilitation of them all.
I served as a Supervisory Human Resource Officer, Department of the Army Civilian (DAC), which is the chief personnel officer supervising the directors of Personnel Management, Drug Demand Reduction, Family Programs, Equal Opportunity, Educational Services, and the contractors for both the Child and Youth Services and Gold Star Family programs.
Collectively, my life experiences have prepared me for the call of duty to serve in the Washington State Legislature. I am compassionate about the value of every human being. Hence, I am a populist: I have faith in God and the intrinsic ability of ordinary people to attain extraordinary things. I am a decorated combat veteran, experienced worker and leader who wants to ensure freedom of choice in lifestyle, career, education, vocation, housing, healthcare, and life in general.
As we have learned from our experiences over the past couple of years, we cannot take our freedoms for granted. Partisan politics have put our freedoms at risk. We need leaders who are driven by the courage of their convictions who use their positions of power to empower others. Elections matter.
Every aspect of our lives is subject to the policies enacted by those we elect, such as commerce, transportation, religious freedom, taxation, parental rights and responsibilities, educational choices, and so on. It’s imperative that we elect those who will genuinely advocate for our safety, wellbeing, and common interests, operating under the laws, rather than instituting lawlessness.
Here’s what I propose we do to get things on track:
We need to make sure taxes support critical needs and are the best priorities for funding. We need a healthy budget rather than a bloated one. Overall inflation is running about twenty percent per year and your financial wellbeing must be the highest priority.
I will support these two bills to increase housing affordability: HB1232 for affordability and HB2049 for permit reform. Do you support reduction in permit fees, “smart-sizing” building and septic codes?
We need drastic reductions in state spending. Our state population went up just 15 percent in ten years but the state spending went up over 75 percent. This is an avoidable, unreasonable, and unaffordable burden which must change. In addition, our local protests over ‘unfunded mandates’ are focused on real, increasing burdens (including the Growth Management Act), which we approved with I-62, and again, in 1993, with the passage of I-601.
Together, these two initiatives in the RCW state, “… the legislature shall not impose responsibility for new programs or increased levels of service under existing programs on any political subdivision of the state unless the subdivision is fully reimbursed by the state for the costs of the new programs or increases in service levels.”
Our majority Democrat-run government isn’t listening to us.
For example, the incumbent, Steve Tharinger, has aggressively pushed every gimmick and means he can take more of your money and spend it. He boasts about being Chair of the House Capital Budget Committee, and being on the Appropriations Committee, which cast aside our votes for $30 Car Tabs. He instead boosted many other fees, some as high as five hundred percent, just this year.
The Legislature has ignored these and many other directives of the people, including the overwhelming vote by Jefferson County against higher property taxes. Do you support a freeze on property taxes at the time of purchase, to be reset upon the next transfer of the property? I do.
We need to restore our Public Works funds for small cities and towns like Port Townsend. Tharinger voted to take them away for the next two years.
Reducing inflation is critical. With our state median home sale price, according to Redfin, jumping from $400,000 to over $600,000 from 2020 to 2022, the net impact to all of us is increased homelessness and reduced availability to working class families.
I support repeal of the two new fuel taxes. The incumbent I will replace and his Democrat Majority have further exacerbated this high cost by voting in two new state laws, HB 1091 and SB 5126, Low Carbon Fuel tax, which started this July and will completely kick in on January 1, 2023. They will really amplify the pain you feel at the gas pump and the grocery store.
I advocate for term limits for our Governors. The incumbent stated he supports unlimited terms but, then, he is a career politician and I am not. Do you think terms should be limited?
I support a limit to emergency declarations. The incumbent says the legislature acts too slowly so we need the emergency powers along with its spending and overregulation, and he thinks this should be endless and remain untouched. We are now over nine hundred days into the C19 Emergency. You be the judge.
I advocate for our entire criminal justice system including family, mental health and drug courts. Prison is usually not the best place to house violent mentally ill people, many who can be helped by medication and therapy. I have friends who work with these people in need. Do you support a new state mental health hospital?
I advocate for street drugs to be made illegal again. People need to be offered a hand up, but no more handouts without a verified commitment to change. What do you think should be done?
I advocate for a new fully funded and fully capable state crime lab. The right to speedy trial is a basic civil right for all..
