The Whatcom Republican Party has put out a press release, stating that they object to an action by the County Council that will send the issue of County-wide vs. District-only voting for County Council seats to the voters in 2008.
It's no surprise that the Whatcom Republican Party is unhappy. The District-only voting Charter Amendment that passed in 2005 was a Republican plot.
When County Council member Barbara Brenners proposed letting the voters revisit the subject, Whatcom Republicans sent out an email alert which said; "the Whatcom County Charter Review Commission voted 8-7 in favor of referring a Charter Amendment ... With strong support from the Whatcom County Republican Party, at heavy expense to our treasury, the voters approved passage of the Charter Amendment..."
They made it clear that they supported the amendment, but didn't bother to mention that it was Republican Party activist on the Charter Review Commission that proposed the Charter Amendment and just barely managed the majority needed to have it forwarded to the voters for consideration.
So let's get real about why District-only voting went before the voters in the first place. It was because the Republicans candidates weren't getting elected, so they worked out a scheme to change the rules.
Opinion Editor Scott Ayers pointed out in a recent post on his Bellingham Herald blog that in the 1990's the County Council had a right-leaning enviro-unfriendly majority. Whatcom County voters got rid of that majority and haven't shown any interest in going back.
So the Whatcom Republicans answer to that was to tilt the playing field by introducing district-only voting.
It's no wonder they're upset about the issue going back to the voters, this time the voters might see that the Republican Party intended to rig the game.
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