I sometimes like to think of myself as sort of an amateur swami.
Look, I told anyone who asked that the county charter would pass. I called Oregon’s football record 11-1 at the beginning of the season, and I watch TV shows mainly to annoy whomever else is in the room by telling them what is about to happen next.
No fair watching the Hallmark Channel. All its stuff ends the same way.
OK, OK, I predicted the Mighty Gators would win the national football championship this year as well.
So sue me.
But let’s get serious for a second. What’s going to happen in 2015? Well, let’s just see. Now, I could be wrong, but …
Rivers is in
Republican state Sen. Ann Rivers has only said publicly she is keeping her options open when it comes to running for the the newly created position of chair of the county council in 2015. But expect her to announce that she will be in the race early this week.
As just noted, after more than 100 years of running the county the same way, we just voted in a new form of government.
And we all have county Commissioners David Madore and Tom Mielke to thank for that. The M&M boys did a horrendous job running the county — hiring cronies, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, putting in programs that simply don’t work, stuff like that.
Because residents couldn’t vote them out, they did the next best thing. They voted for a charter government which greatly weakens their powers.
So instead of three county commissioners we’ll have five county councilors. Four of those councilors will be elected by voters within their districts. The fifth councilor — think of it as a county mayor — will be voted in by the entire electorate.
It is this countywide councilor position that Rivers will seek. Mielke has said he will run for this position and is said to be conducting a poll on how he would do against Rivers. Save your money, Tom. If you buy me a cup of coffee I’ll tell you how you’d do: Squadoosh!
Rivers, who has established her reputation as a conservative, would be extremely difficult to beat. We are a conservative-leaning county.
Retiring Republican Sheriff Garry Lucas also expressed an interest but he now is leaning against trying to run against Rivers.
A rising Democratic star, Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce President Kelly Love, has no interest in taking on Rivers either. But Love lives in Madore’s district, so look for her to make a bid to oust him in 2016 if he opts to run for re-election.
Benton is out
If there was just one stupid thing the M&M boys did to get the charter passed, it was the hiring of Republican state Sen. Don Benton.
Those who have followed along know that the M&M boys slipped Benton into the $100,000-a-year job as county environmental services director.
Never mind that Benton couldn’t tell the difference between fossil fuel and fried fish. Madore and Mielke rammed their crony down our throats.
Eventually that cost taxpayers $250,000 to settle a lawsuit from a county employee who actually was qualified for the job but never had an opportunity to apply.
To this day Madore hasn’t admitted this enormous blunder. But he’s plenty smart enough to understand — especially after the charter passed — it has ruined his political career here.
Still, guys like Madore never say die. So he has hatched a plan that he hopes will allow him to save himself. He can’t simply show Benton the door because that would be admitting he made a mistake. But he can eliminate the entire department Benton is running, which — my, my my — would mean no need for Benton.
For now Mielke isn’t playing along. And that could throw the timing off on this. But 2015 should see Benton spending more time eating free meals up in Olympia.
But never completely count Benton out. He may be shiftiest politician I have ever known.
Call home
Oh yeah, one more prediction. Planet Alpha Canis One will try to contact Madore. Pick up, please. They need you back home.
