Adele Ferguson

CRIES OF “CRONYISM” went up when Clark County’s two Republican commissioners hired Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, for a fat government job without interviewing anyone else.

But cronyism is to be expected in politics. It’s only natural for people who run for office to want to reward those who helped put them there by work or money. That’s why there is usually a house cleaning by a new president or governor or whatever.

The question here, however, is what did Don Benton do to deserve it, except maybe cost the Republican party a U.S. Senate seat?

Isn’t this the guy who as state Republican chair squirreled away over $1 million in campaign donations in 2000 to pay cash for an office building in Olympia so he could move party headquarters there from Tukwila after the election?

Money that might have made the difference in U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton’s effort to keep his seat against the challenge of millionairess Maria Cantwell, which he lost by a couple thousand votes?

SLADE RAN OUT of money towards the end while moolah was pouring in from Cantwell and for her by Indian tribes he had angered by trying to get the rich casino operators to share their federal appropriations with the poorer tribes. He didn’t know about Benton’s stash.

The GOP might have even won control of the Legislature if some of that million had been spent on tight legislative races.

This guy, Benton, has a reputation for wanting to live high off the hog.

Remember when the Legislative Building was being refurbished to repair earthquake damage and members lost the use of their private dining rooms for two years? The Senate, by the way, employed French chefs to do their cooking.

So it was decided that the best way to deal with the dining room loss for lunch was to have all the members, House and Senate, bused to the French restaurant the chefs operated in Olympia or that meals be catered.

WHICH PROMPTED a letter to Senate leadership from Don Benton protesting the plan to have all the lawmakers put on the feed bag together. Benton’s hyperbole included THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE in capital letters, unacceptable being the very thought of senators breaking bread with representatives instead of enjoying with their upper chamber peers the gourmet services of two French cooks. Senators have always looked upon themselves as the House of Lords and their cohorts across the rotunda as the House of Commons. Benton’s letter was signed by 36 of the 49 senators, about half Democrats and half Republicans. It didn’t do any good.

But here he is now, hired to head up the Clark County Department of Environmental Services which called for at least eight years of experience managing environmental issues and a master’s degree, neither of which fit him. He’s supposed to be a consultant but he’s giving that up now that he has the new job, he says, where the salary is anywhere from $96,936 to $136,956 a year.

And guess what? He’s going to stay on as a state senator where he earns $42,106 annually. It’s a citizen legislature, he says, and most other members have other jobs. Besides, he is the deputy Republican leader in the Senate.

According to the Seattle Times, he describes himself as a “constitutionalist libertarian.” Quite a mouthful for a guy whose No.1 priority is himself.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, Wa., 98340.)