Rural Neighbors political committee aims at left-leaning Whatcom County candidates

SAM TAYLOR - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

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The former chairman of the Whatcom County Republican Party has created a political action committee he insists isn't affiliated with the party or a new property rights group.

But at least one candidate that the former GOP leader Chet Dow has taken aim at doesn't believe him.

Dow created the Rural Neighbors Political Action Committee at the end of August, contributing $1,200 of his own money to the organization, according to state Public Disclosure Commission reports.

Then Dow paid more than $1,063 to send out a mailer in support of four conservative County Council candidates and in opposition to the left-leaning candidates endorsed by the Whatcom County Democratic Party and other progressive organizations.

Dow provided the mailer to a reporter after initially declining to do so because he said he was concerned about being personally attacked for sharing his conservative views.

"It's not easy for a citizen to do something of this kind without getting subjected to games of 'Gotcha,'" he said. "We're supposed to have a government of citizen participation. But conservatives are beaten back (locally)."

He declined to say who he sent the mailer to, saying that he didn't want to provide such information to people "that people like me would like to replace."

The flier supports Mary Beth Teigrob, Kathy Kershner, Michelle Luke and Bill Knutzen. It is in opposition to former County Councilman Dan McShane, County Councilwoman Laurie Caskey-Schreiber, Councilman Carl Weimer and County Planning Commission member Ken Mann.

Big letters declare that: "These four council candidates ARE LOCKING UP YOUR LAND!" a reference to regulations and proposed downzones being considered by the Planning Commission. The commission has not made decisions about the proposed changes that would downzone portions of the rural county, per a legal mandate by the state Growth Management Hearings Board and a state Court of Appeals.

The former GOP chairman also was adamant that the PAC had nothing to do with the party - confirmed by Chairwoman Luanne Van Werven - or the newly formed Citizens Alliance for Property Rights. He pointed to the fact that it's his own money involved, and he said that the goal of the PAC had been met.

But Caskey-Schreiber is skeptical.

"I still believe it's the same group of people, affiliated with the Republican Party and it's just the same tactics, a hit piece, negative campaigning," she said. "If it follows their typical pattern, it will be full of inaccuracies and trying to stir up a campaign of fear."