July 03, 2006
Call me Congressman Ishmael
Sammamish business consultant Larry Ishmael, a Republican, has announced that he will run against Rep. Jay Inslee, the Democratic incumbent, in the 1st Congressional District. (Press release, here). Ishmael has a long track record of community service and is currently an elected member of the Issaquah School Board.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 03, 2006
09:31 AM | Email This
1. Ishmael has a long track record of community service and is currently an elected member of the Issaquah School Board. I didn't know Issaquah was in the 1st Congressional District...
2. Well, hopefully Mr. Ishmael will get better support and funding than did Joe Marine and Randy Eastwood.
3. Mr. Larry Ishmael will be doing an Inslee and moving into the district.
However that is where any similarities end between the two. Larry Ishmael is a smart individual who's an education wonk and has a track record of success.
I heard he's committed to challenge Inslee again, if his late arrival to the party hinders his campaign this cycle.
Ishmael is head and sholders above Marine and Eastwood intellectually.
4. I don't know Larry, so I'm asking out of ignorance: other than the school board, what else has he done on community involvement? Granted, he's done 100% more than Darcy Burner just with that, but does he really have the depth of experience that one would want to challenge Inslee?
5. And here I thought we criticized the hell out of Inslee for being a carpet bagger and moving into the district just so he could run for Congress. Now, we should say it's OK for "one of ours" to do the same, all because Inslee did it?
6. Private citizen is a lot more likely than Congressman. Ishmael doesn't stand much of a chance in the 1st District. I suspect the GOP will spend its money where the candidate might actually win.
7. Any Republican running against Inslee will be a human sacrifice as long as the 1st District is drawn the way it is. Seems to me the answer's to try & achieve control of the Legislature so that redistricting can put oh-so-fashionably-leftist Braindamage Island in Baghdad Jim's 7th where it belongs.
8. The latest round of redistricting helped both Inslee in the 1st and Larsen in the 2nd. The Dems gerrymandered the boundary between D1 and D2 right through Monroe, which split in half a quickly growing and right-leaning community. I'm in the 1st CD and the guy across the street from me is in the 2nd CD.
9. I am Larry Ishmael and I am writing to set the record straight on a few things:
1) I am committed to running a strong race against Jay Inslee and I fully believe I can win.
2) My experience level is much superior to a career elected official. I have been an officer of Fortune 500 companies and have owned my own small business for 15 years. My career has taken me to over 125 countries and I have lived on 4 continents. During that time I have done business with numerous foreign heads of state/ministers/governors/mayors, etc. I also speak fluent Spanish and Portuguese.
3) My community involvement is extensive. Besides being on the Issaquah School board and past president from Dec. 2004-2005, I am on the Board of the Issaquah Chamber of Commerce, a Rotarian,a Board member of Overlake Hospital's Issaquah/Sammamish Board, a former Board member of the Issaquah Ski Council, a former Board member of our family protestant church, and a regular volunteer in the schools.
4) I have been married to my wife, Susan, for 31 years. We have 3 lovely sons, two of whom are married and one that is about to start his sophomore year at Whitman College. I am also a voting member of the Muscogee Nation (Creek Indian tribe).
It is time that the 1st Congressional District be represented by someone who cares about what is important to the constituents, not just fomenting bitter partisan politics that have thrown Congress into a quagmire of inaction and indecision. I am a man of action, not flowery words with hollow promises like my opponent. My record on the Issaquah School Board is one of excellence and integrity, and it is that ability and those characteristics that I am bringing to Washington DC this coming January when I will be sworn in as the next Congressman from Washington's 1st Congressional District. "Call me Congressman Ishmael."