Dear Editor:

I just read this past week’s Vidette article where our US Representative Derek Kilmer “bemoans partisan divide” and a few other items. Well as an old guy in his 70’s, who is also a descendant of Olympic Peninsula pioneers from the Sequim area, I wish to point out a few things about Rep Kilmer’s voting record. If you want to know a person, watch what they do, not what they say.

He shouldn’t bemoan gerrymandering. If it wasn’t for that little odd and out of place tail tacked on to the 6th district east of Shelton, that just happens to pick up Gig Harbor and a piece of Tacoma, he wouldn’t even live in the 6th district.

He bemoans the partisan divide. To him the focus isn’t on the leadership, but to have a more functional Congress. But his voting record shows he is a good Democrat soldier doing just what the Party leadership says. After watching his voting record for years, I see no significant break from the “Lock Step Democratic Party Vote”.

As examples; His concern for us poor working stiffs led him to vote with the party against the recent Tax Reform Act that has helped millions of us keep a job or find one. Yet as a citizen he will benefit from the act. His stated concern about how the high cost of flood insurance is a reason for slow economic growth in our Grays Harbor region must be why he voted once again with the party against the Flood Insurance Reform Act. This act would have allowed states to set up subsidy assistance programs for home owners or individuals set up flood savings plans.

Rep Kilmer’s stand on terrorism and his concern for us is, I’m sure, what lead him to vote with his party against the World Bank Accountability Act. This simple reform allows the Secretary of the Treasury to with hold funds supporting the World Bank if the bank loans to countries the US has stated supports terrorism. Part of cut off the terrorism funds effort. And by not supporting the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, he has voted with the party to allow babies, who survive the abortion, to be denied qualified medical attention in order to live. Presently a doctor can just walk away.

There are many more examples of Rep Kilmer’s partisanship. Readers just need to do a little research to see it. Like I said, look at what they do, not what they say.

Respectfully

Mick Jones of Brady

Milton Jones of Montesano