Written by As a reminder, I’m encouraging Renton voters to choose Ed Prince, Don Persson, and Greg Taylor for Renton City Council.
Ed Prince and I in front of my home this afternoon.
Ed Prince is a leader who has served as Planning Commission Chair, helped found “the Next Curve” service organization, and has helped build our community in many other ways. He has been endorsed by six Renton council-members, the mayor, numerous other elected officials, and countless Renton residents. I’ve known Ed for many years through his active community participation, and I’m looking forward to serving with him on council. His complete bio, positions, and endorsements can be found at his website here.
Don Persson is an outstanding councilman– so outstanding in fact, that I readily accepted the honor of serving as his campaign manager. Don has been serving Renton citizens for four decades, first as a police officer, then as deputy police chief, and for the last 12 years as a creative and committed council-member. Don has had a major positive impact on public safety, transportation, and careful oversight of the budget during his three terms on council. He has been widely endorsed by public officials and citizens. He takes his legislative responsibilities seriously while remaining fun-loving and engaged everywhere in town, and has barbecued for most of the residents in the city at one time or another. You can find out more about Don Persson from his website here.
Greg Taylor is running for his second term, and has easily earned the privilege to represent all of us again. Greg carefully studies all the issues before us, and prepares thoroughly for all of our meetings and workshops. He is extremely sensitive to community needs and he is an elegant spokesperson for those facing challenges. I’ve been very impressed by his work in his first term, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know him better. He has a long history of community service in Renton, and great financial experience in the banking industry. Like Don Persson and Ed Prince, he has received countless endorsements from citizens and officials in our area. Please read more about Greg Taylor by clicking here.
Please consider voting for the above candidates for Renton City Council. They will keep our city in great shape, and give all residents fair and knowledgeable representation.
The Municipal League is a non-partisan mix of volunteer professionals that interviews candidates and then give unbiased ratings regarding the suitability of a person to run for office and then serve in that office.
Even though Phyllis Forister has not run for or served in a political office the Municipal League gave her a rating of “good”. Don Persson has been a Council Member for 12 years and they also gave him a “good” rating. I’d say that the Municipal League obviously feels that Phyllis Forister is well qualified to fill Don Persson’s Council Position #7.
The latest expensive mailer put out by Don Persson refers to the endorsement of the Renton Reporter which states that the Editorial Board couldn’t shake the idea that Phyllis Forister is a “one-issue” candidate. Guess the editorial board wasn’t listening to me during the endorsement interview.
One of the endorsement editorial board members told me, immediately prior to the endorsement interview, that he had donated to Don Persson’s campaign. In the real world of editorial boards he would have had to recuse himself from the endorsement interview. Having already endorsed Don Persson he was in no position to judge me for an endorsement as he was already committed to Persson.
Did you know that the Renton Reporter and the Chamber of Commerce had to get their endorsement process out of storage? They haven’t felt it necessary to have endorsement interviews for the City Council or Mayor because they knew that they had the incumbent running unopposed so no endorsements were necessary. This year there are new people running for the Renton City Council and the special interest groups are feeling threatened so they had to bring out the endorsement process to give endorsements to the incumbents.
I am a multi issue candidate with one of my main issues being to keep the Renton River Library where it is in Liberty Park spanning the Cedar River.
It is a big issue because it is an issue that has angered so many Renton citizens. Citizens know that moving this library is not good business and that it isn’t what most of Renton citizens want to happen.
Most cities strive to have what we have in a community hub that includes a library, park, bike/walking trail, playgrounds, ball fields, basketball courts, tennis courts, skate board park, a fish and bird sanctuary, all of which are well used by all Renton citizens and people from surrounding communities. Having an iconic library that spans the Cedar River that people come to visit is a major plus.
If the city had been straightforward about moving of the River Library in the Voter’s Pamphlet prior to the annexation into KCLS the annexation vote would have failed. The City and KCLS knew this so they kept it low key and vague. Misleading the voting public doesn’t reflect transparent government.
I also support a government that is transparent in its actions particularly actions that involve raising taxes and purchasing bonds. Renton voters do not get a chance to vote on whether or not the City can raise taxes or buy bonds so we need to have a government that takes all Renton citizens and businesses into the mix before increasing taxes or buying bonds.
I’m for term limits so that political support of special interest groups does not have a chance to set up. I’m for representing all Renton citizens and Renton businesses, huge, big and small. Spending $9,000,000 dollars on a new library on the other end of the “downtown core” (four long blocks) isn’t going to benefit all businesses and certainly not the retail businesses that are nearest the current Cedar River Library.
