So just who are these people who claim to “trust islanders” and want my vote?

Today I checked the Public Disclosure Commission website about TrustIslanders, the new political action committee on San Juan Island, and learned a few things about them.  The couple who made the largest single donation, $5,000, list their address as Bellevue, although they vote on San Juan Island where they own a multi-million dollar waterfront estate.

Altogether, there are 57 people, or companies, who have contributed to TrustIslanders’ $24,000 war chest.  But only five of these, including the Bellevue folks, account for 54 percent of the total.

Contributors whose connection to the County is through San Juan Island are at least 77 percent of the supporters of this PAC. The big five donors are all San Juan and Bellevue interests.  One large donor isn’t even registered to vote in our county. The new three-member County Council system is intended to foster a whole county focus; they seem sort of insular (pun intended). There are only 8 contributors from Orcas and Lopez.

I also looked at a few records of past political contributions from the largest donors to TrustIslanders. Almost all are to partisan Republican party candidates and entities. So how can Trust claim with a straight face that it is non-partisan?

Why are they making all this investment in our election? What are THEY afraid of?  What is it they expect from the candidates they are pushing?   Are they just so used to throwing their weight around that they think it is their right to tell the rest of us how to vote?

Of course, the rich are different from you and me.  They have more money.  But that shouldn’t mean they can buy our government.

David Dehlendorf

San Juan Island