So, Washougal... how does it feel to be tools for Russell?

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As I pointed out here, Jon Russell is using his position illegally, or at least unethically, as a prop to run for Congress.

For those wondering what I'm talking about, take a look at this garbage, but have a bucket near by. You're gonna need it.

Local News
Baird challenger flaunts record on tax cuts

Washougal Councilor Jon Russell led effort to reduce 1010 levy

Thursday, November 26 | 9:40 p.m.

BY KATHIE DURBIN
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

Jon Russell, Washoual city councilor

Washougal City Councilman Jon Russell says his successful push for a 1 percent reduction in the city’s property tax levy, approved by the council this week, shows he has the mettle to tackle the yawning federal budget deficit.

That deficit hit a record $1.4 trillion in the budget year that ended Sept. 30. It’s now equal to 9.9 percent of gross domestic product — more than triple the 2008 level and the highest level since the end of World War II.

Russell, who owns a community clinic, is running for Congress against U.S. Rep. Brian Baird. He successfully lobbied fellow council members to cut the levy by $40,000 when the council met in a special session Monday to set its 2010 levy.

He says he wanted to give Washougal taxpayers a break because they face state-mandated improvements in the city’s water and sewer systems that will force a 14 percent rate hike.

"We are looking at: Do we do a double-digit increase all at once, or is there a way to offset that increase in the budget?" he said.

Russell said he didn’t have to do much arm-twisting. "The majority (of the council) were already thinking about what can we do to help ease the burden on the taxpayer."

Just as important as the modest tax cut is the message the tax cut sends to taxpayers, he said.

More:

Well, I agree with him about one thing: this IS "about the message it sends."

But in this case,the message it's sending is that he's a slimy scumbag that shouldn't be voted in as a dog catcher.

Just because slimeball Tim "The Liar" Leavitt scammed the more ignorant Republicans into supporting his low life leftist ass, that doesn't mean that everyone is asleep at the switch.

THIS scumbag RAN (No matter how badly) the campaign to ram THE LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN OUR LOCAL HISTORY DOWN OUR THROATS.

And oddly enough, this article... and no other article he's ever done, seems to mention that. One has to wonder...

.... "Why?"

And now, people of Washougal, if you didn't already know it, you know it now: This clown just sees you as a notch on his gunbelt as he stupidly climbs on your bodies to a Congressional run.

Good luck with that.
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Proving once again how ethically challenged he is, Russell uses his position on the Washougal City Council to illegally campaign.

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So, I get this off of CW Watch. Of course, I missed the part where this scummy little worm explained why he did everything he could to ram the biggest local tax increase in our history down our throats when he did such a miserable job of running the Port of Vancouver Levy Campaign.

I suppose he left that out accidentally, eh?

Washougal CUTS Property Taxes
November 25, 2009

WASHOUGAL- Jon Russell, Republican for U.S. Congress, is pleased to announce that for the first time in the City of Washougal’s history, the City Council has passed an ordinance to cut property taxes. Russell, a Washougal City Council Member, sponsored the ordinance, which will cut property taxes by 1% for fiscal year 2010. Monday evening, the Washougal City Council passed Russell’s ordinance unanimously.


“I am honored to have led this charge to put more money in the pockets of our citizens. In an era of record Federal deficits and increased taxes, the people of Southwest Washington need a Congressman who will hold the line on spending and actually reduce the tax burden on working Americans. I am not a candidate who just talks about tax cuts but one who actually does it, and I will do the same as Congressman” said Jon Russell.


Tax relief is a big piece of economic recovery…
“With unemployment running rampant in Southwest Washington, small businesses and families need all the resources they can find to keep their heads above water in this economic recession. More needs to be done on the Federal level to stimulate real economic growth such as the creation of tax free start-up companies”, Russell said.


As proposed by Jon Russell….
1.) Small business startup companies of 100 employees or less should be able to launch their businesses tax free for two years. This means no payroll taxes, no capital gains tax nothing at all goes to the government for the first two years.
2.) Venture capitalists should be able to invest money in these tax free start-ups with no federal taxation on their investment for 2 years.
“Congress and the rest of the federal government will not get us out of this recession. Small businesses must lead the way in the emerging economy” said Jon Russell
Jon Russell has served on the Washougal City Council since 2006 and is Owner of an urgent and family care clinic.
It's a shame this guy was so unconcerned when he blew off his duties as a member of the financial oversight committee that was in overwatch over the city credit cards... if he had been doing his job, he would have KNOWN Sellers was ripping off the taxpayers.

