Energized Democrats in Jefferson County delivered commanding victories up and down the ticket Tuesday, with Greg Brotherton winning a landslide victory for the open seat on the Board of County Commissioners and Joe Nole unseating incumbent Sheriff Dave Stanko.
Unofficial results from Tuesday’s election show Brotherton with 68.3% of the vote over Republican opponent Jon Cooke, who captured 31.5% of the ballots cast. Brotherton’s win means all three seats on the Board of County Commissioners will continue to be held by Democrats.
The General Election results in the sheriff’s race paralleled those of the August primary, with Nole unseating Stanko, who was endorsed by county Republicans, by a margin of 62% to 38%.
In the race for county prosecuting attorney, James Kennedy defeated incumbent Michael Haas by a 20-point margin, with Kennedy winning 59.3% of the vote compared with 39.9 for Haas. Both Kennedy and Haas are Democrats.
Democrat incumbents in state House District 24 retained their seats, with Mike Chapman defeating Republican Jodi Wilke by a 17-point margin in Tuesday’s election. Steve Tharinger won his race against the GOP’s Jim McEntire by a 14-point spread.
Gun control activists locally and statewide won a substantial victory Tuesday with I-1639 winning both in Jefferson County and across Washington. I-1639, which imposes a variety of new Second Amendment restrictions including compelling buyers of certain firearms to waive their medical privacy rights and potentially criminalizing self-defense with a firearm, was approved locally by a margin of more than 2-1, with 69% of county residents voting in favor of the restrictions and 31% voting against. The gun control initiative passed statewide by a narrower 60% – 40% margin.
Two other ballot initiatives involving taxes were decided in favor of low-tax advocates statewide.Initiative 1631, which would have imposed a carbon tax, was approved by Jefferson County residents by a 57% – 43% margin, though the initiative failed statewide by a margin of 56% – 44%. It is the second time a carbon tax plan has failed to pass in the state in recent years. Critics of the initiative warned it would lead to higher PUD bills and increased costs for gasoline.
Another initiative which prohibits municipalities from taxing groceries, I-1634, was approved by voters statewide 55% – 45%, but was defeated In Jefferson County by an 11-point margin.
Voter turnout in Jefferson County was brisk Tuesday, with the Auditor’s Office reporting 18,378 ballots returned, or 72.87% of registered voters, according to preliminary results. The number of votes cast in the 2018 election eclipsed vote totals for the 2017 and 2014 elections, but was shy of the 2016 presidential election, in which 21,171 people voted.
From Initial Success to Declining Sales and Repeated Infractions
A cannabis shop owned by Jefferson County Commissioner candidate Greg Brotherton was cited October 10 for violating state marijuana regulations, marking the eighth citation issued against his store in the past four years, state data show.
According to records from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB), the most serious violations by Brotherton’s Sea Change Cannabis included a penalty of $1,500 or a 10 day suspension for, “sale or service to a minor,” along with, “allowing a minor to frequent a restricted area,” resulting in a fine of $600, according to LCB Communications Director Brian Smith.
In an earlier offense, the store was cited and fined for failure to utilize and/or maintain traceability,” to track marijuana from seed to sale and faced sanctions for that violation. All three drug violations for which Brotherton’s store was fined were committed while he was a member of the Quilcene School Board.
Brotherton’s store was also cited for multiple violations of state regulations involving advertising, maintaining required signage and selling “unauthorized product.” In each of these instances, Brotherton’s store was issued a verbal warning for the infractions, including the most recent violation.
Among the citations are three, “advertising violations,” dating back to April, 2016, each of which resulted in a verbal warning. According to Smith, “The advertising complaints are closed due to the licensee being very cooperative.”
A Rocky Start
The Jefferson County Department of Community Development voiced no objection to the 2014 application for a marijuana license for Sea Change Cannabis, which included two dozen named applicants along with Brotherton. The county provided formal notice of its decision to the LCB in a letter dated June 24, 2014 and one month later, Greg Brotherton and Sea Change Cannabis were in business. With a lean inventory of product, the store sold out during its July 25 grand opening in Discovery Bay.
