Another letter to the Reflector.

A couple of weeks ago, the Reflector published a letter where I accused Jon Russell of a variety of things, all of which are documentably true. In sum, to counter the many canned letters Russell is having others sign on his behalf, I pointed out the facts: that his tenure as a Washougal city councilman has been abysmal; that his stand on term limits would have cost us the services of Joe Zarelli, Ed Orcutt, Don Benton, Marc Boldt and Tom Mielke in the legislature, That he lied to 18th District PCO’s; that while claiming he has “earned a degree,” he was, in fact, making that up and that he lied about his wife being a “physician,” and that he made thousands off the Vancouver Port Levy, trying to ram a huge tax increase down the throats of those living in the port district.

These things are all true, and documented at http://jonrussellwatch.blogspot.com. And they are the things and the kinds of things I presented for the 8 months Russell was running for congress, long before he announced for the 18th District after his campaign failed.

For whatever the reason, the Reflector felt compelled to allow Russell to write what we in politics called a “puff piece,” including a picture, where he attacked me, and by extension, the candidate I support in this election. Well, here is MY rebuttal to his attacks.

First of all, MY “flesh” is always available to discuss any of these issues with Russell. I have, in fact, “discussed” many of these issues face to face with Russell, as far back as last summer. Secondly, the truth is never “dirty.” It is, in fact, the truth. What Russell fails to do is to address the issues I brought up.

Russell, as usual, fails to mention that I had gone after him during his abysmal failure of a congressional campaign, long before he foolishly settled for running in the 18th District. Thus, the fact of the matter is that anyone reviewing my blog that specifically address many of Russell’s failures and lies will discover that my first post about him was dated in June of last year, 8 months before he bailed on his congressional campaign and announced for the 18th District.

In short, while given the opportunity to do so, did Russell deny any of the allegations I raised? Oddly enough, the term “rebutal[sic]” as used in the Reflector would tend to indicate that he disputed my positions and observations. Yet did he deny that he failed to stand up to Stacy Sellers? Russell himself is quoted as saying:

“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.”

The problem? HE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. He was helpless then, like he’s helpless now.

Did he deny that he lied to the 18th District PCO’s? Did he deny he repeatedly lied about his wife being a doctor? Did he deny that, while chair of the city finance committee, $100,000 in city money vaporized? Did he deny he made almost $10,000 off the Vancouver Port Levy trying to jack up the taxes of thousands by a huge amount? Did he deny that his effort to get elected to ANY other office amounts to an attempt to abandon the people of Washougal before the mess that he’s partially responsible for is cleaned up?

No. What he DID do was, in effect, tell us that our local legislators who have served us well for so many years need to be kicked out because of an arbitrary number he made up to develop a campaign issue.

It takes much more then the “thick skin” Russell claims he has to be a state representative. It also takes honor, integrity and courage. Russell has none of those.

The facts speak for themselves. Russell’s failure to address those facts also speaks for itself.

Don’t be fooled. Vote for anyone BUT Russell. Don’t be taken in like the people of Vancouver who voted for Leavitt because he was going to fight tolls. We all see what happened there.
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