James Watkins

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James Watkins
Image of James Watkins
Crowley County School District Re-1-J, At-large
Tenure
Present officeholder

Education

Graduate

George Washington University

Personal
Profession
Business Development Consultant/Manager, Microsoft
Contact

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James Watkins was a 2012 Republican candidate for Washington State Auditor in the 2012 elections.

Watkins works for Microsoft as a Manager and Business Development Consultant. He previously worked as a troubleshooter for the Federal Deposit insurance Corporation (FDIC) from 1991-1995.[1]

Elections

2012

Auditor

See also: Washington down ballot state executive elections, 2012
See also: Washington's 1st Congressional District elections, 2012

Watkins ran in the 2012 election for the U.S. House to represent Washington's 1st District.[2] In January 2012, Watkins withdrew from the Congressional race and endorsed John Koster.[2]

Watkins ran for Washington State Auditor in 2012. He faced Democrats Troy Kelley, Mark Miloscia and Craig Pridemore in the blanket primary on August 7. Watkins and Kelley advanced to the general election.[3][4] Kelley defeated Watkins in the general election on November 6, 2012.[5]

Washington State Auditor General Election, 2012
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.pngTroy Kelley 52.9% 1,512,620
     Republican James Watkins 47.1% 1,344,137
Total Votes 2,856,757
Election results via Washington Secretary of State


Primary
Washington Auditor, Primary, 2012
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.pngJames Watkins 46.1% 584,444
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.pngTroy Kelley 23% 291,335
     Democratic Craig Pridemore 21.2% 268,220
     Democratic Mark Miloscia 9.8% 123,936
Total Votes 1,267,935
Election results via Washington Secretary of State (dead link)'


Endorsements
  • Tea Party Patriots[6]
  • The Spokane Spokesman-Review[7]
  • Human Life PAC[8]
  • The Yakima Herald:[9]
  • The Vancouver Columbian[10]
  • The Tacoma News Tribune:[10]
  • The Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal[11]
  • The Wall Walla Union-Bulletin:[12]
  • The Tri-City Herald:[13]
  • The Longview Daily News:[14]
  • Washington State Wire:[15]
  • Publicola:[16]
  • Human Life PAC :[8]
  • Pastor's Picks:[17]
  • The Seattle Times(Primary only)[10] (Primary only)

2010

On November 2, 2010, Jay Inslee (D) won re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating James Watkins (R).[18]

U.S. House of Representatives General Election, Washington, Congressional District 1, 2010
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.pngJay Inslee Incumbent 57.7% 172,642
     Republican James Watkins 42.3% 126,737
Total Votes 299,379

2010 Campaign Themes

  • Public Education

Watkins advocated for education dollars to stay in Washington State: "For the same 13 thousand dollars that we're spending for kids [in public schools], you could send that kid to a very nice private school and get very different results than you get from our public schools. The problem that we have with federal education right now is that when they send a dollar back to the states, first of all, we send them a $1.20 before they send us back a dollar. The second thing is that that dollar comes back with all sorts of mandates."[19]

  • Disclose Act

Watkins opposed the Disclose Act.[20]

  • Healthcare Reform

Watkins ran on issues such as "repealing and replacing, or defunding, the Affordable Care Act."[21]

  • Immigration Reform

He believed in strengthening immigration laws, saying "Arizona's immigration law is very modest."[22]

  • Global Warming

He stated that he did not believe you could tie human activity to global warming. He voiced support of environmental stewardship.[23]

  • Size and Complexity of Government

Watkins said "Our current tax system is 70,000 pages of government intrusion and government selection of winners and losers in the economy. We absolutely need to reform our tax system to make it less expensive to comply and to ensure that all of us who are trying to do an honest job on our taxes are not criminals because we didn't know what was on page 58,612 . . . I totally support the idea of a fair tax or flat tax where we can make it much more easy and predictable to pay taxes."[24]. He wanted to "limit bills to a specific number of pages, 150 pages is my proposal . . . we can't have these big omnibus bills where we have 2700 pages of health care that nobody's read and they throw in 400 page amendments at the last minute that nobody has a chance to read before they vote."[25]

Campaign finance summary

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External links

Footnotes

  1. Project Vote Smart, "Biography of James Watkins," accessed June 30, 2012
  2. 2.0 2.1 Seattle PI "Watkins out, endorses Koster in the 1st," January 29, 2012
  3. Washington Secretary of State, "2012 candidate filings," accessed May 15, 2012
  4. Washington Secretary of State, "August 07, 2012 Primary Results," accessed August 9, 2012
  5. The Seattle Times, "A rundown of close contests in Washington," November 8, 2012
  6. [http://www.teaparty-patriots.com/2012_candidates.htm "Tea Party Patriots" "endorsed candidates," October 26, 2010}
  7. Spokesman-Review, "Editorial: Watkins better choice to succeed Sonntag," October 26, 2012
  8. 8.0 8.1 "Human Life PAC 2012 endorsements"
  9. The Yakima Herald, "Watkins, reluctantly, for state auditor," October 18, 2012
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 Watkins for Auditor, "Three for Three!" accessed July 28, 2012
  11. Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal, "Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal 2012 Election Endorsements"
  12. The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, "U-B candidate endorsements," October 20, 2012
  13. The Tri-City Herald, "Watkins for state auditor, with request a from us," October 8, 2012
  14. The Longview Daily News, "Saturday Thumbs," September 8, 2012
  15. Washington State Wire, "Recommendations in Statewide Races," October 24, 2012
  16. Publicola at Seattle Met, "Vote for Finkbeiner, Wyman, Watkins, Ferguson," October 28
  17. "Pastor's Picks for statewide candidates"
  18. U.S. Congress House Clerk, "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 2, 2010," accessed March 28, 2013
  19. [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaujajyHVzk "Watkins opposes federal funding for public schools" May 19, 2010 ]
  20. "Candidate Forum" May 19, 2010
  21. "Shoreline Candidate Forum" May 19, 2010 comments at 6:38
  22. "Watkins speaking at Shoreline Caucus 2010" May 19, 2010 comments at 7:25
  23. "James Watkins Speaking to Shoreline Caucus" May 18, 2010 comments at 0:49
  24. [1]
  25. "James Watkins at Candidate Forum" May 18, 2010