Bellevue's conservative Deputy Mayor Jared Nieuwenhuis is painting himself as a pragmatic & nonpartisan moderate in his reelection campaign.
In recent mailers & candidate forums, he's even attempted to bill himself as a friend to progressives. A thread on how that's false:
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Exhibit A: his opponent, Ruth Lipscomb, recently released a fantastic mailer with her common-sense reforms to public safety in our city, including adding mental health crisis responders. A very substantive & empathetic approach that's informed by stakeholder conversations.
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DM Nieuwenhuis chose to respond to these substantive policy positions w/ a texting campaign, which includes a link to his website. There, he accuses his opponent of wanting to defund BPD & being "ideologically driven".
He does not hide his anti-Seattle fearmongering very well.
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The page includes an intimidating ad, complete w/ black background & typewriter aesthetic, that includes the "defund" claim tied to clipped audio from Ms. Lipscomb's City Council testimony from July 2020. She expressed concerns about police militarization & lack of transparency.
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The campaign's usage of a 10 second audio clip removes the nearly 3 minutes of context surrounding it and distorts the message. DM Nieuwenhuis has been informed of this but has continued to use this line of attack that is blatantly partisan and not true.
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This mirrors 2017, when he and other conservative candidates (all men) for City Council joined forces to release a mailer falsely accusing each of their opponents (all women) of supporting a safe injection site. All men lost - except DM Nieuwenhuis.
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Although nothing new, his continued use of false & misleading attacks against his political opponents is unfortunate & reveals his conservative values.
And as much as he would like to claim he is non-partisan, his campaign choices reveal a clear conservative & Republican bias.
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According to PDC filings, DM Nieuwenhuis uses Voter Science & Minnick Group for campaign consulting services.
The former explicitly helps "redefine how right of center candidates run for office." The latter claims to be non-partisan but has Republican staffmembers.
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DM Nieuwenhuis has Mr. Benjamin Gonzalez on his campaign staff - he is a Field Director at Voter Science.
Before this job, *he was the Executive Director of the King County Republican Party*(!!!)
Yes, I might have buried the lede here.
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Less hidden but still relevant - Nieuwenhuis has repeatedly appeared on friendly conservative talk radio programs during his tenure to fearmonger about Seattle or again make false claims about his opponent.
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His Twitter likes also reveal his beliefs & the media he consumes.
There's plenty more examples & I would encourage you to go look for yourself were it not for the fact that his tweets have been protected for several months now.
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If one has Republican values, listens to Republicans, hires Republicans, and uses Republican talking points... I'm pretty sure that makes somebody a Republican.
Let's not fool ourselves thinking any of us political wonks, or any of our electeds, are truly non-partisan.
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I understand why DM Nieuwenhuis wants to bill himself as a moderate non-partisan: it's unpopular to be a Republican on the Eastside.
However, to obfuscate his conservative/Republican interests is a disservice to Bellevue voters who deserve to have the full picture in November.
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DM Nieuwenhuis's conservative opinions do not represent the majority of the Bellevue electorate. If he wins in November, it will be because he succeeded in this marketing effort to rebrand himself to be more palatable.
Which makes sense, since he *does* work in marketing.
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(In an effort to illustrate this point, I attempted to screenshot his LinkedIn account, but it appears that too has been hidden/protected. Perhaps because in his get-to-know-him advertisement, he strongly implies he's a tech worker when he just works for a video game company?)
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And let's be clear - if you're a Republican, he's definitely your guy. But if you're not and you actually believe in equity & progressive values (and want local officials who will actually implement the policies required to enact those values), then he's the wrong choice for you.
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To end this insanely long thread, allow me to present an alternate choice:
Vote Ruth.
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Yet another example of how his attempts to appear "progressive" are all performative & he knows it.
Conservative through and through.
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At a Bellevue City Council forum hosted by Eastside environmental groups to discuss what candidates would do for environmental stewardship.
Deputy Mayor Nieuwenhuis recently sent out a mailer touting his environmental credentials but is nowhere to be seen this evening. 
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