Twenty-five dollars a ballot.

That's how much it cost Pierce County to keep the polls open in yesterday's election. Auditor Jan Shabro proposed going to an all-mail election to help save money, but the County Council insisted on preserving the in-person option.

Roughly 3,000 voters marked their ballots at polling sites, which cost the county $75,000 to operate. That's a paltry 5 4 percent of Tuesday's paltry turnout.

Meanwhile, the Pierce County budget is bleeding red ink.

Perhaps we do need the Legislature to save us from ourselves.

The Tacoma/Pierce County Black Collective and the Political Destiny Committee announced their joint endorsements in some Aug. 18 primary races.

How do they compare with The News Tribune editorial board's choices? Ours are in parentheses.

Port of Tacoma Position 1: Connie Bacon (Bacon)

Puyallup City Council District 3, Pos. 2: Nicolla Tebao (Kent Boyle)

Tacoma School Board Position 2: Amy Bates and Catherine Ushka-Hall (Bates and Ushka-Hall)

Tacoma City Council, District 4: Marty Campbell, Roxanne Murphy (Campbell)

Tacoma City Council, District 5: Joe Lonergan, Becky Summers-Kirby (John Miles)

This editorial will appear in Monday's print edition.

Hold off on filling out that ballot

Most state voters have received their ballots for the Aug. 18 primary ballots or will get them within a day or two. And many of them – about a third of those who vote in an off-year primary – will quickly mark their ballots and mail them within a week of receiving them.

That might not be the best strategy.

Citizens could come to regret an early vote if – for example – they mailed their ballot and later discovered a candidate was using questionable campaign tactics. These could include making false or misleading claims about an opponent, being caught stealing an opponent’s signs, or misrepresenting his or her qualifications. All have happened in local elections.

Already we’ve learned that a candidate in a University Place City Council race is wrongly implying on his campaign signs that he received The News Tribune editorial board’s endorsement. In fact, we wrote that he was our second choice in a field of three candidates.

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Let’s make this clear: The News Tribune is endorsing incumbent Linda Bird for University Place City Council Position 1. We think she is by far the best candidate in the field of three on the Aug. 18 primary ballot.

But UPlace voters might think otherwise if they’ve seen the many campaign signs posted by one of her two opponents, Dan Carnrite. Big stickers across his signs read: “Carnrite better choice,” and he attributes the quote to The News Tribune.

He took the words “better choice” out of context and is implying that he is the TNT’s choice for the position. That is not the case.

In our July 24 endorsement editorial, “Keep Linda Bird on UPlace City Council,” we clearly stated that she is the best of the three candidates. But we recognize that some voters might want an alternative to the incumbent. We wrote: “For University Place voters who are intent on change in Position 1, Carnrite is the better choice due to his background in planning in Edgewood, Pacific and Tenino.”

We are disappointed to learn that a candidate we thought had promise took our words out of context. Voters should take that into consideration when they mark their ballots.

This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.

Keep Linda Bird on UPlace City Council

There’s a big, ugly hole in the center of University Place, potentially big enough to bury the political careers of City Council members who helped dig it.

But it would be unfortunate if voters took out their frustration over the slow progress of Town Center on Linda Bird, a fine incumbent who is on the Aug. 18 primary ballot.

Two other council incumbents also are running for re-election, but their races will be decided in the Nov. 3 general election because they each have only one opponent. An open seat will also be decided in November.

If anybody on the University Place City Council embodies the spirit of the city, it is Bird.

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Although four seats on the University Place City Council are up for election, only one will be on the Aug. 18 primary ballot. Our endorsement editorial will be posted here by 8 tonight.

Also, the Senate was right to vote against funding for the F22 Raptor. Now the House should agree. The military has said it doesn't want the jet, and members of Congress who see it as a jobs program in their district need to face budget realities.

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Port of Tacoma: Re-elect Connie Bacon

The last two years have not been great for the Port of Tacoma.

First came the bust on the port’s $21 million gamble to buy up land near Maytown in Thurston County to build a rail yard. Then port officials fumbled cost estimates for a shipping terminal that helped lure NYK Line here from the Port of Seattle.

Those missteps, coupled with the economic downturn that cut deeply into the port’s cargo volume, have been big setbacks for a port that just a few years ago seemed to know no limits.

In May, 47 port employees received letters notifying them that their jobs had been eliminated. Soon after, a third of the port’s staff declared a no confidence vote in the port’s executive director, Tim Farrell.

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Our primary election endorsements continue Thursday with our two choices in the six-way race for Federal Way Municipal Court. Five candidates are challenging the embattled incumbent, Judge Michael Morgan.

We also endorse in the Port of Tacoma race in which two candidates are challenging incumbent commission member Connie Bacon.

Both editorials will be posted here by 8 tonight.

To read earlier election endorsements, click here.

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

Brandstetter for Lakewood City Council

With three open seats up for election, change is coming to the Lakewood City Council in a big way. Helen McGovern, Pad Finnigan and Ron Cronk are stepping down, so there will be three new faces on the seven-person council come Jan. 1.

Only the race for Position 2 will be on the Aug. 18 primary ballot, because it’s the only race in which more than two candidates are running. The top two vote-getters will progress to the Nov. 3 general election, which will also decide Positions 1 and 3. All council positions are at-large.

For Position 2, Lakewood voters must choose between Clover Park School Board veteran Connie Coleman-Lacadie; Bates Technical College’s dean of academic programs, Mike Brandstetter; and computer consultant Levi Wilhelmsen.

Any of the three would be acceptable, but we favor Brandstetter. He seems most likely to ask tough questions and challenge decisions that seem overly focused on short-term economic development at the expense of long-term quality-of-life issues. He recognizes the negative effects of gambling and supports a process to wean the city’s operating budget from casino revenues.

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Although there are three open seats up for election this year on the Lakewood City Council, just one of them will be on the Aug. 18 primary ballot. Because only two candidates filed to run for the other two positions, they will automatically advance to the Nov. 3 general election.

Wednesday we offer our choice among three candidates running for Position 2. The editorial will be posted here at 8 tonight.

This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

No mission of local government matters more than ensuring the education of the next generation, yet school boards, as a rule, don’t usually attract vigorous election races.
This year, Tacoma is the exception.

It’s easy, perhaps too easy, to attribute the crowded field for Tacoma School Board position 2 to the Charlie Milligan factor.

The ousted schools superintendent’s abrasive management style and dismissive attitude toward community groups left the district bruised and adrift by the time he was sent on his way with a $418,000 settlement after only a year on the job.

The debacle certainly makes incumbent Connie Rickman, who was board president during the tulmultuous time, vulnerable. But it alone doesn’t explain why so many candidates are jumping at a chance to be on the board.

The state’s second largest school district has long struggled with the issues confounding many a district: widespread poverty, high dropout rates and the “achievement gap” between white and Asian students, on the one hand, and black and Latino students on the other.

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This editorial will appear in Sunday's print edition.

Dill, Taylor, Boyle for Puyallup City Council

Anyone who’s been tracking Puyallup City Council meetings knows they aren’t lovefests.

The discussions frequently break down into sharp clashes between two voting blocs. The four-member majority is – unsurprisingly – comfortable with the direction of the city government and its manager, Gary McLean.

The other three, two of whom are up for election, are far more critical and would quickly fire McLean if they acquired another ally on the council.

This isn’t a good guy vs. bad guy split. The City of Puyallup has in fact been moving in a positive direction, with major downtown improvements and healthy finances. But the minority offers legitimate complaints about difficulties both they and the public have had prying information out the administration. Open government is no small consideration in evaluating a city’s operation.

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