Our peninsula road network needs prioritization. Highway 112 the 35 miles of Highway 101 south of Forks, and Highways 101 and 104 are critical. Which do you think needs repair?
I support school choice and parental rights. I am against corrupted “Critical Race Theory” and am against teaching young children sex education infused with gender confusion. The state public system is collecting almost $19,000 per student, for failing grades. It’s time to get back to basics and answer parental concerns. Did you know some private schools cost as low as seven to eight thousand dollars per year, and many have cost share or scholarships available?
I advocate for high school-trade school certification-level training by age 18.
As you can see, we have a lot of work to do to get our state back on track. First and foremost, we need to set things straight right here on our peninsula. That’s where you come in. I live here and so do you. We have nothing to gain from either of us failing. As your State Representative, I will not only value your input, I will solicit it, I WILL LISTEN and I WILL ACT based on what citizens of the district want and need.
Let’s start right here, right now! I’m looking forward to engaging with you through your questions and comments to this post. I humbly ask for your vote for Brian Pruiett for State House in the August 2 Primary and again in the November General Election. Learn more about my campaign at vote4pruiett.com.
Brian and his dog Maggie.
All photos provided by Brian Pruiett
Top photo: Brian and his wife Kathleen
Co-editors Ana Wolpin, Stephen Schumacher and Annette Huenke have a combined history of more than 120 years in Port Townsend. See the “About the Free Press” page for more about the editorial team.
As a cancer survivor with severe physical trauma due to cancer surgeries and treatment, I am deeply concerned about your statement of “making street drugs illegal again”. If you happen to be referring to the plant known as cannabis, you couldn’t be more wrong. Don’t blame a plant for the bad behavior by human beings. That plant is a profound and serious asset for members of our community who can find relief no other way, from physical disabilities. Speaking personally, I would not be able to keep my job without the benefits which come from the daily use of cannabis. My medical doctor knows about it, is on board with it, and is astounded along with me about how much my physical health has improved since Washington state made this plant available to people who are suffering from physical issues which have no other solution.
Please do not go off on some sort of “reefer madness” tangent to make the medicine illegal again, which allows me to work and be self-sufficient.
If however you were referring to the massive problem we have with fentanyl, Ritalin/methamphetamine, and various other prescription street drugs, then yes, work needs to be done, there. However, it needs to be done in a way that is both gentle and unquestionably firm. I have known way too many people who have lied and cajoled their way through drug court, and when they are finished go back to exactly the life they were living previously. I’m not against drug court but it needs to be much better supervised. As does everything at our substance-abuse facilities in Port Townsend. The people running these programs seem to be very easily duped, and something needs to change.
Thank you, and good luck. Your willingness to serve your community is beautiful and deeply appreciated.
Meg, thank you for your thoughtful response and sharing what you have been through. I have personally witnessed, and/or experienced every single one of the things you mentioned, except that I have not had cancer or lupus, but my family members have. One member could benefit from cannabis but cannot have it in her state, to deal with her Lupus pain and disease impacts. I wish she could.
I have volunteered as part of my faith-based group to help addicted homeless and street people on our Peninsula. When I say street drugs, I am specifically talking about using drugs in a damaging way to oneself or harming others, and rendering a life into a damaging dependency, not in what we need to have for treatment in a responsible manner.
I want to see fewer emergency room admissions for everyone from little children who get harmed by drugs, to adults who can’t or won’t get clean. I had one street friend named Paul who died of cancer. The only relief he had at the end, was fentanyl prescribed by a doctor. Compassion is a basic belief of mine. Thank you again for responding.
God Bless
Hi Brian, thanks for participating in this reader roundtable and being endorsed by Stand for Health Freedom! Would you oppose mask mandates as a precondition for entering schools, receiving medical treatment, etc., and do you have any thoughts on the costs/benefits of masking (which came up on an earlier roundtable thread)?
Stephen,
I had read your response last week regarding masks, to Marcia Kelbon. Thank you for your thorough discussion, references, and analyses.
I do support healthy lifestyles and the reduction of personal exposure to harmful disease. I was frustrated by the mask mandate and many of the sources you cited listed clear examples of issues with restricted breathing, reduced oxygen content, and exposure to mask material particulates, all which have validity.
Regarding mandated wear, I have to come down on the side of Free Choice. If the business owner, medical facility, or school administration, to list a few, makes masking a rule for you or I to enter, I made my decision to respect their decision and I either don’t go there or I follow their rule.
