Candidates: Who they are, why they’re running
October 20, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
By J.B. Wogan
Michael Rutt, 55, was sitting in his parked Honda Accord, waiting for somebody else to take a stand.
It was the afternoon of June 5, and though Rutt had told the local Sammamish newspapers that he was running for City Council, he hadn’t officially filed yet at the King County Elections building in Renton.
“I would have gladly bowed out if I saw a candidate that I thought was better than me,” Rutt said. But no one was coming. Don Gerend, a 10-year incumbent, hadn’t faced an opponent since he first ran for office in 1999. Unless Rutt followed through, Gerend was about to sail onto another four-year term.
“One thing I would not allow was one seat to go uncontested,” he said.
Rutt is somewhat of an aberration in the 2009 City Council elections. He hasn’t raised a dime for his campaign, he has no fliers and he has no yard signs. He said dinner conversations with his wife Claudine don’t revolve around the campaign, and his five adult children haven’t become volunteer canvassers. Rutt went to a “how-to” seminar on campaigning, but decided to disregard the advice about door knocking, too.
“Is this what American politics has come to? It goes against my grain and I don’t think it’s what it’s all about,” he said, adding that he believes a candidate forum — there were three in October — was the proper place to garner votes.
Rutt said he didn’t expect to win.
“I understand I’m a long shot,” he said. But for Rutt, the race isn’t about winning as much as forcing a dialogue and provoking change. If you’re complacent, then you share the blame in government’s dysfunction.
“Is it Ben? Is it the council? People have to look at themselves, because it’s us,” he said.
A City Council position pays like a part-time job ($10,200) but requires 30 or more hours per week. Yet, for the most part, people have opted to try it out: In the city’s first five elections, 22 of 28 council races have been contested.
Tom Vance, 58, dressed in a blazer and button-down shirt, was slumped over on a bench outside the City Council chambers.
Vance said people were shooting him menacing looks that night — the result of his delivering an unpopular recommendation to the council. Vance voted against his group, but as the chairman, he had to represent their joint opinion.
Vance isn’t the sort to voice dissent once a decision has been made, according to friends.
He uses the same polite tact in how he campaigns.
“I’m going to go at it from a glass is half-full approach. I try to be upbeat about it. Yeah, we’ve got issues, but we’ve also got good opportunities in the future,” he said.
Vance errs so much on the side of being positive that he evades specifics about what ticked him off enough to start working on city issues in 2003. Rather than get mad, he got involved, he said.
Friends repeatedly talk about his sense of fairness, the desire to build consensus and his willingness to dive headlong into the nitty gritty details of municipal government.
“It would be hard not to like Tom. It really would be. Even outside of politics,” said Mary Doerrer, a friend of Tom’s for about seven years.
Doerrer, who said she supports knowledgeable, detail-oriented candidates, also supports Erica Tiliacos.
Elizabeth Knuth describes Tiliacos in much the same way. Knuth met Tiliacos while they were carpooling to take their sons to school seven years ago. They’ve been friends ever since.
“She isn’t one of those people that just lets the world pass her by,” Knuth said.
“I know she’s spent a lot of time doing research on the things she cares about,” she said. “I like that about her, that she’s not just winging it.”
Tiliacos said she’s had to adjust to the idea of reaching out to people and asking for their vote. She said she remembers when she picked up her yard signs she had ordered.
“I saw this big printed pile and then I realized, oh dear, now we have to put them out there. You’re not anonymous anymore,” she said.
Less than half of the people (about 45 percent) who are registered to vote in Sammamish elections determine who wins City Council races. In the last four City Council election years, the average number of people who voted was 10,681. The city population is a little more than 40,000.
Janet Barry remembers how her father, whenever the family went out, used to stop and point at chain link fences in Chicago. He owned a chain link fence company and wanted to show them what he did with his time.
“It’s kind of a replay of my life when I watch Jack engage our family in the experience of the growing city,” she said. “I love being around people who love what they do. And Jack does.”
Recently, their breakfast conversation always ends the same way, she said. After coffee and reading the newspaper, she asks him what he plans to do today.
“His answer always is, I’m doorbelling,” she said. Soon he stuffs his suit pockets with fliers and heads out the door.
Jack Barry, 71, was well accustomed to the world of politics before ever running for the City Council 10 years ago. His father, John Barry Sr., was a Superintendent of Public Instruction for Maricopa County, Arizona and had to run for office every two years. Barry said opponents would spout half-truths and distortions, but his father wasn’t fazed.
