You say County Commissioner John Dean “has kept a cool head and performed well under difficult circumstances,” but you’re endorsing his opponent Kelly Emerson, who you say is “clearly naïve” about some of her ideas for county government. She believes there’s fat in the budget, but she doesn’t know where it is because she hasn’t studied the budget. “I’m not being paid to do that yet,” she explained.

She does know that she wants to cut funding for mental health and senior services, and she is opposed to a clean water tax: $23 per parcel, to replace the $62 septic inspection fee. The county’s surface water testing found that 76 percent of the watersheds tested exceed the state’s fecal coliform standard. I for one think clean water is worth $23 a year.

Although John Dean, who has lived in Island County 30 years and has “performed with diligence and patience through the turmoil” of the county’s deep budget crisis, you think he needs to be replaced because he is a Democrat. Emerson, who has lived here only three years, might be “blind to the facts” and might “become just an obstructionist” on the board, but you think we need her there because she is a Republican.

Am I reading you right? Are you seriously suggesting that a Tea Party Republican might succeed where Democrats have failed to convince conservative residents that their property taxes need to be raised?

Or did your humor column accidentally get printed in the editorial slot?

Ann Adams

Oak Harbor