In the wake of Tuesday’s election, Clark County’s political leadership is as conservative as it’s ever been, with Republicans picking up seats formerly held by Democrats.
Across the nation and in Southwest Washington, the Republican strategy worked. That was evident in Clark County, where Republicans outnumber Democrats and worked hard to get out the vote.
They micro-targeted voters and then made sure to get their message across.
“Republicans got better at their ground game this election,” said Carolyn Long, a political scientist at WSU Vancouver. Three examples:
o Republican state House candidate Lynda Wilson, the former county GOP chairwoman, beat incumbent Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, in what was seen as a “swing” district in east Vancouver.
o Clark County commissioner candidate Craig Pridemore, a Democrat, conceded Friday to Jeanne Stewart. He led on election night, but the late votes went Stewart’s way.
o Shane Gardner, a nonpartisan candidate with the backing of Democrats, acknowledged defeat to Republican Chuck Atkins in the sheriff’s race on Thursday.
If the pendulum is swinging to the right, many view Republican DavidMadore as one of the people responsible. He spent freely in 2012, primarily on his own campaign, and continued to do so in 2014.
That’s a frightening sign for Democrats, who may have trouble matching big-money donations moving forward.
Hundreds of family members, friends and some caring strangers crowded a grassy berm Friday night to mourn 7-year-old Cadence Boyer, who died after being struck by a car on Halloween.
“The support is overwhelming,” said her grandfather, Kevin Boyer. “There’s people here I don’t know.”
He wore a T-shirt, with a picture of Cadence making a funny face, that said “my little princess.” He recalls asking his granddaughter to make the face, so he could snap a photo. “She said, ‘Grandpa, will you hurry up? My face will stay like this.'”
Flowers and balloons crowded the base of a maple tree at the crash site, which witnesses said was spread out along Northeast 112th Avenue in east Vancouver. A motorist driving by honked and waved at the gatherers, who carried candlelights.
On Halloween, a Ford Mustang veered off Northeast 112th Avenue and drove up onto the sidewalk, striking a utility pole and Cadence, along with her mother, Annie Arnold, 32; a 6-year-old girl; and a family friend, Chelina Alsteen, 30.
The four of them were rushed to local hospitals. Cadence was taken off life support Sunday.
William Sobolewski holds a stronger connection to the Fort Vancouver National Site than most: He was born there, in what used to be called the “Station Hospital.”
So it’s no surprise that Sobolewski, an Army veteran, is now a regular at the Lough Legacy Veterans Parade at Fort Vancouver. He joined the crowds for the 28th installment of the annual celebration under brilliant skies Saturday.
“I come pretty much yearly,” said Sobolewski, who watched the parade with his wife, Mary.
Onlookers of all ages watched as marching bands, Scout troops, veterans and others strolled in front of Officers Row, then looped around the south end of the Fort Vancouver grounds. After a morning fog lifted, American flags waved against a backdrop of bright autumn leaves on the historic site.
“I feel honored to be a veteran,” said Sobolewski, who now lives in Camas. “Where else can you get all this celebrity status?”
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction: A printer that doesn’t ink words or images onto a flat page, but squirts out 3-D objects.
Well, 3-D printing is real. And a Vancouver startup called ProtoPlant is banking on this technology. The company recently used a successful Kickstarter campaign to launch a brand of 3-D printer filaments, called ProtoPasta.
“A 3-D printer is kind of like a computer-controlled hot-melt glue gun,” said Dustin Cram, founder and owner of ProtoPlant.
In keeping with that analogy, the filaments are basically the glue stick that a 3-D printer melts and shapes to form an object.
High-end 3-D printers are used by large corporations and can cost $500,000 or more. But in the past several years, “low-end” 3-D printers have been selling for as little as $500 to $3,000.
There are “several hundred thousand of them out there, in people’s homes,” Cram said.
Cram said some buyers of low-end machines have their own ideas for inventions, and want to be able to manufacture and tweak their designs. Others use 3-D printers for art projects or to create custom toys.
“We’re trying to expand what consumers can do with affordable 3-D printers,” Cram said.
