A Conversation with Tacoma's Position 5 Candidates
With absentee ballots arriving in mailboxes over the weekend, we now bring you the last of the contested City Council races in our candidate conversation series.
Beckie Summers-Kirby and Joe Lonergan are running for City Council District 5 – the South End seat currently held by Connie Ladenburg. We sat down with them on the northern end of their district in the Heritage Bank at South 56th and South Tacoma Way. It’s a long conversation. Please take the time to listen in.
Don’t forget to vote.
More information on Beckie Summers-Kirby can be found at BeckieSummers.com
More information on Joe Lonergan can be found at JoeLonergan.com
Filed under: Politics
14 comments
K Ken October 20, 2009
Very interesting interview, thanks for taking the time to pull it together. I found it interesting how much Becky struggled to be specific on how should would get a grocery store and reduce crime, thanks for pushing both of them on this. Also, it sounded like Joe was a little hesitant to say what really frustrated him about Becky’s campaign. He was criticizing without really trying to criticize. I was surprised that Becky let him get away with insinuating her campaign and service wouldn’t be totally above board. I was expecting her to really defend herself, and was surprised when she didn’t.
Very insightful, thanks again.
J Jessica October 20, 2009
Joe seems to have a sincere love for this district and a definate grasp on the issues facing it. I agree with the above comments- very interesting interview.
R RR Anderson October 20, 2009
I liked Joe Lonergan’s Melon interview where he said getting rid of potholes would create a vibrant arts community.
Joe Lonergan = tool of developers
Becky = tool of unions
K Kevin October 22, 2009
Beckie will make a great city council person!
I am sick of the trib and people like RR equating Beckie as being a “tool” for the unions or other such nonsense! IF you really KNEW Beckie Summers Kirby you would find these kinds of accusations to be utterly Stupid and without merit.
Beckie cares about unions because unions look out for the worker! Unions help protect family wage jobs. Unions help build this country. Unions are the reason we do not have children working in factories. Unions are why you don’t work 16 hour days 7 days a week.
Unions can become corrupt or mismanaged just like corporations and government, but it is our job to keep all three working for We The People.
So you see…. Beckie supports what helps You and I over corporate power and greed… Sounds good to me.
R RR Anderson October 22, 2009
Kevin, how dare you insult the TNT commenter community by lumping them together with me.
K Kevin October 22, 2009
RR … that was meant to be funny and/or witty, right? Just checking.
R RR Anderson October 22, 2009
your words cut me like cocktail swords. don’t hate the player hate the game.
J Joe (not Lonergan) October 22, 2009
Hi folks,
Just my few cents.
This was a good interview that I think gave both Joe and Beckie a solid opportunity to present their views. I still think the clear choice is without a doubt Joe.
If we are going to talk about unions, we should be fair. The unions are often not a good thing. I saw it firsthand at MultiCare, where they tried to strong arm their way in, spreading lies to employees to get them to be fearful. It didn’t work. So when you have a candidate like Beckie, who even the TNT claims is in bed with unions, you have to be concerned. Let the unions represent themselves and the candidates represent the people. In fairness to Joe when it comes to unions, they didn’t even want to dialogue with him. Interesting. Why would unions only talk to Beckie? Interesting indeed.
Unlike Beckie, Joe isn’t running to represent the unions. Or the builders. Or big business. Or small business. Or environmentalist. So who’s left to represent. Oh yeah, the people.
I don’t align myself with any party affiliation. My wife and I are voting for Joe and Marty Campbell. Joe and Marty could probably be considered conservative and liberal respectively. That’s doesn’t concern us. What does is the fact that Joe took the time to doorbell block by block, taking time to ask people what their concerns were, and personally asking to put campaign signs up as he went. As opposed to Beckie who pays people to go knock on doors and asks to put signs up. In fact my neighbor, who speaks next to no English, has a home that’s right off of a busy intersection. Beckie’s guy came up to the door, thrust a leaflet in his hand and asked if he could put a sign up in the yard. That’s shady all the way around.
