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Whidbey News-Times
Ferry building plan comes under fire
April 25, 2008

Tenth District Republican Senate Candidate Linda Haddon is trying to sink state plans to build a clone of the Steilacoom II ferry in favor of building a larger boat.

Haddon, from Oak Harbor, is running against Camano Island Democrat Mary Margaret Haugen, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee.

Look how many of these runs are canceled "It's crazy," Haddon told the News-Times Monday after issuing a news release calling for the ferry system to abandon plans? for a copy of the Steilacoom II, which was brought in to serve the Keystone to Port Townsend route on a temporary basis.

The Steilacoom II, described by Haddon as a toy boat, is a small ferry, holding only about 50 cars, and its had numerous cancellations this winter and spring due to high winds and tidal conditions. Ferry officials, however, say the boat they leased from Pierce County has been performing well.

The state has $85 million set aside with which it hopes to build three ferries, one modeled after the Steilacoom II and two others after the larger ?Island Home class. Bids are being requested this week for the Steilacoom II copy, after the initial bidding process produced only one bid that was deemed too high: $29 million for a boat estimated to cost $20 million.

The Steilacoom II was never designed for an open crossing like Keystone to Port Townsend, Haddon said in her news release. The people up here consider it a toy boat. Its too small and fragile to serve our communities.

Haddon, who works in the funeral business, said the available money should be enough to buy three of the larger boats. One way to cut costs is to open up the bidding process to builders outside Washington state, she said. I'd take bids from all over, we need the boats, its a crisis, she said.

Haddon isn't alone in her opinion of the Steilacoom II. The Coupeville Chamber of Commerce has asked for a larger boat, and the Ferry Advisory Committee for the route, chaired by Julia Hodson, agrees. Hodson said Tuesday that all the various committee heads will meet Thursday in Seattle and the issue may come up. The Vashon Island committee sent out a news release Tuesday saying that the community doesn?t want to end up with a Steilacoom II-type boat.

Haugen herself is not enamored with the idea of building a Steilacoom II clone, but she said it may be necessary. The original is slated to be returned to Pierce County next fall, after which there will be service gap of at least six months until the new boat can be built and brought to the route. It fits into the fleet and right now we don?t have any backup boats, she told the News-Times Tuesday.

However, Haugen said ferry officials are shopping the world for other ferries to possibly lease. If something suitable is found, then she would be willing to consider not building another Steilacoom II class vessel.

As for building the new boats in Washington, Haugen said she still favors that requirement. She said the ferry system hopes to get more than one bid this time around, and that the boats should be close to the builder for future maintenance needs. Plus, it creates jobs locally.

Critics also talk about bringing back one of the old Steel Electric boats pulled from service last November, but Haugen said it just wouldn't be cost effective to put one of them on a new hull, for example. I don't think the Coast Guard would ever let them back on the water, she said.

Meanwhile, Haddon will keep pushing for her three bigger-boats solution. This would be cost effective and provide us with boats that can handle both military personnel, civilians and tourists, she said.
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Whidbey News-Times
Haddon launches Senate campaign
By Paul Boring Mar 15 2008

The Oak Harbor Country Club was a veritable who's who of past and present city elected officials and community leaders as Linda Haddon officially kicked off her campaign to unseat longtime state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island.

Haddon, an Oak Harbor Republican making her first bid for office, was described by speakers as a person in possession of compassion and integrity, balanced by doggedness and tireless enthusiasm.

You couldn't find a better candidate, Oak Harbor Mayor Jim Slowik told the crowd on Feb. 25. "She's going to win this election."

Haugen said late last year she intends to run for another term but she hasn't made her formal announcement yet.

Al Koetje, former mayor, said he first worked with Haddon in 1991 when Whidbey Island Naval Air Station was placed in jeopardy by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission.

"One of the first people who volunteered was Linda," the former, long-time mayor said.

Haddon, 59, works in the funeral industry, selling pre-arrangement insurance and helping her husband, Jim, who manages Oak Harbor?s Burley Funeral Chapel. Her attributes were enough to convince optimistic fellow Republicans she has the gumption to not only run a competitive campaign, but a successful one.

