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Thursday, July 20, 2006

Dick Kelley has knocked 10,000 doors

Posted by on July 20 at 10:50 AM

Some people attending the 43rd debate last Tuesday night were a little disappointed that the candidates weren’t asked the questions we posed to them in last week’s issue, so Josh posted the questions again on the Slog. Miracle of miracles, two of the candidates responded via the comments thread to that post.

Josh posted Bill Sherman’s response yesterday, but we didn’t notice Dick Kelley’s response until this morning. Sorry for the lag, Dick, we didn’t mean any favoritism by it.

Here’s what he’s got to say:

Josh’s question in response to my statements last night, “Besides your push for publicly funded campaigns, what other issues do you want to push in the legislature?” is one I am happy to answer. I have knocked on over 10,000 doors since February and talked about the same issues to everyone: investing more in our children from childcare to preschool to K-12 to college; marriage equality; doing whatever it takes to clean up Puget Sound; funding low-income housing and human services; and putting our transportation dollars into transit, buses, HOV lanes and bicycle lanes and not building any more general-purpose lanes into Seattle. My campaign literature is very specific on these issues.

These things cost money, and I have consistently advocated three areas of tax reform: first, a serious review of all the $6.8 Billion per year in private tax preferences in the State tax code, aimed at reducing the amount that is drained out of the treasury before it gets to the budget; second, shifting the B&O tax to a net-profits tax; and ultimately a progressive income tax to reduce or eliminate the regressive taxes we have now. It was great to hear all the candidates talking about cutting the private tax credits and exemptions last night, after my working to interest people in the idea for months.

But these reforms, and these changes in spending priorities, will never happen as long as special interests and big campaign contributors have as much power in the Legislature as they do now. That is why I intend to introduce an Arizona-style public campaign financing bill, and that is why I am not accepting any contribution of more than $100 per person per election, and the same for organizations. So far over 650 people have contributed, and many say the reason they gave is my limit on contributions. In the shadow of Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff, there is real desire in the 43rd for reducing the power of money in our democracy.

The Stranger deserves credit for devoting so much effort to covering the race.

-Dick Kelley


CommentsRSS icon

"...we didn't notice Dick Kelley's response..." It was posted a MINUTE after Sherman's. That's Howard Schultz-level chicanery!

Sherman e-mailed to alert me to his post. Kelley did not, and so I didn't see it until late in the day.

Ah, but we all assume you are wise and all-knowing, Josh.

That said, 10,000 doors ... wow. I seem to recall when Heidi Wills did a lot fewer than that she lost a heck of a lot of weight.

10,000 doors? really?

if you take the standard, generous estimate of 25 doors/ hr, that's 400 HOURS of doorbelling. wow. given the amount of effort it took kelley to sustain a 2 minute, uninterrupted dialogue, i am unsure whether this could possibly be accurate. he must be reaching a lot of people who aren't home.

I know for a fact (from a neighbor) that Dick Kelley knocked on my door. But I was not home and didn't talk to him. Am I one of the 10,000?

Well, he said he knocked on the doors. I'm assuming if you didn't answer, he counted that as knocking. Did he leave you a door hanger "sorry you weren't in"?

And when you have an apartment-heavy district like this, you ring a lot of doors too - you just go to the big directory and start ringing apartments, a constitutionally protected method of campaigning (contrary to what lots of apartment managers might think).

But that's still a heck of a lot of doors. It may be pretty darned important, in such a crowded race, as a personal one-on-one contact frequently gets someone to vote for you.

Hey Dick, thanks for bringing up so many of my issues. I've added new stuff to my web page, so you might want to drop by again.
I didn't go inside the debate, but i heard it was boring. It wouldn't be if ya'll let the thrid party/independents in. We are far more colorful and interesting.
Linde Knighton--the OTHER candidate

Linde Knighton says:

I didn't go inside the debate, but i heard it was boring. It wouldn't be if ya'll let the thrid party/independents in. We are far more colorful and interesting.

You heard wrong. It wasn't a "smackdown", but neither was it boring.

As for getting an invitation, the first thing you'd want to do is file with the PDC as a Democrat. If you did, then the 43rd District Democrats would invite you to a forum of/for Democrats.

Um, we did have an independent candidate inside - I was talking with her, and we commented how obsessed the SLOG was with her mammaries. I guess you missed that.

Admission was free after all. And you got all the wireless your money could buy.

Too bad we didn't have free pie, though.

Why on earth would I want to register as a Democrat? Sure, that one event was for Democrats. There have been lots more forums, etc. that were in theory open to all the candidates.
I got 21% of the vote last time I ran, so it's not like I'm a complete unknown. I know they all have my email addy. Are they scared?????

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