This has been a quiet election year for Redmond.

For Redmond City Council, incumbent John P. (Pat) Vache is running unopposed to retain Position 2 and John Stilin is the sole candidate for the Position 6 seat that will be vacated when current Council President Nancy McCormick retires at the end of this year.

The only contested race for City Council is that of Position 4, in which newcomer Sally J. Chen is challenging incumbent Kim Allen.

On Sept. 29, the Chen campaign sent the following press release to the Redmond Reporter after she claims that several of her campaign signs have been “cut, broken or snapped:”

“Two weeks ago, Sally Chen put up her first round of yard signs in support of her candidacy for the Redmond City council. In the past two weeks, the Chen campaign has recovered vandalized signs from around Redmond.

These vandalized signs have been cut from the stakes, the stakes broken or snapped, the stakes stolen from the sign, and even signs thrown up into trees.

In a close proximity to the vandalized signs, and in the time frame of the vandalism, the yard signs of Sally’s opponent, Councilwoman Kim Allen, were put up. The Chen campaign does not believe in petty destruction of any campaigning materials. Also, the Chen campaign established early on that no vandalism would be tolerated.

‘Early on, I told all my supporters that they are never to touch, move, and especially damage any of my opponent’s signs. I don’t believe in petty campaigning and I encourage my opponent to ask her supporters for the same courtesy,’ said Sally Chen.

The Chen campaign believes that political speech is a protected, First Amendment right. The campaign also acknowledges disagreements and differences in opinions. But it wants to discuss those differences with Mrs. Allen in public.

‘I think the best reaction to political speech is to respond. It is not to silence it and it is especially not to vandalize it,’ Chen said.”

CLARIFICATION REQUESTED

The Reporter responded to Chen by e-mail, asking if Chen had any evidence pointing to a person or persons who might have been responsible for the damage to the signs — and if she thought someone from Allen’s campaign was involved. We also asked whether she had been in contact with Allen to arrange a debate.

Chen did not immediately respond to the e-mail or a subsequent telephone message.

ALLEN’S RESPONSE

When contacted by the Reporter, Allen commented, “Thou shalt not touch a sign. … Nobody in my campaign would do it … and if I got wind that anyone who supports me did that, I would be all over them.”

Things happen to signs, Allen added. “Commercial lawn mowers go over them and we’ve had significant weather. My staff is finding my signs down, too.”

Allen said Chen had not contacted her about a debate, but stated, “I’d be happy to debate. Name the time, name the place and bring the cameras.”

CHEN’S RESPONSE

On Oct. 2, Chen e-mailed the Reporter, stating, “With respect to your questions, we are not implicating anyone specifically, but rather just mentioning that vandalism is occurring. Vandalism like this is unacceptable and illegal in our democratic political system. It is disconcerting to me when my signs end up thrown into trees.”

In a separate e-mail that day, after the Reporter again inquired, “Have you made any plans to debate with Kim Allen?,” Chen responded, “With respect to your question, the campaign would like to clarify its previous statement. When we said ‘in public,’ we were referring to public communications, meaning all the physical ways campaigns communicate in public to the public. There are many forms of public communication, our statement was not intended to single out one specific form.”

OTHER LOCAL ELECTIONS

Current King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert, who lives in and represents Redmond, is running unopposed for re-election for the District 3 position on the county council.

In the Lake Washington School District (LWSD), Nancy Phillips Bernard is running unopposed for re-election to the District 3 position on the Board of Directors.

Doug Eglington is running unopposed for re-election to the District 4 position on the LWSD Board, after Julie Wright withdrew from the race for personal reasons.

The Nov. 3 general election will be conducted entirely by mail and will be certified Oct. 24.