But when government mandates tell me I must wear masks while driving my vehicle, walking outdoors, or in my home, etc., I reserve the right to make my own decision on that and would continue that freedom of decision making process to the public as a law maker.
Masking can reduce some exposure, but self-contained air supply is a much better source for limiting exposure. When I worked in the medical field and later, with pesticides, we were taught that entry through the eye was the quickest way to get exposed.
Thank you for your question. It has been a contentious issue that will last at least as long as this current Endless Emergency, which as you know, is without end. Unless you get enough friends and supporters to VOTE4Pruiett.com so we can end it legislatively. Without change from the Democrat Majority, all we have is an interesting theoretical discussion. I want action and hope you do too.
Regarding cost:benefit for masking, I do not have any position on that at this time. I do feel that the state should include PPE in emergency stockpiles rather than count on the federal government.
God Bless,
Brian
Thanks for putting your background and views out there, Brian. I have a question: which public schools in the 24th District are teaching Critical Race Theory to K-12 students?
Hello Jeff:
Parents have complained to me directly about the following school districts teaching it to their children:
Sequim
Port Angeles
Port Townsend
Chimacum
Hoquiam
Aberdeen
I myself have contacted over 5,000 voters now since October 1st 2021, and my team has canvassed another 14,000. While CRT is not as hot a topic as economy, policing, and other issues, angry and upset parents put CRT into a bundle with what they call the sexualization and gender confusing Sex Ed curriculum, with a blanketing anger against the state education curriculum rather than the single issue you asked about.
It has been enlightening to meet so many parents at their doors, who self identify to me as lifelong Democrats and say they are walking away because of strong disagreement about the school curriculum, and the failure rate of the state school system. For most, private schooling is unaffordable so they are voting for change with this election.
I look forward to your support as well. I encourage you to go to my website and sign up to work for positive change. Vote4Pruiett.com.
Thank you for your question.
Brian
I do hope people do some more research for themselves on the issue of racism, education, and how to work with our fellow Americans. I interviewed, hired, and supervised the director of our Equal Opportunity Program during my final four years working as an Army Civilian. I made sure our large organization established and met solid goals for equity, diversity, and equal opportunity. If you haven’t ever done this yourself, let me tell you it wasn’t easy. Perseverance, integrity, and care for people as individuals were paramount, and our persistence paid off
I was at a presentation last January where Dr. Carol Swain discussed her analysis and published research on CRT. I recommend this book. https://carolmswain.com/ Black Eye For America
Best Wishes,
Brian
Brian, thank you for your service in the Army & your affordable housing efforts. Voters need leaders who take the time to get their facts right.
You wrote that WA Democrats’ handling of COVID “indicates it is time for a change,” but how do you square that assertion with the fact that, compared to other states, Washington logged the 5th-fewest per capita deaths during the pandemic–less than half the death rates seen by mask & vax-rejecting red state dystopias like Mississippi & Florida? Jefferson County’s doing even better, thanks to Dr. Berry: our death rate is 50% lower than the state’s–a death rate comparable to Finland’s. Don’t those results suggest we should keep voting for Democrats like our life depended on it, because it did & still does?
What’s your source for an alleged 75% increase in state spending over the last decade? How do you square that claim with the fact that state revenue collection as a percentage of state GDP has fallen 25% since 1983? Or this data showing slow inflation-adjusted growth of per capita public spending? https://ofm.wa.gov/washington-data-research/statewide-data/washington-trends/revenue-expenditures-trends/state-local-government-expenditures-capita
You claimed, “Overall inflation is running about twenty percent per year,” but the actual figure is 8.6% (bad enough). What’s your source for the higher figure? Wouldn’t tax cuts at this time feed further inflation?
You keep attacking public schools with uninformed attacks around state test scores. I appreciate that you value standardized tests–so do I. State math scores look low because Washington set a high bar with Common Core: we have good public schools, but need to make them better–world-class, in fact. Unfortunately, COVID interrupted instruction & for the last few years, supporting students socially & emotionally has been a higher priority than promoting improved academic achievement. Of course, that’s a false choice: Kids need social & emotional support, but they also need to learn, and I’m pleased to report that many of my colleagues and I have been providing both kinds of support. (I teach in Chimacum; we provided more in-person learning support during the worst of the pandemic than other schools in the state & county, and it showed in last fall’s test scores.)
