Sammamish is covered in part by three districts in the Washington State Legislature: the 5th, 41st and 45th. Endorsements today are the for 5th. The 41st will be listed tomorrow. The 45th will be on Monday. An endorsement in the Sound Transit 3 balloting will appear Tuesday.

5th Legislative District

The 5th includes the greater Klahanie area of Sammamish. The State Senate and two House seats are up for election this year.

State Senate

Incumbent Democrat Mark Mullet is opposed by Republican Chad Madenganz. Madenganz came within 413 votes of defeating Mullet in the Primary.

Mullet is completing his first term. Madenganz served in the House for the 5th LD, giving up his seat to challenge Mullet. The 5th leans Republican. Mullet won his seat against a Republican that even GOP incumbent Cheryl Pflug wouldn’t support.

Mullet and Madenganz each served the 5th ably. But in this close election, one of several Senate seats that are up for grabs and which will determine whether the Republicans or Democrats control the Senate (the 41st is another of these), Mullet earned another term.

State House

Position 1

Incumbent Republican Jay Rodne won 55% of the vote in the primary over Democratic challenger Jason Ritchie of Issaquah. This means Rodne should win easily. The August primary vote is a proxy for the November vote, and with a 10 point lead in this Republican-leaning district, Rodne should sail to reelection.

It’s too bad. Rodne has become a Trumpette, a demagogue and an embarrassment.

After the Paris, France, terrorist attacks, Rodne went to Facebook and denounced all Muslims, Islam, falsely claimed President Obama wanted to allow 1.5 million Muslims into the country and called for all Americans to literally arm themselves against this supposed onslaught.

Then Rodne went on to claim his comments were taken out of context, a classic tactic to avoid walking back a stupid statement.

Rodne was a Marine in 1991’s Desert Storm, so his conservative outlook on life is not surprising. But his extreme views so clearly and unambiguously articulated in his Facebook post are out of character for the once-distinguished legislator this writer supported in the 2006 election. Nor were his views taken out of context.

As one of the 5th LD legislators for so many years, Rodne liased with former Sammamish City Manager Ben Yazici, himself a Turkish Muslim. There are Muslins in the 5th LD who are his constituents. In one fell swoop, Rodne damned his own constituents and made a dangerous, sweeping call to arms to inflame citizenry against a religious group that is overwhelmingly peaceful.

Are there extremists in Islam and the Muslim faith? You bet. But there are extremists in the White race, too. They are called neo-Nazis, white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan. Rodne doesn’t apply the same standards to them he now applies the Muslims and Islams.

Ritchie is the choice for Position 1 in the 5th.

Position 2

This is an open seat, after Madenganz gave his up to challenge Mullet for the Senate seat.

Paul Graves is the Republican and Darcy Burner is the Democrat vying for this seat.

Graves is a fresh face. Burner ran for office three times, losing each. Graves and Burner advanced from the Primary in a three way race to the General election. Graves won over Burner by 10 percentage point and should sail to victory. He is more in tune with the district than Burner. Cast your vote for Graves.