Recent News
NW Digest: ONE-ON-ONE with Mark Hargrove
July 11, 2010
Recently, I was interviewed by blogger Tom Forbes from NW Digest:
As part of 47th Legislative District Week, today we meet Mark Hargrove, who is running for a second time against Rep. Geoff Simpson (D-Covington), who is in the news again for domestic violence. Hargrove lost by less than 3,000 votes to Simpson in 2008.
Hargrove is an Air Force Academy graduate and veteran Air Force pilot. He has lived in the Covington area for the last 21 years. Mark currently works for Boeing as an instructor pilot, teaching from around the world how to fly their new 777’s and 747’s.
Save the Sun Break Café!
July 6, 2010
On Father’s Day, my family and I had a late breakfast at the Sun Break Café in Auburn, just a couple of blocks from City Hall and the train station. After a great meal, the owner, Bruce, told me that his charming restaurant had been declared “blighted.” With that designation, with 60 days notice, by the power of eminent domain, the city of Auburn could force him to sell his restaurant to the city for the price of the land only to allow a developer to tear down the restaurant and build an apartment building.
Because we’ve seen this type of abuse of the power of eminent domain in other states, during the most recent legislative session, State Attorney General Rob McKenna proposed bills to limit eminent domain as a tool of economic development and limit the power to define blight. However, these bills never received hearings, because the chairman of the Local Government and Housing Committee said his hearing schedule had filled up. And he faulted the Attorney General for not providing the argument that the law changes are necessary.
That committee chairman happens to be our current state representative. For the sake of the Sun Break Café, I am more passionate than ever in my commitment to being elected to replace him.
Mark Hargrove Decides to Run Again in 2010
October 14, 2009
By the fall of 2010, Geoff Simpson will have completed 10 years as our State Representative. How do you think our state government has done during his 10 years? When I decided to run against Mr. Simpson in 2008, it was because I had already seen several blatant examples where he did not represent my friends and neighbors in the 47th District.
Since that election he and his majority party continue their excessive taxing and spending, putting off responsible budgeting until another time. In the 2009 session, after spending away the largest surplus in state history and facing the $9 billion deficit they created, they were only able to reach a constitutionally required balanced budget by accepting billions of dollars in federal bailout money, raising a number of fees, reducing payments to pension funds by millions and raiding millions more from other accounts. Amid all the budget chaos, the real level of the priority of our education system was revealed, as teachers across the state have been laid off and class sizes have increased.
Perhaps most unrepresentative of our district, Mr. Simpson personally co-sponsored the house bill to grant equal status to homosexual partners as legitimately married couples, which will cost employers millions in benefits to these partners. The senate version of this bill was signed into law but will ultimately be decided by the voters when Referendum 71 is on the ballot in November 2009.
Of the 52,146 votes cast in the 47th district last election, 24,707 or 47.38% were for Mark Hargrove. Since Mr. Simpson raised and spent about $340,000, most of it from outside the district, and outspent me 8:1, I’m sure some of those who voted for Mr. Simpson were swayed by his literature that flooded our mailboxes, rather than by looking at his actual record in Olympia.
Campaigning is hard work, so it took a while for me to decide to run again. But it is worth it to ensure that we are again properly represented in Olympia. While I undoubtedly will not be able to raise the money Mr. Simpson raises from outside our district to again fill your mailboxes, there’s a good chance I’ll be knocking on your door sometime this year, so you can personally meet someone to represent you who shares your values and priorities.
As in the last election, Mr. Simpson will not be able to find fault with my priorities as most people in the district will agree with them. Therefore, he will likely once again warn the voters to stick with a “proven, experienced” legislator and not take a chance on a newcomer. To this I must respond:
- Our government was intended to be run by citizen legislators, not career politicians. You don’t need a degree in politics (or a degree at all, in Mr. Simpson’s case) to do this job. But my engineering degree from the United States Air Force Academy does serve me well from time to time.
- Would you rather have a representative with “experience” in promoting legislation that is against your values, or a newcomer whose values and priorities match yours?
- Every great legislator who ever served was inexperienced at one time, even Mr. Simpson. How will you ever get better representation if you stick with the same old guy? You may have heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results!
Thomas Jefferson said, “Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes, and 2. Those who identify with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depository of the public interests.”
Our state government has been in the hands of those in the first category for some time now. To return to our former greatness, we need to elect those of the second category. I would be proud to represent you, my friends and neighbors, in whom I have confidence.
Kent School District – A Letter to the Editor
September 1, 2009
My two daughters attended Crestwood Elementary, Mattson Junior High, Kentwood High School, and graduated from WWU and UW. Our older daughter teaches math at Auburn High School and my wife, Sandy, has both taught and subbed at Auburn. I also taught math for three years at the Air Force Academy Prep School, before I came to Boeing, where I am a 747 and 777 instructor pilot.
My wife and I recently went online and looked up various teachers’ and principals’ salaries. I’m aware of the district’s elimination of vice-principals and other cuts totaling $3.4 million, and the federal stimulus money (the idea of which is repugnant to me).
I am also very familiar with the deplorable conditions some of our teachers face in their classrooms. I have sat in my wife’s and daughter’s classrooms at Auburn High School the day before class started, gluing bindings on math books, so they would have enough usable copies for the classroom, but not enough that students could take them home to do their homework.
I understand that State Representatives Geoff Simpson and Pat Sullivan wrote nice letters encouraging the district and teachers to come to an agreement. Well these letters are a nice gesture, but are a bit insulting. These legislators know that the state constitution states, “It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.” But when they were handed the largest budget surplus in state history, the legislature went on a spending binge, resulting in a projected $9 billion deficit. (No, the economic downturn had very little to do with the deficit. The numbers show that this was a spending problem, not a revenue problem.)
Then, despite receiving billions of dollars in federal bailout money, choosing to not fund pension accounts, raiding money from other accounts and raising numerous fees, they still chose to cut the education budget by $710 million. In effect Mr. Simpson’s and Mr. Sullivan’s letters said, “We spent the money that could have averted this strike on things we thought were more important. So it’s up to you to come up with a solution.”
Unfortunately, we are stuck with these representatives for another legislative session. But I am running to replace Mr. Simpson in 2010. When I am elected, I propose that the legislature needs to do at least four things:
- The Kent School District currently receives $800 less per student than the Seattle and Bellevue School Districts. Multiplied by 26,000+ students in the KSD, that amounts to over $20 million! I am for re-evaluating whether funds are being equitably distributed among the districts.
- Performance audits by State Auditor Brian Sonntag have revealed millions in potential savings. I am for acting on these recommendations.
- I am for downsizing the current top-heavy state education bureaucracy. We should have at least as many teachers in our education system as we do other employees! After all, when we spend about $11,000 per student per year, that’s over a quarter of a million dollars per classroom! But only $.59 of each of those dollars actually make it to the classroom. In addition to the economic drain by this bureaucracy, the constant meetings and micromanagement from levels far above drain any incentive from teachers eager to teach young minds.
- The money that is saved by these recommendations should be sent directly to the schools where those in the classrooms can best determine how to spend it.
Our legislature left us in a tough situation for the time being. But in the 2010 election, we will have a chance to make things better. The teachers’ unions typically support the Democrat majority party in our current state legislature. But the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It’s time to try somebody different!
Thanks,
Mark Hargrove
Covington
