Frontrunners for Port Angeles City Council Position 5 say campaigns will be lowkey

Michael Merideth

Michael Merideth

PORT ANGELES — The two City Council Position 5 frontrunners for the Nov. 3 general election plan on running quiet campaigns in their bids to succeed Mayor Dan Di Guilio, who is not running for re-election.

It will be so quiet, in fact, that Michael Merideth, 42 by Nov. 3 and a self-loading log truck driver for Bruch & Bruch Construction of Port Angeles, won’t spend a dime between now and Election Night, he said after leading the three-person primary election pack Tuesday.

And Marolee Smith, 60 by Nov. 3 and an author and researcher, said Wednesday she won’t solicit contributions in her own self-financed campaign and will not be putting up yard signs.

Merideth had 822 votes, or 46.65 percent after Tuesday’s count.

“My intention is to run a zero-budget campaign,” he said Tuesday night.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

Smith had 618 votes, or 35.07 percent.

Shan Pak, a software engineer-consultant, had 322 votes, or 18.27 percent.

“It’s great,” Smith said Wednesday of advancing to the general election.

“I really didn’t know what to expect.”

Unnecessary ties

Donations create unnecessary ties, she said, pledging to self-finance her election efforts.

“You have to feel obligated, and I don’t like that,” Smith said.

As for yard signs, “everyone I’ve talked to says they’re a pain, and there are a lot of questions on whether they are effective in any campaign,” she said.

The City Council position “is a job that essentially pays $6,000 a year,” Merideth said Tuesday night.

“I don’t believe in throwing a lot of money at it.”

The mayor, elected by council members, makes $650 a year; the deputy mayor makes $600 a year; and the other members make $550 a year.

“It does not pay enough to quit your job,” Merideth added Wednesday.

He added that the City Council has ended up being dominated by retired and self-employed business people.

“I don’t think that covers the entire voting population of Port Angeles,” he said.

“I want to add another parameter to that.”

Adjust work schedule

Merideth, who is married and raising four children, said he has made arrangements with his employer to adjust his work schedule around council duties if he wins the post.

Smith, a 20-year resident, acknowledged Merideth “is more in tune with the history of the town.”

But she said she has something he doesn’t.

“If someone has to make a choice, the thing I have is a lot more time,” she said.

“I have a lot more energy to devote to this.”

________

Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.

More in News

Four Quileute Tribal School students take a salmon offering into the ocean as part of the annual Welcoming the Whales ceremony at First Beach in La Push on Friday. (Christi Baron/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
Welcoming the Whales

On Friday, Quileute Tribal School students performed the annual Welcoming the Whales… Continue reading

Former USAID worker Miguel Reabold, shown with a colleague in Honduras in 2018. (Miguel Reabold)
USAID worker fears damage

Reabold worries about relationships

No flight operations scheduled

There will be no field carrier landing practice operations for… Continue reading

Caro Tchannie and her daughter Lola Hatch, 9, of Tulallip try a long string of beads at Squatchcon on Thursday at the Vern Burton Community Center gym in Port Angeles. Kevin VanDinter of Port Angeles was one of 60 vendors at the four day event, which continues through Sunday. (Dave Logan/for Peninsula Daily News)
Squatchcon underway

Caro Tchannie and her daughter Lola Hatch, 9, of Tulallip try a… Continue reading

Capital budgets include Peninsula

Millions in state funds earmarked

Mike Chapman.
Chapman asks not to employ legislative privilege

State senator removes an exemption to Public Records Act

Port of Port Townsend considering Short’s Farm access

Commissioners aim to balance public, agricultural use

Jefferson library director to start new job May 19

Meet-and-greet event scheduled for May 22

Man taken to hospital after car hits tree

A man was transported to a hospital after a single-car… Continue reading

Bypass roads to be installed at two fish passage sites

Contractors will begin construction of one-lane bypass roads at two… Continue reading

Emily Matthiessen/Olympic Peninsula News Group
Stew Cockburn stands in the spring annual section prior to it being for early spring gardeners.
New Dungeness Nursery planted in landscaping industry

Family and their employees work 2-acre location in Sequim