Less than three months later, Sea Change was in trouble. Brotherton’s store was fined after being cited on October 11, 2014 for failing to properly account for the traceability of product at his store, state records show. State law requires tracking marijuana products “from seed to sale.” The purpose of the regulation violated by Sea Change is, “to prevent diversion and to promote public safety.” It also serves to ensure that all marijuana products originate with and are processed by approved licensees, discouraging black market marijuana from entering the legal market. The LCB did not have any readily available information on the size of the fine.
Sales at Sea Change rose rapidly and peaked in August, 2015, with monthly sales of more than $145,000, according to the retail cannabis tracking website 502 Data. But by November, sales were down more than 24%. It was during this decline that Brotherton’s store was cited a second time by the LCB, this time for selling unauthorized products. He was issued a verbal warning for the violation.
Sea Change sales stabilized during the first half of 2016 but sharply declined in autumn of that year, falling to less than $70,000 in November, a drop of more than 36% from the previous November. During this year of continued decline, Sea Change was cited on two separate occasions for advertising violations, the first citation issued April 14, 2016, and the second filed on December 2, 2016. Both violations, including the repeat offense, resulted in a verbal warning rather than a fine.
The Year From Hell
2017 did not begin well for Greg Brotherton and Sea Change. With monthly sales now hovering slightly above $50,000, a problem with minors emerged for Brotherton’s store.
Declining sales at Sea Change Cannabis
Two months after being cited for a repeat advertising violation, the store failed a compliance check by LCB officers. Brotherton’s store was charged with “sale or service to a minor,” and hit with a fine by the LCB on February 7, 2017. The violation was more significant than previous citations issued against Sea Change because according to LCB spokesman Brian Smith, sale of marijuana to a minor is a felony. The problem is compounded by the fact that marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I drug under federal law, along with heroin, LSD and other drugs deemed to have, “a high potential for abuse.”
The compliance check resulted in a second citation that day, this one for “allowing a minor to frequent a restricted area.” Faced with combined fines of $3,500 and a possible 10-day suspension, Brotherton was able to negotiate the sanctions with the LCB, which ultimately reduced the penalties to a $600 fine for allowing a minor into a restricted area, and a $1,500 fine for the charge of sale or service to a minor, according to Smith.
Smith noted in an email several mitigating factors associated with the two most serious violations, and that Brotherton and Sea Change agreed to, “examine the identifications of customers purchasing cannabis who appear less than 40 years of age; Licensee actively monitors employees to ensure they are adhering to store policy regarding identification checking and selling cannabis responsibly; Licensee accepts responsibility for and takes violation seriously, and is committed to having no future violations,” among other actions.
Brotherton and Sea Change were then faced with a third citation in as many days when on February 10, 2017, the store was found to be in violation of regulations regarding proper signs. Unlike the violations involving minors, the signage citation did not result in a fine and the LCB issued a verbal warning.
Having negotiated a reduced penalty for citations involving minors, and receiving a verbal warning for improper signage, the problem of three violations within 72 hours was eclipsed in the early morning hours of February 15 when Sea Change was burglarized. Security camera video shows two individuals ransacking the store and filling what appears to be a duffle bag with a variety of product and drug paraphernalia.
According to a report from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, “Deputies responded to an alarm at the Sea Change cannabis store in Discovery Bay and found that the front door had been forced open. The store’s owner told deputies that approximately $4,000.00 worth of marijuana was stolen during the incident.”
The dollar amount of the loss escalated in the days following the theft, with media reports of $20,000 – $25,000 in retail value stolen in the theft. In one media interview, Brotherton was quoted saying “It was embarrassingly easy,” for the suspects to force their way into his store.
Twenty months later, the case remains an unsolved mystery. “They don’t have any leads and there are no suspects,” said Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Records Officer Melissa Graff. While Graff said the case remains technically open, the dearth of evidence means investigators have virtually nothing to go on, with Deputy Brian Anderson heading the investigation at this time. The stolen goods were described as approximately five pounds of pre-packaged marijuana and a variety of edibles infused with cannabis, all of which can be removed from its packaging to be sold, untraceable, and avoiding all taxes on the black market.
