Elfers Seeks to Quash Bigotry Rumor

With just about three weeks left before election day, wants voters to know he's no bigot.

Elfers contacted Patch this week concerning a rumor he's heard that he was dissuading voters from choosing his opponent, , for Position No. 2 on the City Council not because of but because Dickson is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Elfers said he'd come across the rumor both while campaigning door-to-door in town and received email directly accusing him of bigotry.

"Frankly, it's false," he told Patch. "I have never brought this up as an issue to anybody. I'm trying to build community, and this would create division. Religion has no place in politics -- it's a non-issue."

He said he doesn't know where it might have originated from, but being that he's heard the rumor now repeatedly, he wanted to address it directly. "I want to get it out in the open and put it out into the light," he said. "It's not what I want to do in the community, and it's not what I feel."

As a history teacher for 33 years, he said the bigotry is against everything he teaches. Quoting Confucius, he said, "the study of history makes one tolerant."

King County Elections ballots are set to be mailed this Wednesday, October 19. Elfers and Dickson have both been invited to a candidate forum at this Tuesday morning, beginning at 7:30 a.m.