Wow, eleven candidates for Governor! Did you know there are also eleven candidates for Lieutenant Governor? There are enough candidates for both offices to form two soccer teams. How are voters going to sort through all the candidates?
Accordingly, I’ve updated this page, adding commentary on my opponents’ video presentations (some of which are surprisingly good).
| David Blomstrom | FR |
| Steve Rubenstein | I |
| Christian Pierre Joubert | H |
| Mary Martin | S |
| Demopublicans | |
| Jay Inslee | D |
| Patrick O’Rourke | D |
| Jonathan Dodds | D |
| James Robert Deal | D |
| Bill Bryant | R |
| Bill Hirt | R |
| Goodspaceguy | R |
Actually, it’s not nearly as hard as it seems.
First, we can divide them into two groups, Demopublicans and Everyone Else. If you’re dumb enough to continue voting for Democrats or Republicans, you have seven corrupt Demopublicans to vote for. And you might get lucky, because the winner will more than likely be a Demopublican. That will mean four more years of the same bullshit we’ve endured since World War II.
Alternative Candidates
If you want change, then you need to check out the remaining four candidates. Of course, one wouldn’t normally expect a candidate to compliment his opponents, but I always make an effort to find candidates I can ally with. Unfortunately, such candidates are very rare.
So I’ll tell you up front that this race is no exception. Continue reading if you would like to learn about the criteria I used for evaluating my opponents.
Mary Martin
One of the worst thing a voter can encounter (or not) is an invisible candidate. It’s damn hard trying to evaluate candidates who live in another dimension, a black hole or a wormhole.
I’m referring to Marty Martin, a perennial candidate representing the Socialist Workers Party who could be the reincarnation of Vlad the Impaler, for all we know. While trying (without success) to find her website, I discovered that other people had the same problem when she ran for Governor four years ago (Why Mary Martin (SWP) Will Never Win the Washington Governor’s Race).
Do NOT interpret my words as a slur against socialism. I have tremendous respect for socialism, in the broad sense of the term. Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Argentina’s Kirchners, Salvador Allende, Patrice Lumumba and Muammar Gaddafi are among my biggest heroes. I generally prefer the so-called “mixed economy” combining capitalism and socialism over hard core communism, but that’s another story.
Socialism was a powerful force in American politics between the Civil War and World War I. Many of the rights and benefits workers enjoy today were won by socialists.
Sadly, socialism fell by the wayside, probably due largely to a combination of post-World War II prosperity and anti-socialist propaganda. Today, most, if not all, alternative political parties in the U.S. have been infiltrated and corrupted by corporate interests. Thus, we have bums like Bernie Sanders promoting themselves as socialists, just as Bill Gates calls himself a philanthropist.
To put it in perspective, if Mary Martin is representing a political party with thousands of members, why can’t those thousands of members get behind her and create a credible website? Why can’t they find a camera and take a photo of her, letting her fans know she really exists?
Frankly, I think most of the Washingtonian political buffs who call themselves socialists are either corporate operatives posing as socialists (similar to undercover cops who pose as protesters) or idiots who are too stupid to realize that the "socialists" they’ve networked with aren’t real socialists at all. Rather, they’re examples of controlled opposition (i.e. fake leaders).
In summary, Mary Martin’s "campaign" is an insult to all intelligent voters, and an even bigger insult to genuine socialists. Unfortunately, there are a lot of stupid voters who will doubtless support her, including many of the idiots who support Obama, Bernie Sanders and Seattle’s Microsoft asset, Kshama Sawant.
Video Critique
First the good news: Mary Martin came out of hiding to record a speech. In other good news, I agree with much of what she says, especially her comments on Cuba.
The bad news is I haven’t had time to verify some of her claims regarding the accomplishments of her party, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). She offers a somewhat rambling resumé of socialist defiance in various counties and other states and countries. Lamenting the FBI’s murder of Idaho rancher Jack Yantis while ignoring the far more celebrated case of South Dakota’s Leonard Peltier at first seems refreshing; why should Peltier get all the attention when there are countless lesser known victims of Big Government?
