Haddon will improve transportation mess

The voters have the opportunity to elect an individual who will represent our area in our best interests as our state senator. We need a change and the candidate who is running for this office, who will represent the vast majority of our rural, small-town and water-oriented citizens, is Linda Haddon.

Linda has been a resident of Oak Harbor for 25 years. She has been involved in community activities on Whidbey Island, including government liaison in saving the Whidbey Naval Air Station from being closed. She has been a member of the Whidbey Island Planning Commission. She is a funeral services manager in the Oak Harbor area.

The current senator, Mary Margaret Haugen, has been narrowly elected in the past and has been in the Legislature for over 20 years. Because of her seniority in the Democratic Party, she has been the chair of the Transportation Committee, which has responsibility for oversight of the ferry system and state roads. Her record has been dismal. Old ferries have not been replaced and our jammed highways, especially in the Monroe/Snohomish area, have not been expanded. Her interests appear to favor expanding light rail in the urban Seattle area and expanding other public transportation systems in south Snohomish County and urban King and Pierce counties.

Her lack of oversight resulted in the loss of ferry service from Coupeville to Port Townsend one year ago, paralyzing the Olympic Peninsula and parts of Whidbey. She is considered an absentee senator because she spends most of her time in the Olympia/Seattle area where the power brokers of the Democratic Party reside.

Please vote for Linda Haddon, who will work for us to improve our transportation system and represent us in Olympia.

Paul L. Blowers

Arlington