3 Tacoma council seats are up for grabs. Here's who's ahead in Tuesday's primary
The update comes after polls closed for Tacoma residents to cast ballots in the Aug. 5 primary, which will narrow the pool of 12 candidates down to six to fill three Tacoma council seats. Pierce County officials will continue to gradually release election results until certifying the election on Aug. 19.
The Position 6 seat saw the most competition among the three races, with six candidates in the running. Palmer and Johnston received 26.50% and 21.29% of the vote, respectively. Palmer raised the third-highest amount of money in the race, and Johnston raised the second-highest amount by election night, according to public disclosures. Krista Perez, who reported the highest amount of money raised, was in third with 19.77% of the vote.
Perez was followed by Lindsay Wills who received 12.10%, Hunter D. Henderson with 10.20% and Todd Briske with 9.68%.
Incumbent Joe Bushnell and newcomer Zev Cook also appeared to have made it through the primary on election night, kicking off what is likely to be a contentious race between the two for District 5. Bushnell received 55.80% and Cook received 28.65% of the vote.
The primary appeared to have knocked candidate Brandon A. Vollmer off the ballot. Vollmer received 15.03% of the vote. Vollmer had raised the least amount of money in the race for District 5. District 5 covers neighborhoods in South Tacoma and the South End.
A political action committee funded largely by donors from cities outside Tacoma had by election day spent around $20,000 on campaign mailers and text messages urging voters to oppose Cook and support Bushnell, criticizing Cook's 'rhetoric against Zionism' and the support she has from the Democratic Socialists of America.
District 4
In District 4, incumbent Sandesh Sadalge and newcomer Silong Chhun had the most votes with 38.55% and 33.42% of the vote, respectively. Candidate Israel James McKinney was behind Chhun with 27.13%. McKinney also raised the least amount of money in the race to represent District 4, which covers neighborhoods like McKinley, Salishan and the Eastside.
District 2
The seat for District 2, which represents downtown Tacoma and parts of the North End, is also up for election this year, but did not appear on the primary ballot since only two candidates are in the running. Incumbent Sarah Rumbaugh and newcomer Ben Lackey will automatically advance to the Nov. 4 general election, per state law.
The results of the primary election come as Tacoma undergoes a period of significant leadership change. With four council seats and the mayor's seat up for election this year, five of the 10 positions on Tacoma's city council could see new faces in 2026. The new council next year will be tasked with selecting a permanent city manager, and will be involved in the search for a permanent police chief.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
From TikTok to frontrunner, inside Paz's presidential campaign in Bolivia
Senator Rodrigo Paz, the surprise top finisher in Bolivia's first-round presidential election, spent years traveling the country, posting hundreds of social media videos and honing his image like a full-time influencer. The 57-year-old center-right economist secured 32.1 percent of the votes in Sunday's election, followed by right-wing former president Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga, who took 26.8 percent, according to official preliminary results. It's unclear if lingering name recognition may have helped Paz, the son of former president Jaime Paz Zamora, who led Bolivia from 1989 to 1993 and ran for re-election twice, finishing fourth both times. But just one week before the election, the polls were still placing Paz between third and fifth place in the six-way race. "He has charisma like his father," said Sara Medina, a 51-year-old lawyer in a plaza in Tarija. "He knew how to reach the people." Paz and Quiroga will compete in a runoff on October 19 to decide who will end 20 years of left-wing government in the Latin American country. Though his rivals dominated television screens and filled streets with ads, charismatic Paz connected to the electorate through a combination of social media savvy and the traditional tool of politicians everywhere: pressing the flesh and face-to-face interactions. - Without money - Paz didn't rely on jingles, political fliers or renting venues for rallies. "This is a case where authenticity and digital storytelling have overcome the traditional machinery of mass media and money," said Erick Hurtado, a Bolivian political marketing expert. And while his team applied their own guerrilla marketing strategy, Paz is hardly an outsider. His experience in politics runs two decades deep, having served as mayor, councilor, deputy and senator under the Christian Democratic Party banner. His popularity has only grown since adding Edman Lara -- nicknamed "Captain Lara" -- to the ticket as vice president, thanks to his spontaneity and popularity on social media. "They connected directly with... a younger, more popular electorate," Hurtado said. Since 2023, Lara has become an anti-corruption champion, using videos and livestreams to reveal police abuse on Instagram and TikTok, garnering tens of thousands of likes and comments. "While Lara worked social media, Rodrigo traveled to many places across the country" on bare bones road trips, reaching far-flung destinations after long hours of travel, Hurtado said. Paz says he has visited 220 of Bolivia's 340 municipalities since he began his tours four years ago. In July, when Paz was excluded from a business forum in Bolivia's economic hub, Santa Cruz, his campaign crashed the event. They hoisted a massive banner with a phone number on it, cajoling organizers "to invite the candidate" to participate in forums and debates, gaining traction online. Monday, the day after the first round elections, Lara stole the show during a rally attended by thousands of supporters in El Alto. "I am the guarantee. If Rodrigo Paz