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Ummm...Yakima Libs?? What planet are you from? Yakima is about as Illiberal as it is possible for a city to be, and you can see the result of this long-term mental, emotional, spiritual and financial neglect everywhere you look.

Congrats to Dave Ettl,Bill Lover,Micah Cawley & Maureen!
So now Yakima stays its conservative viewpoint.
Lots of work to be done, so get started!

Thanks

Dave Ettl? Good luck with that one. I dont think we see the true persona of Dave Ettl. Congrats Micah and Maureen!!!

Now we have the Gap West council! Lance Tormey next?? Brian Teegarden?? The Ceefus and Dave show, with special guest Rick Ensey sponsored by Bruce Smith and the Yakima Valley Business Times!!

Now Mary Place has more time to shop at the Wailing Wal of Mart that she helped jam down the throats of the citizens of West Yakima when she was on the City Council earlier this decade.

I am pleased to see Ben Soria and Mary Place loose in this election. I believe we would have truly taken a step backwards. Having hardworking folks (or even just working) on the council is a step forward. Place and Soria would have just brought their rich, take care of the wealthy; I have no connection with the common folks, approach to city government. I see the people of Yakima are finally figuring this out. My advice to Mrs. Place and Mr. Soria is for them to find a cause and throw some of their money at it.

Wow, Yakima has spoken clearly back to its conservative roots and stay out with the old.

I plan on having cereal for breakfast, but YHR may have a steaming bowl of crow courtesy of Ettl.

Mary Mary Mary you now know your place.

You blame low voter turnout, had the turn out been better you would lost by a even bigger margin.

Like someone said earlier now you have time to go to the Wall Mart you slammed everyone in West Valley with.

To Dave, Micah, and every one else ron bonlander hates, good job and good luck.

This was a victory for conservatism and Bruce Smith, and it was a defeat for liberalism, Ron Bonlender, and the Yakima Herald.

I believe that since Rodriguez was an appointee, once the race is certified Ettl automatically is placed on the council. We don't have to wait until the first of the year to see her off the council.

leiac,
Sounds good to me, but I doubt that's how it works.

I think this also sent a message to Mayor Edler who nominated Norm Johnson's replacement at least partially based on race. The next time you want to "reach out" to the hispanic community or any other group, at least choose someone that shares our community's conservative values.

According to the City Charter Article II D 2:

"In the event a vacancy occurs for any reason in the Council, the vacancy shall be filled by the appointment of some qualified person by a majority vote of the remaining members of the Council, but such appointee shall hold office only until the next regular municipal election, at which time a qualified person shall be elected to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term for that position."

So, according to the Charter, the elected takes office immediately and fills the remainder of the term, as well as their own term.

Sweet! Thanks leiac.

Dave Edler's anointed appointee lost, while Bill Lover & Rick Ensey's first choice way back in December, Maureen Adkison, won.

Looks like Ensey and Lover knew what the people wanted all along while Edler didn't.

But we already knew that.

LMFAO!!! while the rest of WA State has steadily moved into the 21st century, conservatives are determined to promote "separate but equal" and keep yakima shackled to the failures of conservatism.


we'll continue to see a steady decline in living conditions, jobs, education, and the general welfare of the community with continued rise in crime and corruption all to common with conservatism.

but hey, it wouldn't be conservatism if you were just there to vote as you're told and ignore reality.

While most of this country chooses to move forward, the people in this city have once again chosen to take ten steps backwards. Ettl on City Council? It is rather obvious that the people of Yakima are dazzled by magic and slick talk. There is nothing else there! It is time to move far, far away where people are smarter than 5th graders. Good luck Yakima, you're gonna need it.

Read GhostOfOrwell's post and think: Detroit, New Orleans, Toledo, Vallejo, Cleveland, Flint, Newark, Chicago...

Whatt is a typical progressive, he or she is "for the future" as if that even means anything. How can you be or not be for the future? It's just a buzzphrase, doesn't mean anything.

And Whatt talks about slick talk and magic because there is nothing else there...

RE: Ghost of Orwell:
"we'll continue to see a steady decline in living conditions, jobs, education, and the general welfare of the community with continued rise in crime and corruption all to common with conservatism."

Hmm, why is Yakima county not feeling the full effects of this recession with our current local republican leadership? How come Democratic party lead states have the biggest deficits? Why did Boeing leave the "bastion" of liberal leadership, ie the Seattle metro area? Corruption, you mean like Oregon's Democratic governor lying to his own legislators on green tax breaks? Don't LYAO to hard. Our county approved a continued tax increase for crime prevention by an overwhelming margin. You need to research other areas to see why the Yakima area is doing fairly well in relation to other areas of our nation.

RE: Whatt
"it is rather obvious that the people of Yakima are dazzled by magic and slick talk." This worked for Obama nationwide, but not here. Facts and past leadership failures (George, Place) impacted these races.

