Attack ads on council candidate distort Tacoma and the truth | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Attack ads link Zev Cook to 'Defund the Police,” distorting her position.
- Flyers funded by PAC misrepresent Tacoma and District 5 realities.
- Cook and Bushnell both back community services to address public safety issues.
It’s here, Tacoma. A rehashing of the public safety and policing debates of the past five years that nobody asked for.
In the race to represent District 5 on the Tacoma City Council, candidate Zev Cook has the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America. Earlier this month, mailers attacking Cook started going out to District 5 residents. Paid for by an independent expenditure committee with donors based in King County, they boiled everything you might associate with the DSA movement down to one thing: the “Defund the Police” slogan.
Paid for by a PAC called “Washingtonians for a Brighter Future,” the attack ads take advantage of real concerns about public safety and policing policy. Over the past five years, the country has convulsed with debate over the role of policing, with crashing waves of policy change and backlash.
If Cook wants to carry the DSA banner to City Hall, some voters will say she has to own that slogan. That’s regardless of how Cook herself feels about the phrase, which is more complicated. But the flyers have almost nothing to do with what’s going on in the race for District 5. They distract from what the candidates themselves are saying, and they paint a bizarre and insulting picture of Tacoma along the way.
The candidates don’t take very different stances on public safety. Cook and one of her opponents, incumbent Joe Bushnell, have both proposed reducing crime by lifting up the community with crisis intervention services, decent jobs and affordable housing.
What’s more, Cook hasn’t run on the “Defund the Police” slogan. She says she doesn’t think it’s a useful framework for thinking about public safety. Instead, she’s more focused on what other services should be funded to fill needs police struggle to meet.
Still, the flyers go to great lengths to tar her with the phrase.
Campaign flyers paint an uninformed picture of Tacoma
The PAC managed to find one time Cook publicly said the words “defund the police” in that order. It’s out of context.
She said the phrase in a social media post about a local DSA committee with that name. The committee was working on a crisis intervention program that aimed to bring mental health experts into situations that are tricky for police to handle.
Cook’s opponent, incumbent Bushnell, describes himself as a champion of alternative response options for mental health crises. He noted in an interview with The News Tribune’s Editorial Board that he helped secure funding for the city’s Behavioral Health Crisis Response Team.
Meanwhile, the flyers come off as ham-handed and laughably clueless about Tacoma.
“Zev wants violent criminals here,” the same flyer warns, with red arrows pointing to Dune Peninsula Park, the University of Puget Sound campus, and a playground.
Only one of these locations is in District 5: the playground at Wapato Park. Washingtonians for a Brighter Future spent more than $15,000 on making and sending these flyers. I’m not sure how much more they would have needed to pay to unearth another two nice-looking parts of District 5, but I have a feeling they were overcharged as it is.
And in case the point wasn’t clear, the flyer adds, “Tacoma needs them here,” with another red arrow pointing to a photo of the Pierce County Jail. The contrast is maybe a little too clear between the shots of fancy Tacoma spots and the jail, with its concrete windows and fortress-like shape. It’s as tidy as the difference between criminals and the rest of us, you might think.
It’s silly I have to say this, but I don’t believe Cook wants violent criminals scaling the walls of UPS dorms, or doing their violent crimes in our parks. I also think most Tacomans would agree our city is a lot more than just fastidiously landscaped spaces and one depressing box where we put criminals. Those outdoor spots are all great, but the flyer’s fixation on manicured Tacoma is a weird vision for the city.
In another flyer, a photo of Cook is superimposed over a photo of a destroyed building in Minneapolis in the aftermath of protests over the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Out of context, I’d say the photo makes the candidate look smug. “Cooking up Chaos,” the flyer reads, along with a quote of the phrase “Defund the Police.”
Did Cook say “Defund the Police?” Again, no. The quote is attributed to the Democratic Socialists of America website.
Okay, sure.
Cook is endorsed by the DSA, and they’ve embraced ideas about public safety that have proven deeply unpopular over time. Even though she doesn’t use the phrase, it’s undeniably entwined with the organization’s politics.
But that doesn’t make it simple. If anything, Cook has been consistent about finding new ways to address societal problems we’ve been dumping onto law enforcement agencies for too long.
Attacking a candidate for her stance on Israel
This whole issue isn’t what motivated the PAC to attack Cook to begin with.
Their real problem with the candidate appears to be her stance on Israel. Cook, who is Jewish, is critical of the war on Gaza and vocal about her support of Palestinian rights. The PAC opposes candidates it deems anti-Zionist before they get a foothold in politics. The idea, according to a Substack post linked to on the PAC’s website, is to stop the pipeline of these politicians from local offices to more powerful positions like state and federal legislators.
You may not mind that the PAC has a different motive for attacking Cook, especially if even a loose connection to the idea of defunding the police is a deal breaker for you. But I don’t appreciate the effort of a group funded by people in another county to stir up fear along with a big scoop of ignorance about Tacoma.
Here’s what I’d like Cook’s opponents to consider. If you want to counter her policy ideas, then match her laser focus on working people and their quality of life. Don’t fearmonger about the gems of District 1 becoming overrun with undesirables. Talk about real alternatives to her solutions instead.
Otherwise you’re not talking to the same voters Cook is. You’re just talking to yourself.
This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
