The last time I saw Angie Homola and Kelly Emerson together was at a recent county commissioners meeting. Ms. Homola, a Democrat, announced that she had received the “Bookend Award” of the Washington State Association of Counties for exemplifying bipartisan efforts on the legislative committee.  (The other “bookend” was a Republican from Lewis County.) Ms. Emerson also had an announcement to make. She had recently claimed that Island County had sent a number of employees on a junket to Las Vegas, but  she now announced that the number of employees so sent was zero.

Commissioners Angie Homola and Helen Price Johnson are up for reelection this year. Both have worked very hard during these poor economic times and have reduced the county budget they control by an astonishing 25 percent.  Ms. Emerson, who is not up for reelection for another two years, has concentrated on the kind of fact-free bomb throwing exemplified by the false Las Vegas junket accusation. She says she wants us to replace Homola and Price-Johnson with someone she can “work with.”

Suppose you had to reduce your household’s expenditures by 25 percent. Who would you like to work with? Would you prefer Angie Homola, recognized by her peers for being able to develop realistic proposals with people of differing points of view? Or would you prefer  Kelly Emerson, who might scream that you’d have enough money if you didn’t take trips to Vegas which you never took?

Heaven help Island County if either Homola or Price Johnson is replaced with  someone who “works with” Ms. Emerson!

Lynn Petersen

Coupeville