“It was much more difficult for my mom than my dad,” he said.
But Janet, a former Issaquah School District superintendent, said public service and public criticism are a part of the household. They know how to handle it.
“We talk things over with each other. We always look for what’s underneath that negative statement,” she said.
As the election season winds down, John Curley has raised about $12,000, the most by far. Other candidates fall in the range of $5,000-$7,000 apiece. But Curley’s war chest isn’t big in the context of previous council races. In past elections, four council candidates have raised more than $20,000 apiece.
Tom Odell uses an index card for marking what people think is important in the city. He calls the results of his tally his “hot button” issues, which goes well with the red and white buttons he handed out at public celebrations all summer.
Odell is the sort to do his homework before embarking on a project. He sat down with five of the current City Council members to ask what the job requires. He called his friends in New England who organized a local campaign for now President Barack Obama.
“It’s the first time I’ve run for anything,” he explained.
Odell has been a fixture at council meetings for the last year and he appeared at most public events this summer, handing out red Odell balloons. He received heavy family support, with his daughter Anne and wife Ruth helping with campaign materials.
Odell said he’s found door knocking tricky, since he wants to avoid bothering people at dinner time.
He said he receives odd questions occasionally from residents, things that aren’t under the purview of a council member. Odell fielded some questions about the national health care debate this summer.
“One guy asked if I thought it’d be okay to shoot a deer in his yard,” Odell said.
Fit and family friendly
If elected, John Curley would probably be the fittest member of the council — he competes in local 5K and 10K races almost every weekend (he raises money for charities that way). At one candidate forum, he revealed that he swims on Pine Lake with a buoy tied to his foot; blue and white “Elect John Curley” signs, attached to the buoy, bob in the water as he does laps.
When Curley first consulted with his wife on running for City Council, she had some reservations.
“With his auction business, he’s busy. I was worried that this would take more time away from the family,” Lacey Curley said. “(But) anyone that knows him knows that he has been passionate about politics forever. That’s his sport … I wouldn’t even feel right telling him not to do it.”
At 47, John Curley is the second youngest candidate (John James is 46). He has said he would bring the perspective of young families to a current council that collectively has one child under 18. Lacey said her husband talks to their daughter Charlie, 8, and son, Ry, 7, about city issues, especially problems with new construction.
The topic of growth is important to the Curleys, since they left Queen Anne for a quieter, more family-oriented environment, Lacey said.
“Yes, we want to grow, but we don’t want to grow to the point where these young families don’t want to be here,” she said.
John James, the other young father running for a council position, said he gets that most people aren’t tuned in to the day-to-day details of city issues.
“The average citizen is hard pressed to name the current City Council,” James said. James talks about himself as a mainstream candidate, someone who understands what it’s like to be a working dad holding down a nine-to-five job — he works for Coldwell Banker. In his Municipal League of King County questionnaire, he wrote about coaching youth soccer as an experience that helped prepare him for being on the council.
He has three children, all attending local public schools on the plateau. James references his experience in the real estate business as a lens through which he understands quality of life issues, from neighborhood aesthetics to what parks Sammamish needs.
James ran for a council position in 2007 but lost to Nancy Whitten. He said he spent the evening of his loss eating ice cream with supporters in the Cold Stone Creamery.
“Obviously, you don’t live on a City Council stipend,” James said. “I had a job and I had a career and I was trying to give back to my community.”
Rethink your positions
Michael Rutt’s no-signs, no-fliers strategy matches well with his opponent’s campaign philosophy. Don Gerend isn’t spending money on the election either.
“I was really disgusted after the first campaign,” Don Gerend said, referring to the proliferation of yard signs throughout the city in 1999. Gerend said he wanted people to vote for him based on his positions, not his yard signs. He vowed not to use the signs again — this hasn’t been a problem since no one ran against him in 2001 or 2005.
“I’m glad I have an opponent,” Gerend said. “(It) challenges you to rethink your positions on things.”
Before deciding to run for a fourth term, Gerend made a deal with his wife Susan. If he ran again, she could get a new dog. They made the same agreement in 1999.
Ten years ago, Susan got a standard poodle. In 2009, she got an airedale named Chester.
Gerend said the experience has been invigorating, learning to drink “from the fire hose of municipal government” and meeting interesting people. But he was surprised to learn that there’s no such thing as the perfect policy decision.
“You never make a decision that everybody’s happy with,” he said.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com. To comment on this story, visit www.SammamishReview.com.
Michael Rutt, 55, was sitting in his parked Honda Accord, waiting for somebody else to take a stand.
