Know your candidates for Sammamish City Council: Ramiro Valderrama

  • There will be a candidates forum Wednesday, October 7, at 7pm at the Boys and Girls Club, Inglewood Hill Road and 228th Ave. NE. It is sponsored by the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce and the Sammamish Rotary. It will not be videotaped or broadcast on Sammamish TV Channel 21, so this is your only chance to see the candidates and ask questions in a forum.

Beginning Thursday and continuing today for five consecutive posts, Sammamish Comment will provide information about the five active candidates for Sammamish City Council running for Positions 2, 4 and 6. There is a sixth candidate, but he dropped out of the race two months after entering, but too late to withdraw his name from the ballot. Sammamish Comment began with Position 2 and will continue in order. Each profile will be for one candidate. Information will come principally, but not entirely, from the candidate’s website and the Public Disclosure Commission.

Ramiro Valderrama

Valderrama’s opponent is nominally Hank Klein. He filed in May to run against Valderrama but dropped out of the race in July, citing personal reasons. It was too late to remove his name from the ballot.

Previous profiles:

Position 2:

Today:

Position 4: Ramiro Valderrama

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Know your candidate for Sammamish City Council: Mark Cross

  • There will be a candidates forum Wednesday, October 7, at 7pm at the Boys and Girls Club, Inglewood Hill Road and 228th Ave. NE. It is sponsored by the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce and the Sammamish Rotary. It will not be videotaped or broadcast on Sammamish TV Channel 21, so this is your only chance to see the candidates and ask questions in a forum.

Beginning Thursday and continuing today for five consecutive posts, Sammamish

Mark Cross

Comment will provide information about the five active candidates for Sammamish City Council running for Positions 2, 4 and 6. There is a sixth candidate, but he dropped out of the race two months after entering, but too late to withdraw his name from the ballot. Sammamish Comment began with Position 2 and will continue in order. Each profile will be for one candidate. Information will come principally, but not entirely, from the candidate’s website and the Public Disclosure Commission.

Thursday’s Profile: Christie Malchow, Position 2

Position 2: Mark Cross

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Know your candidate for Sammamish City Council: Christie Malchow

  • There will be a candidates forum Wednesday, October 7, at 7pm at the Boys and Girls Club, Inglewood Hill Road and 228th Ave. NE. It is sponsored by the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce and the Sammamish Rotary. It will not be videotaped or broadcast on Sammamish TV Channel 21, so this is your only chance to see the candidates and ask questions in a forum.

Beginning today and continuing for five consecutive posts, Sammamish Comment

Christie Malchow

will provide information about the five active candidates for Sammamish City Council running for Positions 2, 4 and 6. There is a sixth candidate, but he dropped out of the race two months after entering, but too late to withdraw his name from the ballot. Sammamish Comment begins with Position 2 and will continue in order. Each profile will be for one candidate. Information will come principally, but not entirely, from the candidate’s website and the Public Disclosure Commission.

Position 2: Christie Malchow

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Valderrama endorsers pressured, intimidated

Ramiro Valderrama, Sammamish City Council Member.

At least a half dozen supporters of Sammamish Council Member Ramiro Valderrama who lent their names to his Endorsements page on his campaign website have been pressured and intimidated to remove their names, eliminate references to their titles and affiliations and in some cases, drop their endorsement of Valderrama and endorse his opponent, Hank Klein, a Sammamish Comment investigation has shown.

In addition, efforts are underway by Valderrama’s opponents to dig up “dirt” to make allegations of impropriety in the closing weeks of the campaign, it has been learned.

The pressure and intimidation have been traced to some members of the so-called Gang of 4, the ruling majority of the Sammamish City Council, according to interviews.

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Issaquah sponsors, broadcasts candidate forum, but Sammamish won’t; why not?

The City of Issaquah will host, sponsor and broadcast one of three candidate forums for its City Council election, but Sammamish won’t.

Sammamish said it will broadcast a forum, but only is someone else pays for it. CJ Kahler, treasurer of the Sammamish Rotary, which is co-sponsoring with the Sammamish Chamber, the only candidate forum set so far in our City Council elections, won’t allow videotaping the forum unless Sammamish pays for it.

Four years ago Sammamish said it wouldn’t allow a candidates forum in its chambers for some obscure reasoning. Now it says it will, but it won’t pay for videoing it and broadcasting it.

This is all nonsense.

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