Evan Smith: Tracey says hard work overcame Ryu’s financial advantage

By Evan Smith 
ShorelineAreaNews Politics Writer

Shoreline City-Councilwoman-elect Shari Tracey said Wednesday that she overcame incumbent Councilwoman Cindy Ryu’s financial advantage with hard work.

Ryu reported raising $38,253 to $25,400 for Tracey and outspending Tracey $38,253 to $24,980. Even with an independent group’s spending $7,721 to oppose Ryu, Ryu had a $5,552 spending advantage.

“While money is important in an election, being willing to work hard is more important,” Tracey told me. “I personally door-belled over 10,000 houses, and fabulous volunteers helped doorbell an additional 2,000 homes. The week before the election, I had an awesome team of volunteers and together we personally telephoned over 2,000 people who had not yet voted. My goal was to personally reach as many Shoreline residents as possible, and to run a positive, upbeat campaign focused on my strengths.”

Ryu was one of three Shoreline incumbents to lose and one of six in the last two elections. Tracey credited that to voters’ desire for change.

“Shoreline has had some unique issues with its elected officials,” she said. “Divisiveness has been a huge part of Shoreline politics for the past four years and particularly under the leadership of the last two years. This was unhealthy for the community, bad for the business climate, and was creating a very bad reputation for Shoreline.

 “I heard from many voters that it was time to finish the housecleaning on the City Council. Furthermore, I think that the residents were speaking loudly about the negative and untruthful campaigning against me and other candidates.” 

Tracey, who won the closest election in Shoreline or Lake Forest Park with 50.4 percent of the vote, said that the contest was so close because of Ryu’s. advantages as an incumbent.

Tracey said that Ryu not only had the advantage of incumbency, but of name familiarity from previous runs for office,

“She was the current Mayor and had enough money in her campaign coffers to send out many mailings, as well as doing multiple automated calls” Tracey said. “I had to match that by maximizing my funding – getting the most bang out of every dollar I spent.”

Even though Ryu had a big financial advantage, Tracey still raised and spent more money than any candidate in other November election contests in Shoreline or Lake Forest Park.

When I asked Tracey whether it was a factor in the election that Ryu was criticized for writing a letter recommending the garbage company that had given her a campaign contribution. Tracey said she didn’t think any one factor determined the outcome of the election.

“Rather,” she said, “many things combined which persuaded the voters that I was the right choice.”

Tracey said that she expects the new Council to work more collaboratively than previous councils.  She added that she and her new colleagues would put a new emphasis on being respectful.

“Being respectful to our colleagues will be a high priority,” she said. “Working smart is also a priority – having everyone be prepared for meetings and giving City staff an opportunity to answer questions and help find solutions prior to an actual meeting will be key.

“One of my personal goals is to keep the constituent communication door open and information flowing. The voters have trusted me to take this position and I will do my best to represent the City as a whole. This includes reaching out to people who supported my opponent in the campaign. We all live in the same city and have more commonalities than differences.”