For Immediate Release: Contact:
Monday, June 19, 2000 Will Baker, (253) 627 – 1317
www.piercecountyinsider.com
Will Baker Seeks Reform Party Nomination For Secretary Of State
Will Baker “International Man Of Diplomacy" officially announces his candidacy for the Reform Party nomination for the position of Secretary of State of Washington.
Citizen Baker is competing with Chris Loftis - the hand picked candidate of the Washington State Reform Party’s executive committee – for the Reform Party Nomination.
Question: Is Will Baker impressed by the fact that the Washington State Reform Party’s executive committee endorsed a candidate for the Secretary of State nomination in December ’99 who has NEVER:
A. Worked in the Secretary of State’s office,
B. Worked in ANY county auditor’s office, and
C. Has NEVER been involved in any activist action regarding election security/voting rights?
Answer: Will Baker says, “The first thing that I would like to reform in the 2000 elections is the Washington State Reform Party and I believe the executive committee’s decision to endorse a candidate who has zero experience – either from the “ establishment” side or from the “activist” side – for Secretary of State illustrates my position.”
Why Is Will Baker Running For Secretary Of State?
The belief that government should be accountable for ensuring that each citizen is given a right to vote and that each vote is properly counted was a fundamental goal of the American Revolution, of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, of Gandhi’s Indian Independence Movement and of the Civil Rights Movement of Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr.
The Secretary of State is the highest elected official in Washington in charge of supervising elections and voter registration.
Will Baker hopes to use his campaign to draw attention and educate citizens throughout the State of Washington about how elections are run in the hope that public pressure will force election reform.
Who Is Will Baker?
Will Baker lives in the Tacoma area known as the 8th and I street neighborhood in "The Hilltop", a neighborhood which has historically had a reputation for being one of the most violent in Tacoma. He has witnessed, firsthand, violence against women and children, drug distribution and abuse, and he has experienced the manifold problems suffered by the citizens of his neighborhood.
In 1996, Will Baker began to hear “stories” about election manipulation in Tacoma and Pierce County. Will did some research and become aware of the following facts:
Fact #1. All City of Tacoma elections and all Pierce County elections are run by the Pierce County Auditor. (A public office that all citizens of Tacoma and all citizens throughout Pierce County get to vote on.)
(Please Note: The Pierce County Auditor also counts ballots cast in statewide and national elections.)
Fact #2. Three of the last five Auditors who have been "elected" (including the current Auditor, Cathy Pearsall-Stipek) have ended up on the losing end of court cases as a direct result of their actions on the job while in office. (That's every other auditor for the last 57 years.)
Fact #3. Two of those three Auditors (Joseph E. Ford and Dick Greco) went to jail.
Man
Of Action
Will Baker, an admirer of the non-violent tactics of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., decided to take action to bring legitimate elections to Tacoma and Pierce County.
On August 5, 1997, Pierce County Auditor Cathy Pearsall-Stipek received national media attention by announcing that she was refusing to print statements by four Tacoma City Council candidates in the local voters’ pamphlet. (Tacoma News Tribune 8/5/97 Page # B-1)
(Please Note: Section 5.6 of the Tacoma City Charter - the constitution for the City of Tacoma - clearly states that the city clerk must arrange for a voter’s pamphlet to be mailed to each individual place of residence in the city at least ten days prior to the date set for the primary municipal election.)
(Please Note: Tuesday, June 17, 1997. The Tacoma City Council passes Resolution #33734 directing the City Clerk to participate with the Pierce County Auditor to prepare a Voter’s Pamphlet for the primary election on September 16, 1997 and the general election on November 4, 1997.
Basically, the Tacoma City Council hired the Pierce County Auditor to print the City of Tacoma’s Voter Pamphlet.)
(Please Note: The opening line in all four candidate
statements is "I believe the number one issue in the 1997 City
Council elections ought to be the illegal and unethical election practices used
by the person who runs City of Tacoma elections and current City Council
members who have attempted to protect these practices."
The statements include a series of 13 facts. The facts are numbered and laid out in sequence, from one candidate to the next. The statements are carefully crafted to point out the concerns that the four candidates have concerning the actions of the Pierce County Auditor. The statements also take to task the complicity of the Tacoma City Council and the Tacoma News Tribune.)
(Please Note: By refusing to print the candidate statements, Pierce County Auditor Cathy Pearsall-Stipek was:
A. Refusing to print political candidate statements in the Voters Pamphlet that were critical of herself,
B. Telling political candidates what issues they could and could not campaign on in the Voter's Pamphlet and
C. Refusing to print the political candidate statements of the opponents of the incumbent candidates who hired her to print the Voter's Pamphlet.)
Will Baker wrote the four candidate statements.
On Wednesday, August 28th, 1998, Pierce County Auditor Cathy Pearsall-Stipek again received national media attention when Will Baker successfully captured Stipek, on videotape, rigging a candidate ballot drawing in the 1998 election in favor of all incumbent candidates; including all the judicial incumbents. Will Baker then took a copy of the videotape to King 5 News Director Ed White which resulted in four TV news reports about the rigged ballot drawing. (Tacoma News Tribune 8/28/98, Page B-1)
Targeted for Prosecution
Will Baker has repeatedly embarrassed public officials by presenting specific critical information relevant to issues pertaining to public concern.
The Tacoma City Council and the Pierce County Council and other public officials have sought aggressively to silence Will Baker. The tactics used by public officials include (but are not limited to) targeting Will Baker for criminal prosecution, so stay tuned.