Perrow holds on to narrow lead, earns reelection to City Council

The results of the recent Gig Harbor City Council elections were finalized Tuesday for Council positions 4, 5 and 6.

Position 6

In a highly publicized race, incumbent Michael Perrow won reelection over Jeni Woock by 24 votes, barely outside of the Pierce County Auditor’s mandatory recount range.

Perrow finished the race with 50.28 percent of votes to Woock’s 49.39 percent.

Perrow’s campaign plan was to aim for the high road and maintain a positive campaign, he said.

“We were really pleased with how (the campaign) turned out,” he said. “I enjoyed the campaign. I liked talking about the issues.”

Woock agreed that the discussion about serious issues and concerns of Gig Harbor citizens was a positive aspect of the campaign.

“We got our citizens engaged and talking about issues,” she said. “Our city did a great job in sending a message to the city council.”

This was not only Woock’s first political campaign, but also the first campaign for her staff.

“I think we did a really great job of running a campaign for people who haven’t done it before,” Woock said.

Their goal was to run a fair and transparent campaign, she said.

Woock plans to remain active in Gig Harbor with her organization, Citizens for the Preservation of Gig Harbor.

Perrow is already looking ahead to the coming term.

“There’s some exciting things happening and I’m moving full speed ahead into that,” he said.

Position 5

In the race for Council Position 5, incumbent Ken Malich earned 61.69 percent of votes against opponent Al Abbott, who garnered 37.82 percent.

“I thought Al was a great opponent to have,” Malich said. “He was certainly a gentleman the whole way through.”

Abbott thanked Malich for a good campaign during public comments at the Nov. 9 city council meeting.

According to Malich, his campaign was very low key. He hopes to see more community involvement in the future.

“I would love to see more people at meetings and writing letters (to the editor),” he said. “Community involvement is very important to me.”

This focus on community will serve as his theme for the coming year, Malich said.

“I will try to pay attention to what people say in the community as much as possible.” he said. “I hope to be a good listener.”

Malich said this would be his last term serving on the Gig Harbor City Council and he believes that Abbott would be a good future member of the council.

Position 4

Incumbent Rahna Lovrovich ran unopposed for Position 4 and was reelected for another term with 97.98 percent of votes.

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 9:31 AM with the headline "Perrow holds on to narrow lead, earns reelection to City Council."