There are three candidates for Pierce County Auditor: Daryl McCarty, Damon Townsend, and Linda Farmer. Looking at the voters’ pamphlet, Daryl McCarty and Damon Townsend have considerable experience in running elections. Linda Farmer doesn’t have their experience, and appears not to be qualified for the job. If you are a progressive or neutral, vote for Damon Townsend. If you are a conservative, vote for Deryl McCarty.
Thank you Amelia Escobedo, for pointing out that Lakewood’s Republican mayor Jason Whalen has just endorsed Linda Farmer for Pierce County Auditor.
He kind of had to, given that in 2020 Slippery Linda, a supposed Democrat, endorsed him in his failed bid to get onto Pierce County Council.
Slippery Linda’s endorsement of Jason Whalen was a betrayal of the Democrat doorbellers who worked so hard to get her elected to Lakewood City Council in 2019.
And now Slippery Linda is demonstrating that she is a self-seeking user of the people of Lakewood. They elected her, and even though her term has over a year to run she is moving on to other things. Is she planning on doing a Sarah Palin, who resigned as Governor of Alaska before her term was over?
Slippery Linda has gotten what she wanted from Lakewood, including an endorsement from its mayor. Now she wants to move onwards and upwards, to a job that pays $145,650.82 a year.
If by some misfortune Slippery Linda does get elected, one would hope that she takes her job more seriously than her current elected role, as Lakewood council member. She wrote on her Linkedin profile that
In my spare time, I serve on the Lakewood City Council.
Yes, it is a part-time job, but something she does in her spare time? Along with gardening, basket-weaving and supporting Seahawks? Is it such a minor role that it can be trivialized as a spare time activity?
Maybe if Slippery Linda had take the job more seriously, and less of a spare time activity, she would have questioned why Michael Wiley, Michael Zaro, and Brian Markert weren’t fired from the Lakewood Police Department after the Leonard Thomas killing?
Maybe Slippery Linda would have noticed that hundreds of Garry oaks were under threat in Springbrook, Woodbrook, and Sylvan Park at the former Oakwood school property?
Maybe she would have thought for herself, rather than meekly deferring to current mayor Jason Whalen and former mayor Donald Anderson?
We saw this when council member Michael Brandstetter suggested that the Garry oak becomes Lakewood’s City’s tree. Slippery Linda turned her back on Lakewood’s environmental heritage, by saying
I would like a little bit more information about what it would mean to designate a city tree, to Council member Anderson’s point. What would happen if we needed to cut one down…?
What guarantee do the voters of Pierce County have that Slippery Linda won’t also trivialize the job of Pierce County Auditor? Is it going to be another spare time activity?
What guarantee do the voters of Pierce County have that Slippery Linda won’t use them – like she used the people of Lakewood?
It should also be pointed out that if Slippery Linda is elected Pierce County Auditor, and if she does a Sarah Palin and vacates her seat on Lakewood City Council, Jason Whalen and the council will get to choose her replacement.
The last time they chose a replacement, they went for Patti Belle, who has shown herself to be far and away Lakewood’s most ineffective council member. We certainly don’t want them choosing another Patti Belle.
The voters of Pierce County will hopefully see through Slippery Linda, and not make the mistake that Lakewood voters made in 2019 when they elected her.
Keep Slippery Linda in Lakewood, let her sit out her term on the city council. Then the City of Lakewood can be the final resting place of her ill-starred and self-seeking political career.
This is a great article. Deryl McCarty has 9 months as Deputy Auditor 15 years ago… Damon Townsend has the most recent, relevant experience. Linda Farmer has no experience and failed to attend any of the Pierce County Auditor Forums so far and fails to report her Public Disclosure Committee reports correctly. How can we trust candidates that won’t attend public forums for Pierce County Auditor and can’t/hasn’t disclosed her committee forms/records properly. Complaints have been filled against both Farmer and McCarty for their poor reporting of Public Committee Disclosures, and hopefully they will be investigated soon. She is only relying on her endorsement of political friends, her signs and ads. We don’t want our next Auditor to have no experience, can’t report forms properly or won’t attend Public Forums to answer questions from the Public. We hire our Auditor by electing them. Choose wisely and vote for Damon Townsend.
Dawn,
Thanks for the comment. It is shocking that Linda Farmer is standing for the position, with a real chance of election. I am hoping that she can be knocked out of the race on August 2, but her opponents are going to have to work hard. It is certainly not a time to be nice, as I think you recognize. Damon certainly seems the best qualified candidate, and he really needs to get his message across.