Continued Decline in Sales; More Violations
Sales at Sea Change hovered between $50,000 and $60,00 per month for most of 2017, but began falling again later that year. By February, 2018, a year after the burglary and the string of three LCB citations in three days, Sea Change sales hit a nadir of less than $35,000 a month, a drop of more than 76% since the profitable days of 2015. Two months later, Brotherton announced his candidacy for a seat on the Board of County Commissioners, which pays an annual salary of more than $79,000 and provides benefits.
Elect Greg Brotheron sign
By now, cannabis was being marketed in large letters on the storefront of Brotherton’s Discovery Bay market, which is adjacent to Sea Change but is not licensed to sell marijuana. The store’s website also spoke of the medicinal benefits of marijuana, with one store employee stating that the drug helps get people, “closer to God,” both of which are violations of state regulations.
These marketing efforts led to the October 10, 2018 citation against Brotherton’s store for more advertising violations. It was the third advertising violation in two and a half years and the LCB issued a verbal warning. Today, the cannabis promotion painted on Brotherton’s market is gone; the website entries that illegally promoted the medical value of the drug have been removed.
Response to the repeated violations of state marijuana regulations has been primarily limited to social media commentary. County commissioner candidate Jon Cooke, Brotherton’s Republican opponent in the race, said he initially, “was going to stay out of the issue because marijuana is legal in Washington state.” Cooke went on to say, “this lack of judgement from a position of leadership is very concerning to me.On the Board of County Commissioners, we are an extension of the state government and there are rules and laws to which we must adhere.”
When contacted by telephone, Brotherton refused to answer any questions and had no comment other than to say, “it’s not really a story I want to participate in.” He also declined to say whether the 24 individuals listed in the 2014 application for a marijuana license were investors in Sea Change Cannabis.
The people of District 3 in Jefferson County have been disenfranchised from the Board of County Commissioners for some time now. The question for today is whether their voice will continue to be disregarded by the Port Townsend political elite.
I say disenfranchised because four years ago, the people who actually live in District 3 voted to elect Daniel Toepper to the BoCC over Democrat Kathleen Kler by a 52% – 48% margin. Unfortunately, their votes were cancelled by Port Townsend voters and others who do not live in the district, resulting in Kler being seated as a commissioner and solidifying one-party rule in Jefferson County.
Some people defend the practice of allowing voters from outside District 3 to determine who will represent the people of District 3 on the pretext that the County Commission represents everyone in Jefferson County. It is a dishonest position. It is no less absurd than arguing that we on the Olympic Peninsula should be allowed to vote in a congressional election in Pennsylvania or a U.S. Senate race in Missouri because Congress represents all Americans.
This is an issue that’s been chewed on periodically in recent years, but for the here and now, the question is whether the people of District 3 will be disenfranchised again in 2018. It’s entirely possible and a betting man would say it is probable.
Voter participation in the 2018 primary election for District 3 County Commissioner was far more robust than it was four years ago. District 3 voters cast 1,039 more ballots in the July 7 primary than in the 2014 primary, with Republican Jon Cooke winning the lion’s share. Granted, the Democrat primary vote was split between three other candidates but given the conservative leanings of Craig Durgan and disaffected Democrats who voted for Ryan McAllister, there is a path to victory for Cooke among the people of District 3.
Sadly for the people who live in District 3, their votes are likely to be wiped out by the 11 precincts in Port Townsend, where Kler defeated Toepper by a whopping 71% – 29% margin four years ago. The needs and interests of District 3 are vastly different from those of Port Townsend but it is likely that urban, wealthier liberals will determine who represents the far-flung rural and remote areas of Jefferson County that comprise District 3.
This fact illustrates the hypocrisy of our current slate of county commissioners. They opine about needing to maintain the rural nature of Jefferson County as they seek to close down the local gun range and prevent others from opening through a heavy handed ordinance aimed at furthering the gun control agenda of Seattle, New York City and points in between.
