Long-time West Seattle resident Bill Hoffman is an independent film writer and producer who believes Seattle is ready for a new script. That’s why he has announced he is challenging veteran congressman James McDermott in the August primaries Aug. 17. Hoffman said that he is in pre-production mode with his campaign and will soon amp it up as people begin to focus on the next election cycle.

Hoffman believes in term limits and said McDermott has lost touch with his local constituents. He points out that McDermott will run for his 12th term in the 7th district. Before that McDermott served 16 years in the State Senate, since 1971.

“Eighty-four- percent in McDermott’s last election voted for a liberal when they voted for him,” said Hoffman, also a liberal. “The conservative voter here in Seattle won’t have a voice, so if a conservative runs against this liberal (McDermott) there won’t be any discussion on a lot of significant issues. The conversation in the next election has to be a conversation between two liberals before the primaries.

“I remember (Warren) Magnuson and (Henry ‘Scoop’) Jackson and their involvement,” recalled Hoffman, who attended Jefferson Elementary (where Jefferson Square sits,) Madison, West Seattle High School, and UW, also USC for his Masters Degree. “Where’s McDermott’s involvement? He’s out fighting for these great causes, but I don’t think that right now the constituency of the city is particularly well-connected, or that he is accessible to the local citizen.”

Hoffman said McDermott is at times well connected on the other side of the world, and claims one connection was unconstitutional.

“He was knighted by the King of the African nation of Lesotho in 2007,” Hoffman said. “According to our Constitution, ‘No title of nobility shall be granted by the U.S. and no person holding any office (…) may accept any office or title from any king or prince in a foreign state.’ He was honored for his work with the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) passed by the U.S. Congress.”

AGOA established garment trade between America and Sub-Saharan African nations. Hoffman pointed out that while this program may have been well intentioned to increase employment in poor nations, “There are children now working in these factories, and rivers near the blue jean factories are turning blue.”

According to a CBS-News report in August, the streams around Gap and Levi Straus plants in Maseru, Lesotho, are known among local children as ‘Blue River.’

Hoffman said he believes the United States Constitution is, and should be, a living document. He said he is a strong supporter of Roe V. Wade, gay rights, Native American self-determination, sensible health care reform- Hoffman would not allow drug manufacturers to keep generics off the market once their patents run out- solar energy to fight global warming and get us off oil, and “a new way to fight extremists or we will be in a low-grade, 100-year war with Afghanistan and the Middle East.

A strong supporter of Israel, Hoffman is troubled by the recent onslaught of Israeli home construction in the West Bank. And while the world's attention seems affixed on Middle East conflicts, his focus on affecting change both locally and beyond is climate change.

“Global warming is so fundamental it almost has to be an all consuming thing,” Hoffman said. “The Copenhagen (Climate Change) Treaty isn’t going to solve this alone. We have to have a ‘Manhattan Project,’ when we got scientists all over the world together to build the Bomb. Of course, this isn’t about bombs. We can do things like build a super-sized solar collection facility that could power the entire country. Putting solar collectors and better insulation on our houses helps, but building large-scaled solar plants would get us off oil.”

He pointed to Ordos, China’s 2,000-megawatt solar farm being built, the world’s largest, that promises to power three million homes.

“This plant alone won’t replace their other power sources, but it does mean a couple of coal power plants won’t be built,” he said.