Give us answers, Rossi

District 8 candidate Dino Rossi wants everyone to know that he supports low taxes. Also, he has a nice smile. His shallow campaign is insult to all of us.

Every week, my social media feed includes “GoFundMe” pages for someone’s medical or college bills – how will another tax cut pay for better healthcare or affordable college? He mocks opposing candidate Dr. Kim Schrier for supporting Medicare for All because it would cost me over $3,000 a year in taxes. My household’s current health insurance is almost five times that.

My extended family in Texas and South Carolina live in communities rebuilding from hurricanes. Thousands died in Puerto Rico due to inadequate emergency response. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security is taking money out of emergency management and putting it into prison camps for children, including babies and toddlers. We don’t have hurricanes here, Dino, but did you notice how hard it was to breathe with all the wildfire smoke in your district this summer? Will tax cuts reduce the impacts of climate change and lead us to a humane and realistic border policy?

My Eastside neighbors include people who’ve come from all over the world to work for world-class companies like Microsoft and Amazon, or to study or research at the University of Washington and its many spin-off businesses and foundations. Some are refugees from war-torn lands. As President Donald Trump reduces immigration and makes it harder to get and keep visas and green cards, what will happen to their contributions to our way of life?

Tell us how you will unite Americans of all faiths when a mosque or temple is desecrated. Talk about how you will respond to our demands for gun safety after so many senseless mass shootings. Give us a plan for justice for survivors of sexual assault and harassment, rather than the current system which punishes the victims further. Your line about “I’m not running for The Apprentice” is cute, but we still don’t know your views on checks and balances and where, specifically, you believe we need to check our president and where you support his vision.

How about showing up at some public town halls? I know you were invited to multiple bipartisan events, including two down the street from me at the Issaquah Highlands. Your failure to show up says more about your interest in meeting people from across the aisle than any campaign slogan.

There is more to this life than hoarding money. We’re running out of time to have some important conversations before ballots are due.

Janet Carson

Sammamish

Twisted ads hurt voters

District 8 candidate Dr. Kim Schrier is a knowledgeable, articulate candidate to replace Rep. Dave Reichert. She takes positions I find make sense for our district on all the issues from climate Change and education, to gun safety and national security.

But we aren’t hearing about them through the noisy deluge of false TV advertising attacks centering on Schrier’s career and issues irrelevant to the campaign. The source is Paul Ryan’s Super PAC and designed to help elect Dino Rossi. The misfortune for us, the voters, is this campaign has driven Schrier’s campaign to spend time and assets defending against the truth-twisting charges. She shouldn’t be on TV defending an open-book career in medicine. Turn about would have been finding false grounds to force Dino Rossi to defend his career in commercial real estate. Rossi went along on the low road.

Further, we aren’t getting a fleshed-out campaign from Rossi. Obviously he believes unnecessary exposure will only hurt his chances of winning and help hers. That’s why he dodged Schrier’s many calls for multiple debates — finally agreeing to one in Ellensburg. No other reason makes sense.

Those of us who admired fresh-faced pediatrician Schrier’s courage when she filed for the race, but doubted she had the toughness to combat against Dino Rossi’s long no-holds barred experience, know now we were wrong about that too.

The latest is her response to his TV airing of false claims about her career and stand on issues. I find her advertising claiming mischief in his commercial real estate ventures totally believable because that’s the nature of that business. We have to look no further than President Donald Trump’s record in the same field. Birds of a feather flocking together.

Dave Olson

Issaquah

Do what lawmakers refuse to do

As an ER nurse and a former police officer, I have witnessed the devastating effects of gun violence and improper use of firearms. Enough is enough. Our legislators collectively refuse to act — it is time for us to do so.

Just like in the two previous general elections of 2014 and 2016, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility has placed a voter initiative on this year’s General Election ballot.

This year’s initiative, I-1639, is focused on four main areas of enhanced gun safety: raising the age to purchase semi-automatic rifles to 21, applying the same system that is already in place for background checks for a concealed pistol license in Washington to purchasers of semi-automatic rifles, requiring completion of a firearm safety training course within five years, and creating statewide standards for dangerous firearm access prevention.

This is an initiative that is specifically designed to keep our communities and state safe from gun violence.

In July 2016, in the beach community of Mukilteo, 19-year-old Allen Ivanov, bought a semi-automatic rifle from Cabela’s, read the instruction manual while sitting in his car across the street from a party, then returned to it, shooting and killing three of his former classmates, also 19 years old, critically injuring another, traumatizing many in the community.

At his sentencing, Ivanov said, “I wish they had never sold me the gun… We should change gun laws to keep others from making a tragic mistake.”

You, as a voter and a citizen of this great state, have an opportunity to prevent similar tragedies and make our communities, our kids, safer. Please vote “Yes” on I-1639, Safe Schools, Safe Communities.

Kelly Bernado

Issaquah

Sign the pledge Dino Rossi

Protecting the Arctic Refuge is a Republican value too.

Nearly every year he has been in office, Rep. Dave Reichert has co-sponsored a bill to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Our next representative for the 8th District should continue this legacy.

Nonpartisan polls show more than 65 percent of Americans oppose the scheme to drill in our pristine Arctic. We need a representative in the 8th District who loves all of our public lands as much as Americans do.

Let us know that you will sign the pledge to keep drill rigs out of our Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Mr. Rossi. Opposing candidate Dr. Kim Schrier already has signed on.

Nancy Lehman

Sammamish