Bremerton's mayoral election will be contested as mayor, councilman chart path forward
At the center – two visions on how to move the city forward.
The executive office, a nonpartisan position, will be up for election in November, and potentially an August primary, at the end of a second term for Wheeler, who was elected in 2017 and again in 2021.
Wheeler, a lifelong Bremertonian, former Puget Sound Naval Shipyard worker and Navy veteran, said serving as mayor of his hometown has been 'the greatest honor of my life' and it's 'the only job I wanted.' He entered public office by winning a seat on the Bremerton City Council.
But his challenger said Wheeler hasn't done enough for another term.
'After eight years, things need to change,' Coughlin said. 'Another four years under Greg Wheeler and the city will not be moving forward, and so now is really the time.'
Coughlin detailed a slew of plans to make that forward movement on his campaign webpage, addressing a number of hot-button Bremerton issues. Among his pledges, Coughlin wants to make Bremerton safer with more police officers and bolstered code compliance, tackle the city's housing crisis with more affordable units and a smoothed out permitting process, and address homelessness by collaborating with community partners and investing in supportive social services.
For the last four years Coughlin has been a member of the Bremerton City Council, including a year as council president, and previously served on the city's planning commission. He is also an astrophysicist and certified project management professional, worked as a director for NASA and the SET Institute, and volunteers as the director of the Kitsap History Museum. He was also a candidate as a Democrat in the primary for the 2024 Kitsap County board of commissioners race, won by Republican Oran Root last November.
'I'm ready to actually listen to people, to work not only across the aisle, but across the board of anybody who wants to work on solutions,' Coughlin said. 'I have not seen the core issues that affect the city addressed and I've only seen them get worse over the past eight years under Mayor Wheeler's leadership.'
Wheeler sees forward moment for Bremerton differently.
'We've made tremendous strides in seven years as a city and myself with my administration, we've done that,' Wheeler said. 'I want this campaign to focus on continuing this momentum, this forward progress.'
Wheeler said his experience gives him an intimate understanding of neighborhood issues built through outreach on foot, and he's developed relationships in Kitsap County and around the region that are crucial for problem solving. He cited regional partnerships as an example that was instrumental in backfilling ferry service cuts from Washington State Ferries.
Bremerton is in the midst of 'tough times' now, Wheeler said, adding he has seen the city through the COVID-19 pandemic and a flurry of challenging executive orders from President Donald Trump's administration. 'I will lead us towards prosperity.'
Wheeler also detailed a long list of action items on his campaign webpage, among them the development and improvement of various city parks, improving public safety with police hiring and expanded community safety programming, job creation and economic development, and keeping Bremerton affordable with support for housing programming.
There have been differences between Coughlin and Wheeler on city issues. Tension between the council and Wheeler has been on display during some meetings. Coughlin said that's because Wheeler hasn't communicated well with councilmembers, leaving them in the dark on some issues. Coughlin read about Wheeler's plans to pause the city's hiring of a DEI position in the Kitsap Sun before he heard it from the mayor, he offered as an example.
Wheeler said his administration has spent more time and resources 'than I've ever seen' on communication with the council, to 'educate new council members on the roles of government, what government can and cannot do.' The council saw nearly half of its members replaced in 2018 after Wheeler was elected, he noted, saying there was very little senior leadership left on the City Council. Wheeler, who served for eight years as a councilmember, expects communication to improve as the current councilmembers gain seniority.
Other candidates may join the race for Bremerton Mayor in the coming months. May 9 is the final day for candidates to file their campaigns for public office in the 2025 election.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Election for Bremerton's mayor draws challenge to re-election bid
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
29 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
As hurricane season collides with immigration agenda, fears increase for those without legal status
If a major hurricane approaches Central Florida this season, Maria knows it's dangerous to stay inside her wooden, trailer-like home. In past storms, she evacuated to her sister's sturdier house. If she couldn't get there, a shelter set up at the local high school served as a refuge if needed. But with accelerating detentions and deportations of immigrants across her community of Apopka, 20 miles northwest of Orlando, Maria, an agricultural worker from Mexico without permanent U.S. legal status, doesn't know if those options are safe. All risk encountering immigration enforcement agents. 'They can go where they want,' said Maria, 50, who insisted the Associated Press not use her last name for fear of detention. 'There is no limit.' Natural disasters have long posed singular risks for people in the United States without permanent legal status. But with the arrival of peak Atlantic hurricane season, immigrants and their advocates say President Donald Trump's robust immigration enforcement agenda has increased the danger. Places considered neutral spaces by immigrants such as schools, hospitals and emergency management agencies are now suspect, and advocates say agreements by local law enforcement to collaborate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement make them more vulnerable and compel a choice between being physically safe and avoiding detention. 'Am I going to risk the storm or risk endangering my family at the shelter?' said Dominique O'Connor, an organizer at the Farmworker Association of Florida. 