LACEY, Wash. — Brandee Hay says she never thought her coffee stand, Great NorthWest Coffee Co., would be the site of a political scandal.
But on July 7, security cameras captured a disturbing act from Lacey Councilman Ed Kunkel.
Video from that day shows Councilman Ed Kunkel standing with fellow Councilman Lenny Greenstein.
You can see Kunkel pulling a campaign sign out of the ground belonging to Thurston County Commissioner candidate Emily Clouse.
The two men then walk off-camera with the sign in hand.
Hay says she gave Clouse permission to put her sign up a month before Kunkel.
But when she learned Kunkel was related to one of her employees, she said he could put his sign up too.
After Clouse called her to say her sign was missing, Hay reached out to Kunkel for an explanation and was disappointed to hear Kunkel say that Clouse puts her signs up without permission.
“I said, 'Well regardless, you didn’t have my permission to take her sign down, nor did we discuss it,' and told him that I knew it was a misdemeanor and I asked him to please take his signs down,” Hay said.
Clouse says this isn’t the first time that her signs have been taken down but isn't taking this personally because this is the cost of being in politics.
“I do understand that it’s a common tactic,” she said. “It’s really upsetting that that’s what people do because I’m all for running a clean campaign.”
But she is concerned this may keep new voters from taking part in the process.
“I think it will dissuade people like me from running for office in the future, and to me, that’s really upsetting,” Clouse said. “I like to get new voices at the table. I like to explain to people and educate people on why it’s important to step up, especially in an off-season election like this. We really need to get more eligible voters at the table, so that’s really what my focus is on.”
But Hay says this has caused her to pay more attention.
“I don’t ever want to vote for somebody or have somebody be in power that’s going to use and abuse the title,” she said. “I don’t think that’s fair for anybody.”
KING 5 has reached out to both Councilmen Kunkel and Greenstein for a comment and have so far not heard back from them.