RE: owentuckerschmidt
"Read GhostOfOrwell's post and think: Detroit, New Orleans, Toledo, Vallejo, Cleveland, Flint, Newark, Chicago..." Good point, and what party controls the local leadership in these towns? Democrats, by and large. Thank goodness Mr. Bonlender has a small following here!

Bottom line, Yakima is turning into a fine place, a great place to raise a family, and our local representatives are a part of our recent success(The lone exception is Ensey, who honestly needs to go next election cycle).

Have a nice day,
Farmer Fred

yup go Conservatives, you have done such a great job with Yakima thus far. maybe you will put a wall around the east side and pretend it doesnt exist.

The republicans aren't keeping the jobs here, the natural resource based economy is.

Conservative or liberal, it does not matter...too many like-minded individuals on any council is a bad thing. Hopefully our elected representatives avoid the tendency toward groupthink. Excepted of course, is Mr Ensey who does not think.

Some pretty funny comments:
Rodriguez got voted out because she's incompetent and seems to have a serious lack of opinion on anything.
Soria lost because of his track record as head of the school district. Pretty much a seat warmer collecting a fat paycheck with nothing to show for it.
Paul George, while a good man and well-qualified, lost because of the Wal-Mart fiasco.
Ettl? Yeah he's a real slick talker. Please. He's a talk-show host in small town but at least he has an opinion and an original thought. Something that Sonia was never accused of.
Some of you need to can the predictable labels.
People in Yakima have a memory and they know what they want.
To those decrying the lack of "progressiveness", WTF that means.
Uh, hello. Where do you think you're living?
You're in Ya-ki-ma. Still a farming community.
Maybe you can move on up to Ellingsburg and go to some poetry readings at the college and sip some eXpresso and feel worldly.

What happened Yakima? How does Sonia not support our values? Is it how she is going to ACTUALLY address the gang problem or how she is going to address the budget issues in terms of spending money efficiently? Ettl didnt even bother to run a campaign and tell you how he is going to address our most critical issues. Remember his best friend Micah Cawley voted in favor of Sonia's appointment. Yakima- are you really going to allow our city to be led by a few people involved with special interest groups? I thought we were better than that!

Sorry Doug Harrison, I must have missed Ettl's opinnion- what is it? How is he going to address our city's critical issues? Please tell me I am dying to know.

I didnt think you "commenters" had any real response..thanks for proving my point

QO-"Ettl didn’t even bother to run a campaign and tell you how he is going to address our most critical issues."

This statement is true and from it I have drawn 2 accurate conclusions.

1- Ettl being an "on-air" personality had his most available and effective voice muzzled by Sonya and her legal gag order, so feel free to put some of that blame on your prized 2nd place council woman.

2- The people of Yakima would have rather elected someone that didn't say much at all than Sonya, who had the equivalency of a DJ for airtime on her adds trying to sell herself for months and a feeble short lived track record as Eddler's lap dog.

"I didnt think you "commenters" had any real response..thanks for proving my point"

Please forgive me for having a life away from the blogs, I didn't see your post until it had been up for a whole 70 minutes! Lets see how long it takes you to reply.

Nothing stopped Ettl from debating Sonia on the air at any time. Nothing restricted him from advertising on radio his message to our city about his plans to address critical issues. Nothing restricted him from obtaining information from the city on critical issues. Please spell the name correctly. It doesnt have a "y" in it.

True that Ettl could have scheduled a debate and held a formal event assuming that SonIa would have agreed to attend, and yes he could have and did purchase advertising on radio stations, and yes he could have (and may have) obtained information from the City on issues. But the huge point that is left out is that he was REQUIRED LEGALLY to abide by different rules and regulations than his opponent or other political races were governed by. I guess that is what you get when your opponent is a lawyer.

That actually could have been part of her down fall from the council, we already have enough city attorneys what we needed was a council person. One thing I know is attorneys often take care of their own and SonIa was quick to jump on the ethics board issue and do what..... Make some more money and work for attorneys.

Regardless of what was her down fall or Ettl's success of the anti-campaign it is all history.

Excuses Excuses Excuses...hopefully Ettl doesnt follow your philosophy of putting the blame on everyone else and making excuses. Sonia would have debated him directly anytime. Too bad KIT didnt invite her to do that. I guess we will never know.

QO-"Excuses Excuses Excuses"

You are obviously not referencing that to me since I am not the one making excuses for anyone and you are making the excuses for Sonya. Ettl won, he doesn't need excuses, only losers need an excuse.

QO-"I guess we will never know."

If Sonya thought she was sooooo terribly wronged then why wouldn't she plan on running again in 4 years? Especially if she True-ly believes that Ettl is going to fail so miserably, he would be easy pickings for a return to council. Unless..... oh heavens no... she is concerned he might do a good job and beat her a second time! Could it be she didn't believe that Ettl really was a bad fit for council and she only subscribed to that theory in attempts to gain votes? Why that would have been flat deceitful. The only thing lower than that is claiming other council members endorsed her when they really didn't, good thing that didn't happen.

born and raised. I don't mind debating you or reading your opinions, but please spell her name correctly. Its "Sonia" not "Sonya".