Letter to the Editor: Vote for Robin McClelland - her opponent offers nothing new or special
Monday, November 7, 2011
To the Editor:
I’ve lived in Shoreline for over 30 years, and I ask you to join me in voting for Robin McClelland.
Jesse Salomon continues to make promises and lead citizens to believe that he will accomplish things that he cannot do alone. His stance on Point Wells is all words. He cannot limit development or make the project go away by himself. These issues require teamwork by the Council, and Jesse has already shown us he is not a team player. He is promising things that the City Council already has identified as priority goals – new businesses and sidewalks. He offers nothing new or special. Like his mentors, Jesse will bring a divisive stance that will stop the progress that City Council has been working hard to accomplish since reasonable people were elected two years ago. Jesse has taken a page out of the “nasty” playbook of his mentors with his “hit pieces” against Robin – misrepresenting her position and telling lies. Don’t be fooled by his tactics. Jesse’s goal is a political career. Funding his campaign with his own money, and his short 2 years in our community do not make him credible or mean he understands our priorities.
Stan Hansen
Shoreline
Posts
7 comments:
Divisive is what is happening in Edmonds, a councilmember was censured last week. Divisive is also what has been happening in Kenmore, where shouting has been going on in city council meetings. That has never happened in Shoreline.
In the past two years there has been a huge increase in executive sessions in Shoreline and the use of dinner meetings to discuss city council business, in other words, the Shoreline city council meets behind closed doors, all due to the new council majority installed two years ago that supports Robin McClelland.
Additionally, the negativity you speak of has been posted on that other community news blog by Doris McConnell, I have not received the so-called hit pieces you have referred to, so your insinuations are part of the dirty politics that characterize traditional Shoreline politics as run by those supported by the pro development community.
My observation: if Jesse supports city council goals, then how can you state he would contribute to divisiveness? To me, that means he would work well with those already sitting on the council
Let's compare and contrast the two candidates. Robin McClelland was rated "Outstanding" by the non-partisan Municipal League, has been invested in the Shoreline Community as a homeowner for twelve years, a volunteer in our schools, a volunteer planning commissioner and co-owner of a local business. She also actively supported Shoreline Proposition 1, as did 56% of voters. Candidate No. 2, Jesse Salomon, rated just "Adequate" by the Municipal League, is a politically ambitious carpetbagger who's been here less than two years, sent down from central casting at the 32nd District D's, a crowd that unsuccessfully opposed Prop. 1. Whose interests does Robin know and serve? Shoreline's. Whose interests do Jesse and his partisan cronies know and serve? Their own.
Robin will something new to the council??? What more ideas that cause the taxpayer more money? Robin is being paid by big money special interest developers. Let her find a job in the public sector so she can see how difficult it is to make a living these days.
As far as our council is concerned....what is the deal with all these executive meetings and dinner meetings and who pays for these dinners?
Robin McClellan is the person bringing old ideas to the table, apparently along with a healthy appetite, to the insiders club at the dinner meetings and closed session discussions aimed at eliminating public scrutiny. She should feel right at home rubbing elbows with a group of people who don't live with their decisions. Most of our City Staff lives comfortably outside our city limits. They decide what is best for us and raise funds from their own pockets to convince the residents to approve their schemes. Proposition 1 was approved because of the financial support from our staff members. Meanwhile, our business sector continues to suffer because of a tax system approaching insanity. This is what Robin did for us while she sat on the Planning Commission approving rezones of huge sections of the city that cannot be redeveloped to the desired level of her financial supporters because basic infrastructure components like water systems don't exist. As long as her rich backers can buy and sell our city like monopoly players, everything is fine. Our businesses are gone or leaving and Robin wants more unsupportable growth. Point Wells shows her true colors. It is not a hit piece to quote someone. She said it and means it.
It is interesting to see that Robin's supporters have fun attacking the 32nd Democrats. Do they know that Robin and her supporters tried to get her an endorsement from the very organization they are attacking? Robin tried to get the endorsement and failed. Now the 32nd Democrats are some great evil.
We need people on the council who will always defend the public interest. For Position 6, that means Jesse Salomon.
What does this supposedly nasty characteristic “divisive” actually mean? The word has negative connotations, implying somehow purposely creating unpleasantness with no other goal than to impede the work of others.
The attack cry of "divisive", with its negative implications, has long been raised against anyone who has a different opinion from the accuser. In fact, difference of opinion, dissenting opinion, is essentially what “divisive” means.
But politics by its very nature requires compromise among divergent views, not the elimination of opposing opinions.
This tactic of “accusing” someone of being “divisive” is well-honed by the present Shoreline City Council majority. They simply prefer to have no diversity on the council, as if that were a virtue but it is death to democratic representation and debate. And they want and expect McCelland to join their ranks.
We don’t need more of the same. We need Jesse Salomon.
Wow- where has all this negative stuff come from?
I can certainly understand someone preferring Robin over Jesse, but why not explain what Robin has done to deserve support, rather than accuse Jesse of being a divisive carpetbagger, incapable of getting along with others, and in thrall to his nefarious mentors?
Jesse knocked on my door a few months back. We spoke for a while, and he struck me as a nice young civic minded guy and knowledgeable and thoughtful on the issues. I've worked on other campaigns and, being impressed with him, offered to work on his.
Since then I've door belled with and phone banked for Jesse, and spent a fair bit of time speaking with him. While I recognize he is to my left on a number of issues, that doesn't affect my support for him sitting on City Council. I expect my City Council members to be decent, thoughtful, positive, hardworking, and to work well with others. Everything I've heard from Jesse supports my belief that he meets these criteria.
It is bad enough when we spend our time being negative and caustic about a politician or political candidate in another state or in the other Washington. In those instances we don't know the person, and stand very little chance of getting to know them or even being able to speak with them on the phone. It's an entirely different thing when you know the person, or they live a few blocks away and are always willing to meet with you or answer your phone calls.
Let's try to stay constructive.
And by the way... it's particularly inappropriate to send political hit pieces a day or two before election day!
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