I am running for Thurston PUD Commissioner!
I decided on the last days to file after realizing that no one was running against Linda Oosterman. You all may be aware that Linda Oosterman became PUD Commissioner in 2012, the same ballot that held the Thurston Public Power Initiative. She won with the financial backing of PSE against a candidate that was supportive of public power.
In 2018, she ran for a second term against Andrew Saturn and won again with the financial support of PSE. She is now 80 years old and running again for her third term. I am sick and tired of PSE meddling in our PUD elections! This year I am running, but unlike in 2012 or in 2018, I am not running a campaign to expand the PUD into new utilities.
The PUD, which is now a water utility, isn’t ready to go into electricity or telecommunications, which is what Andrew Saturn was pushing for. Obviously I’m not against the PUD expanding into new services like electricity or telecommunications in principle, but I’m being honest when I say that now is not the time and I’m not sure that this PUD will ever be the vehicle for such things. Despite this, we can assume that again she’ll have the financial backing of PSE.
It is well known by our foreign owned private electric company overlords that I do not support them as our monopoly power provider. This is because in 2020 I attempted to try a second initiative for public power. I created an organization called Power to the Public that shifted to entirely focus on that campaign which started off great! We brought Dennis Kucinich to speak at our kickoff event in front of a large crowd of several hundred people. Unfortunately, the pandemic struck, and gathering 15,000 signatures became an impossibility.
Why not public power now?
In 2020 there was another reason to run a Thurston public power initiative that doesn’t exist today. At the time, there was a group attempting to form a Public Utility District in East King County. I knew that PSE would spend easily millions of dollars to stop these Washington residents in their attempt to democratically vote for sovereignty over their power needs. In order to make these foreign overlords’ effort to undermine our democracy a little more difficult, I spun up an initiative campaign for Thurston as well.
Nobody asked me to do it, I just did it, and for the first month I did it entirely on my own. Actually, that’s not true. Power to the Public was built on the foundation that was created by the 2012 Thurston Public Power Initiative (TPPI) which itself was built on the foundation of the 2008 Jefferson Public Power Initiative, which was built on the grand history of Washington Public Utility Districts that goes back to incredibly powerful movements during the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who created the great dams of the
I’ve come to the realization that the PUD is not the best solution to deal with that problem. At least not here, not now, and unless something unexpected happens, not in the next 6 years either.
That doesn’t mean I won’t be busy! The PUD has grown substantially in the past two decades. I want to keep it growing in a smart way. I also want to introduce more community collaboration. Things like incorporating Americorps positions, youth groups that learn about our water systems, possibly even have the PUD look into resurrecting and improving an hour for hour time exchange, time bank or Sound Hour 2.0. Plus efforts towards improving our environment. All these things are ways to spur community engagement, save money, teach trade skills and environmentally educate the youth.
In 2021 I ran for Olympia City Council. There were three Olympia City Council positions that faced primary elections already and I saw that if I put my hat in the ring it would generate a fourth. The race I entered in May had two quality candidates already. Each had raised more than $15k by then with substantial endorsements for both. I ran to push those candidates to take better stands on important issues that I felt weren’t being discussed. I ran to enhance and strengthen the slate of other candidates challenging the mainstream status quo. I was under no illusions that I’d make it through the primary. I also made sure to treat the candidates I ran against with respect. Rather than attack them or their positions I would just put out there my own. Winning was never my goal.
However, I admit that that primary election did not go the way I had hoped! I was surprised that my open, honest and clearly underwhelming candidacy generated such friction when I earnestly hoped it’d spur the opposite. My hope was that I would be helping with the campaigns of Sarah DeStasio, Tyrone Brown and Talauna Reed. That didn’t end up happening. I didn’t campaign door to door because it wasn’t worthwhile for my campaign alone which I had evaluated had no chance. However, despite stopping campaigning weeks before primary election day, I did receive 1,059 votes.
This year, I signed up to run because of a guttural feeling that I simply could not have Oosterman run unopposed. I decided that with my name there, at least some who felt similarly would have a chance to register their protest. I then promptly put it out of my mind. I had taken such an undeserved beating in 2021, I was afraid to even consider this campaign as potentially serious. That was before this past Monday.
That morning I got a call from the Auditor reminding me I had until the next day at 5pm to meet the deadline for my candidate statement, along with a photo, for the election pamphlet. That meant I had to sit down, after avoiding thinking about what I’d done, and write up 200 words as to why I was running. Which I did. To my surprise, I realized that, I wasn’t just running to give people a protest vote. I was running to win!
This year will be my first real race for public office. It won’t be easy, but I have a decent enough shot despite my late start. It’s an office that I know a lot about because of my friendship with PUD Commissioner Chris Stearns. His introduction to me of the history of PUDs, other PUD Commissioners, the people who work at the PUD and his efforts at keeping me apprised of the challenges that the PUD faces have been a good education. I also have a network of friends from two attempts at a public power initiative and other networks from other campaigns I’ve been involved in.
On top of that, I do have viable experience. I have worked for many nonprofits and government agencies. I have been on the boards of four nonprofits. I have a history of running candidates for office including being Campaign Manager for Charlie Hardy for US Senate in Wyoming, which was made into a pretty good documentary. I was also Western States Coordinator for Jill Stein’s campaign for US President in 2016. I was a Field Manager for the Sierra Club running door to door canvassing. I had even forgotten that, 20 years ago, I was an elected PCO in Seattle! Plus I am a member of two different unions. One of which said today they’d endorse me!
So can I win this local race against a two timing 80 year old incumbent sell out? You’re damn right I can! And I’ll run a clean respectful campaign that crushes her into her comfy retirement. And if PSE wants to piss me off even more by interfering in our democracy, then bring it on! I’m not planning on pushing for public power in this election, but, by God, if they come after me, I’ve got one piece of advice for them. They better act like Boeing and finish the job! I have held back 12 years of fury towards them. I’ll take the gloves off and show them what the face of corporate personhood will look like after they really piss me off.
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