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local legislative races | Candidate profiles for 45th Legislative District, Pos. 2 [6-7]
FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2012
of Redmond 2012
SPORTS | Competitive racing, family fun converge at Marymoor Park Velodrome [8]
BEST OF REDMOND | Check out the winners of this year’s Reader Choice Awards [12-13]
Southeast Redmond post office scratched from cut list
1ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT DEBATE AT MICROSOFT
Consolidation efforts save S.E. facility from closure, USPS says Samantha Pak spak@redmond-reporter.com
1st Congressional District candidates, from left, Democrats Darcy Burner, Suzan DelBene and Steve Hobbs, Republican John Koster and Democrats Darshan Rauniyar and Laura Ruderman participated in a political debate at Microsoft in Redmond on Wednesday. During the lightning round, they were asked if they supported charter schools, Hobbs and Koster were the only ones who responded yes. Samantha Pak, Redmond Reporter
Candidates state their case for office Rebuilding trust and the economy key issues at 1st Congressional debate Samantha Pak spak@redmond-reporter.com
On Wednesday afternoon, six of the seven candidates in the 1st Congressional District race faced off in a debate at the Microsoft, Corp. campus in Redmond. Democrats Darcy Burner, Suzan DelBene, Steve Hobbs, Darshan Rauniyar and Laura Ruderman and Republican John Koster participated in the debate, which was presented by Seattle City Club and Microsoft. The race’s seventh candidate is Independent and Red-
mond resident Larry Ishmael, who did not attend the debate. The debate was moderated by Joni Balter, an editorial writer from the Seattle Times, who questioned the candidates on various topics including the issue they are most concerned about and would want to address if elected. Burner said she wants to bring democracy back to the people. “If there is one thing that I would like to be identified with, it’s this idea that we need to restore government of, by and for the people — not government of, bought and paid for by large corporations and multimillionaires,” she said. DelBene said she wants to stand up for the middle class and get the economy moving again. She
touched on her family’s experience with unemployment, explaining how they moved around the country after her father lost his job and how her parents moved in with her after she finished college because they didn’t have another place to go. DelBene also stressed the importance of education and how that led to a career where she could take care of her family. “That’s what everyone wants and that’s what everyone’s struggling for right now,” she said. “And I’m not sure if I were growing up now I could tell that same story.” Hobbs said he wants to bring civility back into politics because the country and Congress are broken. “Everyone’s trying to one-up one another,” he said. “We’re in a crisis
where we need to have someone who can bring people together … I’ve done it in Olympia, where I brought Republicans and Democrats together to create a bipartisan budget that protects the most vulnerable, protects education. I want to bring that to the other Washington.” Koster, the lone Republican in the debate and the race, said he believes the solutions to the nation’s issues are found in people, not in bigger government programs. “(If) we set free, the creative juices of the American people and allow them to innovate and allow them to create and allow them to go out and create businesses and provide goods and services for [ more CANDIDATES page 2 ]
The relocation of retail operation services from the closing post office in downtown Redmond has taken the Southeast Redmond post office off a national list of post offices that could potentially close next year. Ernie Swanson, a spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) Seattle district, said a couple other things have factored into this decision. First, he said the location at 7241 185th Ave. N.E. in Redmond will now be the only post office in town now that retail operation services will be moved there and begin at their new location on Monday. Second, the Southeast Redmond location is a delivery distribution center where Eastside-bound mail coming in from Seattle is sorted before it is distributed throughout northeast King County. Swanson said if the Southeast Redmond location were to close, this mail would be sorted in Seattle. It made sense to keep operations on the Eastside since they would be serving cities east of Lake Washington, he said. [ more USPS page 4 ]
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