Tag Archives: City Politics

Seven days and counting to the election

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A week from today is Election Day.

Here are my observations going into the final countdown:

Position 2

Ramiro Valderrama vs Jim Wasnick

Valderrama and Wasnick are the most active campaigners of the six in this election. I see these two out and about sign-waving. Wasnick often appears in front of the super-markets pressing the flesh. Valderamma prefers Starbucks for mini-conversations. This remains the most hotly contested race, but I think Valderrama has the edge going into the final stretch. There remains the prospect of further smear tactics against Valderrama, however, that we all saw a few weeks ago, in a last minute, desperate attempt to sway voters.

Position 4

Kathy Richardson vs Nancy Whitten

Richardson is trying hard to make up for her three week absence during a critical part of the campaign. She had a long-planned trip to Africa solidified before she became a candidate. But this absence, coupled with a lackluster campaign before she left, leaves this race had to predict. Whitten continues her “Living Room” strategy, campaigning (if you can call it that) from her living room. Richardson is sign-waving and so are her supporters while Whitten hides in her living room, as she did in the 2001, 2003 and 2007 elections, willing to go to candidate forums but otherwise unwilling to press the flesh.

Position 6

Jesse Bornfreund vs Tom Vance

If Whitten created the Living Room strategy, Vance this year has adopted it, as we’ve written in the past. Nothing has changed here.

Bornfreund emerged to continue to joint appearances with Wasnick at the supermarket but otherwise is largely out-of-sight, out-of-mind. This is Vance’s race to lose (which was also the case in 2009 when he did lose).

Election Night

King County only reports once on election night, at around 8:15pm. Historically these results mirror the final one two weeks later. I’ll be watching and posting on election night.

Final pre-election look-see at contributions

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The Sammamish Review beat me to it with this article looking at campaign contributions. This would have been my last look prior to the election.

As I’ve previously noted, the contributions make bunk of John Galvin’s silly claims that Ramiro Valderrama is back by the “old guard.” In fact, he is back mostly by the same people who support Kathy Richardson, not the traditional “old guard” who back Tom Vance. Vance has not demonstrated he can reach out across ideological or varied interests to garner support and reach consensus, the latter’s inability being a major failing as chairman of the planning commission.

Jim Wasnick and Jesse Bornfreund are largely self-funding their campaigns, demonstrating little broad support.

A final election wrap: Valderrama, Richardson, Vance are preferred

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The election ballots will be received in the mail shortly and Sammamish voters will be choosing three council members. Who do they choose?

I’ve written quite a bit about the election in the recent weeks. Now it’s down to crunch time.

This the most disappointing council election I have seen in this city since the first one in 1999. The whispering campaign from the Jim Wasnick camp against Ramiro Valderrama began before the primary votes were fully counted. Despite his denials, there is ample evidence that Wasnick himself was actively involved and the whispers weren’t limited to his supporters, who were more interested in smears than in issues.

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Voters Beware: last minute mud-slinging likely

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Sammamish voters beware: last minute mud-slinging is likely in the form of robo-calls and mailers for the city council election November 8.

By now most if not all of the voters will have received ballots in the mail from King County for the election. As I noted right after the August primary, the mud-slinging whispering campaign has already begun and it was centered on trying to take down Ramiro Valderrama. I’ve previously detailed the petty issues and the one, unfounded serious charge so I won’t go into them again here.

But I can tell you that mailers and robo calls are almost certain to take the unfounded serious charge and try last-minute efforts to further trash Valderrama.

The robo-calls are likely to be anonymous. The mailers may be, too, or labeled with a pseudo-political action committee (PAC) that in reality is tied to the people who have been behind the whispering campaign in the first place.

A legitimate PAC files with the state’s Public Disclosure Commission and has its name and top five contributors on the mailer, along with a detailed contributor listing filed with the PDC. A pseudo-PAC won’t likely have any of these or may have a “name” that doesn’t check out with a PDC filing.

So I urge voters to beware of hit-piece mailers and robo-calls–and to disregard their messages accordingly.

Also beware of pseudo-PACs that endorse when in reality these PACs are nothing more than “fronts” for the candidates and their supporters.

Also be on the lookout for anonymous fliers hand-delivered or mailed. These, too, should be rejected out-of-hand.

Vance fails to answer issues questionnaire

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Tom Vance, a candidate for City Council Position 6, failed to respond to the questionnaire I sent following the August primary.

The questionnaire (below the jump) is comprehensive–much more so than that of the Sammamish Review– and would provide voters will a better understanding of his position on issues of importance.

Throughout the campaign, Vance has not door-belled though he has attended candidate forums. His view has been that he didn’t need to campaign since he was running against an unknown and he had name recognition.

See the issues questionnaire below.

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