Ciudad de Blaine

Navy veteran and current council chair Barry Buchanan has served one term on the Bellingham City Council and two on the Whatcom County Council. Buchanan has been a solid vote on the county council, especially in this difficult past year. He is the chair of the Whatcom County Incarceration Reduction and Prevention Taskforce and is seeking to provide alternatives to booking people for low-level crimes through the LEAD program established in 2019. He supports both the Whatcom Crisis Stabilization Center and East Whatcom Regional Resource Center, which serve those experiencing mental health crises and hunger. Buchanan has also worked in previous terms in office to ban fracking and protect the environment.

He is running against Bob Burr, Misty Flowers, and Kamal Bhachu. Burr has run for a number of positions in Whatcom, including Public Utility District, Bellingham City Council, and Whatcom County Council. Burr's campaign website is still focused on his run for the utility district, leaving no information on his current run. In his voter statement, Burr says that he will be a single-issue candidate on climate change and preventing mass extinction.

Kamal Bhachu works as a senior maintenance engineer at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center and as a firearms instructor. His platform states that he would address affordable housing, living-wage jobs, and pride in the community, but doesn't offer enough policy details to evaluate. Misty Flowers is a Bellingham musician who has no campaign platform available as of May 25, and her Twitter is filled with covid vaccine conspiracies.

Buchanan is the best choice in this race.

Small business owner Kelly Krieger is running for Port of Bellingham, Commissioner District 2. Krieger is active with the Whatcom County Democrats and has a professional background in business and marketing. She also served on the board of directors for the Puget Consumers Cooperative. Krieger's campaign is focused on climate-friendly economic development, municipal broadband, affordable workforce housing, and aviation innovation.

Incumbent Commissioner Ken Bell is running to retain his seat with the port. Bell is a former Whatcom County Planning commissioner and Whatcom County Charter Review commissioner, and he also currently serves as the president of the Iron Creek Group, a private company that cleans up contaminated soil. Unfortunately, Bell is involved with the Whatcom Republicans and played a role in a police-led sweep of a homeless encampment on port property earlier this year.

The third candidate in this race is Austin Chapin, an airline pilot and flight instructor with a strong campaign focus on aviation investments and the airport. Chapin has run a negative campaign so far. He has criticized his opponents’ focus on environmental impact and climate protections, stating that the port should not be treated as a “preserve” despite the fact that Bellingham’s port is an important natural space that requires attention to the environmental impact of port projects.

We recommend Krieger for Port of Bellingham, Commissioner District 2 because of her reliably Democratic values.