Olympia City Council races are already crowded as candidate filing week begins
Monday is the first day of candidate filing week for this year’s local election, and already eight people have declared their candidacy for Olympia’s City Council.
Because this is an odd year on the calendar, it is the year for local elections, which include the Port of Olympia, city and town councils, school boards, fire commissions, parks and recreation commissions and even cemetery district boards. Dozens of positions are up for grabs.
In Olympia, five of the council’s seven seats are up for election this year, every seat except for Dani Madrone’s and Mayor Cheryl Selby’s.
In Position No. 2, Robbi Kesler is challenging incumbent Yến Huỳnh, who is running to retain the seat she was appointed to at the beginning of 2021. Huỳnh was appointed after Jessica Bateman vacated her seat to become a state representative for the 22nd Legislative District.
Kesler grew up in Mason County, graduated from Shelton High School, and is an enrolled member of the Skokomish Tribe. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and a law degree from Arizona State University. After graduation, she worked for the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, where she worked as a staff attorney and later became general counsel. She most recently worked as non-partisan counsel for the Washington state House of Representatives. She is a board member of the Junior League of Olympia, Washington State Bar Association’s Committee for Diversity, and Olympia Regional Learning Academy PTA.
In Position No. 4, Candace Mercer is challenging incumbent Clark Gilman.
Mercer grew up in Buffalo, New York, but has lived in Olympia for 25 years. She has worked with the Thurston-Mason Crisis Clinic, Northwest Justice Project, Olympia Rafah Sister City Project, and Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. She describes herself as “extremely low income, fully disabled with moderate to severe chronic pain for 20+ years, mentally ill, gender nonconforming, LGBTQ, a college dropout and someone who depends fully on the safety net for her survival.”
For position No. 5, Talauna Reed and Wendy Carlson are challenging incumbent Lisa Parshley.
Reed grew up in Tacoma. She studied at Tacoma Community College on a basketball and volleyball scholarship, and later earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational management at Ashford University. She works as a social services advocate for Interfaith Works. She is an organizer with Olympia Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) and Black Leaders in Action & Solidarity in Thurston County (BLAST), and the force behind Justice for Yvonne McDonald. She is the mother of twins.
Carlson worked for 20 years as a parole officer for the Department of Corrections. A fourth-generation Olympia resident, Carlson has two sons along with her wife, who is a retired firefighter.
In position No. 6, three people are running for the open seat now held by Renata Rollins, who announced she will not run for re-election. They are Sarah Destasio, Dontae Payne, and Corey Gauny.
Destasio grew up in Olympia and has a master’s degree in public administration from The Evergreen State College. She has worked as a caregiver for 10 years and is a founding member of Capital Homecare Cooperative, a worker-owned caregiving agency. She is involved with Temple Beth Hatfiloh and lives in west Olympia with her partner.
Payne grew up in Philadelphia, and joined the U.S. Army at age 23 to escape poverty. He did two tours in Afghanistan before redeploying at Joint Base Lewis McChord. After leaving the military in 2016, he finished his undergraduate studies and got a master’s degree in public administration at Evergreen. He worked as the South Puget Sound Regional Representative for Gov. Jay Inslee and more recently as a Deputy District Director for U.S. Rep. Marilyn Strickland. He has been married to his husband for 11 years and they have a 5-year-old daughter. He serves on the board of the Hands on Children’s Museum.
Gauny grew up between Eastern Washington, Lakewood, and Lacey. At age 18, during the Gulf War, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he spent 22 years as a firefighter in dozens of countries across Asia and Europe. He returned to Olympia in 2010, finished his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, and now works for the Department of Licensing as a management analyst. He has worked as an environmental consultant at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He has volunteered on the boards of the Capital High School Parent Teachers Association and The Crisis Clinic, and is the vice president of finance for Project Management Institute Olympia.
In position No. 7, Spence Weigand and Tyrone Brown are challenging incumbent Jim Cooper.
Spence Weigand is a fourth-generation Olympia resident who graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla. After working at Costco, he moved back to Olympia from the East Coast in 1996, and has worked as a broker at Virgil Adams real estate since. He is married, has two sons and one daughter, and lives in a condominium below his mother’s in west Olympia. He serves on the board of the Washington Center for the Performing Arts.
Tyrone Brown works as an organizer for the Tenants Union of Washington State. He previously worked for Washington Community Action Network. He is involved with Black Leaders in Action & Solidarity in Thurston County (BLAST).
So you want to be a candidate
Candidate Filing Week is May 17-21 for this fall’s elections. To see a complete list of open positions, go to the 2021 Candidate Guide on the Thurston County Auditor’s website.
The primary election is Aug. 3. The general election is Nov. 2.
If you want to become a candidate for a local race, you must do the following:
- File with the Public Disclosure Commission at pdc.wa.gov
- Complete a Declaration of Candidacy during Candidate Filing Week
- Pay filing fees (if any)
You may file:
- Online: Starting 9 a.m. May 17 through 4 p.m. May 21 at ThurstonVotes.org
- By mail: May 3 through May 21 (must be received no later than 4:30 p.m. Friday, May 21)
- In person: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. May 17-21 at the Thurston County Auditor’s Office.
This story was originally published May 16, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
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