Snohomish County’s Democrat officials have provided quite a lot of nutty stories in 2014—making us believe more than ever that there must be something in the county’s water. Without further ado, here are our picks for the top five nuttiest stories to come out of Snohomish County in 2014.
- Democrat Mukilteo Mayor Jennifer Gregerson hired longtime “political ally” state Senator Marko Liias to, presumably among other jobs, write the city’s newsletter. The part time gig will earn Liias a whopping $65,450 per year – must be nice to have an “ally” who has so much taxpayer money to throw away.
- A former top campaign aide for Democrat State Senator Steve Hobbs and disgraced former Democrat Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon served five days on a Skagit County work crew after pleading guilty to “evidence tampering,” evidently to cover up the work he was doing to harass Reardon’s political enemies from a taxpayer-provided computer. The same aide was also caught with self-made porn on his government computer.
- Democrat Snohomish County Executive John Lovick granted handsome pay hikes to 16 high-ranking staff members without the County Council’s approval. The total pay raises, including benefits, amount to nearly $150,000. Again, it must be good to a Democrat “ally” with a taxpayer-funded checkbook.
- Deputy Executive Mark Ericks was one of those 16 high-ranking staff members to benefit from Lovick’s generosity with taxpayers’ dollars. Ericks was recently accused of threatening to kill members of the county council. Witnesses confirm that Ericks threatened he “would ‘shoot’ or ‘kill’ council members because of their recent political decisions.” He also called one council member a “terrorist.”
- Mike Wilson—a Democrat seeking election to the state House in the 44th Legislative District—actively used his position as a high school cross-country coach to recruit volunteers for his campaign. Wilson, a teacher at the high school where he coaches, was also found to have used public resources to benefit his campaign. During school hours, Wilson used his school email account and school scanner for campaign business. Additionally, email correspondences between Wilson and other staff and students prove he used school resources for his campaign. Wilson lost his race.
Maybe whatever Wilson was drinking will be shared with other Snohomish County Democrat office-seekers – the taxpayers there could use a break.
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