Former State Rep. Tom Mielke does not seek to fill vacancy created by resignation of Richard Curtis
Ridgefield resident Jaime Herrera was the overwhelming choice of Republicans Nov. 18 to replace Richard Curtis as state representatives from the 18th legislative district.
Herrera will be recommended as the Republican’s first choice when the county commissioners of Clark and Cowlitz counties meet Nov. 29 in Kelso.
Scott Higgins and Ann Rivers also survived the voting process to remain in contention as the second and third choices.
State Republican Party head Luke Esser chaired the Sunday meeting of 40 precinct committee officers leading to the section of Herrera, Higgins and Rivers.
Eleven names of possible appointees were placed into nomination. Each spoke to the precinct committee officers and each answered questions.
Herrera received 26 votes on the second ballot, enough to make her the first choice. Candidates were eliminated during successive ballots until Higgins and Rivers gained a majority of votes.
Herrera is presently a senior legislative aide in the U.S. House of Representatives, a position she has held since 2005.
After graduating from Prairie High School, Herrera earned a degree in communications and political science at the University of Washington in 2004. She served as an intern for State Sen. Joe Zarelli in 2004, and then coordinated fundraising for the reelection of Pres. George W. Bush and other Republican candidates. She held a post in the White House in late 2004.
Herrera distributed a brochure during the precinct committee officer meeting that contained pictures of Herrera with the President, with the Secretary of State, and with former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
Herrera stressed her experience and qualifications, her work with the National Republican Committee, and her conservative beliefs. She said she supports traditional marriages. She pledged to pursue health care for more citizens while avoiding “Hillary-care.” She noted the importance of education. She said she has written legislation at the federal level to get more math and science teachers into classrooms. She said public school curricula has been “dumbed-down.”
Herrera grew up in Hockinson where, she said, her parents taught her to put God first, family second and service to the community a close third. She was home-schooled through the ninth grade.
Scott Higgins described himself as a minister in the Camas area who reflected the values of the Republican precinct committee officers. He stressed the importance of property rights and transportation. He has served two terms on the Camas city council.
Rivers recounted her history of political activism, including doorbelling and fundraising for Republican candidates. “I don’t see this as a stepping stone,” said Rivers. “It’s a calling.” She said no other candidate had her knowledge and skills.
Others who were nominated were John Russell, Dave Darby, Sandy White, Liz Pike, Stacee Sellers, Brandon Vick, Erika Rainford and Richard Carson.
The selection process took four hours. In the question-and-answer period, only Rainford said she could support the Cowlitz tribal casino. Asked about State Rep. Jim Dunn who reportedly made a sexual wisecrack comment during an October legislative committee gathering, all but Sandy White said Dunn should resign. White said the voters should decide Dunn’s fate next year. None of the 11 favored light rail.
State Rep. Ed Orcutt (R-Kalama), the other representative from the 18th district, said that legislators will meet in Olympia on Nov. 29. The person selected to replace Curtis, said Orcutt, should be ready to travel from Kelso to Olympia the same day to begin work in the legislature.
“Wisecrack” lands Dunn in hot water
State Rep. Jim Dunn (R-Vancouver) is fighting a move by the leadership of his own party to deny him any committee assignments during the upcoming 2008 legislative session and to restrict his travel and per diem expense reimbursements.
Republican leadership also wants Dunn to undergo treatment and counseling programs.
The issue arose following an Oct. 16 meeting of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education. Elected officials and staff members met in a hotel lounge following the meeting. Dunn said he made a “wisecrack comment” to a woman at that gathering and later apologized for the comment. He declined to repeat what the comment was.
On Nov. 5, State Rep. Richard DeBolt, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, wrote a letter to Dunn which said, in part: “Your recent conduct in the presence of House members and staff following a meeting of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education was inappropriate.”
“After consulting with the members of the Republican caucus leadership, I have decided to ask the Speaker of the House to remove you from your position as the ranking member of the Housing Committee, and in fact we will request that you be removed from all standing, select, and statutory committees on which you serve as Republican caucus representative,” wrote DeBolt.
DeBolt further wrote that Dunn would not be reimbursed for travel and per-diem except for certain Committee Assembly Days and the 2008 Regular Session.
DeBolt wrote that decisions about travel and per-diem after the 2008 legislative session, along with committee assignments, would be made later, after Dunn’s participation in treatment and counseling programs was determined.
