Letter to the Editor: My intent was to raise questions
Sunday, October 13, 2013
To the Editor:
My response to Linda Holman’s SAN letter about my Facebook ads and blog posts:
I did not intend my posts about John Resha and Hilda Thompson to be personal attacks. My intent was to raise questions that I haven’t heard elsewhere.
With regards to John Resha, he has conflicts of interests, in my opinion, even if a lawyer parses it otherwise. If you’re nearly 50 percent funded by unions, and you are negotiating with a union, who will you represent? As principal advisor to King County Council on LFP impacting issues, how will he represent both? His position has influences on LFP that Alan Kiest's do not.
With regards to Hilda Thompson, I’m questioning her empty resume and ability to represent the challenges of most LFP adults. My question about putting a child through our schools was one of 14 questions I think voters should ask (of course you don't need to have children to be an effective council member).
I asked Hilda to comment on my post, and she asked a sitting Council member to tell me to stop. Is this how she’ll deal with tough issues?
Linda is concerned that if we don’t put this 22 year old on our Council, young people will move away. I’m not worried.
If Lake Forest Park had its own dedicated media, I would be less concerned about lack of voter exposure to all points of view. My posts are a way to give voters something to consider.
This is an interview for an important position. Tough questions should be asked.
Let the people read the posts and decide for themselves.
Jon Friesch
Lake Forest Park
Posts
5 comments:
Mr. Friesh,
Have you reported your ad buy on Facebook and Google to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission? The threshold for independent expenditures is quite low, only $100.
http://www.pdc.wa.gov/filers/advertisingsponsors/advertisingsponsors.aspx
Regards,
Katie Rohs
LFP Resident & PCO
Hey Katie,
I spoke to Chip at PDC who advised me on the rules. I was under $100 for Facebook spending at the time (for each candidate, over for combined), and I opted to stop running the ads vs filing. The FB ads stopped about a week ago.
Forgot about the Google ads (I started running them a while ago and never touched them again), though those have cost roughly $10 thus far, because they charge by the click (not many people clicking). That said, I will call him back and get a clarification on those, too.
This was pointed out to me by a helpful anonymous poster on the Linda Holman letter thread. I wasn't aware of the rules at the time, and after getting consultation, made a decision to stop them.
But thank you for pointing it out. I will report back here about the Google ads when I have information, as I did with the Facebook ads in the Holman thread.
I understand the rules, I believe in the purpose and am happy to abide by them.
Thanks,
Jon
I appreciate it when people raise issues such as Jon has here. Unfortunately, I've found that most people, including some in the media, don't want to know the answers from people who seek public office or, worse yet, those who are in public office, elected or by employment. They would rather bury their collective heads in the sand: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. These overly-trusting souls lazily believe 100% of what those in positions of authority communicate, oblivious to the fact that many of them have agendas and thus limit what they present to what others want to hear, skipping the balance. With almost no investigative media these days, it's left to courageous citizens to come forth to fill the gap...and this seldom happens, for they get looked down upon and/or the silent treatment when they do. It's as if we've lost our ability to debate, to "question authority" per the old bumper sticker, for it's too uncomfortable. "Group think," or everybody piling on by agreeing with the previous speaker, is far more pleasant and sought after. The latter doesn't seem like democracy.
Ms. Rohs had let us know she is a PCO in the 46th LD (Democrats), I have a question for her -- has the 46th LD Democrats finally finished catching up with the PDC on past couple of years of reports they failed to file? I understand the 46th LD is facing thousands of dollars in fines and you are quibbling over a couple hundred dollars in ads?
The 46th District Democrats is current with 2013 reports to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC). We are now updating reports from May 2012 – December 2012. As we disclosed to the PDC earlier this year, the 46th LD is behind on these reports due to the serious, life-threatening illness of our former treasurer. Once the 46th LD board knew of this reporting lapse, we immediately informed the PDC and presented a plan for getting caught up on our PDC reporting. Because we took responsibility and presented a plan, the 46th LD is not facing any fines.
Sabrina Hill, Chair
46th District Democrats
Post a Comment