James Watkins Deserves Watching State-wide

If you are concerned about how dense metro voting blocks influence life in your more rural backyard, then you and your representatives should not only be watching the James Watkins for Congress campaign but emulating it. You may even want to invest in it

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Entering the field for Washington State’s Congressional District 1, James Watkins and his wife, Ashley, are running hard for what is shaping up to become a critical post primary battle against Pelosi protégé, wanna-be governor, and 14-year incumbent, Jay Inslee. This important race is one that deserves watching State-wide.

“… there are too many Democrats and Republicans and not enough Americans. I want to be an American.”

As the trend toward conservatism builds toward the August primaries, constituents have come to expect the usual promises from the usual suspects… they are financial conservatives talking about more jobs and small government with less spending. Ok. Got that. There are a few who talk about paying more attention to founding documents. Yes, we’ve heard it before and the timing is more important than ever. But setting the tone as something more real than “hope and change” in the Watkins campaign is that he emotionally stakes himself out as an American; an American uncompromised in his desire to represent the will of Americans. He unabashedly honors the Constitution in the context of the Declaration of Independence and he doesn’t wince when he says so. Considering that many of our current leaders in Congress don’t seem able to do that, and indeed some have even suggested they shouldn't, these stands are vital to any resurgence of liberty. But something more – the entire Watkins campaign actually seems to embody the rural context of representative government by demonstrating it. They frequently engage smaller communities, not just the big voting blocks, to listen and understand the needs of independent voters. How many times has your representative been to your community to just talk with you? And through all of this, he ices the cake with confident articulation of well-established business and government competencies. How can you not like that balance?

So in that context and standing in the hot Silverdale sun while the rest of us were roasting in tent shade, James coolly raised his right hand and replied to a direct question on party politics, “… there are too many Democrats and Republicans and not enough Americans. I want to be an American.” Spot on. I suppose there will be a few vile ideas about what that could mean, but I assure you in the context of the remark it was very clear and well received. It means he isn’t running to represent the party establishment in the District of Columbia. He wants to represent us. What a refreshing concept. 

James seemingly clings to what may be an endangered idea; that his role as a Congressman would be to represent the diverse constituency of his Washington State district and not those of whom Michelle Malkin has called the corruptocrats of the other Washington; that concrete beltway we call D.C. Instead, James talks about the needs of every day people dealing with an out of control government, and he cares about people in small counties not just big cities. He cares about small business and rural interests and he seems to have a grasp of how managing small things well add up to big things getting done… like his ideas about truth in spending and truth in budgeting; things that people and businesses have to do every day but remain so elusive to government. And like all those small things that enable jobs instead of those massive and unmanageable programs that destroy them. I get the sincere impression that James knows how to be small and deliver big instead of the other way around. I get the impression James can do what he says. This is the kind of candidate independent voters have been looking for.

On top of this, James Watkins has taken a hard stand on seeing the direct relationship between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Now think about how important that must be when our next likely Supreme Court Justice, Elena Kagan, has “no view” of how natural rights are related to the Constitution. The Watkins view defends our way of life. The Kagan lack of view is dangerous to our way of life. If you need one, that sounds like a pretty good litmus test to me.

When we get to the bottom line about how things will shape up in Congress this November, tail wagging in the Puget Sound is going to directly influence the entire state and country. While candidates like James Watkins vigorously overcome far left ideology, the next immediate challenge for conservative resurgence is nurturing a more responsive and capable leadership for harvest. Knowing who good leaders are is one thing; putting them in office is another and keeping pace with the deep blue pockets of Pierce and King County is an incredible task. So if there ever was a time for taking a good look over the mountains to invest in government leadership, now is the time. James Watkins deserves watching, State-wide.