Wise and ethical local government is the ClarkCounty.info mission. In this light we regularly point out the self-serving behavior of politicians, bureaucrats, and their political handlers. Accordingly, we call on 18th District Senator Ann Rivers to stop her self-serving and vindictive political behavior and instead focus her energies on collaboration with her Republican colleagues for the benefit of the citizens. Some of her recent counterproductive actions are:
Overstating Political Donations: Rivers has misrepresented campaign donations resulting in a Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) violation and forced reduction of stated revenue from $255,086 to $80,415. ClarkCounty.info interviewed the person who first detected this problem. Based on this interview we cannot imagine any scenario in which such a large error could be made when declaring direct and in-kind donations, or how such a highly inflated amount remained Rivers’ official number for over a year before being challenged and corrected. This was apparently a poorly executed effort to make Rivers look more formidable than she really was to any potential political competitors. We understand the PDC made the unilateral decision to lower the stated donation amount by nearly 70% as shown above. The investigation is ongoing.
Political Collusion with Democrats and Special Interests: Rivers had apparently significant involvement with Democrats and Vancouver’s legacy establishment operatives in killing the recent bill, proposed by Sharon Wiley and Liz Pike, to set up a reasonable structure for discussing potential Columbia River bridges. This action ironically strengthens the hand of the advocates of a new I-5 Columbia River bridge with light rail—a concept Rivers and others effectively fought and killed three years ago.
Punishing those that Disagree: Rivers has been involved with the recruitment of a local establishment politician Shane Bowman to run against 18th State Rep Liz Pike, apparently because Pike has had public disagreements with Rivers and because Pike will not bend to the will of the Clark County legacy political establishment. Rivers has been publically tied to Bowman’s announcement for weeks, and if it were not true, she would simply state her support for Liz Pike. She has not. Bowman’s willingness to play along with Rivers and other special interest handlers is the subject of a few upcoming articles.
Forging Destructive Alliances: Rivers has encouraged and given credence to a rogue group that is attempting to fool the public that they are the bonafide Republican Party. She was a speaker at a recent event they hosted. Rivers supports this group because it attacks the new conservative leadership in the county that is demanding Republican politicians push back to big and corrupt local and statewide government—something Rivers is increasingly unwilling to do for self-serving political reasons. This group is further described in The Rejection of Establishment Politicians in America – & Clark County’s Version of this Rejection.
Raising the Gas Tax: In our view, this large tax increase represents a continuation of wasteful, big-government spending. Considering the well-established incompetence and corruption of the Washington Department of Transportation (WADOT), no rational person would continue to feed this beast more money. A responsible statesman would advocate for new measures to make WADOT more accountable and stop the political graft that is hidden in the big-spending public works projects. Additionally, Rivers was firmly on record saying she would not support such a tax. Based on this, Rivers’ decision to support this large tax hike on citizens is presumed to be largely political. That is she got something in return that benefits her, but not so much her constituents.
Anger Issues: ClarkCounty.info has received a number of reports from state legislators that Rivers’ has a reputation for temper tantrums when they don’t support her agenda.
ClarkCounty.info is aware that if in this November’s election the Republicans can hold their numbers in the Senate, and pick up two seats in the house of Representative, then they can significantly control Governor Inslee’s far left agenda. In this light, some might say, “don’t be critical of any Republican up for re-election”. Our pointing out Senator Rivers’ political behavior at this time is of minor risk to her efforts to get reelected in November 2016 as compared to the benefit of having her work toward fixing these problems. So the articles will continue with the premise these politicians can make positive adjustments. Or ultimately they need to be replaced.
ClarkCounty.info‘s general statement on political self-interest.