I am writing to you because I am a 58-year-old lifelong resident of the lower Columbia River — a continental river drainage that happens to be in a temperate rainforest — and concerned for what a Joe Kent in Congress for Washington’s 3rd District really means to my community.
I do my own due-diligence in choosing a primary candidate because I am a former veteran, retired from the U.S. Forest Service, and politically, a moderate educated independent. I contacted the Kent campaign in June of 2022 with questions during the primary campaign and am stunned with how little Kent is familiar with the district’s timber and fishing economy that he hopes to represent.
Kent thinks:
In addition to Kent’s lack of understanding of the economic environment of this district, Kent has no respect for public property or the laws to protect it, as evidenced when the Kent campaign vandalized a chain link fence at milepost 5 on Highway 14 in Vancouver to install a Kent for Congress sign.
I am in fear that Kent will get elected without any understanding, awareness and knowledge of what it means to live in a downstream community of a continental river drainage that happens to be in a temperate rainforest. Those words got lost on Kent, or at least his campaign manager/staffer that is the POC on the Kent for Congress webpage where I started my due diligence.
I respect the honor and integrity of real journalism which is why I plead to you. I hope that in upcoming interviews, debates and opportunities you have in speaking with both Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Kent that you forcefully tease out the specific details about their understanding of problems, ideas and solutions for WA3, and call out any candidate for their lack of respect to public property.
Mary Jean Dowell,
Vancouver