It's a pity he's passing himself off as some sort of fiscal conservative when, in fact, he's a complete political mercenary.

Where's the illegality?

His actions are driven by his congressional campaign. In fact, he's following the pattern started by Tim "The Liar" Leavitt when he scammed a bogus, completely worthless hate crimes resolution through as part of his pandering to the 3 hispanics in Vancouver who can legally vote.

It is not legal to use your seat on a local government as a campaign-related activity. Clearly, in Russell's own words, that's whats happened here.

What a sad and pathetic individual.
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Since we already have a coward representing us in Congress, why would we want Jon Russell?

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I have posted just under 40 times since August about the fake death threat fiascoes wherein our current Cowardman, Brian Baird, has shown a level of cowardice almost unfathomable in it's depth and breadth.

There is no doubt that Baird is a political dead man walking. The next general shapes up to be a bloodbath of 1994-esque proportions. That, of course, begs the question: why would we want to replace one coward with another?

Washougal City Councilman Jon Russell set local speed records in tossing now former Mayor Stacee Sellers under the nearest bus in his haste to avoid any responsibility for the credit card/$100,000 debacle... all the while, neglecting to mention that HE, PERSONALLY, was among the three member committee with personal oversight over the use of the city's credit cards.

Now, it's bad enough that he lacked the ability or interest to actually EXERCISE that oversight. And now, people are actually starting to ask: why hasn't Russell been held accountable for HIS failure to do HIS job in the midst of all of this?

Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, Russell engages in Obamaesque excuse making, shucking, jiving, ducking and running. And what's his explanation?

Why, it's this:

10/30/09

Dear Russell for Congress Supporters,

As I am sure many of you have read in the papers, the City of Washougal is undergoing a special investigation by the State Auditor to track down over hundred thousand taxpayer dollars and other mismanagement issues by the current Mayor. I take no delight in leading our council in an inquiry of our current Mayor’s troubles. Mayor Sellers appointed me to the Washougal Parks Board and eventually was the tie breaking vote to have me appointed to a seat on the City Council in 2006. However, after I won election in 2007, I began to see some things that raised big red flags. Here are some examples:

1.) While having a city finance committee, in title only, they did not meet to discuss expenditures in a coordinated fashion. Usually, whatever councilmember was available to quickly review the expenditures would sign off on the accounts payable. Even those not assigned to the committee signed off on accounts payable. In 2009, I asked to be appointed to the finance committee in hopes of moving the committee into a functioning body that would meet routinely to scrutinize every expenditure. I brought forward the idea on several occasions, but there was no desire on behalf of others to make such a commitment.

2.) Our Mayor created an internal rule that Council members could not ask anything of department heads. All correspondence had to go through the Mayor. Department heads were instructed to not to speak with Council members. This made the Council’s job very difficult when seeking to provide substantial oversight of the administration. Again, I was the only one to question this internal rule.

3.) For two years I have been asking for a profit-loss statement for the different city events that the administration had sponsored. Those profit-loss statements never came.

4.) Over the last year we have lost two substantial members of our city staff, our city administrator and finance director. These two individuals left abruptly to take jobs elsewhere. It is my opinion that these two departures some how factor into the bigger mystery that now confronts us.

Rightfully so, this is a very difficult time for our city as we endure public ridicule and scrutiny. I would appreciate your prayers as we work through the administration’s chaos and try to bring a clearer picture to the citizens of Washougal. I am convinced that with a newly elected, conservative Council, coming in January, we will provide a way out of the disaster created by this progressive administration.

For years I was unable to rally any alarm because of the extreme loyalty of the progressive majority on the Council, which followed the Mayor in lockstep. At that point I started to piece together a plan to bring about a conservative majority on the Council. In 2008 I was joined by one other conservative and by the summer of 2009 we gained another. On the eve of the 2009 election, we stand to take a conservative majority on the Council. In the meantime, we in the minority have had to endure policies and procedures that have made us very uncomfortable.

