Editor,

I am writing in response to the Oct. 23 letter from Lee Rebman that accuses county commissioner candidate Janet St. Clair of being a “carpetbagger” who is beholden to special interest. Rebman’s letter is incorrect and misleading.

Following Rebman’s lead, I went to the State Public Disclosure Commission’s website and found the campaign disclosures for both candidates.

Ms. St. Clair did have less than 10 out-of-state donors, accounting for about 1 percent of her donors. She also had a handful of out-of-county donors from Seattle and other cities, but so did Rick Hannold, with donations from Redmond, Kirkland, Bellingham and other cities.

So, according to Rebman’s definition, shouldn’t we also consider Hannold a “carpetbagger” who is beholden to outside interest? The bottom line is, the vast majority of donations for both candidates are from within the county; there is no smoking gun that would show either candidate being “bought” by outside interests. One thing that is true in Rebman’s letter is that Janet St. Clair has more donors and more campaign support within our county. But what is so wrong with strong local support for a candidate?

David Freed

Clinton