The Betsy

Thanks TH for resurrecting this post I deleted as described in my last post, "Oops."

Last Monday I ran my monthly Sick Day post entirely about Betsy Johnson. As you know, I write a lot of articles. Many get comments and many articles are ignored, but that sick day post surprised me with the amount of replies people have given me in person or sent me through my personal e-mail. I also got replies on my article on LNG that also addressed Betsy's involvement.

I heard from three local people in politics who said that my comments were right on and that they no longer respect or support her.

I heard from a friend in Columbia County who shared this story with me:

Betsy showed up at a clean up project I was volunteering on about 3 hours after we started. She waddled 5 feet from her Mercedes to pose for the camera, then left. Pissed me off supremely to see her in the lead picture in the paper like she'd actually been there working. A Scappoose City councilman worked side by side with me all day getting scratched up and filthy. He wasn't even mentioned in the article.

Betsy is a wealthy woman who probably believes that greasing a cause is as good as actually doing something. Most people would rather see their leaders actually doing something when the cameras aren’t clicking. Doing things that assists a cause with more than money and lip service.

People confuse financial support with real support. The donors are often only after political gain from their tax deductible contributions. It is like a paid advertisement.

If I had a cause and Politician A donated money and Politician B worked with me side by side, I would remember the contribution of A until the money was used up, however I would always think of B as a team member and someone who sacrificed their time. Time is always worth more than money since money is often made on the backs of those who don’t get paid much for their time.

Betsy has disappointed many people in this County. I’m not sure yet if this article and the linked articles above is a warning for her or if she is past recovery in our eyes. It is nice to see a politician take a stand on a topic, right or wrong, but her support of changing our County Charter was a bad political decision, not only because she is not a resident of this County, but because the measure she supported was brought about for reasons of spite against the County Commissioners who once supported her.

Losing support of local leaders may doom her political future. Losing support of the local blogging community can be a disaster as well. Her poor decisions and grand standing has already been spotlighted on three blogs and on the forums. This is how it started with Josh. Caution and contrition is strongly advised, Betsy.