Effective service as a Congressman is less about passionate partisanship and more about working with others to solve problems for the benefit of one's constituents. Dave Reichert has a record of working with others to get things done, as a Sheriff (appointed by Ron Sims and then twice elected) and as a Congressman. Darcy Burner's main predictor of success as a Congresswoman lies in her brief presidency of the Ames Lake Community Club. According to ALCC members I've spoken with, Burner failed to accomplish anything and only made her neighbors more angry.
Last week one of Darcy's neighbors posted an entry on the public blog detailing how poorly Burner performed as ALCC president.
Burner's one-year term commenced in April 2005, two months before she declared her candidacy for Congress The ALCC doesn't do much to begin with. But even in that context, Burner's track record is underwhelming. She wore the title, but displayed little actual leadership. The club had one significant issue to deal with -- a neighbor who was encroaching on common property. Burner promised at the outset of her term to resolve the situation, but failed to do so. She only pissed off a lot of her neighbors.
Be sure to read Ameslaker's public blog entry. Ameslaker also sent me more detail about Burner's involvement with her neighbors. The first e-mail opened:
As one of the numerous people who have had contact with her in the community, and therefore dislike her, I want to make sure that she is not only defeated, but ruined from ever having political aspirations of any sort, again ... I disagree with her politics. But the ongoing pattern of lies, which is quite the norm for her, has made this rather personal to me. On your blog, you have questioned her community involvement. I can provide the details of that involvement for you ... I believe the consistent white lies and carefully chosen twists of the truth, reveal a true character flaw, and makes her possible candidacy a scary premise.(This e-mail was sent several weeks ago, but the assessment of Burner's character as a neighbor is remarkably similar to the Seattle Times editorial board's assessment of her campaign)
Ameslaker also forwarded some e-mails Burner sent out as ALCC president, summarizing:
You now have in your possession the entire record of Darcy Burner's "community activism" and "community leadership".Here are the emails --As president of the Ames Lake Community Club, she sent out like 6 email messages. [it was actually 5, as one of the e-mails from the club board was sent by another board member]
She presided over this year's annual meeting, attended by 32 people, where she was replaced as president.
She also presided over a special meeting ... to deal with a land encroachment issue that has been going on for years. That meeting was attended by 57 people, many who left in disgust and anger half way through the meeting because of how she treated (didn't want to hear) her neighbors opinions.
She accomplished nothing, and only volunteered to be president if [another neighbor] continued to serve on the board, and basically do everything
[ on June 15, 2005 Darcy filed her declaration of candidacy ]
3. June 30, 2005 Darcy's response to the community concerning the fallout of the June 26 special meeting dealing with the encroachment issue.
4. August 29, 2005 Darcy doesn't like her phone service.
5. November 4, 2005 Ameslaker:
the last communication to the residents of Ames Lake concerning the lot C dispute, which was the only real objective that the Darcy Burner presidency had to / and stated it would deal with. As you can see from this - no resolution to this problem was accomplishedIt referenced a September board meeting to discuss the Lot C issue. The e-mail was not sent by Burner, but by another board member.
And on the basis of this "leadership" experience, Darcy thinks she can effectively represent the interests of 700,000 constituents in the United States Congress?
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 16, 2006 01:14 PM | Email ThisWhat was the outcome of their encroachment?
Posted by: Palouse on October 16, 2006 01:31 PMWhy is it that republicans feel like they have to take the higher ground all the time. Voters in the 8th district really need to understand how completely unqualified this Burner character is.
We already have Maria Cantwell - We don't need another whiney do-nothing representing us in Congress.
Posted by: johnny on October 16, 2006 01:58 PMIn mine it consists of two trailer trash guys with their stripper girlfriend and a pit bull that has attacked people at least 3 times.
Posted by: H Moul on October 16, 2006 02:07 PMIt is a Robert Jamieson column date Oct 14 (Saturday) in the PI. The picture shows the devide is not a boat, but knucklehead Gorman thinks putting a trolling motor on it makes it so. What a jerk.
Posted by: Burdabee on October 16, 2006 02:25 PMShe's the personification of irrelevancy. A symbol with no substance. Sort of the "S1mOne" of the Dem party. A placeholder like a zero in multiplication for the nutroots.
I think that people often react to her not having a real record as if she did. As if having just a virtual record making opposition to her like nailing Jell-O to a wall, when, in fact, the lack of record is the real issue. Her curriculum vitae is largely without events, significant or otherwise. Most of the people that I know have more substance. Her opponents need to stay on topic, not confuse the issues just because she does.
The Reps should run an ad:
"Resume for Darcy Burner
I'm not Bush."
And then voice over: "Would you hire this applicant to represent you? Darcy Burner, the nutroots, and the Democratic Party expect you to. A twice elected sheriff that led to the capture of the Green River Killer being challenged by a serial e-mailer without accomplishment. Why is there even a question?"
