Culp not qualified

When the Loren Culp campaign signs first started showing up I was more than a little surprised that the state Republicans could not find a better candidate. Aren’t people aware that Culp does not have anything close to the knowledge or skills to effectively function as governor? Culp seems to have only one key issue, and that’s gun rights. And on that he refused to implement a duly-passed state law, actually overriding a voter initiative. I would remind Culp supporters that it is the governor’s job, pretty much the whole job, to implement duly-passed state laws. He does not get to pick which ones.

Culp is a small-town policeman from a very quiet corner of the state.

Nothing in Culp’s military, police or contracting experience indicates that he knows how to run a large and diverse state such as ours.

Our schools dominate the state budget.

What does Culp know about negotiating with the teachers’ unions, or school budgeting, or staffing during a pandemic? Same with transportation.

We have floating bridges, airports, the largest ferry system in the nation, light rail, shipping ports – we make airplanes! Without an effective transportation system the rest of our economy screeches to a halt, but I cannot imagine that Culp knows the first thing about it.

Similar cases can be made for mental health, Medicaid, endangered fisheries, tribal sovereignty and more.

If the governor chose to ignore or downplay these issues, the state would be tossed into turmoil, and for no reason.

Perhaps Culp supporters just object to wearing masks. But every qualified epidemiologist has said there is no better way to get the virus under control, return to some semblance of our former lives and restore economic activity, than to follow these social hygiene recommendations. I suppose Culp thinks he knows better than they. I wish Culp supporters would re-think their support for this obviously unqualified candidate.

Tim Hyatt

La Conner