First, I want to assure the letter writer that I wish them nothing but the best. I’ve worked directly on homelessness issues and find it a totally unacceptable problem to have in the richest country in the history of the world. Sadly, none of the candidates that made it through the primaries seem to share this view. While I am always happy to hear that Sharon Shewmake has done something benevolent, at the end of the day, it’s all about donors and money.
Sharon gets her money from developers and real-estate tycoons who have intentionally driven up the cost of housing. Excessive housing costs have pushed many people into poverty and homelessness.
Sharon is hosting an upcoming fundraiser at the offices of Berkshire Hathaway Bayside Reality. (See the flyer/invite above.) She has a history of receiving funding from local developers, like Hammer Properties. A quick advanced search on open-secrets.org will show that many of her donations come from real estate interests, including money from our former mayor, Kelli Linville, who is largely responsible for the current situation of struggling working class people in Whatcom County.
Then there’s the issue of multiple property tax increases which Sharon has never opposed, including during the pandemic when many didn’t and couldn’t work. But not even a global pandemic could stay our representative’s hand when it came to taxes. Middle-class Whatcom County is moving away because it has become too expensive to live here. Is this an example of why we should vote for Corporate Democrats?
She also gets money from “New Direction PAC.” —a long established Corporate Democrat/Special Interest Super PAC. It’s worth checking out.
And there’s money from big telecom interests. Which is why Commissioner Deshmane commented that she, “doesn’t consider broadband to be in her wheelhouse.” In other words, she doesn’t want to annoy her special interest donors. But guess who is most affected by lack of access to public broadband. The homeless.
Further, Sharon is all about arming the police and did not oppose the purchase of their second tank. Guess who is more likely to encounter the business end of one of these tanks or militarized officers? A homeless person, particularly a homeless person of color. So, much for police reform and Black Lives Matter from the local Democrats.
Our public officials abandoned us during the pandemic and I believe the man that wrote the NWCitizen letter is still homeless. In our dollar-driven system, elected officials who want to win need to do what it takes to appease their special interest donors. They can say whatever they want to the public, just as long as they do what it takes. After all, talk is cheap. And that’s all our officials seem to do.
