EDITORIAL: Football

Posted

It’s been a rough-and-tumble election year in Jefferson County.

There have been more complaints filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) this year than have been filed in past years over alleged campaign violations. Several have been filed regarding campaigns for a seat on the Jefferson Healthcare board of commissioners, and several have been filed regarding Proposition 1 for the Home Opportunity Fund.

No conclusions have been made by the PDC about any of the complaints it has received this year, although some complaints have been admitted.

There also have been many letters to the editor over campaigns for that one hospital seat, one specific Port of Port Townsend race and Proposition 1, and vetting those letters has been challenging. There have been allegations and statements made that aren’t based on facts.

It would be easy to become disheartened about the state of the election season, but we aren’t.

Here’s why: The conversations have been robust and while they have been loud at times, rude even, at least it shows people are paying attention.

If Proposition 1 fails, as even some supporters suspect it will, it is likely to lose not just because taxes are on the rise – and assessments, too – but because there is an underlying resentment over land-use issues in rural Jefferson County that has been festering for more than a decade. And now those who are upset about all the problems they’ve had over the years are going to vote no on Proposition 1, no to Jefferson County specifically.

In a matter of days, we’ll know who won the seat on the Jefferson Healthcare board, a board that oversees the largest business in Jefferson County. We’ll know who won seats on the Port of Port Townsend Commission and the Chimacum School Board, and we’ll find out whether Proposition 1 wins or loses.

Maybe we could take a lesson from the combined junior high cheerleading teams for Port Townsend and Chimacum, which took to Memorial Athletic Field when their respective teams were playing football Saturday night and held up signs that read: “Two communities. One Love.”

After the Nov. 7 election, that is what we will be, communities that get together and play together, take sides, win or lose.

Just remember to vote and reflect on what it means to be part of a team, part of a community.

– Allison Arthur