Bellevue Reporter's "Lord Vodemort" Candidate

I’ve been rather amused by the Bellevue Reporter’s decision to consider me the “Lord Voldemort” of this election.  For those not familiar with the Harry Potter books, the “Dark Lord” was referred to as “he-who-must-not-be-named”.  

One of the reasons I chose to run was because the BR “declined” to include many of my “letters” emails critical of Sound Transit’s East Link program on their editorial page.  Many of their articles and editorials have supported Sound Transit policies that will devastate parts of Bellevue and require residents to pay 200 million for a tunnel.
When I filed, I emailed them my “Statement” and biography data.  They “declined” to acknowledge my candidacy (5/26 Post).

Their Aug 12 edition headlined “Local incumbents roll through Primary” and featured pictures of 4 incumbents along with pictures of Cyrus Habib and Hank Myers, neither of who is an “incumbent”.   Apparently the two of them met some other BR criterion.

They did deign to mention me on the editorial page with Ross Hunter being “far above his challenger, Republican Bill Hirt”.  It would not have surprised me if they had instead reported “far above his Republican challenger”.  

As far as the election results are concerned, I was pleased that I managed to get nearly a third of the votes.  The only mention my candidacy received in the media was on page 11 of the Aug 3^rd edition of the Kirkland Reporter.  (Since many ballots had already been returned by then, the impact on voters was probably minimal.)    

My entire campaign effort has been limited to this blog.  The election results suggest it has convinced a significant number of voters that East Link will be a disaster for the entire east side.  Unfortunately some of the people I’ve talked to didn’t have access to the internet.   They’re limited to the 100-word statement in the Voters’ Pamphlet for information on my candidacy.   I think the lack of any media coverage on why I chose to run detracted from my vote count.

However, my candidacy is not primarily about having the honor of representing the 48^th District.   It’s about informing the entire eastside of the debacle that awaits the area if Sound Transit is allowed to proceed with East Link.  It can be stopped!  Bellevue residents need to know their council can insist on a BRT system rather than light rail.  To that end I look forward to continue to use the blog, as well as any public forums I'm invited to attend to make this case in the future. 
 

That’s why I run.