Letters to the Editor

Letter to the editor: On local politics and ‘special interest’ groups

Posted on October 23rd, 2023 By: Bonnie O'Malley

Politics have never been any different.  Candidates who can not stand on their own merits seek to bring their opponents down with innuendo and outright false statements.  I am disappointed to see Ed Nadler using this tactic, and since I am inadvertently identified in his recent redundant but unjustified accusations of his opponent, Mary Barber, being the political puppet of “Special Interest” groups, I would like to be very clear.  The Gig Harbor Short Term Rental Alliance, of which Carolyn Allen and I are Co-Founders, DID NOT make a political contribution to Mary Barbers’ Campaign Fund.

Personally, I respect Mary Barber for her open-mindedness and ability to listen and evaluate documented information when considering her decisions on any given topic of legislation for the Gig Harbor Community.  I do not always agree with her decisions, but I do appreciate her capabilities, and I thus donated personally to support her re-election.  The common denominator that other contributors to Mary’s re-election also are members of the GHSTRA group does not constitute a “Special Interest Group” as Nadler would like to make the public think.

I am a proponent of our Constitutional Property Rights, and I was instrumental in providing information and documentation to the Council during two years of consideration of regulations for Short Term Rentals in our city.  Six to One, our City Council voted in what I consider to be fair regulations in respect of Constitutional Property Rights and the legal decisions that support them.

SIX TO ONE!  Nadler needs to take a good, hard look at his own affiliation with the one dissenting vote and the agenda that he is putting forth along with the minute group of “Influencers” she represents.  They constitute his very own “Special Interest Group” led by old time has-beens from Gig Harbor Government who still seek to run this City for their own personal agenda, and not for the benefit of the City as a whole.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Bonnie O’Malley

Gig Harbor


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