Paul Akers

Beacon photo by Pat Ratliff

Paul Akers is in a tough race for the Senate seat held by Patty Murray. It’s a four-way primary battle between Democrat Murray and Republicans Dino Rossi, Clint Didier and Akers.

The Bellingham resident recently drove down to Edmonds to tell The Beacon just why he thinks Edmonds voters ought to consider his candidacy.

He’s running for his first political office, he’s different from the rest of the candidates, and he thinks he has what the voters want.

With lots of money being spent by other candidates, who also have lots of name recognition (Murray and Rossi, both long-time politicians, and Didier, an ex-pro football player,) you’d think Akers would feel at a disadvantage, but he doesn’t.

 “At face value, what makes me different is the fact that I’m not part of the political establishment,” Akers said. “I’m not ordained by the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, I’m just a guy that represents independent thinking, and I think that’s powerful.

“I think in this election, that is what people want. They don’t want the establishment because, frankly, both the Republicans and the Democrats have sold us down the river; they’ve both screwed up. That’s what makes me distinctly different.”

But that’s not the only way Akers is different.

“Another thing that makes me different is that I’m creating manufacturing jobs in our state, currently, actively,” he said. None of the other candidates can say that, and that’s a significant accomplishment. And I’ve never laid anyone off.”

Akers owns FastCap, a product development company that makes woodworking tools and equipment.

“We are in the worst economy in the last 30 years, and the construction industry is in the worst of the worst,” Akers said. “Our industry is decimated, all across the world, but yet we’re (FastCap) growing.

“How do we do that? We operate from a position of strength, we don’t over leverage ourselves, and we operate with a huge margin, so that we can respond and act quickly, without having to lay people off. That’s leading with intelligence.”

Akers has a plan for reshaping the culture of government, and he can lay it out, using his own business as an example.

“Another thing that makes me different as a candidate is that I’m a ‘lean manufacturer,’ I’m a ‘lean’ thinker,” Akers said, beginning to speak more quickly. He is excited about the prospect of using business principles in government.

Lean manufacturing or lean production is often simply referred to as "Lean." It is a production practice that considers it wasteful to expend resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer, and thus a target for elimination.

“Lean is a world-class business principle,” Akers said. “Some of the best companies in the world, i.e. Southwest Airlines, New Balance shoes, Harley Davidson, Buck knives and Group Health right here in Washington State employ it.”

Besides the business sector, it is also being used by some government agencies. The sheriff’s department of Jacksonville, Fla., has 1,700 union employees, and they adopted Lean five years ago.

How is a business principle going to help the federal government?

“Lean empowers people to eliminate waste every day,” Akers said. “So in a Lean organization like mine, every day they focus on eliminating waste, driving down cost and improving quality. Every day!

“In a lean environment, eliminating waste is part of the culture. Most politicians will say ‘I want to eliminate waste.’ My question is – how many of them actually know how to do it?”

Akers says that is what he’s been doing for 10 years and that’s why he’s never laid anyone off.
 
“We’re (in the USA) creating a dependent class of people by not living within our means,” he said. “We’re crippling our country, and we’re making ourselves a target for our economic enemies.”

Reducing waste is certainly a laudable goal, but Akers sees it as much more, affecting the way America conducts itself and does business with the rest of the world.

“If you live within your means, your whole positions and opportunities can open up, you can move, you’re agile, because you’re not locked down by debt, which is a crippling experience,” Akers said.

“That’s where our country is based today; the leaders don’t care. All they care about is the acquisition of power instead of actually doing the right thing.

“I know I can do a better job than that. These people obviously don’t know what it takes or they don’t care.”

Akers also has a plan to spell out the basics of how to implement Lean practices at the federal level.

“We need to implement my plan, which is called 10 to Lean,” he said. “You cut taxes by 10 percent, you cut spending by 10 percent, across the board, for three consecutive years, and implement a LEAN strategy throughout the federal government.

“Every federal agency will have one lean thinker who will teach people how to eliminate waste and increase quality.

“By default, that will shrink the size of the federal government, shrink spending, create more jobs, and more opportunity for everyone with lower taxes. It’s a winning formula.”

Akers also has strong feelings about political endorsements.

“I have deliberately not gone out and gone after endorsements,” he said. “That’s kind of shocking. People are sick of all the corporate influence.

“You saw the piece in the Seattle Times with Patty Murray; she’s bought and paid for by anyone. You don’t want to see bought and paid for by the political establishment in Washington, D.C.”

But is Akers different?

“ I don’t even seek endorsements,” he said, noting after he spoke to a law enforcement association, he told them, “I don’t want your endorsement. I’m telling you what I am and what I believe in, and if it makes sense to you and you want to vote for me, I’m happy. But I’m not coming in here pandering to anyone.’”

Akers also wants to keep business in Snohomish County, and thinks government needs to do its part.

“We see manufacturing jobs going over to China like crazy. You have to ask yourself why. Water flows downhill,” he said.

“Boeing has chosen to go to South Carolina because it’s a better work environment; it’s a friendlier work environment.

“Unless leaders understand that we need to create a business friendly environment, we’re going to continue to lose these jobs, period. There’s no way around it.

“The problem again is Patty Murray and the likes, who are pandering to special interest groups. They’re not doing what’s best for society, but what’s best for the people who give them money.

“At the end of the day, this election is about voting for a common sense leader.

“It’s not that I have more intelligence, it’s because I applied principles of historical significance consistently. And by doing that, I got great results.

“Our leaders now squander everything, and it’s crazy.”