Bernie Talmas ahead in Woodinville despite anonymous attacks

A shad­owy group that tar­get­ed Wood­inville May­or Bernie Tal­mas with attack ads and robo­calls may have impact­ed his elec­tion returns, but Tal­mas is still mak­ing a good show­ing this evening, cap­tur­ing 54% of the vote for Wood­inville City Council.

Tal­mas is the only Wood­inville City Coun­cil mem­ber out of four run­ning for office who attract­ed a chal­lenger. As incum­bent may­or, Tal­mas should be per­form­ing bet­ter against oppo­nent Brad Walk­er, who is light on both back­ground and ideas.

Ani­mos­i­ty and accu­sa­tions on the coun­cil have made this a nasty elec­tion, with Coun­cilmem­ber Susan Boundy-Sanders fil­ing a com­plaint with the Wash­ing­ton State Pub­lic Dis­clo­sure Com­mis­sion last month, alleg­ing that the shad­owy attack group “Eth­i­cal Wood­inville” vio­lat­ed pub­lic dis­clo­sure law by not reveal­ing its fun­ders. Eth­i­cal Wood­inville has been send­ing mail­ers to Wood­inville res­i­dents’ homes ques­tion­ing Tal­mas’ integrity.

Devel­op­ment is a cen­tral Wood­inville issue. Both Tal­mas and his oppo­nent want to main­tain the open space that draws res­i­dents to the area.