Dear Lary – (Why is there only one r in your name?)

Of all the press I received during my recent run for the Senate in the 26th District your editorial in the September edition of the Kitsap Business Journal was by far my favorite. Not because it was accurate, (it was not) not because it was informative, (it was not) but because it was funny.

Your reference to “Boss, and his zany band of political crackpots” was my favorite quote and I used it often while on the political stump. Now that I am out of the race (and therefore this won’t sound like whining) let me correct some of your inaccuracies…

Running as a Democrat is perfectly legal, both morally and under the law. The people of Washington State have over and over again demanded the right to have an open primary election allowing anyone to run in any race they want. Your depiction of me “subverting the election process” was inaccurate and misleading – but wasn’t that your purpose?

You and I have never met but you described me as being “somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun” yet you, nor anyone in the Democratic Party for that matter, ever asked me one question on my position on any issue. You have no idea where I stand on any of the major issues facing the people of the 26th District (except the bridge) but I guess accuracy doesn’t matter in the press.

I did, in fact, run as a Republican two years ago against Pat Lantz and I did, in fact, lose. I guess we can all conjecture on why I lost but it can hardly be because my “views are so out of line with the mainstream.” Remember, Lary (with one r) over 70 percent of the voters in the 26th District voted against the Narrows Bridge project and, as that’s the only issue which you know where I stand you are hardly in a position to draw your dramatic conclusion – but wasn’t that your purpose?

The delays in the construction of the bridge (which you gave me credit for) only increased the cost by $3 million a month because that’s what the Transportation Department agreed to pay to their private sole source (non-competitively bid) contractor at the negotiation table. It has no other basis. I guess you didn’t read the contract though because if you had you would have known the $3 million monthly amount was capped and rolled back to a maximum of $5 million. It certainly had nothing to do with the delays caused by the lawsuit. In fact, because of the lawsuit delay the interest rate dropped saving the people of the 26th District $63 million dollars. Do I then get credit for the $63 million dollar savings because I delayed the bridge? Neither is true.

You then made a slanderous remark about my inability to calculate costs but you failed to point out to your readers that the tolls will extract $100 million a year out of our communities. That’s $100 million a year that will not be available to be spent at local merchants but that probably won’t make any difference to the people in the 26th District, will it Lary (with one r)? Maybe you can show me your work on how you did the math on this problem?

I don’t want your readers to think you were totally inaccurate in your attack on my candidacy because it does appear (now that I have lost) that you were absolutely correct that my running against Oke “could prove to be a colossal blunder” if my intentions were to get elected.

Randy Boss
Gig Harbor

(Editor’s Note: a few corrections and comments. Mr. Boss and I have met — several times. In his previous run against Rep. Lantz, he was endorsed by the Business Journal. As far the $3 million per month, we are not talking about the same money. He is correct about the $5 million cap. However, the project has been delayed for over five years from its intital start date, while the cost of labor, material, land acquisition, etc. has escalated at an alarming rate, adding to the cost of the project on a daily basis. Three million a month is the average these delays have cost. Mr. Boss is also either in error about the amount of money the tolls will extract from the local economy, or the cost of the bridge. If the cost is pegged at a little over $800 million and tolls will bring in $100 million per year as Mr. Boss claims, counting interest and other incidental costs, the bridge would be paid for in less than 10 years.).