| As the current political season begins, I think that it is important for your readership to take the practical business measure of considering what side their bread is buttered on.
Lois McMahan talks a good game about cutting taxes and slashing regulation – but has she ever managed to actually deliver anything substantial to help economic development? Sure, she lends a sympathetic ear, and parrots everything a “good Republican” is supposed to – but has she ever given us effective representation in Olympia?
As a sole-proprietor consultant in Gig Harbor, I wear two hats – one as the guy who clients turn to for expertise, and another doing all the “other stuff” that makes a business run, like filling out and paying my own B&O Taxes every quarter.
A politician’s promises don’t mean much to my clients, and they don’t mean much to me either. We expect results, not rhetoric – and Ms. McMahan’s balance sheet just doesn’t add up.
Meanwhile, Derek Kilmer’s progressive, pro-business agenda has already begun to deliver dividends by easing the B&O tax burden, lowering our debt on the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and introducing innovative new ways of financing local public works projects – including highways that support economic development and expedite the construction of the much-needed St. Anthony’s Hospital in Gig Harbor.
And if that wasn’t enough, there’s a clear difference in stature, credibility and character between the two candidates. There are echoed by nearly every local newspapers’ condemnation of the slanderous attacks The Speaker’s Roundtable undertook against Derek Kilmer on behalf of Ms. McMahan – which she has refused to denounce – and the fact that the voters of our district have rejected Ms. McMahan four times now.
It’s time for local business leaders to admit that a Democrat can be the pro-business candidate – and that candidate is Derek Kilmer.
Steven P. Breaux
Gig Harbor | 
