I was so tired of partisan politics. It was all Tim Eyman and no new taxes… That’s not me. I’m interested in community building.
— Pro-transit Bellevue City Councilmember John Chelminak, explaining why he had a falling out with the Washington State Republican Party to The Seattle Times for its most recent article on Bellevue politics (Tone of Bellevue council hinges on three races). Chelminak nowadays calls himself “an excommunicated Republican.”