The vitriolic rant against Steilacoom’s residents published in Sunday’s letters (“Steilacoom: Aboubakr’s attackers are shameful”) leaves no doubt that the University Place writer never attended any of the public hearings or meetings on the Aboubakrs’ proposed land development.
Contrary to the writer’s spurious assumption, probably 90 percent or more of Steilacoom’s residents do not know where the defeated council member and her husband are employed as teachers, or what subjects and grades they teach. Nor do they care.
Connie Aboubakr was defeated because the electorate expects its council members to have the town’s best interests at heart, and the perception was that she did not meet their expectations.
One elected Steilacoom official was quoted as attributing her defeat to “small town politics.” While his comment might have been a tactful sidestep to avoid criticizing a colleague, in this case size does not matter. Her defeat was yet another example of something that politicians ignore at their peril: Small town or big, at the polls expectations and perceptions do matter.
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