Benton weighs in on Benton

I have a thousand questions for and about Mary Benton after she announced her candidacy for the Clark County council District 2 seat, none of which have been answered.

Benton, who is the wife of Sen. Don Benton, filed Friday for the open council seat. Though we haven’t heard a peep from Benton—two phone calls went unanswered Friday—her controversial husband weighed in over the weekend about his wife’s announcement.

Here’s the email Sen. Benton sent via the Friends of Don Benton PAC on Saturday:

Yesterday my wife Mary dropped a bombshell on me. She filed her papers to be a candidate for the County Council. I am certain many folks will believe that I orchestrated her candidacy. Nothing could be further from the truth. I went to work Friday morning thinking she had decided against it, but Mary has always believed in community service and now that Austin (our youngest) is going off to college she feels she will have the time to devote to making Clark County a better place to live.

By 2:30 in the afternoon she had changed her mind, filed and is now committed to the campaign. While I was never to excited about the idea of my lovely wife being beat up daily by the propaganda arm of the Democrat party (The Columbian), now that she has made the decision I am her biggest supporter and am all in 100%. I am hoping you will be all in too! It will be an adventurous summer! I know from 32 years of marriage, once she commits to something she is tenacious! When Mary is elected she will be a strong, independent conservative voice on the Commission for Mothers and children all over Clark County (It also helps that she is 100% opposed to the CRC resurrection being promoted by many of her opponent’s backers). Please email Mary at MaryBenton149@gmail.com and let her know you support her candidacy.

Elect Mary Benton
PO Box 5076
Vancouver, WA 98668.

We will need volunteers, contributions and endorsements. Please email, call or write us as soon as you can.

Friday’s announcement came as a bombshell for me, too, and this release only served to create more questions than it answered.

Why is Sen. Benton’s PAC campaigning for his wife? Why does her stance on a dead transportation policy make her a viable candidate for county council? If she’s elected, will that create a conflict of interest since her husband is the Environmental Services director? Does she still run the couple’s consulting firm like her husband said she does in 2013?

All this, and it’s only May. Happy campaign season.