To me, her spiel sounds rambling, disconnected and unorganized. Like every other candidate but me, she doesn’t even mention the biggest capitalist pig of them all, Bill Gates. Like most good socialists, she has nothing to say about the environment, either. Ironically, Martin sounds as shallow as Seattle’s yuppies,
If you want to vote for a Wal-Mart employee who claims to be a socialist and whose plan of action apparently consists of defending ranchers in Idaho and Oregon from the FBI, Mary Martin is your man.
Christian Joubert
I have more respect for Christian Joubert, who at least has a website. He also appears to be a fairly prolific researcher and writer.
I think the following pretty much sums up Joubert:
“Christian Joubert, the third of the lesser-known candidates who also ran in 2008, is again running on a holistic platform. He believes ‘the governor’s first job is to help lead the State community back to holistic health, to teach how to be healthy, as health is the most important resource of the Nation, without which individual freedoms are meaningless.’”
That’s from a Ballotpedia article about the 2012 gubernatorial election. I checked out Joubert’s current campaign website, and that description appears to be pretty accurate still.
Ironically, Joubert isn’t really a holistic candidate at all. A truly holistic candidate should be somewhat familiar with a variety of issues. Most candidates have little or nothing to say about health. Joubert is just the opposite; he has lots to say about health — but little to say about other important issues.
Sadly, he falls flat even in the health arena. I love his emphasis on organic food, but he appears to have little to say about genetically modified food and its evil backers, Monsanto and Bill Gates. If he really cares, he should be sounding the alarm.
I would also encourage Joubert to emphasize mental health, not just physical health. There’s an epidemic of mental illness in America, and it’s caused by a variety of things, from poor diet and drugs to a tidal wave of propaganda and mind control.
It isn’t clear to me if Joubert really wants to get elected or if he’s just running to publicize a cause. Either way, his cause is a good one. I just think he’s too narrowly focused on holistic health to be a serious candidate. But you can visit Joubert’s website and decide for yourself. I believe he got nearly 1% of the vote when he ran for Governor four years ago.
Video Critique
Christian Joubert’s video only confirms his almost insanely narrow focus. Ironically, he focuses on a new topic, leaving him little time to discuss holistic health — the Voters Pamphlet.
In fact, I agree with him 100%. I, too, was perturbed to learn that printed Voters Pamphlets will be replaced by an online alternative. That’s just one more dirty trick designed to help the bad guys. (However, at least six counties are publishing traditional Voters Pamphlets: Clark, King, Kitsap, Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston, and Whatcom.)
Near the end of his speech, Joubert refers to his native France as “the mother of human rights.” It would be interesting to know exactly what that means. France long ruled as one of the primary colonial powers, and a number of African nations are still forced to pay colonial taxes to their French overlords.
In summary, Joubert should be applauded for going into so much detail in documenting the Voters Pamphlet scandal. However, he should have discussed it on his website, leaving him more time to discuss a variety of issues in his speech. He’s a good speaker, and I noticed that he was allowed to go a little past the five minutes each candidate was allotted.
Steve Rubenstein
Rubenstein is more visible than Martin and more holistic than Joubert. Unfortunately, he’s politically clueless (or just plain wrong), not surprising for a newcomer.
Like me, Rubenstein embraces a variety of issues and isn’t afraid to discuss at least some of them in some detail. But his Achilles heel may be his resumé. He appears to be a yuppie entrepreneur who founded two or three high-tech companies while raising a family. Cool, but what does Rubenstein know about workers, teachers or the environment?
From his home page: "I realize my opponents are both from Washington."
So he thinks he has just two opponents? He’s in for a shock when he fails to take third place.
