Back in 2006, David Irons, a former Republican officeholder who is now running for the nonpartisan office of King County Elections Director roundly criticized a fellow Republican, now a Democrat, for pointing out PDC errors of the King County Republicans. Richard Pope first pointed out the errors to the Republican Party organization and after 3 months, when they had not been corrected, filed a complaint with the PDC.
As reported in the Seattle PI :
“The investigation found that the party had missed the deadlines for more than 100 reports, which were filed anywhere from five to 306 days late. The reports covered nearly $170,000 in contributions and other money received and more than $180,000 in expenditures. For the year, the party took in more than $342,000 in contributions and receipts and spent nearly $358,000.
The investigators also found that the county GOP had failed to provide the required occupation and employer information for 90 percent of the contributors who gave more than $100. That represented 114 contributors who gave a total of $92,744….”.
The Republican Party was fined $40,000 by the PDC for their mistakes.
But David Irons, in a fiercely worded e-mail sent to Richard Pope afterwards apparently didn’t take kindly to his Republican Party being called to task for violations of our state’s public disclosure laws:
“In your effort to damage others I fear you have destroyed what little reputation you had remaining. It must be lonely sitting on that pedestal you built for yourself.
I personally forgive you for your actions and the manor in which you have so aggressively attack good people. As for your hate, I sorry to say that is likely to continue to consume you for now until eternity.”
Kind of makes you wonder what kind of response people in the King County Elections Department would receive from him if they point out mistakes or problems if he was elected their boss. I certainly would not feel comfortable working for someone with this kind of attitude. And will his decisions favor one party over the other? Can you expect an old dog to learn new nonpartisan rules?
You can read the original post and the full e-mail over at the blog Horsesass.org entitled David Irons Slams Richard Pope.
Also you can read David Postman’s take on it at Postman on Politics in a post entitled, David Irons condemns whistleblower “until eternity”
The election for King County Elections Director is an all mail in elction with ballots needing to be postmarked by Tuesday, Feb 3, 2009.
Note: Majority Rules Blog is urging voters to support the currently appointed King County Elections Director Sherril Huff who is also on the ballot. You can learn more about her by visiting her website at http://electsherrilhuff.com/.
