As the 2013 election season winds down, one of the most strongly contested Mountlake Terrace City Council races featured efforts by the two candidates to put their best face forward and push for a positive spin from the media.
Position 5 incumbent Bryan Wahl has spent more than $6,000 in signs, mailings and telephone polling in his effort to hold on to his appointed city council seat. Wahl used results from the poll, paid for by his campaign and which showed that respondents believe jobs and the economy should be the top priority of local elected officials, as proof that he would be the voters’ better choice for the city council position.
“These results confirm what I am hearing as I meet with our neighbors throughout the city,” Wahl said. “They tell me they are excited about the direction of the city and thrilled to see new businesses and economic development occurring throughout the city, particularly in our Town Center.”
“Clearly, our citizens want a candidate that will keep Mountlake Terrace moving forward, creating jobs and economic development opportunities and adopting responsible, performance-based budgets,” he added.
Leonard French, the challenger for Position 5, has also blitzed the area with campaign signs, in addition to talking one-on-one with voters in the city. During these final days of the campaign season, though, French has been taking on the Herald newspaper, calling a recent blog by political writer Evan Smith on the newspaper’s website “blatantly misleading if not openly dishonest.”
On Oct. 31 the Herald posted that Snohomish County Republicans had endorsed Wahl over French in the city council race, a claim that French says isn’t true. “The Republican Party has not endorsed anyone in our non-partisan races,” French said in emails to Smith that were copied to MLTnews.
Smith responded to French that the information on party endorsements came from a “conversation with someone at the Snohomish County Republican office,” but French isn’t buying the explanation. “Party ‘endorsements’ are the result of a process involving many members of the party. No single individual, no matter in what position of party prominence, has the authority to pledge the party’s support,” French countered in an email.
Both candidates are expected to be seen around town during the final two days of the campaign.
The winner of the race between Wahl and French will begin serving in the council position immediately following the county certification of the election results, expected around Nov. 26. The winner will serve for what would have been the remaining two years of a term initially begun by former council member Michelle Robles, who resigned in 2012.
Ballots must be postmarked or deposited in a county election drop box by Tuesday, Nov. 5, in order to be valid for the general election.
— By Doug Petrowski
I am constantly amazed how one race always stands out in any election. I hope that everyone votes in all of the categories and votes to continue Mountlake Terrace moving forward and send a clear message in this election that Mountlake Terrace must work on it’s infrastructure.
That this is a non-partisan race in which many voters from both parties are actively supporting both Mr. Wahl and myself is the most important point. In that vein, you might have mentioned that the story claimed the Republican Party had supported all of the incumbents and that the Democratic Party supported Kyoko Wright.
None of it is in the tradition of either party nor is any of it true for either party. I checked. I’m told a retraction is forthcoming from the Herald. That didn’t happen fast enough for my opponent, who wasted no time putting the phony endorsement on his website. It was retracted only after two days of vocal protests about misleading the public.
One thing your story did clear up was the source of the telephone “poll” concerning our race. It is a misnomer to call a cleverly adapted robo-calling technique some sort of poll. Is anyone surprised that the candidate who spent the money structuring the “poll” would report positive results.
I am proud to be endorsed by a broad coalition of Firefighters, Business, Labor, Environmentalists, Realtors and Affordable Housing advocates. I appreciate all the support I have received and I ask for your vote to keep Mountlake Terrace moving forward.
At about 12 noon Monday the Everett Herald corrected their earlier report and acknowledged that the Snohomish County Republican Party has made no endorsements in local non-partisan races, including the MLT City Council Position#5 race.
What the Herald did not correct, but should, is the error made concerning the Democratic endorsement. The only endorsement by any Democratic group was indeed granted to only one candidate, Kyoko Wright. However, that endorsement did not come from the “Snohomish County Democrats” as the Herald story claimed. It was from the 32nd District Democrats. They is a distinction which anyone anyone within the party recognizes instantly.
In pointing out these errors and their implications to our races here in Terrace, I am not asking the media for a positive spin. I am asking for the exact opposite. That would be a local press which reports the facts rather than manufacturing them to match a preconceived narrative.
Time for procrastinators to step up & be counted. Despite the slogan, both above mentioned candidates are for Terrace growth. I am glad the false statements about party endorsement for a clear NON partisan office have been corrected as it falsely said the same in my race.