Please stop promoting Critical Race Theory panic. I teach high school history in Chimacum. I don’t teach CRT; I can’t because I’ve never been trained in it, & I wouldn’t, because I’m a historian, and our field is based on evidence, as opposed to theory. I had never heard of CRT until Rufo & Fox seized on the term because it sounds scary to people uncomfortable with critical thinking, discussions of race, & grown-up history that acknowledges both our country’s defects & its glories. I continue to teach history and civics as I’ve done since entering the profession in 1993: as social sciences grounded in empirical evidence. I lay out the evidence, sometimes suggest hypotheses, invite questions & comments every class to encourage kids to make sense of history, encourage students to find errors or bias in my teaching–& graciously concede when they do, though that’s rare as I’m very good at my job. (I’ve expressed political opinions here, but rarely do so in class, unless modeling civil expressions of political opinion, in which case I’m as likely to present conservative models as liberal ones.) I’ve always taught about every major demographic group in my classes, but because of GOP scaremongering, now whenever I teach anything related to Black people, a few propagandized kids mutter that I’m teaching CRT. (A few months ago, I compared notes with Port Townsend’s high school history teachers; they also had never heard of CRT, but get accused of teaching it nonetheless.)
Ye shall know the truth, & the truth shall make you free. Start telling the truth & you might win this time.
The numbers cited for the population and budget are summarized from two voluminous reports, published for 2010 and 2020 in their respective Annual Comprehensive Financial Report from Washington Office of Financial Management found on the OFM web site. The state publishes them in June of the following year, so in June 2021 they published the data from 2020.
2010 Total population was 6,724,550, state spending was $42,606,839,000
2020 Total population was 7,705,281, state spending was $85,014,689,000
This was a 74.14% increase of spending per person.
Wrong. It looks like your 2010 figure is just state spending, while your 2020 figure is state spending + local government spending. Apples vs. apples + oranges = illusory increase. Since the voluminous reports evidently confused you, try this concise overview: https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/projects/state-fiscal-briefs/washington
Brian,
You can accuse me of error and deny government reports all you wish, but I gave you the factual summary from our official state agency which reports the data and am not quoting, as you did, a simplistic summary from a non-governmental institute’s analysis who does not have access to the original data.
Mr Tharinger tried the same tactic during one of our prior debates: stating that government reports were wrong. He was not successful either. I am sorry you are offended but I am not altering data. Unless the point you are making is that you do not trust government? We may have a basis for agreement in some cases there. I’m looking forward to making positive change for accountability and serving our Peninsula people.
Best wishes to you. This closes out my discussions for now.
God Bless.
Sorry Brian,
I must disagree with a history teacher, however, who co-joins the word Democrat with the concept that that group, with its history of slavery prior to and during the War of the Rebellion, post war violence, segregated schools, Jim Crow Laws, racist lynchings, historic affiliation with the KKK, the slum lands of Detroit and Chicago among many other areas, and continued bigotry of lowered expectations, as being what we desire for public education.
I would be glad to come speak to your classes on how to implement an equal opportunity program and how to recognize and deal with institutional racism.
Sure sign of losing a debate: arguing against things your opponent didn’t say, but you wish he’d said. I didn’t mention Democrats at all in connection with schools. I objected to your misinterpretation of standardized test data, & asked you to stop promoting the Rufo/Fox/GOP panic around CRT.
Of course, Democrats are better on education. Voters who care about kids & education should vote for Democrats, because we support public schools–not Republicans, who hate public schools. The roots of GOP hostility toward public schools stretch back decades, but as recently as the Aughts, many Republicans showed serious interest in improving public education. Sadly, the GOP now mostly lies about our schools, stokes unfounded panic, & attacks teachers
I teach about the Democrats’ poor record on civil rights in the 19th and early 20th centuries, their mixed record in the middle of the 20th century, & their increasingly excellent record since 1948. I also teach about the Republicans’ excellent record in the Civil War Era–a record betrayed by the unconscionable sellout of southern Blacks in the Compromise of 1877. I teach about the bipartisan consensus for racism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I teach about the brief bipartisan consensus for racial equality during the Civil Rights Movement. & how the GOP then promptly pivoted to pander to prejudice, recruiting racists to revive its electoral fortunes with its cynical Southern Strategy. Sadly, racism wins votes outside the South, too, which explains the GOP’s mythmaking around CRT.
