What a week! After consulting “Whether Biden” more frequently than “Weather Underground,” we watched in horror as Trump narrowly escaped assassination and his lackey, Judge Aileen Cannon, dismissed his classifieds document trial. With everything Presidential changing faster than potholes deepen and pool infrastructure fails, it is essential to elect strong state officials who have the will and wherewithal to shore up democracy.

I’ve recently watched multiple League of Women Voters Zoom candidate forums (see lwvwa.org/Jefferson) and attended the Jefferson County Association of Realtors’ excellent in-person-only forum with candidates for the 24th District’s Senate and House races. Judging from the many attendees who left that forum following the session with the five candidates seeking State Representative Position 1, I’m not alone in struggling to decide whom to support.

If I focus mainly on the Democratic candidates, it’s because I will not vote for anyone who allies themselves with the Trump-dominated Republican Party, calls for decreased governmental regulation while pretending that businesses will regulate themselves, and fails to acknowledge that the only tax cuts that aid those most in need of assistance are progressive revisions, which lighten taxes for poor and middle class people while increasing taxes for large corporations and those on top.

Every Democratic candidate for 24th District State Representative Position 1 is excellent. Adam Bernbaum is the only one who would come to the job fully equipped to represent us from day one. Given his Ph.D. in political science and background as field organizer for Congressman Derek Kilmer and legislative assistant to state Sen. Kevin Van De Wege (who’s running for State Commissioner of Public Lands), he knows what’s necessary to write and pass legislation.

Extremely articulate, Bernbaum scored bonus points for saying that we need to remove some of the power that autonomous local school boards hold to ban books that affirm children’s diverse identities and experiences. While other candidates may sound more progressive on some issues, he knows how to balance ideals with realities. As much as I naturally embrace radical solutions, I’ve been a political animal too long to pretend that most legislators will easily follow suit.

Eric Pickens, who graduated from Chimacum High, is a first-grade teacher, union leader and president of the Sequim School Board. He and his wife also have two transgender children. An advocate for universal health care, and an opponent of hospital mergers that increase costs, erode quality of care, and negatively affect workers, he comes across as honest, sincere, trustworthy, and eager to serve.

Ditto for Nate Tyler, whose advocacy as an elected official for the Sovereign Nation of Makah — he’s especially strong on healthcare, mental and behavioral health and treatment, homelessness, and the environment — is a blessing. Tyler’s proposed legislative assistant is gay, as was the campaign person who accompanied Pickens to the forum.

All candidates will soon have submitted LGBTQ+-supportive statements to gudlife (gudlifept@gmail.com), the weekly newsletter of the Peninsula LGBTQ+ community. Every Democrat advocates affordable housing, behavioral health and addiction treatment, reproductive freedom, and improved healthcare.

Watch the League forums and a poorly recorded one from Jefferson County Democrats (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gmdo6bzrlRbyBd0b68xWvv1AbTr_aIpr) and trust your instincts and heart as you decide.

State senator choice is easy. Current Rep. Mike Chapman is a fighter to his dying breath. Extremely passionate, he’s willing to risk losing the election to defend positions and votes he knows are right. Watch him in action and see how unflinchingly he calls out Marcia Kelbon on the harm her stands could create. Besides, at the Realtor’s forum, when Kelbon, who claims she’s firmly behind LGBTQ+ people and women’s right to choose, said something like “I don’t weigh myself down in the social issues” — those are the exact words I wrote down — my eyebrows rose far beyond my hairline.

Rep. Steve Tharinger is the only candidate worthy of State Representative Position 2. He helped write the state’s new Alzheimer’s plan, co-chairs the Joint Legislative Executive Committee on Aging and Disability, is a member of the Dementia Action Collaborative, and plays an essential legislative role as chair of the House Capital Budget Committee. When he cautioned that 50% of Washingtonians only have $20,000 in savings, and advocated preserving the long-term care initiative and passing new legislation that would help people age in their homes, this Port Townsend resident affirmed that he has our backs. 

As for President Biden, time takes its toll, and time will tell. If Trump is elected, the witch burners will have a field day as democracy and the planet fry. Electing state officials who will move forward amidst national chaos is essential.