Snoqualmie skipper ready to test political waters
April 23, 2008
By Ed Farrell
Richard Todd to run for Congress in 8th district
Richard Todd simply isn’t big on the status quo.
For example, he once mortgaged his farm, bought an Alaskan crab boat, and instead of crabbing the frigid waters of the Bering Sea, retraced the Atlantic route of Christopher Columbus.
Now, the former chief engineer of commercial fishing vessels is launching his second campaign for Washington’s 8t campaign to “write-in” status.
“It wasn’t intended to be a write-in campaign,” Todd said Thursday over coffee and lentil soup at Isadora’s in Snoqualmie. “I wanted to test the waters. But I had no problem with my name not being on the ballot. I was more interested in seeing where the people of this district stood about an Independent candidate.”
Today, Todd calls the 2006 run a tremendously interesting experience, which strengthened his resolve to run a more disciplined campaign in 2008.
“The overriding impression I got was that the electorate in this district, actually in more places than just here, are very tired of the bickering and partisanship going on in Congress,” the Snoqualmie resident said.
Todd said Washington recently revamped the procedure a non-traditional candidate must take to enter the electoral process.
While the process is more streamlined – candidates are no longer required to hold a convention, nor forward a nomination petition with at least 1,000 signatures – Todd said he still must undergo the state’s primary, which is set for Aug. 19. Only the two top vote getters in the primary are allowed to compete in the November general election – even if both are from the same political party.
Should he win the election, Todd would be the rarest of rarities. Of the 332 Members of the House of Representatives in the 110th Congress, none are Independents. In the U.S. Senate, only Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut is listed as an Independent, and that occurred only after Lieberman, a three-term senator, lost the Democratic Party nomination in 2006 and won his fourth term as a third-party Independent in the general election. Although listed as Independent, Lieberman sits as a member of the Senate’s Democratic Caucus, according to the official U.S. Senate website.
Todd portrays himself as somewhat of a reluctant candidate; one driven more to right what he perceives as the wrong being perpetrated on America by the current Congress.
“I don’t have Potomac fever,” Todd said, “But I do have a strong commitment to introducing the concept of independent legislators – legislators who are devoted to the people they represent and not to a party.”
On his website, toddforcongress.org, Todd provides a number of essays that outline his thoughts on a variety of issues, ranging from poverty in America to the problems with the Electoral College.
He doesn’t foray into the traditional political hot-button issues, such as abortion. Although, when pressed, he said he would not vote – “not at this moment,” – to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark decision that allows legalized abortion.
But, he quickly added, “I think abortion is a horrible way of population control.”
Instead, Todd, who operates the non-profit Todd Medical Foundation, which supports research into the cause and treatment for attention deficit and hyperactivity in children without resorting to the use of adult psychiatric drugs, said he feels there are other promising ways of contraception available, such as the high-dose contraceptive morning-after pills.
And while acknowledging that the war on Iraq is foremost on the minds of most Americans, Todd is more concerned with the way America became embroiled in war than any immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces.
“This might be the most difficult thing to convince the people of the 8th District of,” Todd said.
Todd said the U.S. Congress abrogated its responsibilities in allowing President George W. Bush to go to war, but stops short of disagreeing with Bush’s decision.
When asked specifically if he would have voted for war, Todd’s reply: “I would have insisted Congress make that decision, as is required by the Constitution, and not delegate it to the presidency.”
And a withdrawal of troops from Iraq, Todd said, could leave the U.S. less secure than it is today.
“I feel the U.S. has the opportunity to help that region come out of the doldrums of colonialism and into the modern world,” he said.
“The idea of pulling out U.S. troops does not mean the U.S. will be more secure, on the contrary, we’ll probably be less secure.”
Taking a page from his own campaign, Todd argues that the greatest U.S. failure in Iraq is the allowing of the creation of a parliamentary form of government, one, he said, which allows voters only to choose a party, usually formed along ethnic lines, and not a specific candidate.
“It is high time that the United States undertakes an initiative within Iraq to convince the Iraqi people that a new Constitutional Convention is in order. The purpose being to correct the failings of the existing document for which the inhabitants voted with fervent hope and at the risk of their lives,” he said.
On other issues, Todd said he is opposed to both a proposed Congressional bill that would afford some assistance to homeowners caught up in the mortgage crisis, as well as the bailout of investment banker Bear Stearns.
“I’m not against government loans, but government bailouts is where we should draw the line,” Todd said.
Propping up investment banks, which Todd characterized as Congress saying “don’t worry boys, we’re behind you,” is “basically undermining the banking system that made America a great nation.”?
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