Dunn said DeBolt and others had at first asked him to resign.
Dunn described the situation as “basically just a political thing.”
Dunn’s attorney, Shawn Newman of Olympia, described Dunn’s comment as an “inadvertent and isolated remark made in jest over after-dinner drinks."
In a Nov. 9 letter, Newman asked DeBolt for copies of all records relating to an investigation into the incident.
Newman said that stripping Dunn of committee assignments would be a disservice to citizens who live in Dunn’s 17th legislative district and who have elected and reelected Dunn since 1996.
Newman also suggested that DeBolt’s hard line against Dunn was because Dunn did not support DeBolt for a party leadership role.
Newman wrote that if the Republican caucus leadership is determined to clean house, then it should apply discipline fairly and uniformly rather than selectively. He wrote that others in the House have engaged in “more egregious conduct.”
According to Newman, DeBolt and Rep. Kristiansen met with Dunn in early November and suggested he resign. DeBolt and Kristiansen told Dunn that if Dunn would “quietly resign, his wife need not know why, according to Newman.
Dunn said he told his wife what he had said at the Oct. 16 gathering, and she said, according to Dunn, “I told you to stop saying those things.”
Dunn and his wife have been married for 43 years.
“I went to the meeting and they asked me to resign,” said Dunn. “They now deny asking me to resign.”
Dunn said that, at the Oct., 16 lounge gathering, he took the only empty chair among several tables and chairs that had been pulled together. He said he bought a round of drinks for all those present. The lady next to him, who Dunn said he did not know, asked Dunn why he had bought her a drink. At the other end of the table, a man said to Dunn, “you know you’re sitting next to the prettiest lady at the table,” recounted Dunn. Dunn said that is when he made a “wisecrack” to the woman next to him.
Dunn said he later realized the “wisecrack” was inappropriate and he apologized to the woman for saying it. There were at least 12 people at the gathering, Dunn said.
House attorney Timothy Sekerak responded to Newman’s letter on Nov. 13, giving information on public information requests and stating that he, Sekerak, would respond again to Newman.
Newman said Dunn had expressed a willingness to attend sensitivity training. “Why are they making a federal case out of this,” questioned attorney Newman.
Newman said that under the law, an isolated comment does not constitute sexual harassment.
State Rep. Sharon Santos of Seattle, who was in attendance at the gathering, described Dunn’s comment as “very, very offensive,” and “highly inappropriate.” Santos declined to say exactly what Dunn’s comment was, but said it was sexually suggestive. She described the comment as “locker room banter” typical of high school students.
Members of the Clark-Skamania Flyfishers instructed others on fly casting and fishing techniques during a free clinic held Nov. 10 at Lewisville Park near Battle Ground.
The instruction included not only casting skills but also information about where fish might be in the water and ways to avoid scaring fish away.
Those interested in learning about fly casting were treated to general conversation, beverages and donuts, and then individual attention of casting techniques.
Mark Masciarotte of Vancouver, a member of Clark-Skamania Flyfishers, provided a range of information to the men and women interested in the sport.
Masciarotte said the overall objective is to place the fly on the water in a way that resembles a real fly, and allow it to float on the water as a real fly or leaf would.
Doing that, however, is not simple.
Masciarotte said trout and other fish look for predators from the sky, and seek places in the water where they can be safe. Trout have a wide range of vision looking forward and above, but cannot see well behind themselves.
Thus, he said, trout can be found both upstream and downstream from rocks, near logs, and under overhanging brush and foliage. Trout will dart out from those retreats to eat, and then retreat to the safety of such locations where they rest.
Fish may be spooked by shadows and noise, said Masciarotte. The shadow from a bird above may spook a fish, he said. A fisherman should walk carefully so as to avoid scaring fish away.
Fish residing in a very clear, calm stream are able to detect shadows and movement more easily than fish in a rippling stream where their vision is obscured by white caps and foam, he said.
Masciarotte stressed the importance of “presentation”--have the fly hand in a natural way, and then move in a “dead drift” with the current.
The fly should float in a natural way with slack in the leader. The leader and line should not produce “drag”--pulling the fly across the current or in another non-natural way.
In clearer water, said Masciarotte, the fly fisher may use a longer leader, perhaps as long as 15 feet, although he said he has never used a leader longer than 12 feet. A short leader is described as nine feet long.