"We'll never have a better opportunity to unseat Haugen than now," said Larry Moses, who also caught a glimpse of Haddon's tenacity during the BRAC threat.

County Commissioner Mac McDowell, in a letter read by former mayor and honorary campaign chair Patty Cohen, predicted a handy victory for the candidate. He described her go-gettingness when NAS Whidbey faced closure. Within four hours she successfully converted his engineering office into working headquarters.

The attendees represented a cross-section of the city, which is Island County's Republican bastion. The group included Island County Sheriff Mark Brown as well as representatives for Republican Dino Rossi, state gubernatorial candidate.

Haddon has been active in the Oak Harbor community as a member of Soroptimists, the Chamber of Commerce, Navy League and other organizations.

She has expressed concerns about high property taxes and the recent ferry debacle that has placed her likely competitor in Republican cross-hairs.

Haugen, asked about Haddon's campaign last week, said she shared the community's frustration with the loss of vehicle ferry service over the holiday season.

"I'm equally outraged,"she said from the Legislature floor.

The veteran senator has been in politics for more than 25 years, 10 of which were spent in the House. As chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, the second largest committee and the only one that deals with both fiscal and policy, Haugen came under fire for not seeing the ferry problem looming.

"I was given a lot of misinformation," she said, adding that the Coast Guard painted a more positive picture of the state of Steel Electric ferries than was actually the case. "But I'm in a position now where we're able to turn this thing around." New ferries have already been funded by the Legislature.

Last week, Haugen said she was not focusing on the upcoming campaign, but rather the current legislative session.
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Published: Sunday, March 30, 2008
Haugen faces new battle for her seat
By Jerry Cornfield, Everett Herald Columnist

You don't need ESP to deduce Mary Margaret Haugen is the Democrat that Republicans most hope to unseat from the state Senate this fall.

There's been nothing incognito about the intentions of the Grand Old Party, some of whose members began savaging Haugen in letters to the editor months before they had a candidate.

Now, with Oak Harbor's Linda Haddon seated comfortably in the Republican candidacy, th e char iot race is very much on.

This will be a fiercely fought contest as Haugen seeks a fifth term in the 10th Legislative District, a collage of land encompassing all of Island County and scratches of Snohomish and Skagit counties.

Haugen faces a battle every time because in this district the Republican brand still carries political clout. In 2004, Dino Rossi garnered 54 percent of the vote and President Bush -- while losing soundly statewide -- gathered in 51.5 percent.

That year Haugen won re-election with 50.3 percent -- her lowest percentage in four Senate races -- defeating Republican April Axthelm of Mount Vernon by less than 2,000 votes.

Axthelm campaigned fearlessly but without benefit of a siren issue to help her overcome the better-known and better- financed Haugen.

In that sense, Haddon is already better off.

There is a matter generating intense interest in which the incumbent is deeply rooted. It's transportation, and, more sp ecific ally the troubled ferry system.

Few state lawmakers are more closely associated with those two subjects than Haugen and none is more proud of accomplishments in each than she.

The Camano Island legislator heads up the Senate Transportation Committee, giving her a commanding position in deciding which roads get widened, which bridges get fixed and which ferries get built.

She pushed the gas tax hikes in 2003 and 2005, drawing up the list of projects to be funded -- and having a say in which ones would be left out.

Haddon's best hope of divorcing Haugen from power is to wed her with visions of gridlock in the minds of voters. She needs them to believe that when it comes to dealing with how people get around in the state the buck and the blame stops with Haugen.

If she can successfully sync Haugen with voters' frustration with the handling of the ferry system on which many lives in the district depend, then Haddon just might pull off an upset.

"People have to understand a lot of responsibility lies at her feet," Haddon said this week.

Haugen will counter punch, charting for voters her leading role in getting ferries built, Highway 532 widened and the Transportation Department reformed.

She'll call it a resume of responsible representation.

"It's their rhetoric versus my actions," Haugen said.