ELECTION: Tacoma doesn’t need ‘Chamber candidate’
Re: “Is fear of ‘Chamber candidate’ for City Council warranted?” (Matt Driscoll column, 7-23).
In a word: Yes.
Corporate lobbyists already control most of the decision-making in Washington, D.C. In the states, including Washington, ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) is a powerful, corporate bill mill that writes many of the bills presented before state legislatures. There are at least 16 members of ALEC in the Washington state Legislature, men and women who were elected by citizens but who have strong ties to corporate interests.
Now the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce wants its own representative on the Tacoma City Council to represent business interests. Individual business owners each have a vote in the election. Isn’t that enough? Apparently not.
Five candidates running for two City Council seats have received funding from the Tacoma-Pierce County Business PAC. It’s possible that designated business interests will occupy at least two of the seven council seats.
Are we going to let that happen?
This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 2:04 PM with the headline "ELECTION: Tacoma doesn’t need ‘Chamber candidate’."