James M. Olsen

voteOlsen23 Manifesto 1 — see on YouTube.com  Vote Olsen Manifesto 1 or www.VoteOlsen23.com

Washington State government is in the throes of a serious fiscal crisis.

I am James Olsen and I want to be your 23rd State Representative Position 2

To reach that end I am beginning a series of what I call Vote Olsen 23 Manifestos,  statements of my goals, frank analysis of the current fiscal crisis and equally important a fine dissection of what the Washington State Democratic Party has done to cause this fiasco and most importantly what Ms. Rolfes, the incumbent has done to further this crisis.  The laser focus on Ms. Rolfes’ records will be from the Washington State government records, her  public statement, her recorded statement and any other information that comes up.  Transparency of our current leaders is critical to understanding how serious our problems are.  Career politicians, like Ms. Rolfes, can speak endlessly about process, activity, networking and “listening to her constituents.”  However, at the end of the day, talk is cheap and what we have is the economic reality of an gigantic projected deficits and Democrat moves toward new taxes, growth in government staffing and more failed policy.   The proof is in the pudding and not in the characterization by career politicians of the success of the pudding.

My VoteOlsen23 Manifestos will be projected out to viewers, available on my web site, www.VoteOlsen23.com and hopefully be passed around to District 23 voters.  I firmly believe the more the voters learn about Ms. Rolfes’ performance, goals and actions, the clearer it will be that she is part of the problem.  Problems are solved by taking action.  In politics and elected government positions voters are given a incredible vehicle to register their dissatisfaction:  vote the incumbent out of office.  I will lay out Ms. Rolfes’ legislative actions and You, the Voter will be the judge.  Cast your ballot for the changes you want.  Remember all the promise of “Hope and Change.  It is time to issue a report card.

One other piece of ground work before I look at my first issue is to make it clear:  Ms. Rolfes is a Democrat.  Ms. Rolfes indicated on her Candidacy Statement that the prefers the Democrat Party.  Ms. Rolfes also voted the vast majority of the time with her party, the Democrat Party, and is a stakeholder in our current state of fiscal mess.  Ms. Rolfes also voted for the  Democrat House Leader Frank Chopp, and as a direct result owns the agenda set by the Majority House Leader Chopp.

Now one format I will be using liberally is Ms. Rolfes’ testimony at the Kitsap Sun Editorial Board interview of the 23rd Legislative District candidates, Olsen, Winters and Rolfes.  At times I will use sections of her testimony and other times I will give you my impression of what I heard her say.  I  whole heartily recommend each voter spend the hour to listen to the interview.  You can link to the interview at my web site www.VoteOlsen23.com or you can access it through the Kitsap Sun site, www.kitsapsun.com.

Throughout the inteview,  Ms. Rolfes plead the case that she and her party were faced with the dilemma of throwing the needy out of the system because there was not enough money or having to raise taxes.  I repeatedly made the case there was a third viale alternative:  reducing costs and size of government.  Needless to say Ms. Rolfes and her party and I are diametrically opposed on the issue of taxes and growth in government.  This will be a matter of continuing inquiry by me through these manifestos, public forums and meeting with the voters.

In the interview I repeatedly made the point that the Democrat Party and Ms. Rolfes betrayed the People by invalidating the requirement set forth in I-960 for a 2/3 majority to pass new taxes.  Governor Christine Gregoire and her Democrat allies trashed the People’s Initiative and passed new taxes with a 50% plus one vote bar.  I pressed Ms. Rolfes why the Governor and Demorat legislature also did not also use the same “emergency” provision to crack open all existing public-employee union contracts to use that to drive down the salaries and benefits to eliminate the looming $3.8 billion deficit in the next biennial budget.  Ms. Rolfes did not justify why her party refused to look into the option although to most savvy people the reason is apparent.  The Democrats including Ms. Rolfes are not going to challenge the Democrat-friendly powerful and rich unions.

I am James M. Olsen and will champion fiscal reform and sane Olympia government.

Thank you.