We heard similar arguments about preserving the rural nature of south county during the Brinnon Master Planned Resort debate. Setting aside for a moment the relative merits of the Brinnon resort project, it’s an amplification of the phoniness of commissioners who claim to revere the rural nature of our county while allowing Port Townsend to determine the collective fate of the people who live in District 3.
We like to think of ourselves as a representative democracy but in truth, Jefferson County is not.The one-party rule under which we live is closer to totalitarianism than democracy. When people are denied the basic right to determine their representative in county government, it is not democracy. It is a corruption of the election rights of people who live in a different way and a different place than those who would dictate to others how they should live their lives.
Perhaps the 2018 election will reignite the Home Rule Charter effort we saw in 2013. Time will tell. But for now, the taxpayers of District 3 should be prepared to be ignored for another four years.
I give Jefferson County Democrats a lot of credit for being on the ball. When I opened my mailbox last week to find my ballot for the November 6 election, I also found a sample ballot provided by our local Democrat Party. The timing was impeccable. They were crystal clear intheir recommendations. These recommendations also provide an equally clear picture of what sort of future they want for you, your family and your neighbors.
Start with the ballot initiatives. Democrats want you to vote NO on I-1634, which would prevent cities and counties from raising taxes on your groceries. That means Democrats want the freedom to raise your taxes every time you shop at the QFC or Safeway or wherever else you buy your family’s food.
Democrats want you to vote YES in I-1631, an initiative to tax energy producers, with revenues sent to Olympia for doling out to special interests by a collection of the governor’s cronies. Precisely how this money would be spent is as ill-defined as the plan for spending the money collected via Proposition 1, the so-called affordable housing boondoggle that was repudiated by country voters in landslide proportions last year. It would also result in higher gasoline taxes and PUD bills.
Then there’s I-1639, the gun control initiative that would compel you to waive your medical privacy rights when buying certain firearms, disenfranchise young military veterans of their constitutional rights and effectively criminalize self-defense. If Democrats cannot confiscate your guns, they’re going to make it incredibly difficult to use them and I-1639 does a fine job of that.
Boiled down to their base elements, these recommendations demonstrate that Jefferson County Democrats believe government is entitled to more of your hard-earned money and that you have too many rights. If you want to pay higher taxes and surrender more of your liberties, you should follow these recommendations.
Now look at the candidates they’re recommending. For Legislative District 24, we’re told to vote for Mike Chapman and Steve Tharinger, both of whom are stalwart Democrats. Chapman has committed the liberal sin of honesty by admitting he’ll vote for I-1639, thereby showing where he stands on gun control, criminalizing self-defense, surrendering your medical privacy and depriving 18-21 year-olds of their 2nd Amendment rights. Does anyone think Tharinger’s position is different?
In the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners race, we’re advised to vote for Greg Brotherton. A vote for Brotherton is a vote to leave one-party rule in the hands of Port Townsend, where BoCC Democrats have laid plans to shut down gun ranges and prevent any new ones from opening. Any notion that Brotherton will be a defender of your Second Amendment rights or a champion of lower taxes is ludicrous.
We’re also encouraged by local Democrats to vote for Jeff Chapman as county assessor. Many Jefferson County homeowners received a separate mailer in recent days from Chapman’s office in the form of a notice of higher real estate assessments. Chapman’s assessment on our home is up more than 10%, and is the second upward assessment in just 16 months.
This is what Jefferson County Democrats want for us. Higher taxes on our homes and our food. Higher utility bills and more expensive gasoline. Less freedom and fewer constitutional rights. The Democratic Party is now ideologically closer to Lee Harvey Oswald than John F. Kennedy and with their sample ballot mailer, they are instructing you on how to provide them the rope with which they can hang us.
As a believer in diversity of opinion, I realize there are some people who believe in what Democrats are recommending. To my friends on the left, I propose you simply give your money to the county. Send a check to Olympia to fight global warming. Add another 10 bucks to your monthly PUD payment. Feel free to decline to exercise your constitutional rights. You are free to do that.
This election provides a clear illustration of the Port Townsend political manifesto. If this is your credo, by all means use the sample ballot as a guide when voting. But if you’re able to think for yourself, if you are a better steward of your own money than the government, if you believe the Constitution matters, consider casting a more independent ballot.
