LETTER TO THE EDITOR

KP News Bias Driven by Urban Values

Posted

Thanks for the KP News. I love it. However, it seems to have a Democratic lean. That is seen in Ted Olinger’s reporting in the last issue where he projected that Democrats were higher in number on the KP than Republicans by 3,504 to 2,247 (“It’s a Horse Race: Presidential Primary Results on the KP,” March 2020). I applaud Executive Editor Lisa Bryan’s consistent belief that we have more shared values than we have splitting differences. If this were 1950, 1960, 1970 or 1980 I would agree. However, since the 1980s we on the KP have been flooded with new urbanites who bring with them their urban values, wants, needs and beliefs. Most of those I am opposed to, and there seems to be less and less ability to come together. Topics like roads, development, logging and land use regulations are very important here on the KP and not issues we can compromise on or we will look just like Gig Harbor in another 10 years. When I began this letter I thought I would wait until after our coronavirus pandemic, with the attitude of we’re all in this together. Then came the Democratic attempts at the national level to inflict the CARES Act with non-coronavirus-related costs. Now, I see the King County Democrats proposing more socialistic agenda items in a new big-business tax under the guise of easing our common pain from the coronavirus. I am not a Republican. I am a bipartisan that grew up here, believing in what is best for all. However, I have come to learn that what is best for urbanites is very different from what is best for ruralites. We on the KP are ruralites. Therefore, we should be very different from Gig Harbor and Tacoma, but they are creeping in and bringing their values with them. Ron Schillinger, Vaughn

Editor's note: The article referenced above did not project “that Democrats were higher in number on the KP than Republicans.” The article stated accurately that more Democrats voted in the primary than Republicans: “More than twice as many Democrats voted in Pierce County than Republicans (147,338 compared to 78,091 at press time). Assuming the same ratio for the KP, President Trump loses the KP in its entirety when counting total votes for the top five Democrats — 3,504 to 2,427 — but not by the same 2-to-1 margin of voters. “As in past elections, it is certain that many more members of all parties will turn out for the general presidential election in November.”


UNDERWRITTEN BY NEWSMATCH/MIAMI FOUNDATION, THE ANGEL GUILD, ROTARY CLUB OF GIG HARBOR, ADVERTISERS, DONORS AND PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT LOCAL, INDEPENDENT NONPROFIT NEWS