Given the factual error rate you’ve demonstrated here and elsewhere, I could not in good conscience invite you to my classroom.
If you want to talk about race, I would like to add a bit to it through expience. My early years were spent growing up in Camas. At that time the CZ mill, at times had about 2,500 workers. Two were black and one of them lived in Vancover, the other in Portland. During the years I worked in the mill and the researh division I worked with both of them and carpooled with one of them. I know Camas was red lined. My sister lived in Portland and her oldest son was my age and I visited the family a lot in the summer. We had a lot of interaction with black kids. One summer day my nephew and I were laying in a little tent when a black kid sneaked up on me and put a fire cracker under my head. My nephew saw and knew what was going to happen. It hurt bad. Was he being mean? No, he was just being a stupid and I suffered some. Was I upset with him and want revenge? No. After moving here in my high school years I found to my knowledge Port Townsend was also red lined as there were no blacks in the town or schools. Years later, when I took a hearing test at the mill, the nurse said I had a loss of high hearing in the right ear. I told her I worked in a high noise area and wasn’t surprised. She told me that it had happened with a violent noise. I thought about it and knew when it happened. One day, there were three black men standing on a corner looking up main street in Camas. People actually were stopping in shock, looking at them A short time later CZ hired a new Human Resources Director who was black with a blonde, white wife and two high school kids. Then, the thought that the kids would have a terrible time was talked about. From what I heard they were accepted and there were no problems. That broke the red line.
When I went into the Army, I had a lot of interaction with blacks. In Basic Training and AIT. The latter was at Huntsville, AL. At the first Formation the SGT gave us our off duty instructions of how far away we could go and hours we could be out. He then told the black trainees that if they went into town not to go alone and always have a couple of guys with him. It became real when they burned the cross on the hill above the facility. After training,I was fortunate to be in a very mixed company. Our only thing was the unit across from us. They hated us because we took over the first guest house outside the gate. We would fight with any unit, but not anyone from our unit. One day the First SGT called eight of our black guys in his office as they had been in a fight with some of the company across the street and sent several of them to the hospital with injuries. He asked them how many of the other unit were there. They told him they didn’t know for sure, but estimated about forty, as they were in the center of a circle in the EM Clubs parking lot. The FSGT told them to get out of his office. Much later, our Company had a Infantry Security Section. At that time there were units in Germany that had problems with race. One of our white guys was beat up by some black troops when he got into the wrong guest house and made it back to our company. The black guys in his Infantry section asked him what happened. He told them and they had him go back across the street and point out the ones who beat him and they would take care of the situation, as it wasn’t going to be a race issue. You just didn’t mess with our unit. I had one of the black guys who always close to and he was from Mississippi and was not returning there after his Discharge. He had plans to go live in one of the islands in the Bermuda area, We also had an Tech5 (like a SGT.) who was quite a guy. One night at the movie theater he and another one of the guys from my room got into a work fight on who they would call to beat up the other one. They kept trying to one up the other when my roommate came up with the name of the KKK leader. There was a black wife of one of the Officers or SGTs. behind us and I swear the really got pale. Five of us in our room staged a photo of us going to beat him up (I still have the photo). I often think about the guys I served with, {both white, black and any other color) and wonder how their lives turned out. They were my family for my two years while troops of my colors were injured and dying in Viet Nam.
If you’ve read this far I will add that the Black Lives Matter protest in Port Townsend was just plain stupid. Black people live here in harmony with people of all races. If you want to have a BLM protest, take it to the big cities or the South. Get over 100,000 people in mass to do it. Disrupting traffic, painting the streets and other foolishness is just that because ALL LIVES MATTER. If you want to learn something, go live with a black family and find out how they feel about any subject by how they live. You will find rich and poor, educated and workers just like the rest of us. This country was built by people of many races. If your ancestors entered this country legally GOOD FOR THEM. If you’ve entered illegally, GOOD BYE. If you’re a native, WE’RE SORRY how your ancestors were treated. We have to show the world our history, like any other nation. WE’RE AMERICANS!
