Recent Elections in Thurston County Shock the Political Establishment

(This article was originally published on the Freedom Foundation blog on December 5, 2014, written by Glen Morgan, while he was the Property Rights Director at the Freedom Foundation.  The original article posting was deleted by the Freedom Foundation in 2017.  It has been reposted here exactly as it was originally written)

The Thurston County Commissioners had cultivated a well-deserved reputation for incompetence and malfeasance. Despite this, the recent election defeat of incumbent Commissioner Valenzuela by a political newcomer shocked the existing political establishment.

Much has already been written about how the 2014 election cycle impacted the Washington State Legislature. The Republicans gained a seat in the state Senate and now hold an outright majority in that legislative body. Along with Tim Sheldon, a Democrat from the 35th Legislative District (Mason County) who caucuses with the Republicans, the Republicans will hold a slim margin of 26-23.

In the state House of Representatives, the Republicans picked up four more seats, but the Democrats still control that chamber 51-47.

However, there were a lot of local races from around Washington state that are also worth noting. They may not get the same type of attention, but they have the potential to impact many thousands of Washingtonians.

In Thurston County, for example, incumbent Commissioner Karen Valenzuela lost her reelection bid and was replaced by challenger Bud Blake, who ran as an independent not affiliated with any political party.

He received 54.63 percent of the vote in that race.

The Thurston County commissioners have well-deserved reputation for egregious incompetence and legendary malfeasance while in office. Despite being protected by the local newspaper in silly editorials like this, and receiving much political funding from local cult leader JZ Knight, who claims to channel the 35,000-year-old Lemurian warrior spirit named “Ramtha”, the voters of Thurston County had enough of the incompetence and rejected Valenzuela.

The election results came as a shock to many—including Democratic leaders, the channeled spirit of Ramtha (who donated $65,000 to the Thurston County Democratic Party in an effort to prevent this result), and to The Olympian newspaper editorial board, which wrote a very whiny post-election editorial here.

There are lessons to be learned from this recent election result, but the message may not be clear to everyone.

The Thurston County Democratic Party was named Local Party of the Year for 2014 as part of the Warren G. Magnuson Awards, which was intended to honor standout Democrats in Washington state. This award appears to have been won in part by accepting large donations from local cult leader JZ Knight, who appears to be attempting to buy additional political protection in an effort to hide her racist tirades against Jews, Mexicans, Catholics, and organic farmers, which have been prominent in the news over the past few years.

Other local Democratic Party organizations around the state may believe that courting racist cult leaders for their endorsements and financial support is the path to state-wide positive recognition.

The Olympian, with its declining circulation numbers and relentless defense of the Thurston County commissioners, appears to believe newly elected Commissioner Bud Blake needs to “learn” how to govern from the very same local commissioners who have so impressively demonstrated incompetent leadership.

The $62 million empty jail, a fiscal mess, the pocket gopher fiasco, the embarrassing $12 million jury-verdict award against Thurston County, the crazy deposition statements by these commissioners, and their impressive ability to chase businesses out of the county are just a tiny sampling of incompetent government and political leadership on display.

It should be clear that Blake has nothing helpful to learn from the crew that masterminded these disasters.

Another interesting lesson from this election might be influenced by the fact that there are no elected Republicans in Thurston County government. There were self-identified Republicans elected to local city councils, fire districts and school districts, but none holding countywide office.

Blake ran as an independent and Thurston County Sheriff John Snaza was also re-elected as an independent. However, all other county positions are held by Democrats.

This is likely to impact party affiliation claims of future candidates for office. It seems that future candidates who are challenging the Democratic Party’s domination of political offices in Thurston County will be more likely to identify themselves as “independent” in the future.

Despite claims of strong support in the October 2014 edition of The Democrat, the Thurston County Democrats’ house organ of record, most prominent elected officials in Thurston County recognize the commissioners have epitomized political and fiscal incompetence, careening from one disastrous event to the next.

This is why nearly the entire left-wing political establishment has jumped on the home rule charter bandwagon.

Despite the fact that the Democratic Party has total control of the Thurston County government, and until recently, nearly all their supported candidates have won and hold political office, most political insiders (not including The Olympian‘s editorial board) can’t deny the current mess.

Rather than changing harmful policies, the political success that has created the mess has convinced them that the solution can be found in a new form of local political government. A renewed push in this direction is likely to dominate local issues this next year.

Thurston County will be interesting to watch as a newly elected independent outsider attempts to address the systemic problems caused by the “experienced” political experts.

The local Republican Party will be attempting to address the inevitable “independent” labels for challenger political candidates. The Democratic Party will continue to turn a blind eye to racism and corruption as long as the political donations keep on flowing from hate cult leaders.

Finally, a strong effort by political insiders will be made to push for a new home rule charter in Thurston County as a solution to the ills brought upon the community by the same existing political establishment.

Thurston County Story Links:

2014 Thurston County Election Links

Thurston County Charter Effort: