I want to wholeheartedly endorse Ramiro Valderrama for the 45th Legislative District position opposing Roger Goodman. As a 42-year Kirkland resident and City of Kirkland councilmember for 12 years, I recognize and respect the solid local leadership displayed by Mr. Valderrama. He received a much deserved “outstanding” rating from the Municipal League, unlike his opponent. He has proven to be an outstanding leader on environmental issues as deputy mayor of Sammamish and has consistently advocated for limits on government taxation.

As importantly, the Democrats have shown terrible results the last 30 years our state has been under their leadership. Higher education has been decimated in our state and they have been unable to properly fund basic education where 25 percent of students in Washington state do not even graduate from high school.

It is time for the voters to give proven leaders such as Ramiro the chance to improve the results in state government.

Santos Contreras, Kirkland