Politics Dick Kelley has knocked 10,000 doors
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
"...we didn't notice Dick Kelley's response..." It was posted a MINUTE after Sherman's. That's Howard Schultz-level chicanery!