Why she’s running is beyond me. How many failed campaigns can a person put themselves through. I also like how Joe addressed on TV12 quite openly that he is the son of Joe Lonergan, unlike Beckie who wouldn’t even mention the fact that she’s married to Rep. Steve Kirby. It’s only after she came in second that she decided to switch tactics and change her sign from BECKIE to KIRBY. Can someone say desperation?
Joe clearly has shown himself to be someone who is a family guy, a local boy, and has experience and a deep knowledge of the city in which we live.
Do we want to trust that sort of person on our city council, or someone who let’s others do all of the hard work while she is paying back the unions and special interest groups? We shall see in a couple of weeks.
J Joe (not Lonergan) October 22, 2009
Oops. I meant to say son of Mike Lonergan. Not Joe Lonergan.
J jamie from thriceallamerican October 22, 2009
Joe(notL), you guys are quite lucky to live in a house where you get to vote in 2 different city council districts! Where do I sign up?
D David Koch October 22, 2009
@ Joe(NL): This post was all kinds of interesting.
First, I highly doubt Beckie is spending money on people to canvas for her!!!! Perhaps you aren’t very experienced with political canvasing, but there are always people who support a candidate enough to volunteer time for that person. But certainly, Joe doing it himself will look good.
Second, the description of the guy canvasing for Becky sounds very suspect, though if it happened exactly as you describe it and the guy was being pressured to put a sign in his yard, then this is obviously a bad thing.
Third, your depiction of unions is a little skewed, though I admit that having a bad experience with one would do that to a person. They serve an important purpose, though anything can be abused.
Fourth, unions not talking to a potential representative is their loss, though, based on the rest of the post, I can’t even decide if I believe there was even such a dialogue attempted. Joe seems like a smart guy though so I’ll assume he would have at least wanted a dialogue.
favorite excerpts: “If we are going to talk about unions, we should be fair. The unions are often not a good thing.”
and “My wife and I are voting for Joe and Marty Campbell. Joe and Marty could probably be considered conservative and liberal respectively” because of the implications of voting in two places, and the what seems to be an effort to show that he’s not politically bias?…
That aside, I will say that in the different debates, Beckie has seemed dismissive of Joe. Regardless of Joe’s lack of experience, it makes Becky look petty and full of herself… especially when compared to Joe’s eagerness and nice persona. I don’t know her so I can’t say what kind of person she actually is though. Who knows, perhaps Joe just annoys/ammuses her. I’m not voting in that district so I haven’t been following closely.
J Joe (not Lonergan) October 23, 2009
Hello again folks. Allow me to clarify a couple of points:
First, my wife and I are voting for Joe. We endorse and are pulling for Marty and have voted for him last time around when he was running in our district. If the best folks like jamie or David has to offer as a rebuttal is that I get to vote in two districts then I misjudged the intelligence of the folks that post on this site. I work for a living and was trying to post my two cents in the middle of multi-tasking. My main point remains the same: we are endorsing and voting for Joe and Marty and that they are two opposite ends of the spectrum. My point was that we don’t fall into line with a certain party. We try and focus on the individual. Yeah David, my point was that we aren’t Republican or Democrat and we are open-minded to look at voting for either party. It all boils down to the character of the person running. Amazing that the meat and potato of my post has been ignored and instead folks are evaluating my parsley.
As for my neighbor’s experience, I spoke with him, his wife, and their adult son. All confirmed that Beckie’s sign guy came, thrust a leaflet, and asked if they could post a sign in the yard.
It’s also interesting to note that Beckie never had a sign on our block, even though it borders one of the most heavily travelled in Tacoma, until Joe had his sign put up in our yard. Then all of a sudden our block is important enough for Beckie to get a sign up the next day, after she attended the Fern Hill Business District meeting and saw for herself Joe’s sign. Yet it wasn’t important enough for her to approach my neighbor in person and actually dialogue with him. Something Joe took the time to do on our block and countless others.
