Tag Archives: Ramiro Valderrama

Lake Trail overhangs Sammamish politics for 20 years

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  • This is about 10 pages when printed.

City_of_SammamishJune 5, 2016: Development of the East Lake Sammamish Trail has been an overhang of Sammamish politics for 20 years.

It was a dominate factor in the first City Council race 1999 and surfaced again in 2001. It became a key issue in the 2003 election, with a flood of “outside” money flowing to candidates favoring the Trail.

The issue surfaced periodically in subsequent elections. It wasn’t until 2015 that once more it became a key election issue, as Trail residents rallied behind three candidates to win bitterly contested races. For the first time, they helped elect a resident who lives along the Trail.

And the issue hasn’t subsided, either.

In April, three Council Members voted to undercut the City’s own Hearing Examiner and side with King County, developer of the Trail, on a jurisdictional issue in an appeal before the State Shoreline Hearings Board.

This is the story behind the 20-year battle of the ELST.

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SCA endorses Mass Transit “Principals;” Sammamish lone dissenting vote

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City_of_SammamishThe Sound Cities Assn. (SCA) approved a resolution endorsing “principals” of mass transit for the Sound Transit taxing district (roughly Everett to Tacoma, Seattle to Sammamish) with Sammamish as the lone dissenting vote.

Four other members of SCA which are not in ST district abstained.

A majority of the Sammamish City Council opposed the “principals” as a thinly disguised endorsement of the $50bn Sound Transit 3 draft plan. ST wants voter approval for $27bn in new taxes. Sammamish gets nothing in the proposed new plan, except an average of more than $500 a year in new taxes: no new service and in some respects, service is taken away.

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Candidates for 8th Congressional, Sammamish’s Legislative Districts file for November election

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Candidates for state and federal elections across Washington filed for office last week.

Sammamish is included in the 8th Congressional District, which now stretches across the Eastside, over the mountains and to Wenatchee–a safe Republican seat. But there were a number of challengers to incumbent Dave Reichert, a Republican.

Sammamish is also included in the 5th, 41st and 45th Legislative districts for the state Legislature.

The 5th includes the Klahanie area. With Sammamish’s annexation of Klahanie, we regain the 5th, which had been removed from Sammamish in the 2010 redistricting. The 41st encompasses the southern half of Sammamish, roughly from SE 8th. The 45th has the northern half.

The following details who has filed for what. Where there are only two candidates, or in two cases, unopposed candidates, these names will not appear on the August primary ballot–only the November general election. Where there are three or more candidates, this will be winnowed down to two in August for the November general.

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Council opposes ST3 plan, debates principals of document

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Valderrama

Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama: ST3 is “taxation without transportation.”

The Sammamish City Council was clear at its May 10 meeting: the draft plan for Sound Transit 3 does nothing for our taxpayers.

A majority of the Council was also clear: they didn’t want to support a statement sought by the Suburban Cities Association (SCA) in support of principals of mass transit, because these were viewed as a “Trojan Horse” for ST3.

Led by Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama, members feared that there would not be an opportunity to later weigh in on ST3 itself and any expression of support for the SCA principals would be taken as support for ST3.

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Donald Trump: making America not so great

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Source: Google images.

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president this year, visited Washington State Saturday. State Sen. Steve Litzow (R-Mercer Island) of the 41st Legislative District (Southern Sammamish) took a strong stand against his own party’s nominee. So did Rob McKenna, a Republican, the former attorney general and candidate for governor here and then Chris Vance, former chairman of the state Republican Party and candidate opposing incumbent US Sen Patty Murray (D-Washington).

Sammamish Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama, running as a Republican for the State House in the 45th District (northern Sammamish), as yet hasn’t taken a position supporting or opposing Trump.

I’ve been following presidential elections since 1968 and voting in them since 1972. I’ve seen George Wallace, then the Alabama governor, run against “pointy-headed” liberals, appealing to racist instincts. I’ve seen then US Sen. George McGovern (D-SD), a former World War II US bomber pilot in Europe, run on a far-left campaign. I’ve watched the two major parties go in wrong directions (by my standards). I watched outsider Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996. I like outsiders who are squeaky wheels (hence, supporting Valderrama for City Council last year).

But I’ve never seen anything like Trump. His destructive approach to everything and everybody is mind boggling.

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