Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, could serve her constituents’ interests better by being a little more nuanced. In a Nov. 26 Columbian interview, “Herrera Beutler: Sights are set on second term,” she interpreted recent election results to mean “the voters in Clark County just said they don’t like the transit portion of the CRC enough to pay for it.” Not true. Many of us (who strongly support a light rail CRC) voted against C-Tran’s proposed method of paying for ongoing maintenance costs — not against light rail per se. We think C-Tran can come up with better solutions.
I’d like to believe that Herrera Beutler already knows this (she indicated openness to light rail during her campaign), and that she, and her Republican colleagues, were not just looking for a pretext to bolster their opposition to “the transit portion.”
Come on, Jaime, please don’t make fools of those of us who want to trust and work with you on making Clark County the best that it can be.
Paul Lambshead
Vancouver