As for the debate as to whether Beckie is paying people to put signs up in her yard, I am not claiming she pays people do doorbell for her. I’m just talking about the signs. Her own sign people have said they get paid for each sign put up. Which certainly explains why she came in second and why she is going to lose this race. If all that matters to her is getting signs up and not actually connecting with the voters on a one-to-one level, then she deserves to lose.
The Tacoma Weekly and the Tribune are by and large liberal-slanted papers. So when THEY come out and endorse Joe, you know Beckie isn’t the person for the job.
By the way, Fern Hill Elementary hosted an event two weeks ago that involved several police officers, city employees, code enforcement and countless concerned citizens. Joe was there. Beckie wasn’t. And it was kind of a big thing to miss since the outcome of the meeting represents big changes to beefed up TPD patrols in our neighborhoods. But I guess that’s the difference between someone who puts action behind their words.
Joe has a full-time job, two young boys, and a wife and still finds time to be at nearly every safety meeting and neighborhood clean-up event that goes on in this district. Meanwhile, Becky has no job and no young kids to take care of, but can barely manage to make it out to these sort of things.
I also find it odd that her website is beckiesummers but no mention of the name Kirby, which is the giant name on all of her signs. I think it demonstrates just how inconsistant and “will do anything” sort of policy she has just to get elected. We expect it in politics, but her campaign is skitzophrenic to say the least.
Much has been said in that last year about CHANGE. Well, the Tacoma City Council has the opportunity for the first time in memory, and maybe ever, to have several YOUNGER voices serving our community. Not the same old faces and agendas.
Wish I could keep posting but as I said, life keeps me busy. So I won’t be able to read or reply to anything else posted that is in regards to my posts. It’s just that I saw this audio interview and decided to comment and reply. Best to everyone that continues the dialogue and throws opinions out. It’s key to our society.
D David Koch October 23, 2009
@ Joe (NL): don’t worry, it wasn’t meant to be a rebuttal. Just remember that the way you word things changes meaning and allows for different interpretations. The small details will also change how I interpret the meat and potatoes of your post.
I was going to go through several parts of your post @12, but they can all be addressed in one go. It’s obvious that there are things about Beckie’s personality (and potential policy) that you don’t like. It is also apparent to me that you are interpreting every action she makes as inherently or intentionally conniving/bad/flawed/etc because of the existing judgment. Judging people is natural and automatic, but it’s still important to understand your judgments and understand how they are affecting your assessments. Make sure you’re addressing issues that actually matter and aren’t using trivial character nit-picking.
I’m sorry if I was attacking you. I was having a hard time trusting your interpretation of things because of the parsley. You’re the one who put the parsley in though and I was commenting on the recipe. Your meat and potatoes are perfectly acceptable and will taste better as you figure out how to better express them. Even if my tastes aren’t what you are trying to appeal to, I’m still going to eat and analyze it.
I just completely got off topic didn’t I? Go communication!
D DavidS October 23, 2009
Wow JNL. I think you get the award for the most words per post. (I want to see more posts, so might I suggest shorter ones. It might allow you to post more. New voices are good.)
I understand that you like Joe over Beckie. They are both running on name recognition. Joe may talk about it more, but they are both relying on it. Hey, it happens. (see Bush’s, Kennedy’s, etc.)
What I find absurd is your characterization of yourself as middle of the road. You characterize Marty as liberal (while he’s actually pretty middle of the road himself). You slam unions as “often not a good thing.” You talk about liberal media bias. These sound typically conservative, like Joe. That’s okay, but let’s call it for what it is.
As far as the meat of your post, it really boils down to: I’m middle of the road; I’m voting for Joe because he goes to the same events I do and Beckie doesn’t (except for the Fern Hill Business District Meetings); Beckie doesn’t work hard enough. I think people have problems getting to the latter parts of your argument when right off the bat you come across as off-key in your statements about who you are.
Me, I’m not voting for either of them. But then, I’m not in their district.