If he’s Tacoma’s next mayor, Ibsen must turn criticism into leadership | Opinion
You win some, you lose some. In this case, it’s looking like Anders Ibsen will win the race to be Tacoma’s next mayor. But if the vote count continues to trend his way, he’s lost something else: his outsider status.
In campaign materials and candidate events, Ibsen repeatedly framed himself as someone who challenges the status quo in Tacoma’s government. It’s a mantle he’s carried since his days on Tacoma city council, where he gained a reputation as being difficult to work with at times.
That didn’t seem to bother him. The difference now is that, as mayor, Ibsen would be the face of the city’s government. The situation will call for a new kind of leadership, one that tempers his penchant for tough debate with a focus on moving the ball forward on Tacoma’s toughest problems.
His opponent, John Hines, enjoyed the endorsement of four current city council members and outgoing mayor Victoria Woodards. Ibsen had a long list of endorsements too, including many local politicians, but none who serve in Tacoma city government right now.
Ibsen has started a term from this position before. During his 2015 reelection campaign to represent District 1 on Tacoma’s city council, he notoriously got only one endorsement from a fellow city council member. The rest endorsed none other than Hines, who failed to oust Ibsen from his seat in that election despite his support from the rest of city council.
If Ibsen wants to keep working with colleagues who openly prefer the other guy, more power to him. But this time he has to steer the ship.
Because being mayor is different. Although technically Tacoma’s mayor is just one more voting member of the city council, Ibsen can’t escape the fact that he represents Tacoma’s government to its residents now.
The tasks before the city council demand leadership. The city’s lawmaking body must appoint the city’s next executive, the city manager. They must expand on the city’s approach to addressing homelessness in the region, making it more effective. And they must help create housing and economic opportunities that will let Tacomans thrive.
Tacoma poised to choose Anders Ibsen
As the vote tally continues, it’s hard to say what exactly about Ibsen’s candidacy resonated with Tacomans. But his tireless doorknocking campaign seemed to start before this year’s tulips came up, and that likely paid off.
With Tacoma’s jack-o-lanterns now in our yard waste bins, Ibsen’s long campaign season is over. Soon he’ll show us what kind of mayor he is.
Ibsen’s politics trend pragmatically progressive. But what has often won him his most ardent fans is his attention to residents’ specific problems. His campaign materials emphasized this, quoting a resident’s praise for his quick attention to her complaint about a drug house in her neighborhood.
This kind of personalized attention from a mayor would, I’m sure, make lots of Tacomans happy. And I have no doubt that Ibsen has the drive to pull that off while attending to his other duties. After all, it looked like he poured enough energy into his campaign to offset the Tacoma municipal building’s power bills.
But to prove his leadership, he’ll need to affect the direction of the city government’s policy. That will involve working with Hines, who will remain on city council for another two years as the representative of District 1. It will also require staying out of quagmires like the 2018 ethical investigation into Ibsen’s mention of his role on city council in the marketing materials for his real estate business.
Ibsen won’t achieve any of this just by being contrary, as much as that might shake up a lawmaking process that so often appears to come with a built-in consensus.
He’s critiqued that go-along-to-get-along culture for 10 years. Now, he needs to offer his own vision and win supporters.