It was the afternoon of June 5, and though Rutt had told the local Sammamish newspapers that he was running for City Council, he hadn’t officially filed yet at the King County Elections building in Renton.
“I would have gladly bowed out if I saw a candidate that I thought was better than me,” Rutt said. But no one was coming. Don Gerend, a 10-year incumbent, hadn’t faced an opponent since he first ran for office in 1999. Unless Rutt followed through, Gerend was about to sail onto another four-year term.
“One thing I would not allow was one seat to go uncontested,” he said.
Rutt is somewhat of an aberration in the 2009 City Council elections. He has only raised a few hundred dollars for his campaign, he has no fliers and he has no yard signs.* He said dinner conversations with his wife Claudine don’t revolve around the campaign, and his five adult children haven’t become volunteer canvassers. Rutt went to a “how-to” seminar on campaigning, but decided to disregard the advice about door knocking, too.
“Is this what American politics has come to? It goes against my grain and I don’t think it’s what it’s all about,” he said, adding that he believes a candidate forum — there were three in October — was the proper place to garner votes.
Rutt said he didn’t expect to win.
“I understand I’m a long shot,” he said. But for Rutt, the race isn’t about winning as much as forcing a dialogue and provoking change. If you’re complacent, then you share the blame in government’s dysfunction.
“Is it Ben? Is it the council? People have to look at themselves, because it’s us,” he said.
A City Council position pays like a part-time job ($10,200) but requires 30 or more hours per week. Yet, for the most part, people have opted to try it out: In the city’s first six elections, 22 of 28 council races have been contested.*
Tom Vance, 58, dressed in a blazer and button-down shirt, was slumped over on a bench outside the City Council chambers.
Vance said people were shooting him menacing looks that night — the result of his delivering an unpopular recommendation to the council. Vance voted against his group, but as the chairman, he had to represent their joint opinion.
Vance isn’t the sort to voice dissent once a decision has been made, according to friends.
He uses the same polite tact in how he campaigns.
“I’m going to go at it from a glass is half-full approach. I try to be upbeat about it. Yeah, we’ve got issues, but we’ve also got good opportunities in the future,” he said.
Vance errs so much on the side of being positive that he evades specifics about what ticked him off enough to start working on city issues in 2003. Rather than get mad, he got involved, he said.
Friends repeatedly talk about his sense of fairness, the desire to build consensus and his willingness to dive headlong into the nitty gritty details of municipal government.
“It would be hard not to like Tom. It really would be. Even outside of politics,” said Mary Doerrer, a friend of Tom’s for about seven years.
Doerrer, who said she supports knowledgeable, detail-oriented candidates, also supports Erica Tiliacos.
Elizabeth Knuth describes Tiliacos in much the same way. Knuth met Tiliacos while they were carpooling to take their sons to school seven years ago. They’ve been friends ever since.
“She isn’t one of those people that just lets the world pass her by,” Knuth said.
“I know she’s spent a lot of time doing research on the things she cares about,” she said. “I like that about her, that she’s not just winging it.”
Tiliacos said she’s had to adjust to the idea of reaching out to people and asking for their vote. She said she remembers when she picked up her yard signs she had ordered.
“I saw this big printed pile and then I realized, oh dear, now we have to put them out there. You’re not anonymous anymore,” she said.
Less than half of the people (about 45 percent) who are registered to vote in Sammamish elections determine who wins City Council races. In the last four City Council election years, the average number of people who voted was 10,681. The city population is a little more than 40,000.
Janet Barry remembers how her father, whenever the family went out, used to stop and point at chain link fences in Chicago. He owned a chain link fence company and wanted to show them what he did with his time.
“It’s kind of a replay of my life when I watch Jack engage our family in the experience of the growing city,” she said. “I love being around people who love what they do. And Jack does.”
Recently, their breakfast conversation always ends the same way, she said. After coffee and reading the newspaper, she asks him what he plans to do today.
“His answer always is, I’m doorbelling,” she said. Soon he stuffs his suit pockets with fliers and heads out the door.
Jack Barry, 71, was well accustomed to the world of politics before ever running for the City Council 10 years ago. His father, John Barry Sr., was a Superintendent of Public Instruction for Maricopa County, Arizona and had to run for office every two years. Barry said opponents would spout half-truths and distortions, but his father wasn’t fazed.
“It was much more difficult for my mom than my dad,” he said.
But Janet, a former Issaquah School District superintendent, said public service and public criticism are a part of the household. They know how to handle it.
