Dear editor,
Recent letters from Bob Baur and Ed Wickersham to the editor complaining about Don Benton’s claims of victory in the primary election show their complete ignorance of the election process and expose their true motivation, a partisan attack on Benton to help Baur’s socialist wife. Most people realize there are always two winners in a primary election as the top two vote recipients move forward to the general election. Since Don was one of the two candidates to move forward, that means (for our ignorant letter writers) he was one of the candidates that “won” the primary. Also, contrary to Wickersham’s partisan fabrications in the letter, Benton worked for the president of the United States running a federal agency with operations in all 50 states and four territories and won several awards while doing so. Benton was self-employed in his own successful companies for over 30 years before he was selected from thousands of capable applicants by the president of the United States to help with the transition to the new administration.
Benton lasted the entire four years (unlike many presidential appointees) working for a demanding task master who expected nothing less than excellence and he improved the agency’s performance dramatically. He even won awards for how much employee morale improved under his leadership.
My advice: Don’t write letters long on partisan hate and short on actual facts. People who know better will call you out.
Brandon Leslie,
Brush Prairie
