Primary election results: Here’s who leads in Tacoma City Council District 5 race
Joe Bushnell was leading in the race for Tacoma City Council District 5 with 1,045 votes, or 49.39 percent of the vote, after primary election results dropped Tuesday evening.
Anne Artman was in second place with 755 votes, or 35.68 percent of the vote, and Treyvon Dunbar was in third place with 292 votes, or 13.8 percent of the vote.
The two candidates with the most votes in the primary will move on to the general election Nov. 2.
Tacoma City Council District 5 represents the South Tacoma and South End neighborhoods. The seat is currently held by City Council member Chris Beale, who decided not to run for re-election.
Bushnell works as the local government affairs coordinator for the Washington Hospitality Association. He’s also a Tacoma Public Utilities board member and board chair of the South Tacoma Neighborhood Council. He previously worked as a staff member in the Washington State Senate.
Artman is the founder of the Tacoma Recovery Center, which supports individuals with behavioral health issues, homelessness and substance misuse and helps with employment services. She’s also on the board for the Hilltop Business Association.
Dunbar serves as the sergeant at arms for the 29th Legislative District and is a state committee member for the Pierce County Democratic Central Committee. He’s also on the the executive board of the South End Neighborhood Council and Pierce County Young Democrats.
Candidates running for District 5 have been vocal about addressing the lack of affordable housing in the South Tacoma areas, including what the city can do to better respond to the homelessness crisis. Candidates have also grappled with the city’s Home in Tacoma initiative, attempting to balance the need to rezone areas of the city to increase housing density while ensuring existing neighborhoods remain. Public safety and police reform also are top issues, with candidates generally supporting some sort of police reform to alleviate burden on police and improve call response.
Ballots will continue to be counted in the coming days, with the next round of results dropping Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. The results will be officially certified on Aug. 17.
Voter turnout was 12.7 percent out of about 566,000 registered voters in Pierce County as of Tuesday evening.
