In these polarized times, I’m confused when I hear a candidate is an “independent,” especially when that candidate has contributed heavily to one party.
Is he dodging a label while entertaining the principles of the party he has consistently supported?
Can anyone really know what he stands for?
In this context, it’s time to vet Randy Johnson, president of Green Crow Corp. and candidate for Clallam County commissioner.
Although Mr. Johnson self-servingly has implied the position should be nonpartisan, the position carries enormous partisan implications — such as deciding between the public good and private interests, deciding whether to maintain a healthy reserve or to give money away to entities with which that commissioner has been connected, and working with state agencies and state legislators.
Issues with these implications have all recently arisen in county government.
Johnson’s “independent” claim makes it difficult to know how he might act on these issues.
And his refusal to state a clear position on several other issues — from Wild Olympics to the transfer of trust lands from the Department of Natural Resources to the county — of course makes it difficult to know how he might act on those issues.
Only Johnson’s brazen conflict of interest with his Green Crow affiliations lends a clue in these respects — and that is not healthy for good government.
A vote for Ron Richards, a former county commissioner who has no pernicious conflicts of interest, and is who he says he is, is a wise and very important vote in this election.
Judith Parker,
Sequim