A mailer funded by an organization called Shoreline Partnership Council showed up in Shoreline mailboxes over the weekend attacking incumbent City Councilman Keith McGlashan over a 2007 arrest in New Orleans.
McGlashan was in New Orleans for National League of Cities meetings on behalf of Shoreline when he and several others in a group he was with were arrested on public drunkenness and lewd conduct charges.
“I was in New Orleans two years ago and out with friends from the Northwest who happened to be in town that same weekend. And, by the way, I was on my own time,” McGlashan said in an e-mail. “We were heading back to the hotel, participating in the ‘festival atmosphere’ that New Orleans has to offer and a few of the individuals in my group got a little carried away. I was taken in with them but the charges against me were dropped.
“This was a very humiliating evening for me,” McGlashan said. “But I did nothing wrong. This was literally a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The flier — which includes an apparently digitally altered photo — refers to the trip as being taxpayer funded and asks the question, “Is this what he meant in 2005, when he ran on ‘Honesty. Trust. Integrity.’? Shoreline deserves better.”
McGlashan’s opponent, write-in candidate Wendy DiPeso, received the mailer on Saturday like other voters in the city.
“I found it rather shocking. I don’t know who SPC is,” DiPeso said.
The Shoreline Partnership Council is listed as a political committee on the Public Disclosure Commission Web site. Its campaign manager is listed as Eric Sandstrom and its treasurer is Leta Blackwell, who has been involved with the 32nd District Democrats. Sandstrom’s phone number listed in the PDC filing was temporarily out of service when the Enterprise called. Blackwell did not return a call for comment.
DiPeso, who was endorsed by the 32nd District Democrats, distanced herself from the piece but did make a statement.
“From the perspective of good governance and speaking in general terms, not specifically about McGlashan, all elected officials should hold themselves to the highest standards of good conduct. Any issue involving misconduct is a matter between the official in question and a duly constituted legal authority. It is not the role of a candidate for office to render judgment on such matters,” she said in a statement to The Enterprise.
DiPeso, who refers to herself in campaign material as “Mrs. Write-in” and McGlashan as “Mr. Wrong,” said she’s focused on differences between the two candidates on the issues.
On her Web site and campaign mailer she draws distinctions between herself and McGlashan in several votes he made while on the council.
DiPeso, president of the Shoreline Chamber of Commerce, supported a business licensing program that was passed by the council in June but which McGlashan did not support.
For a $40 fee, businesses can now register with the city and a list will be created for distribution. A total of 198 cities in the state have such a program, including Edmonds and Lake Forest Park. If 1,400 businesses register, about $56,000 will be raised.
McGlashan said he did not vote for the program because businesses already have to register with the state, and he didn’t think the added cost was necessary for businesses that are still struggling because of the effects of the recession.
“It might benefit the chamber, but I didn’t see how it benefited the businesses or the city,” said McGlashan, a former owner of James Alan Salon who now is a barista at Starbucks.
DiPeso also touted the chamber’s Green Business Program where businesses register on the chamber’s Web site and pledge to fulfill a set of environment-friendly business practices.
On the issue of economic development, both candidates agree that supporting and attracting businesses to ease the property tax burden on Shoreline homeowners is needed.
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