The River Library already supports many small businesses directly across Bronson. This includes independent small business and shopping centers. The active retail on Third is closer to the River Library than it is to the Big
5 location.
When City Hall pulled out of the “downtown core” they took a huge group of consumers from the “downtown core” and now they want to do it again by moving the River Library out. Not a good plan.
I want to support education which has been severely cut and will be cut again in November when the Legislature meets again for the purpose of cutting its budget even more. These cuts, made at the State level in November 2011, will affect all levels of our State government including King County and the City of Renton. Our Renton City budget is so close that a bad bump in the economy will cause even more serious problems. This is why I keep saying that we have two adequate libraries and any new or remodeled libraries can certainly wait until our economy returns to something like normal which is predicted to take until 2016.
Thank you for your vote for Phyllis Forister for Position #7, Renton City
Council. Phyllis Forister
I urge voters to consider voting for candidates that have no ties to the current political establishment. Far too often in the past 4 years the Renton Council has spoken with one voice . We need new ideas, new energy, and a new consideration for Renton’s hard-working citizens, and not just the big developers, big business, and big government the current council views as who it represents.
THANKS WILL VOTE FOR OPPOSITE OF YOUR ENDORSEMENTS.
ED PRINCE IS NOT QUALIFIED. HAS HE EVER HELD A REAL JOB?
MR. PRINCE’S PAST FINANCIAL PROBLEMS ARE TOO LARGE A HURDLE
TO ACCEPT. TIME FOR YOU TO HANG IT UP. YOU ARE PAST YOUR PULL DATE CORMAN.
We all have financial problems so I’m not too judgmental about that, but Ed taking fourteen thousand dollars from the unemployment fund when he resigned from his job and only returned it under penalty of law is a moral failing where I come from.
You have absolutely no idea of the circumstances of Ed’s unemployment. I’m one of the few who know the full story. There was no deception, no “moral failing.” Ed made a mistake in trusting people the information they provided, but that’s it, and he’s learned from the experience.
Yes, Ed has had plenty of “real” jobs. The majority have been in the non-profit sector, and his work has helped countless people improve their lives in and around our community.
Obviously, I disagree with you about Ed, and the unreasonable attacks on his character are giving me and countless others a bad feeling about the Robin Jones campaign.
Going negative will not win an election in Renton. History shows that the majority of our voters do not like it. (That is one of the many good qualities about our city and its residents.)
Running a negative campaign also reduces voter turnout, which is the opposite of what we want to see in a democracy.
Anyone supporting a candidate is much better off stating what they like about their choice.
Randy –
Thanks for this post. It has amazed me how negative Robin and Rosemary Quesenberry have been willing to go. Its not the first time I’d seen this from her, however I had hoped Robin would not have gone for it. As of now, I and many others I know are not willing to support Robin for any position going forward. This has been a strong statement on the kind of leader he would be, and I would hope he will never represent Renton given that fact.
Considering how close the race is, I would say (new) people in Renton are perfectly able to not base their final opinion on one rabid supporter. To make a decision in an election only going by the fact that there is some negative campaigning about is extremely short-sighted and is probably the WORST thing about Renton and its (historical) citizens.
I would normally agree with you, however Robin showed up at a 11th LD Democrats Executive Board meeting just before the election. He was asked about the actions of his campaign staff, and Rosemary specifically, and he not only owned up to them, he said he fully supported thier efforts and was in control of the campaign message. That was his opportunity to state that perhaps he had gone too far when he dragged Ed’s father into the mess and lied about the circumstances surrounding Ed’s financial issues, but instead he doubled down on it.
This was not just dirty campaigning, this was character assassination, and I would hope that we would NOT have room for this type of behavior in our city.
If you like how Denis Law has attacked our Renton police officers, please vote for Denis Law’s endorsed candidates so he can keep up the work. Vote for Ed Prince, Don Person, and Greg Taylor. If you don’t like these attacks, then perhaps consider bring in some new blood into the council. Perhaps they may do something more than sit around while our police officers are attacked.
I don’t want anyone to feel attacked, but the Renton Police Officers Guild endorsed Don Persson and Greg Taylor just as I did. And they have not endorsed either candidate in the Ed Prince – Robin Jones race. If individual officers feel differently about these endorsements, I have not heard about it.
The Police Union is not the same thing as the Police.
>>If individual officers feel differently
I don’t think most officers care about the election. But regardless of the issue I don’t think that there are too many police officers in Renton that are willing to speak their mind right now.
That’s sort of the whole problem with the video situation – where does free speech “cross the line.” I personally wish the issue was explored by the council, but maybe is has – I havn’t paid much attention recently.