Following is a press release issues by the Committee to Elect Steve O’Ban.
Steve O’Ban, candidate for State Representative in the 28th District, said today he takes issue with Rep. Troy Kelley’s claim in Sunday’s edition of The News Tribune that he is “standing up to my caucus, seems like all the time.”
“Did Kelley fight his caucus when he voted with it for the Gregoire budget that increased spending to the highest levels in history?” asked O’Ban. “Or did he stand up to his caucus when he voted with his party this year to add $1 billion in new debt and make permanent the new tax on water?” The News Tribune noted that the 2007 budget Kelley voted for “was more than 30 percent larger than the one written in 2003.”
“It’s one thing to vote with my party and against the Democrat caucus when voters are angry at your spending,” said O’Ban. “But if Kelley was truly a fiscal conservative, then he would not have voted for the spendthrift budget that helped create the deficits and higher taxes in the first place.”