It was interesting reading the article in the Yakima Herald-Republic about the Republicans backing Rick Ensey for the Yakima city council. Are the Republicans getting scared? We all know that most of the locally elected city council members in the Yakima valley are Republicans–if this weren’t true–our cities would be run much better. Toppenish is a great example of this.
In Toppenish, we have Ed Pacheco running against Al Hubert–Al is a 12 year veteran of the Toppenish City Council. Al lives down the street from me, and during the last two presidential elections, he proudly sported George Bush and Doc Hastings signs in his yard, so there is no doubt that he is a Republican. He also shows his pride in being Republican by: an inability to help keep a balanced city budget, his inability to get along with the Yakama Nation, the fact that he wanted to shut down our youth center to make room for a visitor’s center, because God only knows, that visitors are more important in Toppenish than our youth–over 85% of which are non-Anglo.
Look at Al’s opponent, Ed Pacheco. As a local activist, Ed fought hard to save the youth center; he fought hard to keep the swimming pool open after our city council couldn’t balance its budget, and he’s working to try to attract more businesses to downtown than Al is.
Oh, by the way, when the Toppenish community came out in massive numbers to protest the attempted closing of our swimming pool, it was Ed Pacheco who told the city they needed to supply interpretation at the meetings for our Spanish-speaking immigrant community members (Toppenish is more than 75% Hispanic). Guess who fought this. You’re right, Al Hubert. Al didn’t see any reason to have the city pay for interpretation; although, all of these families pay their bills that help run the city. Even Al’s wife spoke publicly about this–she also opposes interpretation for our Spanish-speaking community members.
It’s America isn’t it? Although I’ve never read the “English Only” clause in the First Amendment, I guess Al and his wife have.
It’s time to change the leadership of our local city councils. It’s time to elect people who truly want to represent all of the community, not just a small group of aging Republicans.
If you live within the Toppenish City limits, vote for the future, vote for real change–vote for Ed Pacheco, Toppenish City Council, Position #7.