This experience has given me a deeper appreciation for what I am trying to do on a national level. We need sweeping government reform, which brings more accountability to government and places more scrutiny on government than on individuals. Too much control in the hands of the few will always result in disaster and corruption. As your next Congressman, I will fight for open and transparent government. The people deserve to know the truth.

Sincerely,


Jon D. Russell
Republican for U.S. Congress
(WA-3)

Good.
God.

I have never in my life read such a huge crock of self-serving cow manure in the entirety of the twenty-plus years I've been following politics.

Here, for the time-impaired, is the Cliff Notes version of why Russell thinks he bears no responsibility for his failure to act under these circumstances.

Never one to avoid contriving a political gain from something, even when he clearly shares fault; Russell is thrilled to find something he thinks he can twist to his advantage. He was placed on the city finance committee, and never saw anything worth mentioning until the Sellers stupidity. He comes up with a dozen different lies to support his failure to first, act, and second, do anything about a set of nonsensical, unenforceable and "unofficial" rules that precluded siting council members from exercising their First Amendment rights to talk to anyone they want, whenever they want, PARTICULARLY when Russell failed to DO anything about any of these so-called "internal rules."

I would ask you, gentle reader, this one very big question:

If our erstwhile Congressional wannabe lacked the testicles to take on a low-rent lowlife like Sellers....

.... what makes anyone believe for one second that he has what it takes to go up against Pelosi, Reid, or that empty-suited anti-American racist bigot running the show?

In short, why would we replace one coward, Baird; with another coward, Russell?

Do you think for one minute that *I* would have settled for being put off, ignored, intimidated?

Is this clown so helpless that he couldn't have written the county or state auditor's office, asking for assistance and an investigation LONG ago if he saw (but as it turns out, failed to act on) so many "red flags" he allegedly observed?

He almost clownishly mentions that

"In 2009, I asked to be appointed to the finance committee in hopes of moving the committee into a functioning body that would meet routinely to scrutinize every expenditure."

So, tell us again, Jon... why is it that YOU couldn't have done this ON YOUR OWN???? Like it or hate it, THAT WAS YOUR JOB, A JOB YOU ASKED FOR.

And then this laughable pap:

For years I was unable to rally any alarm because of the extreme loyalty of the progressive majority on the Council, which followed the Mayor in lockstep. At that point I started to piece together a plan to bring about a conservative majority on the Council.

"Unable to rally any alarm?"

What the hell does THAT mean?

I was "unable to write and provide facts causing an investigation to the State Auditor's office." I was "unable to call a reporter." I was "unable, for that matter, to even call Lars Larsen."

There is a major difference between "unable," and "unwilling."

So, here we have it. When allegedly confronted by incompetence and illegality, what did our young, crusading, city councilman do?

Why, he did absolutely nothing.

Well DONE, Mr. Russell. My confidence in your incompetence increases by the second. And the sure knowledge that you share the trait first mastered by Baird; specifically, that you won't take responsibility for any of the many things you do wrong reinforces to me my decision to do everything I can to keep you out of any elective office that includes me.

"Restore 'trust'," Mr. Russell? The only thing your lack of character and integrity does to me is restore nausea.
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Stacy Sellers is AWOL NOW, Jon Russell was AWOL THEN.

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There appears to be little doubt that the allegations of poor leadership and judgment, along with what might arguably be incompetence and misfeasance or malfeasance, have destroyed any hope for any further political career on the part of soon to be former Washougal mayor Stacee Sellers. She has, essentially, disappeared since the election, where a well-planned and deliberate release of documents detailing some very peculiar spending on the city credit card on her part while she was in Vegas, allegedly on city business... along with a certain missing $100,000 or so.

The local paper used an interesting headline in describing the situation: Sellers AWOL in Washougal

It details the impacts of her invisibility, along with the rather juicy tidbit of a U-Haul outside her home.. so where did she go?

Don't know. And, to put a point on it, I don't care.

What I DO care about is that Jon Russell was AWOL THEN.

Russell, erstwhile congressional candidate and fake conservative, is, God help me, a Washougal City Councilman.

But not just ANY Washougal City Councilman.... oh, no.