More space is needed to employ a longer leader, said Masciarotte. “It’s hard to deliver a fly in a small area with a longer leader,” he said.
Masciarotte compared the delivery of fly fishing line to a letter “j”, with the long part of the “j” parallel to the water and the curve pointing upward. It’s possible, he said, to create a buggy whip action with the “j” and to have the fly move faster than the speed of sound. The noise of such whipping action should be avoided, he said. And in such cases, the fly may become detached from the leader.
The line should land on the water first, followed by the leader, with the fly the last thing to land, said Masciarotte. The rod should end up parallel to the water when the cast is completed, he said.
Only when casting downstream, said Masciarotte, should the leader be allowed to pile up in the water. In that case, the fly should be allowed to flow with the current as the leader straightens out.
“We try to teach in casting clinics not to slap the water with the line,” said Masciarotte. “If there is a slapping of the line, the stroke is too far down.” A slapping noise on the water, he said, will scare fish away.
Fly fishers may also “amend” their cast by flipping the line over to move the fly upstream.
“The longer the fly is on the water, the better chance of catching a fish,” said Masciarotte.
Some fly fishers use artificial nymph lures which resemble flies in their underwater stage. In this case, the fly or leader carry some weight and the cast is made downstream. As the line tightens, the lures rise from the bottom of the river toward the top, just as real flies might do.
Most of the flies that fly fishers attempt to resemble started life in the water, said Masciarotte. They matured, left the water, then returned to lay eggs and the cycle continues, he said.
Some fly fishers repeatedly move their lines back and forth before letting them go over the water, he said. This techniques allows the fly to dry, allows more line to be let out, and may help the fisher hit a specific spot.
The Clark-Skamania Flyfishers organization conducts casting clinics in the fall and again in the spring, plus an all-day class in the spring. The all-day class contains a range of fishing techniques and topics, including stream etiquette.
The Clark-Skamania Flyfishers group meets the third Wednesday of each month, 6 p.m., at Bill’s Chicken and Steak House, 2200 St. Johns Blvd. at Fourth Plain Blvd., Vancouver. Meetings are open to the public and visitors are welcome. Information is available by calling Fred Guettler, 694-6098, or 608-9779, and on the organization’s Web site: clark-skamania-flyfishers.org
Bill Myers
staff reporter
The owners of a Vancouver Christmas tree farm will participate in a national, non-profit program to help provide thousands of Christmas trees to military families in the U.S. and overseas.
Thorntons’ Tree Farm owners Glen and Nancy Thornton will host a Trees for Troops campaign at their farm on Fri., Nov. 23, through Sunday, Dec. 2. Glen Thornton said he hopes area citizens will participate in a goal to ship 300 Christmas trees aboard a FexEx trailer for pre-Christmas deliveries to military families.
A Korean War-era veteran of the U.S. Army, Glen Thornton said he is the only tree farmer in Washington engaged in a Trees for Troops program implemented by FedEx and the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation, a Missouri non-profit organization associated with the National Christmas Tree Association.
Citizens who participate in the program will purchase 6-8 foot Christmas trees with average retail value of $32 for $21.95. They are invited to write messages on tree tags, saying thanks to recipient families of service men or women. Glen Thornton said he will personally donate $5 for every tree purchased. His donations, along with other donations from participating tree farmers around the U.S., support Christmas SPIRIT Foundation programs for children, families and the environment.
Thornton said he pays sales taxes and all wrapping, handling and tree-loading charges. He said FedEx donates all truck/trailer transportation for the national Trees for Troops program.
In 2006, the program placed 12,000 Christmas trees into military family households. This year, FedEx and Christmas SPIRIT Foundation officials hope the national campaign gets 15,000-17,000 trees to military families.
Thorntons Treeland is located on about 50 acres at 7617 NE 119th St., Vancouver. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, or “until it is too dark to see.”
The Thorntons, who believe that the purchase of each Christmas tree should be a memorable family outing, have hosted customers at their tree farm since 1970. They provide patrons and their children with a petting zoo, hay rides and opportunities to enjoy baling and tree shaking. A nativity scene is in the Thornton barn each year, with free hot chocolate and coffee.
“Providing memories at this time of year is extremely important, especially for families whose loved ones are serving our country.” Thorntons Treeland can be reached for more information at 573-8733.