City Council members are supposed to represent their own city's residents, are they not? While it's common for outside businesses and political action committees to donate to local candidates' campaigns for a variety of reasons, it should send up a red flag when the vast majority of a candidate''s contributions come from private citizens living outside the city limits.
In Cheryl Haskins' case, we're talking about a HUGE red flag: according to the latest figures from the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, nearly 92% of her campaign contributions have come from outside Renton. That's right, 92%. Not only that, but the amount of money she's collected thus far absolutely dwarfs that of any other candidate for city council. Here are the latest figures for "named cash contributions" for all candidates, as of 10/11/07:
- Cheryl Haskins: $37,582.60
- Greg Taylor: $19,501.64
- King Parker: $9,740.00
- Marcie Palmer: $8,245.00
- Terry Persson: $2,080.00
- Don Persson: $1,350.00
- Shirley Gaunt-Smith: $805.00
According to the PDC figures, Cheryl Haskins' contributions alone account for 47% of the money received by all city council candidates combined in this election. Where is Cheryl Haskins' money coming from? Glad you asked:
- Bellevue: 26.2%
- Kirkland: 15.7%
- Medina: 12.7%
- Issaquah: 8.3%
- Renton: 8.2%
- Clyde Hill: 6.3%
- Edmonds: 4.1%
- Seattle: 3.1%
- Snohomish: 3.0%
- Other: 11.4%
More importantly, who is Cheryl Haskins' money coming from?
6 comments:
That's really, really scary, for so many reasons.
Keep up the good work!
It's time to recruit supporters willing to donate to King Parker so that he can compete on a level playing field.
Good idea about raising money for King Parker. It looks like he could use a last minute fund raising push. A lot of us know him, but he could use some money if he is being outspent.
I absolutely think it would help to raise money and volunteer for King Parker's campaign. On the other hand, this site will likely increase Cheryl Haskins' contributions, but at least the truth is out there now.
Readers: I removed an anonymous comment left by someone that accused King Parker of orchestrating a "witch hunt" against Cheryl Haskins, and also used the word "racism" against specific persons to describe their efforts to inform the public of Cheryl Haskins' politics and funding sources. Such unsupportable accusations meet the legal definition of slander when directed at private citizens (non-public figures who are not running for office).
The purpose of this blog is to promote discussion and intelligent dialog within our community. I am willing to tolerate a lot of dissent (as you can see by comments people have left), but I will not tolerate comments that meet the legal definition of slander against specific individuals.
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