Update: Valderamma gave this interview Oct. 3 to the Sammamish Patch, saying he never meant to mislead voters. Wasnick denied giving the story to the Sammamish Review, in the Patch story.
But others say that Wasnick has been spreading the story by other means.
Original Post:
It’s validation of what I reported in an earlier post in which I identified the election between Jim Wasnick and Ramiro Valderamma as the bitterest campaign shaping up in this year’s city council election.
In comments from Wasnick’s co-worker (though he is not identified as such) on the Sammamish Review article about Valderamma’s past domestic violence incident, Leo McCloskey adds a ridiculous barb about a West Point yearbook saying Valderamma wants to be “dictator” of the world.
McCloskey and Wasnick are vice presidents at the same company and Valderamma is a graduate of West Point.
How petty can you get?
All of us who have had entries into yearbooks saw good comments, sarcastic ones and jokes entered. That’s what happens. For McCloskey to throw this into the mix is outing the whispering campaign that was going on from the start.
Other commenters criticize Valderamma for “lying” on a Sammamish Patch response. I don’t know whether Valderamma lied or had a different understanding of what the process and outcome of the report and investigation. But when his son, also a West Pointer, says the incident was his fault, I find this compelling.
But if Wasnick’s supporters are concerned about lying, then they ought to be concerned about Wasnick’s running mate, Jesse Bornfreund. On two occasions, Bornfreund looked me in the eye and said he was not running with Wasnick, when the opposite was and is clearly the case. They have been campaigning together and Bornfreund has been seen, distinctive pony tail and all, taking down Valderamma’s signs.
I met with five of the six candidates (Vance being the exception) and found positive attributes of each. What’s emerged in the last week–Wasnick’s hit on Valderamma, his co-worker’s pettiness over some year book entry and Bornfreund’s false denials–are all cause for concern.
Wasnick is showing pettiness and desperation. Bornfreund wasn’t truthful. They are both tied to John Galvin, whose history of abusing city staff, commissions and committees (and anyone else who doesn’t agree with him) this column has well documented. Galvin’s abusive behavior is such that city officials had police on hand on multiple occasions to be sure he didn’t get out of control.
Galvin and Wasnick, in a Sammamish Reporter article, were clear that they share the same “vision.” Here is the article: SammamishReporterPrimary.
It’s fair to say that this is the Wasnick/Bornfreund/Galvin ticket.