Readers of this column know that I’ve spent a little time in politics. After having worked four presidential campaigns, scores of U.S. Senate and governorship races, and hundreds of congressional campaigns, I felt comfortable thinking I had pretty much seen it all from my perch in Washington, D.C.
Then I moved to Jefferson County.
It turns out we have a candidate on the November 6 ballot who is against efforts to prevent kids from getting involved with drugs, marijuana to be specific. We’re not talking about a casual indifference to making it less appealing to children. This candidate is explicitly opposed to such efforts and he’s asking other people to lobby against child safety proposals.
After hearing politicians lecture us for decades about how thus-and-such must be done, ‘for the children,’ Jefferson County has a candidate who is actively engaged in fighting proposals to advance the health and safety of youngsters. It is impossible to imagine any context in which opposition to keeping kids away from drugs would not disqualify a political candidate from holding office.
The candidate is Greg Brotherton, who is running for the District 3 seat on the Board of County Commissioners. He owns the Sea Change cannabis shop in Discovery Bay and promotes his small business experience as a qualification for office. There’s nothing wrong with owning a cannabis store; it’s perfectly legal and such enterprises are proving to be a considerable source of tax revenue for Washington state.
There’s also been a bit of buzz on social media over Greg’s promotional cannabis video in which he smokes from a bong. The judgment and maturity of this videograhic escapade, produced while Greg was serving on the Quilcene School Board, is debatable. It also suggests a pattern of seeking a nexus between kids and his business. It’s problematic, but not necessarily disqualifying. I then happened upon an October 11 blog post on his cannabis store’s website. I had to read it several times because I could not believe what I was seeing. The post reads, in part:
Here’s more on the State of Washington’s recent seemingly random idea to disallow previously approved edibles due to their potential appeal to children. According to Marijuana Business Daily, “During a Wednesday meeting, the state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) announced ‘all production of hard candy, tarts, fruit chews, colorful chocolates, jellies and any gummy type products should cease’ because they would not qualify to be sold under new regulations that take effect Jan. 1.”
Greg’s website laments, “In my opinion this is a terrible thing to do.” The post then encourages customers to lobby the LCB with the rhetorical question, “Wouldn’t it be nice if a few customer comments made them reconsider. Feel free to contact the LCBand let them know how you feel about this ban.” The post concludes with the postscript, “UPDATE: Just as I was about to send this I read an email from the Liquor Control Board (sic) announcing a 30 day pause as they consider input and alternatives posited by stakeholders. YAY!”
I don’t know about your family but my kid loves gummies and fruit chews so it’s not unreasonable to not want them infused with cannabis. But Greg is taking a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook to groom the next generation of customers. (Remember candy cigarettes?) His cannabis store celebrates delays in issuing tougher child safety regulations, enjoins others to lobby against them, and dismisses child safety efforts. It’s a struggle to figure out what might account for a politician to hold such a position but there are clues.
The website 502 Data, which tracks sales and taxes at Washington state cannabis stores, shows that sales at Greg’s store have fallen more than 67% in the past three years. America is experiencing the greatest economic boom in 50 years yet Greg’s business has managed to lose two-thirds of its revenue. With sales dropping like a rock, there is a strong profit motive to encourage the next generation of users. It’s greedy and cynical, but understandable as a means of ensuring Greg’s profits.
The Washington state Healthy Youth Survey found that Illegal marijuana use among Jefferson County high school sophomores is 76% higher than the state average. But this alarming data point appears to be lost in the campaign launched by Greg’s cannabis shop to derail new child safety regulations for marijuana. How does this not disqualify a politician from any elective office?
The Port Townsend power structure is hoping you don’t see this. If you do, they’re hoping you don’t care about it. After dictating policy to the rural parts of Jefferson County for so long, the Port Townsend political elites are betting that you are so indifferent to the health and safety of your kids that you would vote for a candidate who stands to profit by opposing measures to make marijuana less attractive to minor children, simply because he has a ‘D’ next to his name.
Is this the Jefferson County you want? The choice is yours.