does not deliver, I will confront him," he said, issuing a warning to his own running mate. - Center stage - While Paz won with an overwhelming 46.9 percent of the vote in the capital city, he only took third place in his home region of Tarija -- reflecting voter dissatisfaction with his performance there as mayor. "His name carries historical weight, but he hasn't won the support of his own turf," Hurtado said. "There was a sort of punitive vote." The next round of voting will be different for Paz and Lara, who will now be at the center of national debate, and the target for attacks. "They are no longer the unexpected contenders," Hurtado said. "They need to deepen their narrative, expand their proposals, and shield themselves from social and digital warfare," while maintaining a personal touch with voters. With two months left before the runoff, Hurtado warns, "Captain Lara's anti-corruption discourse has been powerful, but it's not enough to govern." gta/vel/db/nn/sla/dw/abs
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore's press secretary leaves for campaign role
BALTIMORE — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore's press secretary left his state government role on Tuesday, moving to a senior advisory role on the governor's reelection campaign. Carter Elliott IV, who served as senior press secretary since Moore took office in January 2023, announced his departure in an email Tuesday. 'As my last day in the Governor's Office comes to a close, I just want to reach out to say it was the greatest pleasure of my life to serve in this role and I'm grateful to have gotten to know some incredible people,' Elliott said in the email. 'I grew up in a family where the best career that you could follow was being a farmer, a teacher, or a public servant — this had been my dream for as long as I can remember.' The Baltimore Sun reached out to Elliott for further details about his new role on Moore's campaign. In an email to the governor's staff, obtained by The Sun, Elliott thanked his colleagues for 'making Maryland a home.' He lived in Baltimore before moving to Annapolis this year. Elliott expressed gratitude for his work in the governor's office, which this year included a tumultuous legislative session in which lawmakers increased taxes and cut spending to close a $3.3 billion deficit. He described Moore as 'the best governor in the country' and said 'to work for someone that inspires you is something special.' A native of Virginia, Elliott was previously communications manager for Moore's 2022 gubernatorial campaign, according to his LinkedIn page. He earned an annual salary of $104,000 as Moore's press secretary, according to government data. -------------
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Democrats push their own version of no tax on tips
Aug. 19—President Donald Trump successfully got a no tax on tips policy through Congress in July, but Democrats are serving up their own version. Trump campaigned on the idea of not taxing tipped wages, a policy that was included in the large budget and tax bill Congress passed in July. Democrats, including New Mexico's Rep. Gabe Vasquez, are pushing their own version of no federal tax on tips with a bill that would also eliminate the separate tipped minimum wage, creating one federal minimum wage. Economic experts are skeptical of offering tax breaks that incentivize paying people with tips instead of basing tax breaks on income level. "In general, lowering taxes for lower income people, middle class and below, is a good idea," said Matías Fontenla, a professor of economics at the University of New Mexico. "I just don't understand why they would do just on tips and not for the general population." About 2% of U.S. workers were in tipped jobs in 2023, according to a study from The Budget Lab at Yale University. More than a third of tipped workers already had low enough income that they had no federal income tax in 2022. Taxes can serve as an incentive for employer or consumer behavior. Eliminating tax on tips could encourage employers in tip-based industries to lower salaries, with the justification that employees are benefiting from a tip tax break, according to Fontenla. "This creates an unnecessary, weird incentive that could potentially be nonoptimal, especially if they don't change the minimum wage," Fontenla said. He is in favor of one standard minimum wage. Both Trump's policy and the policy proposed in the Democrat-led TIPS Act offer tax relief in the form of a deduction, meaning federal taxes would still be withheld from employees' paychecks. Trump's no tax on tips policy expires in 2028 and offers a deduction for up to $25,000 in tipped income. The deduction phases out for people making over $150,000. The IRS plans to publish a list of occupations eligible for the tax deduction in October. On Monday, Vasquez donned an apron at the Barelas Coffee House, taking orders for coffee and burritos smothered in green chile under the guidance of one of the restaurant's servers. His hour as a waiter was meant to promote the TIPS Act. The bill would go further than Trump's policy by not including a cap on the deductible and eliminating the separate tipped minimum wage. The federal tipped minimum wage is $2.13, while regular federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. New Mexico's tipped minimum wage is $3 an hour, while regular minimum wage in the state is $12 an hour. The legislation would also make no tax on tips permanent. "If we truly believe in service industry workers that help support our communities and our businesses, it should be permanent," Vasquez said. The deduction would phase out for people earning over $112,500 annually. One of the challenges of living on a tipped wage is fluctuating pay, said Alexis Campos, the server showing Vasquez the ropes. "It's just really random pay. So it's kind of hard to figure out how much you're going to make for the month for the bills," Campos said. "It could be $800, or you can make $1,000 or $400, so it really fluctuates."
