City of Gig Harbor

Incumbent Commissioner Dick Marzano is running to retain Port of Tacoma, Position 2. Marzano was first elected commissioner in 1995 and serves on the executive committee for the Puget Sound Regional Council. Before his career in public service, Marzano spent 52 years working in Tacoma as a longshoreman and was also the president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 23.

If re-elected, Marzano wants to prioritize environmental protections and job creation. With his background as a longshoreman, Marzano knows that the two issues are connected and that those who live and work near the port are directly affected by its environmental impact. However, Marzano has not been supportive of protecting our communities from pollution from the proposed LNG facility.

Mary Bacon is running for Port of Tacoma, Commissioner Position 4. Bacon is an environmental scientist, health physicist, and veteran. She served as the elected president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 12 where she advocated for workers’ rights during multiple successful contract negotiations.

If elected, Bacon hopes to address traffic congestion in and around the port, help foster greater economic growth, and ensure environmental stewardship that protects the unique estuarine ecosystem. She would prioritize science-backed climate policy and wants to see ports along the coast working together. Bacon has been endorsed by the Washington Conservation Voters, which sets her apart from her opponent despite listing similar platforms on their websites.

Incumbent commissioner Don Meyer is running to retain the Position 4 seat he assumed after first being elected in 2010. Before that, Meyer served as the deputy director of the Port of Tacoma and the executive director of the Foss Waterway Development Authority. If re-elected, he wants to continue pursuing a more conservative agenda focused on modernizing terminals and waterways, but also intends to limit revenue, putting many improvements beyond reach.

Mary Bacon is the best choice in this race to improve the port’s environment policies and advocate for the workers who keep Tacoma’s port running.

Real estate agent Tracie Markley is running unopposed for mayor of Gig Harbor. Markley has served as a city council member in Position 4 since 2019 and served as a city parks commissioner for two years prior.

Markley states that her priorities for the office include transparency and local control of growth. She is also committed to leading the city through a thoughtful and collaborative process to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Markley has earned your vote for mayor of Gig Harbor. 

Incumbent Jeni Woock has served on the Gig Harbor City Council since 2018. She has a long volunteer record, especially around the environment, as one of the co-founders of Citizens for the Preservation of Gig Harbor and chair of the Gig Harbor Sustainability Coalition.

Woock ran for council in 2017 on a promise of slower growth. She advocated for developers to pay their share of traffic impact fees in 2019 and voted for a six-month moratorium on residential development in 2018. Woock is also an advocate for switching from a strong mayor form of government to a council form after tumultuous leadership by Mayor Kit Kuhn.

Also in this race is real estate agent and former commercial fisherman Robert Wiles. According to his candidate statement, he wants to see less development in the city and more historical preservation, but he does not have any concrete policy proposals or wider campaign plans available as of mid-October.

While Woock isn't very progressive overall, she is an environmentalist and the only viable choice in this race.

Roger Henderson is a member of the Gig Harbor Parks Commission and a former civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He states that if elected, he will aim for sustainable growth and to improve community walkability and accessibility to shopping, parks, and more.

He is running against controversial educator John Skansi who does not have a detailed platform available as of early October. Skansi's official voters' guide statement says that he is running to bring more local control to the community and smarter economic development, though he doesn't elaborate on what that entails.

Skansi was recently barred from substitute teaching in at least four Seattle schools for a wide range of conduct offenses, including singling out Black students, failing to properly wear a mask, and failing to actually teach in his classes. Skansi also stood with armed protestors in opposition to a youth demonstration for Black lives. In a video from the event, he is shown holding a Trump sign and taunting kids.

Skansi's divisive and inflammatory does not speak to good leadership for Gig Harbor. We recommend Henderson in this race because of his longtime experience in sustainability and environmental work.

Brenda Lykins is a nurse practitioner and founder of the Southwest Washington Perinatal Education Consortium. She has also volunteered in the community as a Girl Scout leader and with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and March of Dimes, among other organizations.

Much of her campaign is focused on planning out the city's growth and infrastructure needs in the years to come. Lykins is advocating for improvements such as expanded sidewalks and bike paths, traffic calming policies, and maintaining the tree canopy. She also wants to limit growth downtown and ensure that the commercial fishing industry is protected. Lykins' candidacy is endorsed by a local Democratic organization.

Lykins is challenging incumbent Jim Franich, who served on the council from 2000 to 2010, and then was again re-elected in 2017. The council member has a conservative voting recording, including voting against honoring Indigenous people for Native American Heritage Month. He was also the sole vote against the kayak dock that will form the nexus of a potential waterfront park. Franich further displayed poor judgment this year with the endorsement of his colleague and fellow candidate John Skansi, who came into the spotlight this summer for harassing high school protestors alongside armed men at a Black Lives Matter rally.

Brenda Lykins is the better choice in this race.

Former Naval officer and architect Jennifer Butler is running for school board to help the district, students, and families recover from COVID and thrive. She is the vice president of the Peninsula Schools Education Foundation, a volunteer with the Minter Creek PTA, and was a volunteer chair for Stand Up for Peninsula Schools, which helped pass the 2019 bond for school funding to bring four new elementary schools to Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula.

With all the difficulties of the pandemic for students and families, Butler is strongly advocating for flexible emotional and academic support systems. She states that increased counseling services, opportunities for individualized education programs (IEPs), and school-based coordinators are needed to help parents and kids navigate these times. She states clearly that the school board should prioritize in-person learning while following the statewide mask mandate, which safeguards the health of staff, students, and families. Butler wants to provide accountability and communications from the school board to families and establish a formal mentorship program to pair students with local volunteers who want to help students succeed.

Her opponent is Linda Ader, who states that she is a former environmental consultant. Ader is pushing a far-right conspiracy that aims to remove accurate, historical discussions from schools, depriving kids of the opportunity to have age-appropriate discussions and honest reckoning with the nation's past. She states that efforts to provide equity and inclusion measures for students could teach them that their country is bad. Ader refused to provide evidence for these divisive claims when questioned by the Tacoma News Tribune in July. In a recent October interview, Ader states that many of the district's challenges around infrastructure, vocational options, and internet access have been addressed, and the rest of her campaign will continue to focus on turning schools into a battleground on the topics of history and health education.

Butler's education experience and advocacy for all students make her the clear choice in this race. We recommend Jennifer Butler for Peninsula School Board Director, District 2.

Juanita Beard is running a strong campaign for Peninsula School Board Director in District 5. Beard is a therapist, former social worker, and health care case manager. She runs a small business for her counseling services in Gig Harbor. Beard has two school-aged children currently in the Peninsula school system.

Beard has a progressive vision for the position. Her priorities include diversity, equity, and inclusion in the school system and the board itself, expanded mental health resources for students, making sure the school board is an accessible government body, and supporting teachers and staff. Beard hopes to bring her vast experience in listening and healing to the district as it recovers from the struggles brought by online learning and pandemic pressures. She has earned progressive and Democratic support in this race.

Beard is challenging conservative incumbent David Olson in this race. Olson is the current president of the Peninsula School Board after being first elected in 2013. He works in the government banking division of U.S. Bank in Tacoma. Olson has expressed opposition to some basic COVID-19 safety protocols in schools and objects to teaching students about the impacts of racism.

We need leaders who will follow science and public health recommendations to keep our kids safe. Beard is the best choice in this race and deserves your vote to serve Peninsula School District No. 401 as the next District 5 director.