'You're going to meet enforcement either way.' For O'Connor and for many immigrants, it's about storms. But people without permanent legal status could face these decisions anywhere that extreme heat, wildfires or other severe weather could necessitate evacuating, getting supplies or even seeking medical care. Federal and state agencies have said little on whether immigration enforcement would be suspended in a disaster. It wouldn't make much difference to Maria: 'With all we've lived, we've lost trust.' Efforts by Trump's Republican administration to exponentially expand immigration enforcement capacity mean many of the agencies active in disaster response are increasingly entangled in immigration enforcement. Since January, hundreds of law enforcement agencies have signed 287(g) agreements, allowing them to perform certain immigration enforcement actions. Most of the agreements are in hurricane-prone Florida and Texas. Florida's Division of Emergency Management oversees building the state's new detention facilities, like the one called 'Alligator Alcatraz' in the Everglades. Federal Emergency Management Agency funds are being used to build additional detention centers around the country, and the Department of Homeland Security temporarily reassigned some FEMA staff to assist ICE. The National Guard, often seen passing out food and water after disasters, has been activated to support U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations and help at detention centers. These dual roles can make for an intimidating scene during a disaster. After floods in July, more than 2,100 personnel from 20 state agencies aided the far-reaching response effort in Central Texas, along with CBP officers. Police controlled entry into hard-hit areas. Texas Department of Public Safety and private security officers staffed entrances to disaster recovery centers set up by FEMA. That unsettled even families with permanent legal status, said Rae Cardenas, executive director of Doyle Community Center in Kerrville, Texas. Cardenas helped coordinate with the Mexican Consulate in San Antonio to replace documents for people who lived behind police checkpoints. 'Some families are afraid to go get their mail because their legal documents were washed away,' Cardenas said. In Florida, these policies could make people unwilling to drive evacuation roads. Traffic stops are a frequent tool of detention, and Florida passed a law in February criminalizing entry into the state by those without legal status, though a judge temporarily blocked it. There may be fewer places to evacuate now that public shelters, often guarded by police or requiring ID to enter, are no longer considered 'protected areas' by DHS. The agency in January rescinded a policy of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, to avoid enforcement in places like schools, medical facilities and emergency response sites. The fears extend even into disaster recovery. On top of meeting law enforcement at FEMA recovery centers, mixed-status households that qualify for help from the agency might hesitate to apply for fear of their information being accessed by other agencies, said Esmeralda Ledezma, communications associate with the Houston-based nonprofit Woori Juntos. 'Even if you have the right to federal aid, you're afraid to be punished for it,' Ledezma said. In past emergencies, DHS has put out messaging stating it would suspend immigration enforcement. The agency's policy now is unclear. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an email that CBP had not issued any guidance 'because there have been no natural disasters affecting border enforcement.' She did not address what directions were given during CBP's activation in the Texas floods or whether ICE would be active during a disaster. Florida's Division of Emergency Management did not respond to questions related to its policies toward people without legal status. Texas' Division of Emergency Management referred The Associated Press to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's office, which did not respond. In spite of the crackdown, local officials in some hurricane-prone areas are expanding outreach to immigrant populations. 'We are trying to move forward with business as usual,' said Gracia Fernandez, language access coordinator for Alachua County in Central Florida. The county launched a program last year to translate and distribute emergency communications in Spanish, Haitian Creole and other languages. Now staffers want to spread the word that county shelters won't require IDs, but since they're public spaces, Fernandez acknowledged there's not much they can do if ICE comes. 'There is still a risk,' she said. 'But we will try our best to help people feel safe.' As immigrant communities are pushed deeper into the shadows, more responsibility falls on nonprofits, and communities themselves, to keep each other safe. Hope Community Center in Apopka has pushed local officials to commit to not requiring IDs at shelters and sandbag distribution points. During an evacuation, the facility becomes an alternative shelter and a command center, from which staffers translate and send out emergency communications in multiple languages. For those who won't leave their homes, staffers do door-to-door wellness checks, delivering food and water. 'It's a very grassroots, underground operation,' said Felipe Sousa Lazaballet, the center's executive director. Preparing the community is challenging when it's consumed by the daily crises wrought by detentions and deportations, Sousa Lazaballet said. 'All of us are in triage mode,' he said. 'Every day there is an emergency, so the community is not necessarily thinking about hurricane season yet. That's why we have to have a plan.' Angueira writes for the Associated Press.
The Hill
29 minutes ago
- The Hill
Perino hits back at Newsom social media criticism: ‘We get the joke'
Fox News host Dana Perino hit back at California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday after the Democrat attacked her for criticizing his social media and messaging strategy, which in recent days has seemingly mocked the posting style of President Trump. 'And that was my point,' Perino said during an episode of 'The Five,' responding to the criticism. 'If you're doing this and it's not authentic and you're trying to do somebody else who you say is Hitler and you think that we don't get the joke, oh no, we get the joke, it's just not funny,' she added in a clip first highlighted by Mediaite. The host was responding to a slew of remarks made by the governor's office on social platform X, pushing back on her and Fox after she said Monday that he was 'making a fool' of himself with posts in all-caps that attack Trump and his allies. Much of the 'FOX HATES THAT I AM AMERICA'S MOST FAVORITE GOVERNOR ('RATINGS KING') SAVING AMERICA,' Newsom's office posted earlier this week. The Democratic governor has increased his criticism of the president in recent months and rolled out a revamped media strategy, sparking speculation he could launch a White House bid for 2028. A new poll, published Wednesday, shows Newsom leading former Vice President Harris in a hypothetical presidential primary matchup in the Golden State. Perino is a leading host and political analyst at Fox and served as White House press secretary under former President George W. Bush.
Washington Post
39 minutes ago
- Washington Post
The Latest: Texas GOP poised to approve map gerrymandered for their advantage
The first domino in a growing national redistricting battle is likely to fall Wednesday as the Republican-controlled Texas legislature is expected to pass a new congressional map creating five new winnable seats for the GOP. The vote follows prodding by President Donald Trump to stave off a midterm defeat that would deprive his party of control of the House of Representatives.
