Bailey Stober’s political ad inaccurate | Letter

I am writing in response to the full page attack ad that Kent City Council candidate Bailey Stober inserted into last Friday’s (Oct. 14) Kent Reporter. Now of course I have no problem with the fact that the Reporter printed it. I applaud the valuable service that the Reporter provides our community and wish it all the best. But I do have a few thoughts on the ad itself that I would like to share.

First of all, I have been an area resident for quite a few years. I have gotten to know my neighbors, have participated in my neighborhood association, have made it a point to frequent downtown Kent businesses and have done what I can for local community and charity events. But I haven’t had the honor of being an actual resident of the city of Kent until the recent Panther Lake annexation, so I hope that you will forgive me if I haven’t been all that aware of the local political arena.

But this one negative ad that Bailey Stober posted got me interested. Any time a local candidate believes that it is a prudent and adult use of space, time and funding to print a picture of a toilet-paper roll made of money, I begin to smell a rat. And sure enough, with a little digging I found that every single one of Bailey Stober’s assertions were either half-truths or outright fabrications.

Take the claim that his opponent bought the entire City Council new “I-Pads”. Getting beyond the fact that the candidate apparently isn’t aware of the spelling of the word “iPad”, the claim is patently untrue. The incumbent did not at any time buy anyone an iPad. The City Council does not have or use iPads. To the best of what I’ve been able to ascertain just asking around, two iPads were purchased as part of a beta test to see if using iPads would cut costs to paper, printing and labor time. Actually, I have discovered that it was part of a larger sustainability initiative directly related to council strategic goals regarding the environment and fiscal sustainability, and not related to any single council member, which I would hope most people would think of as a good thing.

Looking into Bailey more closely, I find that a great deal of his message seems to be directed negatively towards his opponent: but looking at his actual qualifications, I can kind of see why he needs to go so negative. In comparison, he predictably doesn’t seem to have all that much to offer.

Don’t take my word for it, please. Use Google. Talk to your neighbors. Ask questions. I only write to tell you that from what I have discovered, not only will I be voting for Deborah Ranniger, I will also be contributing to a political campaign for the very first time in my life.

My strong belief is that we need to keep the mudslingers and ‘wannabes’ out of local politics as much as we possibly can.

Rob Kneisler

Kent