Rantz: Listen as cheating Mukilteo candidate hangs up on me on-air. Twice

Peter Zieve is running for Mukilteo City Council and he’s apparently a big cheater. When I asked him about it during an interview, he hung up. When I called back, he briefly said hello, then hung up again. It was the shortest interview I’ve ever done — and probably the most fun.

According to the Mukilteo Beacon, Zieve admitted to having questions to a candidate forum, offered to him in advance, when no other candidate received them.

Zieve first said Mario Lotmore, publisher of the Lynnwood Times and one of the event’s planners, gave him the questions in advance. Lotmore denied the charge. Then, Zieve changed his story. According to the Mukilteo Beacon:

In a brief conversation Zieve changed course and said he’d received the questions from another candidate – not Lotmore. He would not say which candidate that was. He said the questions were not emailed to him, and the reason he name-dropped Lotmore initially is because they are friends, and because he didn’t want to say who actually sent him those questions.

That definitely makes sense.

The incident caught my attention for obvious reasons. We reached out for the interview and Zieve agreed. But it quickly went south.

When I thanked him for coming on air, he said, “Yes. How can I help you?”

That’s not a good start.

I asked if the Beacon story was true. After a long pause, he said “I don’t know, actually.”

Interesting. Mysterious, even! I followed up: did you have the questions in advance. And that’s when he hung up for the first time.

I called him back. He answered but didn’t speak. I said his name, he said “Yes?” as if he didn’t realize I’d be calling back. Then silence. “Hello?” I asked.

He hung up. A second time.

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