Recent Blog Entries
Elected and Serving
February 14, 2011
On November 2nd, 2010, I was elected to represent the people of the 47th District in Olympia. There is so much going on in the legislature that I find it would be very easy to fill every day with good work, but never get around to doing the most important things that I talked about during the campaign. So I am making a conscious effort to make sure I focus on those issues. Therefore, I will not have time to update this website during the legislative session. However, I will be updating my legislative website, http://houserepublicans.wa.gov/members/mark-hargrove/. On that website you can also watch my weekly video updates or sign up to receive regular email updates and see how to email or call me at the legislature. Thank you for the honor of representing you.
Restoring Honor to Olympia
October 28, 2010
Kent Reporter: Endorsements for State Legislature
October 28, 2010
The Kent Reporter has joined the chorus of area newspapers, community leaders, and friends and neighbors by endorsing Mark Hargrove:
Our choice: Challenger Mark Hargrove (Republican)
While Hargrove has some worrisome inclinations when it comes to state funding of schools, we think he would do a better job representing this district than his incumbent opponent Geoff Simpson.
Unfortunately as regards Simpson, there is a 600-pound gorilla in the campaign picture: his legal entanglements involving an alleged domestic-violence issue. Regardless of the outcome, it’s a dark cloud over the good work he has done in the past as our state representative.
Further, the Municipal League has given Simpson an “adequate” rating this year, down from “very good” in the last election, in 2008. Hargrove this year received a “good” rating, up from “adequate” in 2008, when he ran against Simpson for the same seat.
Hargrove’s stated mission of cutting back on government spending is laudable, but it makes you wonder about his ability to actually focus on specific issues outside that mission. We find his statement below overly simplistic:
“We spend about $11,000 per student per year on education, about the national average. If I gave my daughter, who teaches math at Auburn High School, all of the third of a million dollars we spent on her students, she could rent classroom space, provide top-notch materials and instruction, and be thrilled with her huge paycheck.”
If elected, hopefully Hargrove will be able to temper his zeal for cutting funding with the complex and real needs of our schools and other publicly funded institutions.
Auburn Reporter: Poor Political Tactics
October 26, 2010
A letter to the Auburn Reporter explains the money laundering behind the attack ads that have been appearing in your mailbox lately:
In the mail this week, voters received the predictable attack ads on the 47th District Republican candidates. Accusations are lodged that are clearly false and designed to make some voters think the candidates are unsuitable for office. The originators apparently think the voters are too stupid to see through this.
The ads were sent by three Political Action Committees (PACs): Independence PAC, Families PAC and Together PAC. All have the same Auburn address. Each of these PACs show the top and only contributor is another PAC: Unity PAC, Basic PAC and Succeed PAC, respectively. This is a political shell game to try to evade the state law requiring advertising show the contributors to the advertising.
Behind the ads is a political consulting firm called Moxie Media. When you pull back the shells they all lead to unions and special interest groups such as NARAL, Planned Parenthood and the Roosevelt Fund, an arm of the Democratic Legislative Committee.
Moxie Media is already under investigation by the Public Disclosure Commission for pulling this same ruse in August that may or may not have led to the defeat of Sen. Jean Berkey. They knew they were accused of violating as many as six state laws before they put out these ads in the 47th district.
As voters, we should be so repulsed by this sort of political tactic that we vote for the targets. In this case, Mark Hargrove and Joe Fain.
James West
Auburn
Trust
October 20, 2010
