Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler shirks responsibilities to constituents

Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler seems mighty comfortable taking taxpayer money without doing her job.

Last year, while the state House of Representatives was in session, then-Representative Herrera spent all of her time campaigning for Congress, while her colleagues pushed her voting button in her absence. And while The Columbian cites former state Representative Deb Wallace in its story, the charge was made by other colleagues of Herrera.

Now that she's a member of Congress, Ms. Herrera Beutler, has continued collecting a paycheck without providing a return on the investment of her constituents. As the Thurston County Democrats have pointed out:
Since taking office in January, Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler has failed to represent Thurston County. Thurston County residents' phone calls have gone unreturned and their requests for meetings have been denied. Why? One constituent who called was told that, since redistricting may leave the district boundary near Rochester, the representative's office wouldn't provide services north of there. [Emphasis is mine.]
While former Congressman Brian Baird had a district offices in Olympia and Vancouver, Herrera Beutler only has staff in Vancouver. Apparently Thurston County voted for some sort of austerity project where it lost its seat in Congress last November.

This is simply unacceptable. Congresswoman Herrera Beutler represents all of the 3rd District, and not just the people who elected her. Furthermore, redistricting won't change the district she represents until 2012. Until then, she is employed by us.

While the Thurston County Democrats have passed a resolution (I'm guessing this was an Executive Board action because this wasn't on the February agenda of the Central Committee), the Congresswoman isn't likely to care about resolutions from partisan groups that oppose her.

As we've seen in Wisconsin, direct action is sometimes the only way to make elected officials take notice of the people they represent. If Congresswoman Herrera Beutler refuses to serve our part of the district, then we, her constituents, should picket her Vancouver office and demand the services we pay for.

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