Wenatchee Mayoral Candidate Bryan Campbell Removes, Edits, then Reposts Photo that Prompted Backlash
And receives further criticism for sending campaign emails to school district staff members
After my last article about Bryan Campbell, a candidate running for Mayor of Wenatchee, he removed from Facebook a photo of him standing on Wenatchee Valley Fire Department property posing with an emergency vehicle. That photo, and the fact that he was told not to take it on district property by department staff, prompted backlash from the public and criticism from Wenatchee Valley Fire Commissioner Cam de Mestre.
Last week, Campbell put the photo back up on Facebook with the fire district’s logo covered up and the caption “Love this picture and the fire service!”
De Mestre said he and the other commissioners discussed the matter and “voted to send him a letter, from our chairperson, stating our position and acknowledging that he had removed the photo.”
“I abstained from that vote as at the time Mr. Campbell was honoring the verbal agreement hade he'd made with me to remove the photo. That has since changed,” de Mestre wrote in an email. “I intend to bring it up for further discussion at our meeting on 10/18/23.”
De Mestre said that personally, he finds the whole situation very strange but that as a commissioner he’s happy to work with any person the voters choose and only expects that they act in good faith.
In other news, Campbell and surrogates from his campaign also solicited votes digitally by sending the following message to the official employee email accounts of Eastmont School District employees last week:
That district employee pointed out the fact the word “vote” was misspelled in the email subject line, and admonished Campbell for sending campaign emails to public employees’ official accounts.
“First, with respect, please do not send campaign emails to my email address paid for by the public. It is inappropriate,” they wrote. “As a side note, you have no idea what Faith I practice. We are not all the same. You have lost my vote.”
That individual, who asked to remain anonymous, then they forwarded me the thread. That person was one of a handful of Eastmont employees to reach out and report they received the same email, some from Campbell himself and others from his wife.
I was also forwarded an email with a message from Campbell addressed to Wenatchee School District employees.
So I reached out to Diana Haglund, communications director for the Wenatchee School District to ask if WSD employees had been getting messages similar to Eastmont staff.
“I'm unaware of any WSD staff who received this message in their school email accounts,” she wrote. “However, WSD did get a DM from Bryan on Facebook with this same message.”
I asked Campbell about it on Friday after a dedication ceremony for the new Pickleball courts at Rotary Park in Wenatchee.
He said he didn’t know anything about the messages other than they were sent by his “social media guy.”
We REALLY need to keep this person out of office. Apart from being unqualified, he has his own agenda, cannot be trusted (as these latest antics show), and would continue the ongoing effort to launch us toward an all-white, all-christian, anti LGBTQAI+ community. Contact NCW Democrats to help. I believe there's still a get-out-the-vote effort going on.
Didn’t know? I would expect a leader to take responsibility for what has his name on it. Such lack of boundaries, respect, or integrity doesn’t sound like someone I could support. There is a better option. I firmly support separation of church and state. Trying to put people in a tidy little box is invasive, predatory, and disrespectful. No thanks!