You should hear my thoughts about it when I'm not in a good mood...
Actually there is a legitimate question: "Is Burner really the best candidate the dems could find? Seems to me that she's likely just about as close to the center as anyone the nutroots would support.
http://www.thewvsr.com/gargoyle.htm
Posted by: H Moul on October 16, 2006 02:56 PM
Actually there is a legitimate question: "Is Burner really the best candidate the dems could find? Seems to me that she's likely just about as close to the center as anyone the nutroots would support.
Any one over the age of 25 with a pulse can register as a candidate for the House of Representatives for whatever party they choose. The amazing story here is that the national Democratic Party is throwing money at this woman, and that she seems to even have a decent shot at winning. That is shocking.
She's probably lucky it wasn't resolved, as the losing side might have come after her personally for any loss they thought they could tie to her representations.
Posted by: Orrin Johnson on October 16, 2006 03:16 PMDo you know for a fact that this woman has a pulse? Isn't it just as likely that she is a blow up Chatty Kathy with a pull string? With her connections to MS, she likely has the software available to have more than the usual dozen or so cliched comments.
Come to think of it, a dozen might very well cover it.
Meow.
Posted by: scott158 on October 16, 2006 03:19 PMShe will be a puppet run by a cabal in the background that knows something about politics and nothing about leadership. Just like Murray she can't put a cogent thought together and is only a marketing face to some twisted notion of a republic that dirty dealing individuals can't wait to run for their own interests.
As unruly and aggressive the landowners of lot 159 are a legal whopping stick shouda come out and beat them back onto their lot.
Col. Hogan: She will be a puppet run by a cabal in the background that knows something about politics and nothing about leadership.
Just a wild hypothesis here: What if she's exactly what the congressional Dems are looking for? Radicalized and thoroughly pliable. No problem voting hard left, but can be made to vote any way the party leadership deems practical, and would never challenge or cause trouble for the party leadership.
I remember one of the goodguys on the KC Council, asked what most surprised him when joining the Council, saying that it was the radical difference in how the two caucuses work. In the Republican caucus, if you decide to play a different tune, the others grumble. In the Democrat caucus, they take you out back and break your arm (his metaphor, if I'm remembering correctly). You can do a real quick 180 like Bob I-was-for-an-elected-auditor-before-I-was-against-it Ferguson, or you can get the Lieberman / Sheldon treatment.
Who knows? If they seem as dumb as sheep, maybe it's because they actively recruit sheep.
Posted by: TB on October 16, 2006 05:46 PMDarcy, how about that 2.5 review you got!
Posted by: Not a lib on October 16, 2006 07:44 PMTo the local Democrats: I don't care how much you hate Bush, how could you allow someone like this to represent you? There are decisions that will have to be made over the next 2 years that could be life changing (or ending). You want Darcy making these decisions for you?
Posted by: bigdawg on October 16, 2006 07:58 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/washington/2006ELECTIONGUIDE.html?currentDataSet=senANALYSIS
"hey--i was the King of the playground sandbox. Am I also qualified?"
No Jimmie you are not able to run for office until you learn to use the sandbox. You are required to leave 65% of it to government hacks and you only have the rights to play on 35%. So please, only small sand castles, with no water holes or plants nearby, or heaven forbid a paved road or any out building.
When you master non use of your sandbox, then you can run for Federal office like Darcy!
As long as you have brothers or sisters that have served in the military.
And most importantly, You MUST hate George Bush!
Main problem is that the "community property" lots in older subdivisions were platted as co-owned by all the other lot owners, without any legal organization set up to admininster them. And certainly no power for any organization to assess mandatory dues and the like.
Often adjoining proprerty owners encroach on the "community property" lots. If this is not challenged for 10 straight years, the "community property" is generally lost through adverse possession.
Legal fees can be prohibitive. The encroaching property owner is generally not liable for the other party's (i.e. other owners or an owners' association) legal fees in an adverse possession lawsuit. And without mandatory dues, the owners' association would have to rely on voluntary payments by individual owners towards the legal fees.
Posted by: Richard Pope on October 17, 2006 01:10 AMSo let's give her some props for having 1 good idea. Felons don't get to vote until they serve their entire sentence, including fines and community service.
Posted by: Dengle on October 17, 2006 10:54 AMIt is because of adverse possession that made it critical that this community come to a consensus about a solution last year. The 10 year window is possibly upon us, depending on who you believe.
As an aside, I'd like to point out that the encroaching neighbor who also thinks her dock is a boat ( Saturday's PI story linked to earlier in thread ) served for 4 years on the Ames Lake Community Club board in the late 90's.
Based on that, I would say she is more qualified than Darcy Burner to run for Congress.
BTW, you have my vote. Good Luck.
Posted by: ameslaker on October 17, 2006 11:07 AM