The Spokesman headline reads,”…trust amassed over broadcast career.” It’s a long article about Nadine Woodward’s mayoral candidacy. It appears on the front page of the Sunday, October 13, edition. It is worth reading and contemplating, along with the companion article on Ben Stuckart‘s candidacy.
On what are we supposed to base this trust? The Spokesman article offers an answer, “trust she’s earned over more than 25 years beamed into the living rooms of Spokane families.” I don’t see that as trust, I see that as facial recognition.
In the same article Ms. Woodward is quoted, “It’s really hard to run nonpartisan and only discuss issues that affect the city,” I agree. The voters of the City of Spokane who rejected Cathy McMorris Rodgers by a 14 point margin in the 2018 General Election may be skeptical of candidate wearing a visible “R”. Ms. Woodward must make sure Republican voters understand her Republican bonafides while she dodges issues to which Independents and Democrats pay attention.
Observe her strategy with WeBelieveWeVote, the locally grown far right litmus test folk, with whom she only garners a rating of 60%. Click here to see her survey answers on which the rating is based. The litmus test questions for which they docked her 40 points were four questions, one each on guns, abortion, marriage, and discrimination. She declined to answer, writing instead, “As a candidate in the nonpartisan race for Spokane Mayor, I will only focus on local issues that pertain to city government and not national issues.” [1]
Sorry, Ms. Woodward, guns, abortion, marriage, and discrimination ARE local issues. You can have personal opinions about those issues, but what we need to know is whether you, as Mayor of Spokane, plan to enforce the law through your supervisory role over the police department.
Ms. Woodward is a candidate for the office of Mayor, the executive branch of Spokane City government, the branch that “executes” the laws through its control of the police department. Reproductive rights–and their protection–ARE a local issue.
Although it has been little reported in the media the Planned Parenthood Clinic on Indiana Ave. has been the site of increasingly raucous, intrusive protests from the “The Church at Planned Parenthood,” a group that claims it is “worshipping” rather than protesting as a defense of its tactics of intimidation and disruption. So would Ms. Woodward, as mayor, make any effort to enforce a frequently violated noise ordinance? In response to question on that is from the Spokesman she “declines to comment.” [2] We are asked to “trust” in the TV face while the person behind that face declines to discuss real issues.
Is Nadine sympathetic to the “worshipers” or to the patients and medical staff they harass with their megaphones? Does she respect the rule of law around a noise ordinance or does she defer to the “worshipers?” She’s not saying. All we can do is look for clues.
“The Church of Planned Parenthood” (TCAPP) is the brainchild of Pastor Ken Peters of the Covenant Church. On the list of other pastors fueling TCAPP is John Repsold (click here and look at the bottom left of the page), the principal pastor of Mosaic Spokane. Thanks to the marvels of google search, we can read a Repsold sermon one paragraph of which addresses Ms. Woodward’s background with reference to reproductive rights. [At that sermon, use CMD-F and key in “Nadine” to locate the paragraph]. The paragraph is a recounting of a story Ms. Woodward told at a “Life Services” dinner at which she spoke several years ago. Life Services Spokane is a “pregnancy resource center” designed to steer woman with unplanned pregnancies away from the “trauma” and “shame” of abortion. [Under “-For Churches” they write, “Half of all women, even Christian women, will experience at least one unintended pregnancy by the age of 45. Of those, 40% will choose abortion.” The trauma and shame we are to imagine come from not accepting one’s fate as God’s intent for women, regardless of life circumstances or the condition of the fetus.]
Certainly, Ms. Woodward holds strong views on the issue of abortion, having spoken of her own at a public dinner in support of Life Services. Clearly, she, as mayor of Spokane, would face the issue of enforcing the law around intrusive, megaphone magnified, frequent protests. She’s not saying. We’re supposed to “trust” her TV persona. I’m not ready to trust her and I don’t think the other voters of Spokane should, either.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
[1] Ben Stuckart, Lori Kinnear, and Karen Stratton simply declined to participate in WeBelieveWeVote’s litmus test survey, Breean Beggs gamely waded in with lengthy, reasoned answers but refused to engage the litmus-test checklist–and got a zero rating for his effort.
[2] From Planned Parenthood has drawn protests. Are those protests protected by free speech, or a safety hazard that violates city noise ordinance?
Stuckart said, “We should be equally enforcing the law, and if they are violating noise ordinances, they should be cited.”
Woodward declined to comment.