WA State Senatorial Candidates, Part 2: Paul Akers

Continuing with this mini-series on Washington State Senatorial Candidates, here's Republican Paul Akers, in response to my e-mail:

Richard,

Hello, I am Jeremy, volunteer coordinator for Paul Akers’ campaign, and I am following up with your e-mail because Paul is out of the office. .

Paul supports the Taiwan Relations Act that gives the United States an important legal commitment to this vibrant democracy. The U.S. provides tangible security and stability to the Taiwan Straits which helps Taiwan interact with China on its own terms. This act requires the United States "to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character", and "to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan." China’s communist party should not be supported in anyway.

If you would like to know Paul better, you may call him personally at his direct cell line at 360-941-3748.

Thank you,

Jeremy Jasman

Paul Akers for US Senate

From a volunteer coordinator for a candidate, this is probably what I would have expected. Although the last line about not supporting China's communist party "in anyway" probably tilts his campaign stance towards something that supporters of Taiwan would be more comfortable with.

Besides that, the beginning and middle are pretty much standard responses - recognizing and/or supporting the T.R.A. and all the sub-acts within it. The problem with these types of responses is that they do not delve into the real problems at hand. For example, the T.R.A. states that the U.S. should provide arms of defensive nature; but we have seen that it isn't just a simple "I want this, I'll sell you it" relationship going on between Taiwan and the U.S.

Something I would look to see in comments about the arms sales would be along the lines of, support for newer F-16s and advanced combat systems (Aegis), as well as commenting on the root of the problem - China's missile build-up against Taiwan.

I do believe that if Mr. Paul Akers were to be able to respond personally, he might have more to offer than his volunteer coordinator. Still, thanks to Jeremy for responding as I have not received responses from Dino Rossi and Clint Didier.

As far as his statement in the Voter's Pamphlet, Akers is big on small government and bringing back power to the local level. He places emphasis on balancing the federal budget by cutting taxes and spending.

Up for tomorrow, Democratic leaning Bob Burr - and it's a good one.

Lastly, all signs point to a Murray (incumbent) v. Rossi showdown in November. Murray because she's incumbent, Rossi because he's gotten the name recognition down over the past 6-8 years due to his race for WA State governor. It is quite disappointing, since I believe both of these two may actually be the same in terms of what they would do with Taiwan as they are largely supported by the "establishment" Democrats and Republicans. In fairness to Patty Murray, I will send her an e-mail about this again. Maybe she will surprise me (us) and respond?

Edit: Paul Akers and Clint Didier came out with a new type of campaign ad today, aimed at taking down the two front-runners, Murray and Rossi. It's an interesting strategy, take a look at this link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TWAyQbS5PQ