Les,
Thank you for sharing your very personal experiences. I grew up in Skagit County with Native Americans and families from Mexico, and only knew of one Black person in our large high school. Like you, in the military we lived, worked, played, trained, fought, ate, slept, showered, made enemies and made friends, and learned how to treat each individual as the person who deserves to be respected as an individual.
When we lump Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thais, and others as “Asians”, or we lump Mayans, Spanish, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Chileans into the words “Latino/Latina”, it does not humanize them in peoples minds. When we lump Haitians, Senegalese, Maori, or US Blacks as “Blacks”, people need to explain how that is not dehumanizing, to me.
I hate the word “Tolerance” and want us to work on growing out the words “Love and Respect” for one another.
God Bless,
Brian
Brian,
thank you for sharing your experience here with us. Going to your last comment first, I like how you are using the Bible as your reference, particularly in that you quote Jesus Christ in his testimony to those who believe in him in the book of John, chapter 8 where he says “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.(ESV)
You bring a wide range of points to discuss, and I will try to be concise in response.
You would do well to get some facts into your argument regarding the COVID here on our Peninsula. Reducing viral loading is important for allowing individual immunity to develop. Masking, washing hands, and keeping away from infected people are good practices. Bad practices instituted by the Democrat majority were to close all small businesses where minimal exposure occurs, and leaving the big box stores open. Bad practices by the Democratic leadership were to ignore the pandemic for the first two months of 2020 and then for the combined 24th Senator and both Representatives to state “Two months ago we didn’t even know about Covid”. I believe them. They stayed ignorant.
Bad Democratic leadership included not following the approved Washington State Emergency Management plan for Pandemics, no stockpiles of PPE. Bad Democratic leadership fined small businesses and threatened them with closure for not forcing patrons to show VAX cards but never required big box stores to do so where many hundreds of patrons accessed them daily.
You are spreading bad information by speaking of what Dr Berry did for Jefferson County. It was Dr Locke, the Jefferson County Public Health Doctor (PHD) who worked to establish policies when the pandemic was surging. Dr Berry is not the Jefferson County PHD. The bad leadership continued when the state took away your county PHDs and regionalized them. That was purely a political move which removed the first-hand relationship each county used to have for public health, a critical thing needed for all of us. It’s gone now. Dr Berry shares info with counties but reports to Olympia, not us anymore.
I could discuss the bad practice of counting each time a person tested positive as a new ‘case’ during the course of an infection, and how couples sharing living space who caught it from one another were tallied as an “outbreak” , and in fact when an individual had two and three subsequent positive tests officially counted as ‘cases’ during an infection, resulted in falsely inflating Clallam counts to show high infection rates, but that topic needs a professional review and public investigation rather than this discussion, so I’m stopping that thread.
The Democrat members politicizing of a pandemic is recorded and remembered. So is the firing of thousands of good employees who worked through the pandemic in all areas of public and private service.
The low infection rate in our area is due to two things: Donald Trump pushing the vaccine plan onto a fast track, and the Clallam County team which set up the first drive-through vax clinic on the whole west coast. I am proud to have been one of the team helping the shot clinic starting in January 2021. Thanks to Jamestown tribe for the political weight to get doses, and the hundreds of us who rotated duty there 2 and 3 days each week. We saved lives.
Brian – Thanks for sharing the horrifying information that “Dr Berry is not the Jefferson County PHD… the state took away your county PHDs and regionalized them. That was purely a political move which removed the first-hand relationship each county used to have for public health, a critical thing needed for all of us. It’s gone now. Dr Berry shares info with counties but reports to Olympia, not us anymore.” I had no idea she had been undemocratically foisted on us with no local electoral accountability. If that’s the case, then she “reports” to our county Board of Health as a courtesy, not in reality, and it’s less surprising how our BoH and BoCC obsequiously defer to Berry as if she were their lord and savior. Can you further clarify her legal relationship with county bodies, who specifically hires/fires her, and whether this change was made by the legislature or by lawless executive fiat? BTW you might be interested in this Berry disinformation fact check. – Lord have mercy, Stephen
Brian – According to Commissioner Brotherton, “As our Health Officer, Dr. Berry is not a member of the Board of Health, but is appointed by the Board of Health and serves at our pleasure. Here is the RCW that goes into Local Health Officers: https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=70.05.070“. I’m having a hard time squaring that with your information that her post has been regionalized and she “reports to Olympia”. Can you resolve this apparent contradiction? Thanks!