He happens to be one of the three city councilmen who sat in oversight of ALL purchases made by this same credit card.

So.... where was HE when these many questionable charges, including alcohol, came up? Well, the alcohol apparently drew a flag,and she repaid the city for those charges.

The unanswered... and at this point, even unaddressed, question is this: Where was Russell?

Where was Russell?

Councilmen Russell, Peterson and Greenlee made up the finance committee that APPROVED Sellers' expenditures.

Where were all these fake, high profile objections then? There weren't any?

Why not?

If any of the three actually tasked with oversight of these expenditures had been doing their jobs... shouldn't this issue have come up THEN?

But it didn't. And now Russell, in his effort to get some cheap publicity, is so busy tossing Sellers under a bus that he really hasn't ever explained why HE failed to do HIS job, letting the taxpayers who entrusted him with this responsibility completely down.

Why is that, Jon? And why is it that you've taken the lead in stringing up Sellers when you failed to take the lead in your job of oversight over the credit card debacle?

I'd REALLY like to know... and since you plan on representing me, perhaps you'll swing by and give me an answer.

You won't, of course, because there IS no answer, save your misfeasance. And I'm pretty sure you don't want to talk about that.
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Do you have problems with this? I do: Jon Russell demands Seller's resignation or impeachment.

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I've had a few posts here about the good Mr. Russell, a guy running for Congress as if he's a case of dissociative disorder (split personality), or as if he's two different people: the one who made thousands off his efforts to help the Port of Vancouver ram their massive tax down our throats and now the champion of law, order and the people's money.

Here's the problem I've got: before Russell demands Seller's resignation... he should offer up his own.

As I pointed out on October 28, Washougal Council Members Russell, Peterson and Greenlee sat in DIRECT OVERSIGHT OF ALL OF THE CITY OF WASHOUGAL'S CREDIT CARDS.

It's bad enough that Russell actually has the stones to complain about Sellers' stupid credit card antics in Vegas when he, Russell, had completely failed to do his job of oversight on the PURCHASE records of those cards.... but to now engage in THIS kind of self-flatulation?

ALL THREE members of the council who has oversight FAILED TO DO THEIR JOBS.

They should ALL leave office.

What unbelievably rank hypocrisy.

With political leadership like this, who needs enemies?

11/10/09
Washougal council may vote on mayor's resignation
Councilman Jon Russell mentions impeachment as an alternative

By Dawn Feldhaus
Post-Record staff

Washougal Mayor Pro Tem Molly Coston could end up serving as the city's next mayor -- at least through Dec. 31.

Councilman Jon Russell plans to introduce a resolution asking for Stacee Sellers to resign during the next council meeting Monday, at 7 p.m. He mentioned the possibility of impeachment, if Sellers does not willingly agree to a resignation.

"This is a crucial budget period, and we need stability," Russell said during the council workshop Monday.

Councilman Michael Delavar added his call for Sellers's resignation. Coston read a letter written by Delavar, since he did not attend the workshop.

"If the city has difficulty functioning or maintaining a high level of respect from the public, then it is in the best interest of the city that the mayor resign," Delavar said.

"I lack faith in the current mayor to fulfill her duties properly," he added.

Sellers said Thursday she would be on vacation during the council workshop but would attend the council meeting Monday. She made the comments while moving from a townhouse she has lived in since the summer to an undisclosed location, reportedly within Washougal.

The move began Wednesday morning - the day after Sellers lost her re-election bid to Sean Guard - by a margin of 2,277 votes (72.45 percent) to 831 votes (26.44 percent). That involved 46.65 percent of the registered voters in Washougal.

Guard called the results a "mandate."

"There were just a lot of people who were not satisfied with where the city was or where it was headed in the future," he said Monday. "I don't believe there is much confidence in Stacee and her ability to work with staff and the council at this point. There is a massive distrust and lack of honesty and cohesiveness. I don't know if it's in anyone's best interest for Stacee to stay in office."

Read the rest of the story in the Nov. 10 issue of the Post-Record

So, what does NY 23 mean to the fringe right?

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Look, like most people to the right of Lenin, I opposed the candidacy of Dede in the 23rd.

Like most mainstreamers, she was a democrat who had found it politically expedient to run as a fake "R" because someone else was running as the "D."

