Forum

It’s a 15-minute car trip between my home in the Richmond Beach area of Shoreline and a frequent destination in Lynnwood, but, when I use the paratransit services provided by King County’s Metro Transit and Snohomish County’s Community Transit, it takes over an hour. That’s because each service stops at the county line, and riders have to wait at the Aurora Village Transit Station, sometimes for more than half an hour, and because the trip to the transit station adds a mile or more to the trip.

This is the kind of problem that a regional agency like Sound Transit should be trying to solve.

A trip between Shoreline and Lynnwood shouldn’t take longer than one between Shoreline and downtown Seattle.

Remembering Lud Kramer

When former Washington Secretary of State Lud Kramer died a few weeks ago at age 71, the State lost a public servant who was too little remembered.

Kramer was elected in 1964, ‘68 and ‘72, the same years that fellow moderate Republican Dan Evans won the governorship. In the latter two election years, Slade Gorton joined them as part of the “Action Team.”

While Evans went on to become a college president, U.S. senator, broadcast commentator and UW regent and Gorton went on to three terms in the U.S. Senate, Kramer left public life after losing a run for Seattle mayor.

For some reason, the secretary of state in the 1960s and ’70s earned much less than other state officials; so Kramer pumped gas to supplement his salary and pay campaign debts.

A broadcaster for Congress?

Washington Democratic Party leaders are pressuring KIRO Radio morning host Dave to run for the 8th Congressional District seat being vacated by Republican Jennifer Dunn. They hope Ross’s name recognition will help them win the seat Republicans have held since the district was created two decades ago.

I think Ross can have more influence on public policy with his 5-minute morning commentary on CBS radio and his 9 a.m. to noon program on KIRO.

Still, I can’t help thinking of a Ross presence in Congress: The singing Ross could parody any issue as he did when he sang of carpool lane cheaters with “She’s Just Like a Woman to Me,” and the researching Ross could read each day’s status of the notional debt into the Congressional Record.

Evan Smith is the Enterprise Forum editor.