A Sept. 1 story reported: “Benton’s ballyhooed management experience is hazy.” So The Columbian thinks they’ve exposed a lack of management experience on the part of Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver? On the contrary, they’ve clearly shown he’s a consummate manager.
He managed to structure his affairs so as to divert nearly $18,000 out of $100,000 in campaign contributions into his own pocket, or perhaps I should say into the revenue column of his home-based business. That’s an 18 percent conversion rate of money that he would otherwise not be permitted to spend on himself. Apparently it’s not illegal, so soon every politician can be expected to set up a home-based agency to place their ads. This is management genius — a way to take almost 20 cents of every campaign dollar donated and put it into a personal bank account. I’m sure the other politicos will be so grateful to Benton for showing them how that they’ll probably name a bridge after him. I’ve got one in mind.
Speaking of management genius, he managed to convince a couple of cronies — David Madore and Tom Mielke– to hire him to do a management job for which he was unqualified. He’ll get over $100,000 a year for that.
If that’s not management genius, I don’t know what is.
Kenneth Campbell
Vancouver