As a rule of thumb, candidates endorsed by the scummier elements like ACORN and Kos are not particularly "Republican" in nature. That the decision to run this miscreant as an "R" was made by 11 county GOP chairs instead of going with a primary or at least getting a PCO vote district-wide shows the all-too-frequent incompetence of the GOP on the ground.

Let's remember the topography here: this Congressional District had ONLY been represented by the GOP since the Civil War.

Since the Civil War.

So, even though in most areas where elections took place, the GOP made gains; some, like in the case of New Jersey, spectacular gains; the GOP also managed to take some moronic, unnecessary loses

And let's remember: Christie was no Hoffman in his political positions or philosophies. Christie was much closer to Dede then he was to Hoffman.

Christie did not win running a campaign on GOP social themes. He ran a campaign on the classic fiscal and integral themes to clean up rampant corruption and to rein in out of control government spending. Fortunately, Corzine was dragged down by the multiple appearances of a clueless president; a situation he obviously (and wrongly) felt to be to his advantage because he, Corzine, had failed to appreciate the impacts of campaigning with a failure.

And looking at New Jersey, let's not forget there was an independent candidate in this election as well, and how well did he do? (He has 5.7% of the vote at this writing)

The largest newspaper chain in New Jersey, the Star Ledger, had even gone so far as to endorse the independent, saying among other things, thus:

The lamentable fact is that the two parties are, themselves, little more than narrow special interests. Their competition for short-term political and/or monetary gain has jeopardized the state’s long-term economic health and left it with a tarnished national reputation.

Where the major parties have differed, their differences have been inconsequential. Where they’ve been the same, their similarities have been destructive.

All political parties seem to have become punch lines on the political scene; many of them populated by the most gullible, blinded, desperate, arrogant people I have ever known.

That type of attitude is marked here locally with the fringe-right wing support of Tim "The Liar" Leavitt and among those surrounding the conservative in the NY 23rd.

Here locally, we get this kind of garbage from a Jon Russell lackey:

Finally, I want to offer some advice to Jon’s political opponents within the Republican Party who have so eagerly manipulated this to reflect negatively on Jon. Take a look at all the Comments left by readers of what you’ve published on this. No doubt, I haven’t found all that has been written along these lines but of the ones I’ve found, I haven’t found one single Comment that supported the author’s position. With that in mind, I would encourage you to consider what I have termed the “Hoffman v Scozzafava … Wake-Up-Call …”. As the old folk song says, “The times, they are a changing” and you should be giving more sober thought to how your words and especially your actions, fit in with the current political landscape.

As deftly shown in the NY 23rd, the advice this political ingrate provides is worthless. It's also breathtaking in it's pomposity and arrogance.

I oppose Jon Russell's candidacy for reasons that transcend politics and enter into my personal knowledge of him as a man. No amount of political posturing or branding can change that, and no amount of bullying by his supporters will change the facts of what I know.

There can be no doubt that the GOP ran the wrong candidate in the NY 23. There can also be no doubt that had the powers-that-be ran a primary, or took the control of making the candidate appointment out of the hands of a mere 11 people, that the NY 23 would still be in GOP hands, instead of such a massive embarrassment because the GOP hammered the 3rd party candidate like a nail until, all of a sudden, their candidate, being such great judges of character, bailed and quite effectively endorsed her fellow democrat, there being no accounting for character.

Hoffman's fringe-right perspectives were not enough. His lack of charisma, the GOP's hammering of him on Friday and sudden support of him on Saturday, the lack of a coherent message from GOP leadership, the ultimately successful efforts by the media and leftists to demonize the right... all combined to take away a seat that the GOP has owned, outright, for over 140 years.

The GOP focuses on the wins in NJ and VA... they run around telling us the tide has turned.

And in the same breath, they try not to even talk about the debacle of the NY 23... like it was all a bad dream.

I view myself what I refer to as a "pragmatic conservative," sharing many of the views of the right. But I don't do it so blindly that I can blow past common sense, my own eyes, or develop the ability to suspend disbelief. That goes to the heart of why I've bailed on the GOP.

BOTH sides took hits yesterday. BOTH sides have much to consider. Both sides won, and both sides lost.

The unanswered question is this: what are they going to do about it?
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