Cascade's 2003 Candidate Endorsements

Why should the Cascade Bicycle Club or the bicycling community support (or oppose) political candidates? Simple. Most policies that effect bicycling begin or end with our elected officials. Further, Cascade members deserve to know which candidates support them. Finally, it is not a choice, but rather our responsibility to hold politicians accountable for their actions.

Our Endorsements

The Process: open, fair and non-partisan

Political programs are often a lightning rod for complaints. Before the Cascade Bicycle Club made any decisions, the Board approved ground rules for endorsing candidates. First among those is that there was no "inside track."

In early September, all candidates in King County were sent questionnaires. Questions weren't simply yes or no, but essay format. They ran the gamut of Cascade's priorities - covering topics like Safe Routes to School, routine accommodation of bicycles in new construction and Washington's anti-sprawl Growth Management Act.

Over one-hundred municipal and county candidates sought Cascade's endorsement. After significant deliberation, we selected 37 candidates who demonstrated a commitment to bicycle friendly communities.

Candidates were considered for endorsement only if they returned a satisfactory questionnaire. Even then, good answers were no guarantee of an endorsement.

Cascade staff examined the legislative and public record of each respondent, and in some cases their opponents, to see if they have been true to their commitments. Next, we talked to Cascade members in communities where we were considering endorsements and took a hard look at each candidate's campaign operation. Finally, we asked ourselves, "Can they win? And, can we make a difference in the election?"

Hard choices

After the research is done, it still comes down to making a decision about each candidate and each race. Where incumbents with proven pro-bicycle records are running against challengers with equally impressive records, we give the nod, pro forma, to the incumbent. Where multiple candidates for open seats made strong commitments to support Cascade's members and our issues we stayed out. The option of a dual endorsement is sometimes confusing and it dilutes the power of our support.

We had hard choices to make in the prior cases. Harder still was when a good candidate with no real campaign was running against an anti-bicycle incumbent - where we had to pass on an endorsement for viability reasons.

The reasons your city or your candidate may be omitted are many. They may have failed to return a questionnaire, or could have been one of many good candidates running for that seat.