A second candidate announced a run for Sammamish City Council and already has run
Minal Ghassemieh, candidate for Sammamish City Council. Photo via Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter.
head-long into controversy.
The Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter has this story about the candidacy of Minal Kode Ghassemieh.
Ghassemieh, who was born in Washington State, is the sister of another local resident who made the news after a road rage incident which she claimed had racial overtones.
The connection caused Jason Krantz of KIRO Radio to question whether the allegations by Ghassemieh’s sister are nothing more than a publicity stunt to bolster the City Council candidacy.
Ghassemieh didn’t declare which of the four Council positions subject to election in November she is running for. As of yesterday, she hadn’t filed her candidacy papers with the State Public Disclosure Commission.
She follows the announcement by Jason Ritchie of his candidacy. He hasn’t announced which seat he’s running for yet.
The terms of Mayor Don Gerend, Deputy Mayor Bob Keller, and Members Tom Odell and Kathy Huckabay expire this year. Gerend and Keller announced in January they won’t seek reelection. Huckabay and Odell haven’t announced their intentions.
Sammamish Comment 
I find it absolutely fascinating that everyone is so quick to come up with a way to explain the horrendous incident that Ghassemieh’s sister went through. Let us not pretend racist incidents do not happen in Issaquah or Sammamish, there are many documented cases from people being flipped off while walking, to bottles being thrown to a hijab wearing family being taunted with calls of ‘ISIS’ (in Issaquah Highlands Safeway). In this case because the victim spoke up and stirred the pot why not pile on the victim.
1st, this isn’t issaquah! We are talking about the Sammmaish election. 2nd, the woman almost caused an accident and rightfully so, the other person (who could have been killed) was angry. 3rd, no reports have come out stating that the woman was Muslim, or wearing a hijab. 4th, she didn’t “go through” anything, she couldn’t even report what happened and wasn’t even sure what the other person said. 5th, she said that she rolled down her window and said “calm down” to the person in the other car that she almost smashed and harmed. The other driver reportedly yelled “go away”. How can saying “go away” be construed to be anything even remotely racial??? It’s too much of a coincidence that Gassahhmeih’s sister reported this. It’s actually completely unbelievable and it’s sad to see Gassahhmeiah putting her sister up to this just to attempt to get elected. Everyone in SAMMAMISH, Ask yourself if this seams fishy right around the time we are getting ready for the SAMMAMISH election. I bet if the pulled video footage from the gas station near that intersection, you’d see either the woman was not even their, or their was no incident at all.
I’m not going to claim that there isn’t racism. I am going to say that SAMMAMISH is a melting pot and this Gassahhmeah and her sister are creating a fake incident to get her elected. Let’s all love each other and Flemer someone honest, [edited]
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