As Tuesday’s primary election dawns, Pierce County’s second-largest city will have none of the hotly contested races that attracted 13 candidates for City Council just six years ago.
In fact, Lakewood won’t have any council races at all – neither in the primary, nor in the November general election.
That makes it the largest city in Washington this year not to have a contested City Council election; it is the 17th most populous city in the state.
Lakewood elections are unopposed for the first time in more than a decade and only the second time since the city was incorporated in 1996. And that 1999 election probably deserves an asterisk because the three council members had only served short, two-year terms.
Barring a successful write-in campaign, which is improbable, Don Anderson will begin a second term and two newcomers, Paul Bocchi and Marie Barth, will join the seven-member council in January.
Lakewood isn’t alone. Nine of the 22 other Pierce County city or town councils having elections didn’t draw a contested race. But all of the others are small communities, including DuPont, Eatonville, Fircrest and Steilacoom.
That a city with about 60,000 people and two open council seats would generate so little interest is surprising to council members, both sitting and incoming.
They attributed it primarily to the lack of hot-button issues of the sort that drove the large candidate fields during the last decade when a self-styled watchdog group called Lakewood Cares took root.
“There’s not a lot of heartburn right now,” said Claudia Thomas, one of the city’s original council members who is stepping down at the end of the year.
STATE CONCERNS
To be sure, controversy has arisen over proposals to route passenger trains through Lakewood and move the main gate serving Camp Murray next to the Tillicum neighborhood. But Thomas said state agencies, not the city, are leading those initiatives.
In fact, the council is firmly opposed to the train bypass, currently on hold as the state completes an environmental review. Mayor Doug Richardson said Lakewood residents understand the city’s position.
The mayor, who will become the last remaining member of the original council, also pointed out that the city has avoided major cuts to programs and services during the economic downturn.
“We don’t have pressures on the general fund to pay off a bunch of debt,” he said.
Council candidate Barth has lived in the area for more than 50 years.
“I think the people, the citizens of Lakewood, are happy with the direction that their city government is going and they have faith in it,” said Barth, 60, co-owner of Designated Escrow. “If they were unhappy, there’d be a list of people running.”
She said she did have lunch with a prospective challenger to discuss the election. Lakewood resident Philip Watson filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission to raise money for his campaign, but never formally entered the race. He didn’t return a phone message seeking comment for this story.
DIFFERENT CLIMATE
Today’s political climate is in stark contrast to that of a decade ago.
The honeymoon following Lakewood’s incorporation had ended as interests battled to chart the young city’s future. Intense debate centered on zoning, code enforcement, construction of the new City Hall, and sign and billboard regulation.
From these disputes emerged Lakewood CARES, or Citizens for Accountability, Responsibility and Education. The group felt City Hall wasn’t listening and worked to unseat council members, politicians they felt had become entrenched.
It grew into a political force, with three of its members serving on the council in 2006-07. But it was never able to secure a majority, and all those members are gone from the council.
Nine candidates announced for the 2003 council elections, and 13 each time during the campaigns in 2001 and 2005. Councilman Bill Harrison, one of the city’s founding fathers, lamented the escalating vitriol and money in council races in 2005, when CARES’ influence reached its peak.
Interest has waned in recent years. There was no primary election in 2007. Richardson ran without a challenger two years later, the first time there was an unopposed council seat since 1999.
As the debates faded, so did CARES. John Arbeeny, a former city councilman and CARES member, said the group is in “hibernation.” In June, the Internal Revenue Service said it had revoked its nonprofit status for failure to file its annual return for three consecutive years in May 2010.
Arbeeny said it was a “tremendous drain” for a small group to keep it active, but he expressed confidence that another organization would fill the void.
He doesn’t buy the “everything’s hunky-dory” argument. Many people are frustrated with city government, he said, but aren’t running because of the time and money involved. They are also focused on keeping their jobs and homes in the weak economy, he said.
“It’s unfortunate,” he said of the uncontested races. “I certainly take my hat off to the people who are running. This is not the way a democracy is supposed to be.”
LESS MONEY AVAILABLE
The money also has diminished. Candidates were raising on average around $20,000 during the 2001 and 2003 elections.
By filing week, Bocchi’s campaign had raised a war chest of more than $6,000 in anticipation of a tough campaign for the open seat, according to the state’s online campaign finance database. Barth has raised $1,800, and Anderson has $6,400, it shows.
Both newcomers said they still plan to put up additional signs, knock on doors and mail a campaign flyer in an effort to build name recognition.
There are other reasons given for the lack of interest.
Anderson said Lakewood pays its council members much less than other cities, mentioning Puyallup and University Place. Lakewood’s mayor now earns $10,800 a year and its council members receive $8,400 a year.
“Everybody could make more money doing something else with the time they’d devote to the city,” he said.
Candidate Bocchi, 49, a Pierce County budget analyst who served on the County Council in 2003, said the earlier primary election may also have an effect. Starting in 2007, the state moved primaries to August from September.
“When you have to be up and running in early June (for candidate filing week), you really have to get your campaign moving in late spring,” he said. “I don’t know if a lot of people are thinking that far ahead.”
Councilman Walter Neary, a second-term incumbent who will step down at year’s end, doubted this lull will last through the next council elections in 2013.
“Realistically, something will happen, something will go wrong,” he said. “Sad to say, when things go wrong, people get really interested. “
Christian Hill: 253-274-7390
christian.hill@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
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