Letter: Hannold alienated largest bloc of Whidbey voters

Published 1:30 am Saturday, May 28, 2022

Editor,

Rick Hannold just completely disqualified himself from being county commissioner. As in, just not up to the job. In the May 25 newspaper, it reported that Hannold announced to a conservative gathering that “what the Board of County Commissioners needs is a man.”

Now, you may think that I’m about to say that the reason Hannold has demonstrated his lack of suitability to be county commissioner is because his statement does sort of suggest that he’s a sexist or maybe a misogynist or at has at least seriously “misspoke,” a common symptom of the politician-foot-in-mouth-disease pandemic these days. But it’s not. Nope. It’s way more basic than that.

Did you know that more women vote than men? Make of it what you will, but female voters not only outnumber male voters, but they turnout to vote more often. So, how much common sense, not to mention the ability to count your fingers and toes, does it take to not alienate over half the potential voters at the start of a political campaign? Or is it part of a deliberate strategy? Maybe Rick Hannold is just following the advice of his campaign advisors and didn’t realize what he was saying. That’s certainly possible if Hannold has long politician-foot-in-mouth-disease. But still strongly suggesting not being up to the task of running county government.

Now, I realize that I am apt to trigger a slew of folks who will say that I’m just being politically correct for saying that six women voters are more than five men voters. But I still have all 10 fingers and all 10 toes. You can count on that.

Steve Erickson

Clinton