It’s amazing Sen. Haugen is trying to take credit for saving us from a sex offender! The whole thing was her mess in the first place. It’s just like the ferries: make a mess then take credit for trying to clean it up.

The reason the department tried bringing the sex offender back to Oak Harbor was because Haugen helped pass legislation forcing the state to put offenders back in their home communities. Haugen voted twice in 2007 for the bad law. (SB 6157, 4/20/2007, 4/22/2007).

This isn’t the first time Sen. Haugen has put sex offenders ahead of our safety. In 2001, she voted to place sex offender housing throughout the state (SB 6151, 6/20/2001). In 2002, she voted to allow the Department of Social and Health Services to override local concerns about the placement of sex offender halfway homes (SB 6594, 2/19/2002). She also voted against giving communities $1.8 million to deal with sex offenders by reducing funding the training retreats and conferences by $2 million (SB 6387 Am. 845, 3/9/2002).

We should put victims first, not sex offenders. Sen. Haugen just doesn’t get it.

Lee Youngblood

Oak Harbor