“We talk things over with each other. We always look for what’s underneath that negative statement,” she said.
As the election season winds down, John Curley has raised about $12,000, the most by far. Other candidates fall in the range of $5,000-$7,000 apiece. But Curley’s war chest isn’t big in the context of previous council races. In past elections, four council candidates have raised more than $20,000 apiece.
Tom Odell uses an index card for marking what people think is important in the city. He calls the results of his tally his “hot button” issues, which goes well with the red and white buttons he handed out at public celebrations all summer.
Odell is the sort to do his homework before embarking on a project. He sat down with five of the current City Council members to ask what the job requires. He called his friends in New England who organized a local campaign for now President Barack Obama.
“It’s the first time I’ve run for anything,” he explained.
Odell has been a fixture at council meetings for the last year and he appeared at most public events this summer, handing out red Odell balloons. He received heavy family support, with his daughter Anne and wife Ruth helping with campaign materials.
Odell said he’s found door knocking tricky, since he wants to avoid bothering people at dinner time.
He said he receives odd questions occasionally from residents, things that aren’t under the purview of a council member. Odell fielded some questions about the national health care debate this summer.
“One guy asked if I thought it’d be okay to shoot a deer in his yard,” Odell said.
Fit and family friendly
If elected, John Curley would probably be the fittest member of the council — he competes in local 5K and 10K races almost every weekend (he raises money for charities that way). At one candidate forum, he revealed that he swims on Pine Lake with a buoy tied to his foot; blue and white “Elect John Curley” signs, attached to the buoy, bob in the water as he does laps.
When Curley first consulted with his wife on running for City Council, she had some reservations.
“With his auction business, he’s busy. I was worried that this would take more time away from the family,” Lacey Curley said. “(But) anyone that knows him knows that he has been passionate about politics forever. That’s his sport … I wouldn’t even feel right telling him not to do it.”
At 47, John Curley is the second youngest candidate (John James is 46). He has said he would bring the perspective of young families to a current council that collectively has one child under 18. Lacey said her husband talks to their daughter Charlie, 8, and son, Ry, 7, about city issues, especially problems with new construction.
The topic of growth is important to the Curleys, since they left Queen Anne for a quieter, more family-oriented environment, Lacey said.
“Yes, we want to grow, but we don’t want to grow to the point where these young families don’t want to be here,” she said.
John James, the other young father running for a council position, said he gets that most people aren’t tuned in to the day-to-day details of city issues.
“The average citizen is hard pressed to name the current City Council,” James said. James talks about himself as a mainstream candidate, someone who understands what it’s like to be a working dad holding down a nine-to-five job — he works for Coldwell Banker. In his Municipal League of King County questionnaire, he wrote about coaching youth soccer as an experience that helped prepare him for being on the council.
He has three children, all attending local public schools on the plateau. James references his experience in the real estate business as a lens through which he understands quality of life issues, from neighborhood aesthetics to what parks Sammamish needs.
James ran for a council position in 2007 but lost to Nancy Whitten. He said he spent the evening of his loss eating ice cream with supporters in the Cold Stone Creamery.
“Obviously, you don’t live on a City Council stipend,” James said. “I had a job and I had a career and I was trying to give back to my community.”
Rethink your positions
Michael Rutt’s no-signs, no-fliers strategy matches well with his opponent’s campaign philosophy. Don Gerend isn’t spending money on the election either.
“I was really disgusted after the first campaign,” Don Gerend said, referring to the proliferation of yard signs throughout the city in 1999. Gerend said he wanted people to vote for him based on his positions, not his yard signs. He vowed not to use the signs again — this hasn’t been a problem since no one ran against him in 2001 or 2005.
“I’m glad I have an opponent,” Gerend said. “(It) challenges you to rethink your positions on things.”
Before deciding to run for a fourth term, Gerend made a deal with his wife Susan. If he ran again, she could get a new dog. They made the same agreement in 1999.
Ten years ago, Susan got a standard poodle. In 2009, she got an airedale named Chester.
Gerend said the experience has been invigorating, learning to drink “from the fire hose of municipal government” and meeting interesting people. But he was surprised to learn that there’s no such thing as the perfect policy decision.
“You never make a decision that everybody’s happy with,” he said.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
*This corrects an earlier version that mischaracterized how much money Michael Rutt has raised for his campaign.
*This corrects an earlier version with the wrong number of contested City Council seats. The number is six, including the 2009 election.
Other Stories of Interest: Election 2009
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