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He teamed with his brother, Alex, who is a computer programmer and ProtoPlant’s only other employee. One year ago, the brothers held a fundraiser on the crowdsourcing site Kickstarter. Their goal was to raise $25,000 to launch a new line of 3-D printing filaments. In one month, the pair raised $36,435 from 500 backers, including more than 30 people who chipped in more than $200 each.
Breathing runs Calvin Biery about $50 a month. That’s the power bill, which runs his CPAP machine, he said.
Given the constellation of health and other problems Biery struggles with, he said: “I’m lucky to be alive.”
It’s more than luck. It’s taxpayer support. The way things are now, Biery couldn’t possibly afford to keep himself housed, fed and breathing without public assistance.
But budget-reduction scenarios developed by two state agencies that were directed to figure out how to live with less mean that thousands of people like Biery may soon face the same problem. Here in Clark County, perhaps as many as 200 of the most personally vulnerable low-income people — who are one step away from homelessness and whose temporary disability prevents them for working — could wind up on the street, according to Share Vancouver.
That’s the local nonprofit agency that administers a state program called Housing and Essential Needs, which provides sliding-scale housing assistance to temporarily disabled people facing “extreme economic hardship.” There are approximately 200 Clark County residents now receiving HEN support, according to Share program director Amy Reynolds. According to the state Department of Commerce, in any given month there are approximately 7,500 statewide.
But Housing and Essential Needs’ total caseload could more than triple, to nearly 31,000 — a rise of 333 percent — even while its budget grows by just 13 percent, if scenarios developed by state agencies become reality.
Debra Robillard, a former broadcast journalist who worked in radio and television news for a decade, was homeless in Vancouver for about a year. She spent last winter sleeping on church floors thanks to the local Winter Hospitality Overflow shelter effort, and she’s just managed to rent her own apartment. Meanwhile, Robillard has been feeding herself thanks partially to a state food benefit for low-income people — a program called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, generally known as food stamps.
But Robillard’s food benefit was slashed roughly in half for November and December. That’s because of a change in federal law, according to the state Department of Social and Health Services, and it is already affecting as many as 200,000 of the 600,000 SNAP recipients in Washington state. In Clark County, DSHS estimates, 12,700 households are affected.
When Robillard went to the state DSHS office at Tower Mall in Vancouver the other day, she said, she learned that her monthly benefit for November and December will be $83. She said that her benefit used to be approximately $200 a month until federal budget cuts took hold a year ago, when they went down to $170.
The small-business health insurance marketplace offered only in Clark and Cowlitz counties in 2014 will expand to include the rest of the state in 2015, allowing businesses with 25 employees or fewer to purchase health plans and cash in on a 50 percent tax credit.
The small-business exchange will offer more options for Southwest Washington employers than the rest of the state — unlike the individual insurance exchange where Clark County residents have fewer options than residents in most other counties.
On the state-based business exchange, called Washington Healthplanfinder Business, Moda Health will offer 14 plans across the state. Kaiser Health Plan of the Northwest will offer nine additional plans in Clark and Cowlitz counties, for a total of 23 plans in those two counties.
“We are thrilled to launch our statewide offering for small businesses in Washington this year,” said Richard Onizuka, chief executive officer for the exchange. “With the addition of Moda Health, we’re confident that employers will be able to find a qualified health plan that’s right for their employees and their budget.”
Washington Healthplanfinder Business is open to small businesses in the state with 50 or fewer employees. Businesses with 25 or fewer employees may also be eligible for a 50 percent tax credit if they meet employee participation requirements.
Washington Healthplanfinder intended to launch its business exchange statewide last October, but only Kaiser submitted plans for the exchange. So, for the last year, the business exchange has only been available in Clark and Cowlitz counties.
“It’s been really valuable to have the experience with the two counties and working with Kaiser,” said Catherine Bailey, director of the business exchange. “It’s really provided us with an excellent almost-pilot for the rest of the state.”
Eleven businesses — nearly all in Clark County — are currently enrolled with the business exchange and providing health coverage to 40 employees, Bailey said.
