One of the things I couldn’t reconcile from the Tim Sheldon time at the TCD meeting a few weeks ago, is the way he begged off questions on his votes by saying something to the nature of “I voted the way my district is.” This implies that while he himself may be a fairly liberal kind of guy, he had the duty to represent his district.

No word though on the duty of his district to vote for people that actually believe in their own votes.

This “blame the district” excuse is lame and dishonest. If it were true, the 35th wouldn’t elect both Kathy Haigh and Bill Eickmeyer. I’ve been looking for examples of the difference between Tim, Kathy and Bill and this morning I ran across the Washington Conservation Voters’ new scorecard.

Both Bill and Kathy score in the 90s, while Tim is way down at 25 percent:

Senator Sheldon lives in a district that not only values our natural habitat, but also depends upon it for jobs and economic benefit. Therefore, it defies logic that he continuously attempts to block legislation to protect Hood Canal and the Puget Sound, a significant part of his district’s livelihood. Comparing his 25% score with the 92% and 90% scores of his seatmates in the House suggests clearly that he can and should be doing more to protect the environment.

Even Dan Swecker, who represents the neighboring and way more red 20th District, got a better rating than Tim:

Senator Swecker represents a conservative district that has not historically produced pro-environment legislators, so it is with pleasure that we applaud him for his record this past biennium. His work on transportation issues, along with his efforts to fix failing septic systems and to ban toxic flame retardants, are commendable.

Would Sheldon say that Dan is out of touch with the 20th?