My Opponents

The corporate media generally focus on two or three corrupt candidates (including the incumbent), virtually ignoring everyone else. When I ran for this office 2000, it was billed as Terry Bergeson vs nut case Arthur Hu, leaving the other three candidates out in the cold. In 2004, they focused on the three women candidates (Terry Bergeon, Judith Billings and Juanita Doyon), ignoring the three men. I was invited to just one political forum that year.

Page Contents

• Introduction
• Terry Bergeson
• Rich Semler
• Randy Dorn
• Donald Hansler
• Odds & Ends

Site Links

• Campaign HOME
• About Me
• Issues
• Voters’ Pamphlet Statement
• Endorsements
• Calendar
• Support
• Supporters

• About This Race
• Opponents
• Media Notes

• Voting Checklist

• Victory!
• Reflections

Related Websites

• Terry-Bergeson.org
• Terry Bergeson Group (Polls, Forum & Blog)
• Bergeson Polls (Google)

> Contact

This time, it appears the media are turning the SPI campaign into a battle between three union whores—Terry Bergeson (former president of the corrupt Washington Education Association), Rich Semler (endorsed by the WEA) and Randy Dorn (head of the Public School Employees of Washington).

One of the candidates being ignored by the media is veteran Bellevue public school teacher Donald D. Hansler of Spanaway. Former SPI Judith Billings was apparently thinking of running again in 2008 but changed her mind. She says she ran in 2004 because she was unhappy with the WASL. But Billings apparently thinks the education bureaucracy has somehow improved the WASL. Still, she is endorsing Rich Semler because of his pseudo-anti-WASL stance.

Former SPI candidates and anti-WASL drones Arthur Hu (2000) and Juanita Doyon (2004) are making a guest appearance of sorts, both throwing their mindless weight behind Rich Semler. Doyon proved herself another union whore during her campaign.

3 Union Whores + 1

Terry Bergeson

The incumbent, Terry Bergeson, is a Democrat with some surprising right-wing connections and a surprisingly shadowy background. Her campaign website is as devoid of issues as ever. I ran against Bergeson twice before and was never given an opportunity to debate her.

As far as I’m concerned, Bergeson ought to be prosecuted for child abuse. I’ve documented this vile whore at Terry-Bergeson.org.

Rich Semler

I visited Rich Semler’s campaign website at www.richsemler.com in early May and didn’t find the issues front and center. At the top of the page is a menu. Click Information, then choose Platform.

There you’ll find what appears to be mostly rhetoric (“We need to build bridges between Olympia and our school districts”), with the headings Teamwork, Respect, Management, Funding, High Standards, Value (WASL), and Safety.

I’m particularly vexed by the tired old Democratic mantra that our schools are under-funded, when the waste and blatant corruption in education are astronomical. Shouldn’t we plug the holes before we dump more water in the bucket?

Nowhere on Semler’s website do I see the word ACCOUNTABILITY, when education has evolved into what I refer to as the “Education Mafia.” Even more amazing, Semler has little or nothing to say about corporations—the very corporations that dumped the WASL on us.

As near as I can tell, Semler has no website other than his campaign website. In other words, he was just another schools administrator until he decided to run for office, after which he threw together a few web pages asking people to vote for him. That’s NOT what I mean by a track record.

Semler’s endorsements range from the powerful but corrupt Washington Education Association to former SPI candidates Arthur Hu and Juanita Doyon. Doyon also serves as one of his campaign managers.

Randy Dorn

Though he was the fifth candidate to officially file for office, the media and bloggers have been describing Randy Dorn as “the third candidate,” a clear sign that that he’s favored by the establishment and can therefore be considered corrupt. Dorn is a former legislator who is currently serving as the executive director of the state Public School Employees Union (PSE).

I haven’t yet located a campaign website for Dorn, who doesn’t appear to have any activism track record. However, he may be an even bigger power player than Semler and is arguably an even bigger asshole.

An article in The Olympian announcing Dorn’s entrance in the race (Ex-Rep. Dorn joins race for top school job, Brad Shannon, May 1) would have torpedoed his candidacy if teachers and parents had a clue about education politics.

Dorn wants to replace the WASL with a better testing system. Kudos, but...

Dorn was a state House member from 1987-94. He claims he once supported Bergeson, “even abandoning his own bid for schools chief in 1996 to give her a clearer field to win her first term.”

“Dorn said . . . he played a lead role in writing House Bill 1209, which set the state’s education changes into motion in 1993.” He also served as chairman of the House Education Committee.

In other words, Dorn was a key member of the Education Mafia in the mid 1990’s, when the shit hit the fan. (The Seattle Chamber of Commerce recruited the late retired general John Stanford to spearhead the privatization of Seattle’s public schools about 1995.) Dorn supported the very thugs who dumped the WASL on us—and the WASL is hardly the only thing Dorn and his cronies unleashed on education.

Only in a society as corrupt and wacko as ours would a creep like Dorn run for public office. The son of a bitch ought to be lynched.

Donald Hansler

Donald Hansler is a former Bellevue Public Schools teacher. I haven’t located a campaign website, but he appears to be another one-issue anti-WASL candidate.

In 2006, Hansler wrote Initiative Measure No. 934, which would have required every candidate for state elective office to pass the tenth grade Washington assessment of student learning test (WASL). I don’t know if Hansler is a genuine activist or if this was just a publicity stunt, but it’s a cool idea.

Still, the WASL is not the only issue facing children.

Odds & Ends

Online Information

Track Record

The table below is an attempt to illustrate each candidate’s track record. First, every self-respecting candidate must at least have a campaign website (C), but do they have a long-term website (LT) that demonstrated their commitment even before they decided to run for office? Do they discuss the issue? That is, do they discuss the REAL issues, without burying themselves in rhetoric? Have they run for office before (Repeat)? Finally, do they have a respectable online resumé that adequately describes their background and explains how they feel about various issues?

Endorsements

E pluribus unum,

David Blomstrom—May 15, 2008

Can’t afford to donate money to my campaign? No problem! You can join the team by simply visiting Urban Dictionary > Seattle Mafia and clicking the yellow thumbs up icon , indicating you agree with my definition. Doing so will help publicize the fact that there IS a Seattle Mafia. If you’re working for the Seattle Mafia and want to click the thumbs down icon , that’s fine, too. Either way, you’re helping my campaign. :)