This statement from his campaign website really threw me for a loop:
"I was also delaying out of respect for Randy Dorn, WA Superintendent of Public Education, who has been considering his own Independent run for Governor."
Seriously? Randy Dorn is one of Washington State’s biggest union whores. He’s an absolute disgrace to his office and a menace to children. Rubenstein either hasn’t done his homework on Dorn, or he’s too clueless to put the pieces together.
In fact, Rubenstein’s views on education are frankly gruesome. On his Priorities page, he posts just three sentences about education, repeating the tired old mantra “Give us more money!” No mention of bloated bureaucracies, overpaid superintendents and mindless waste. No criticism of Bill Gates, though Rubenstein does support Bill Gates’ Common Core project.
Rubenstein also joins Bill Gates in supporting charter schools (though not until public schools are adequately funded); I don’t.
Under Tax Reform, Rubenstein posts three sentences, primarily grousing about Washington’s regressive tax structure. Not a word about the multi-billion-dollar corporate tax breaks that are killing us. On another page (My Thoughts on Bill Bryant), he says he is not opposed to Boeing’s tax breaks.
On his My Thoughts on Bill Bryant page, Rubenstein writes, "If the State were truly wasting billions of dollars each year, don’t you think any of the other politicians in Olympia would have pointed that out by now?"
Answer: How many Seattle School District officials have ever pointed out the almost unbelievable waste in the school district? How many Democratic or Republican elected officials in local or state government have ever mentioned it?
Rubenstein finally began to impress me with his endorsement of GMO Labeling. But on the same page he repeats the big lie, "Most scientists believe such foods are safe," later emphasizing that he agrees. He has a similarly clueless, benevolent attitude towards Trade Agreements.
Assuming Rubenstein is what he claims to be — a relatively ordinary, honest yuppie who wants to make a difference — he deserves kudos for caring enough to run for office and openly discuss a variety of issues. Unfortunately, his website looks like something designed by a guy who just wanted to take a break from raising a family and founding high-tech startups to try something different, like folk dancing…or running for Governor.
Video Critique
Steve Rubenstein launches into a tirade against Washington’s “regressive tax structure,” repeating the mantra that education in Washington State is under-funded along the way, before announcing his solution: raise taxes. More precisely, he wants a capital gains and income tax “that will only impact upper income residents.”
That might not be a bad idea if it’s part of a bigger strategy that includes ending the astronomical waste and corruption in public education and making corporate titans like Bill Gates and Boeing pay their fair share of taxes.
But, of course, Rubenstein has nothing to say about Bill Gates, Boeing or the Education Mafia. He’s essentially asking us to pour more water into a bucket full of holes.
I like Rubenstein’s idea of decriminalizing drugs, and he has some good things to say about the environment, though he once again seems to miss the big picture. What about global warming? Genetically modified food?
For me, his video confirms Rubenstein as a yuppie turned political newcomer with a pocket full of loose change but no solid foundation.
Demopublican Candidates
I don’t want to waste too much of my precious time researching and writing about these derelicts. However, I’d like to point out that Bill Bryant is a former Port of Seattle Commissioner. For those who don’t live in Seattle: The Port of Seattle reeks of corruption.
The incumbent, Jay Inslee, has a nice smile. It isn’t as nice as that dazzling smile that covers up Obama’s astounding lies, but it’s arguably nicer than former Governor Gary Locke’s smile.
In other respects, Inslee is very similar to Locke, awarding multi-billion-dollar tax breaks to corporate crooks while thousands of homeless people are sleeping on sidewalks and under bridges in Seattle. He may be just as spineless as Locke, too, refusing to either officially approve or disapprove of charter schools. Actually, Inslee’s just pretending to waffle; as a member of a long line of Microsoft stooges, he wants what Bill Gates wants — in this case charter schools.
In 2012, Jay Inslee won the primary election with 47.13% of the vote, followed by Republican Rob McKenna (42.9%). The two leading candidates thus received almost exactly 90% of the vote.
