TNT endorsement: Tacoma City Council District 2

Voters in Tacoma’s district 2 are selecting their city council representative this November. The district curves all the way from Northeast Tacoma into the North End. Along the way, it goes through the port, downtown, the Stadium District and Old Town.

That winding path should be a warning to readers. It was hard for The News Tribune’s editorial board to arrive at a consensus on this race.

In an endorsement interview with both candidates present, things got combative. Each candidate criticized the other repeatedly. Additionally, one candidate took issue with the board’s line of questioning around services for homeless people.

As it happens, that candidate, incumbent Sarah Rumbaugh, narrowly wins our endorsement.

This decision had our board deeply divided. The reason Rumbaugh, 57, won out in a 3-2 vote is that the majority felt she’s the most qualified candidate. She’s currently finishing her first term on the council, during which time she saw the inside of multiple policy-making processes.

She was involved in passing Home in Tacoma’s phase 2 and sponsored amendments that aimed to protect trees while still promoting housing development. She also co-sponsored an ordinance that banned homeless encampments within 10 blocks of a homeless shelter while also creating an outreach team meant to encourage people to accept shelter and services.

Additionally, Rumbaugh has a background that prepared her for public service. She has a masters in environmental studies, served as a city planner in Kent, and has expressed a calling to address poverty after having grown up on public assistance in Bellingham.

Rumbaugh objected to the board’s questions about the city’s spending on getting shelter and other help for homeless people. We think something got lost in translation here. Rumbaugh championed these services as meeting vital human needs, and we don’t dispute that.

Still, we believe it’s important to assess whether services paid for with tax dollars are having their intended outcome. In this case, the hoped-for outcome is helping people get out of homelessness and making future homelessness less likely. Asking whether that’s happening is not the same as questioning the need for spending on services.

That leads us to Rumbaugh’s challenger. James “Ben” Lackey, 44, is a software engineer living in the Stadium district who cited anger as his primary motivation for running for office.

He has taken up the cause of getting the city to re-open the Bayside Trails, a series of now-closed hiking paths stretching from Garfield Gulch to the southern end of Schuster Parkway. In the process, he’s accused Rumbaugh and other city officials of dismissing what he sees as a straightforward ask. (The city has responded to his request with its reasons for not opening the trail. Lackey doesn’t think they’re valid.)

Lackey expressed frustration over homeless encampments that limit the public’s access to parks and open spaces. He also described volunteering to clean up piles of abandoned belongings that he says include items stolen from him and his neighbors, as well as being accosted in his own home by someone who wandered in off the street.

Lackey also advocated for cutting back services and increasing police involvement in the lives of people living outside.

Now, he’s “hit the limits” of what he can do as a volunteer, he said. That motivated him to run for office.

The editorial board was divided over two questions. First, was Rumbaugh’s engagement in hostile back-and-forth with her opponent disqualifying? Fair or not, we expect our public figures to strive to be the bigger person whenever possible. That’s what we would have liked to see in this interview. But in the end, the majority of the board felt this issue didn’t rule her out.

The second question was whether Lackey was a viable candidate for the job. The majority of us didn’t think so, especially with a more qualified candidate on the ballot.

So Rumbaugh is our choice. When the editorial board endorsed her in 2021, the group made some pointed statements about what lay ahead for the winner of that race:

“Given the pressing challenges facing Tacoma — and the reality that the city’s current approaches to many of them simply haven’t been enough, particularly when it comes to addressing homelessness — whoever emerges victorious in this race will be tasked with pushing beyond the familiar talking points and championing new solutions that actually improve the lives of all Tacomans.”

Housing insecurity, public safety and economic opportunity. These are the true issues facing Tacoma. None of us doubts that Rumbaugh knows this. What we want to see is a path to results.

The News Tribune Editorial Board is: Laura Hautala, opinion editor; Stephanie Pedersen, TNT president and editor; Jim Walton, community representative; Justin Evans, community representative; Bart Hayes, community representative.

This story was originally published October 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.