WA State Senatorial Candidates, Part 1: James (Skip) Mercer

I received a few responses to my e-mail to senatorial candidates over the past few days in regards to their position on Taiwan. Here's the first of them, James (Skip) Mercer.

Hi Richard,

I have been to Taiwan twice in the last 15 months conducting research for
the US Navy. I believe that friends and commitments are important.
Taiwan is a friend and our commitments must be honored before our
fears.

Skip

Not exactly much at all in terms of depth in his answer, but it's quite possible that the short and simple answers are the most concrete ones. While his first sentence about him being to Taiwan really does not bear much on his position on Taiwan, his stance (I believe) on Taiwan shows in the last two. A simple statement like, "Taiwan is a friend and our commitments must be honored before our fears," is reassuring to voters who have at least some part of their mind on Taiwan.

Looking into the Voter's Pamphlet that gets sent out to the households, James (Skip) Mercer is stated to be a professor at the University of Washington in the Applied Physics Laboratory. Interesting tidbit: I did some work for a graduate student who was working on underwater acoustics for the APL as well. He claims that his work doing research for the U.S. Navy over the past 40 years has, "prepared me for the challenges that face this nation, including energy independence, the truth about global warming, education, identifying key innovations, and national defense."

The most striking thing that I find in his statement in the pamphlet is that he states he will only serve one term (six years), as he is not looking to make this a career. For that I think that makes him a great candidate that, as he says, "will not be answerable to any corporation, union, or PAC."

Next up, Paul Akers.

Also, I have sent similar e-mails to Schalk Leonard, Mike Latimer, and Charles Allen.