The remaining seven candidates included Christian Joubert, who took sixth place with .74% of the vote.
I just noticed that the last three letters in Inslee, when arranged backwards, spell eel. Do you see any resemblance between Jay Inslee and those seemingly spineless eels?
After viewing the Video Voters Guide, I discovered a couple Demopublican candidates who interest me after all.
Jonathan Dodds
Video Critique
Jonathan Dodds turns out to be one of the most intriguing candidates. He’s almost as invisible as Mary Martin, with no campaign website that I’m aware of. He’s as narrowly focused as Christian Joubert. However, his focus is the Education Mafia, a topic I find immensely interesting.
Dodds says the police harassed his daughter, advising her to “Ask your dad why this is happening.” He also claims his son was assaulted by two teachers.
The odd thing is, Dodds doesn’t explain why his daughter was harrassed. But I perked up when he mentioned Bellevue School District attorney Ricardo Cruz @ 2:17.
Ricardo Cruz is a thug! He was the head of the Seattle School District’s human resources department under the late retired general turned superintendent John Stanford until he (Cruz) was forced out by an investigation into the district’s staggering corruption. Cruz was then employed as a (deputy?) prosecutor by the City of Seattle or King County until he was forced out by another scandal. Ricard Cruz is a hard core criminal who needs to be rooted out of the system and punished.
It sounds like Jonathan Dodds may have decided to run for Governor merely to air his grievances about the local education mafia. I’m not inspired to vote for him, but I applaud him for speaking out — and you can expect to hear a lot more about Ricardo Cruz.
James Robert Deal
Video Critique
If I was going to vote for a candidate other than myself, it would be James Robert Deal. The Lynnwood attorney has a lot to say about a variety of issues, much of which sound good to me.
His proposal for a Washington State Bank is worth checking out. He also has a plan for ending traffic congestion that could save you $700 a month or more.
But Deal’s most exciting platform focuses on the environment. He is the only candidate besides me who is speaking out against genetically modified food. He wants to ban Roundup and require GMO labeling. (I champion GMO labeling as an interim measure, with an outright ban on GMO the ultimate goal.)
Deal wants to go one step further and enhance the value of Washington produce by declaring the state an organic-producing state. Now that’s an idea I’m going to have to steal (though I promise I’ll give credit where credit’s due).
Deal also wants to ban oil trains, coal trains and flouridation.
So what’s the catch?
First, Deal’s a Democrat, which only makes me more suspicious of his rhetoric. He calls himself a “green progressive,” words that typically mean just the opposite here in King County.
Deal says “We will fully fund education” without explaining how. Nor does he have anything to say about the extraordinary waste and corruption in education. Of course, he doesn’t mention Bill Gates.
Still, James Robert Deal is similar to me in that his platform is so outrageously ambitious, logical and righteous, most brainwashed U.S. citizens would instantly pronounce it dangerously radical. There’s quite a bit of information on his campaign website which can help you make up your mind.
Just remember: I’m the one who holds Bill Gates accountable, speaks the truth about the Seattle Mafia and the Education Mafia and isn’t tainted with links to the Democratic or Republican parties. If the voters were intelligent, this race would be a contest between me and James Robert Deal.
Summary
In summary, all the alternative candidates have a lot to say about at least some issues, and all are radically different from the Demopublican candidates, with one exception I discovered just recently: James Robert Deal (a Democrat) actually appears to be a better candidate than all of the alternative candidates but me.
It isn’t clear to me if Christian Joubert and/or Steve Rubenstein are secretly working for corporate interests or are honest, well-meaning candidates who just don’t understand politics. Mary Martin is as phony as her party, while Deal is a Democrat . . . and an attorney. Draw your own conclusions.
The candidates in the 2016 Washington gubernatorial campaign are really quite easy to evaluate. However, if you want to analyze them in more detail, see Rules for Evaluating Political Candidates.