Several candidates in smaller municipalities won, and we’re excited for what they bring to the table. In DuPont, Susan Walton retained her seat for Position 7, notching a solid 65%. In Gig Harbor, Patrick Ammann won a big victory for the open Position 2 seat, besting his opponent by about 6%, while Emily Stone soundly defeated her challenger to retain Position 3 with 64% of the vote. Patrick and Emily are both young and savvy, and they will make a difference across the Narrows. In Steilacoom, Elizabeth Grasher won the race for Mayor by defeating longtime GOP politician Dick Muri by a solid margin of 13%. To boot, Cindy Haverkamp won the open seat for Town Council Position 2 by nearly 20%, while Alecia Cunningham prevailed in University Place for Position 3 by an even wider margin. Woot!

In Lakewood, the results were mixed. On the bright side, Ellen Talbo soundly defeated her opponent Mark Herr for Position 1 by over 12%. Ellen and her team ran a great campaign that focused on the fundamentals, and the results clearly show that. For Position 2, Mike Brandstetter won by a wide margin to retain his seat in a race that was less competitive. Finally, Jennifer Lamari did not garner the voter support needed to defeat a strong opponent in Philip Lindholm for Position 3. After running such strong campaigns, both Talbo and Lindholm could become candidates at the county or state level in the future. Moving forward, we’ll be keeping a close eye on Lakewood.

In Puyallup, all three races for City Council were competitive, and all three of our endorsed candidates ran SUPERB campaigns in an effort to defeat conservative opponents. For starters, Lindsay Smolko was elected in District 3, having defeated Mark Crosby for the open seat by over 7%. Way to go Lindsay! She will fill the seat soon to be vacated by Julie Door, who is completing her last term on the council. In District 2, Heather Schiller lost to incumbent Dennis King by a mere 33 votes according to the final tally. In District 1, Jeff Bennett was not far behind incumbent Jim Kastama either, with a deficit of only 63 votes. Bennett gave the longtime legislator and local politician a run for his money (literally). We remain hopeful that the tide is turning and Puyallup will have better representation in the future. We hope both Schiller and Bennett will remain involved and perhaps run for office again.

We had three great candidates for Parks Tacoma Board. Recent appointee Alisa Lee won easily, securing over 77% of the vote! Malachi Cabera also ran a very strong campaign, but could not overcome the name recognition and endorsements carried by recently-appointed former Tacoma Public Schools Superintendent Carla Santorno. He narrowed the margin to less than 6%–impressive for a young, first-time candidate running against an opponent with so many advantages. We hope Cabera will run for office again in the future. Finally, challenger Bronwyn Clarke defeated incumbent Pete Reyes for Position 3, 55-44%. Our Coalition has supported Clarke since early in the appointment process last winter. She was passed over three times before deciding to challenge the third appointee Reyes in the election. Educated at Oxford, she has much to offer both in expertise and fresh ideas, and we can’t wait to see her go to work to bring some changes to our neighborhood parks. Congratulations on running super campaigns, all three!

Finally, while we chose not to engage in City of Tacoma races this year, we look forward to working with Mayor-elect Anders Ibsen, City Councilmember-elect Latasha Palmer, and other Tacoma City Councilmembers to build consensus and solve our most pressing problems. And, after observing returns across the county, we anticipate engaging more with candidates in smaller towns like Fife and Sumner in the future.

Thank you candidates, campaign staff, and volunteers for your admirable efforts this year!