Hi Stephen:
Sure, here is the link to the RCW
https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2021-22/Pdf/Bill%20Reports/House/1152%20HBR%20APP%2021.pdf?q=20211029061639
and I pasted the paragraph here for you, showing who selects and appoints the Regional Health Officers. DOH is the state Department of Health.
“District Health Officer.
Within the DOH the position of regional health officer is created. The Secretary of Health
must appoint six regional health officers, who are each assigned to a comprehensive health
services district. ”
I believe it is from page 6 of the bill.
Apologies for not responding more quickly, but I am actively out campaigning as we close out the primary tomorrow.
Best wishes,
Brian Pruiett
http://www.Vote4Pruiett.com
Hi Everyone:
COVID became an emotional topic for many of us as the pandemic got so politicized by the ones in power. Two of my family died, many members caught it. I went for 18 months without catching it or spreading it, largely because I stuck faithfully to the regimen that research discussed on MEDCRA, and the grace of our God Almighty. When I got the VAX and then went off the regimen, I then got COVID.
To close out my COVID comments here, the incumbent representatives published their ignorance in Mid May 2020, in the fifth month of US infections as we now know. Steve Tharinger’s response to our Peninsula small businesses pleas for him to intervene with the Governor on our behalf for help, were a catalyst for my decision to oppose him. In May 2020 in an Economic Development conference, he was recorded as telling us to “go find our own, ground up solutions”. When we did, businesses were fined and threatened with losing their business licenses.
Tharinger was co-signatory to a weak, ineffectual letter that asked for consideration but also rubber stamped the Governors actions. When asked if he supports an end to the now 900 day old Emergency, he said no, legislature is too slow to respond to emergencies- like this one.
Where and when did I learn about SARS COV2/COVID 19? Starting on January 27th, 2020, from this Professor of Medicine who published more than 120 training videos with research updates and papers on COVID for physicians on MEDCRAM.
https://www.medcram.com/courses/coronavirus-outbreak-symptoms-treatment
Thank you all for this chance to answer your questions.
Vote Brian Pruiett for State Representative.
You can support the fight for your to get effective representation, at http://www.vote4pruiett.com
God Bless you all
I appreciate the reminder that Dr. Locke shares credit with Dr. Berry for excellent COVID policy in Jefferson County.
I’m glad Trump signed the bipartisan bills to fund vaccine development E COVID relief. All Americans–Democrats & Republicans–share in those achievements.
In every other way, Trump & the GOP botched the pandemic: rejecting science, flouting masking & social distancing, opposing mandates, promoting antivax superstition, touting quack cures, stoking anti-Asian racism. The blood of more than 1 million American COVID deaths stains the hands of Trump & the GOP,
Brian,
I can understand you feel the distress of what we all have been undergoing in terms of the global societal changes over the past two and a half years. I offer you both encouragement and respect for your work with our youth. You have served many years as a teacher. The last 900 plus days in this Emergency have tried everyone. Since you closed out your original statement with a partial Bible quote, I’ll leave you with one as well for my final reply to you.
Ephesians 2:8-9 ” For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves-it is the gift of God. It is not based on deeds, so that no one may boast”
Have a blessed day and thank you for all your input. Best wishes.
Respectfully yours,
LTC Brian Pruiett, US Army, Ret.
Candidate for Position 2, 24th Legislative District
August 2d Update
https://www.facebook.com/Vote4Pruiett/videos/815631016268748
Pruiett attributed a false claim to OFM, without providing a hyperlink to a specific source (needed because OFM’s site contains innumerable reports). I corrected that false claim, first with a hyperlink to OFM, and then to other sources.
Mr. MacKenzie,
You describe Brian Pruiett’s use of OFM reports as “a false claim” (which I personally find mean-spirited). On the OFM web site, which you have found before without a hyperlink, you will see a tab marked “Accounting.” Under “Financial and Audit Reports” you will find “Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.” Since the State of Washington uses a June 30 fiscal year end, the data cited by Mr. Pruiett comes for the 2011 and 2021 FYE Annual Reports, pages 38 and 39 in both cases. Theses numbers, again contrary to your assumption for the 2021 data, do NOT include local government spending, even though the link you provided does. Perhaps next time you will do your own homework before you launch an attack on a candidate’s use of government data.
Rudy Swenson