Community Government

Candidate filing week starts Monday; these offices will be on the fall ballot

Candidate filing for a busy 2025 local election season begins Monday, May 5.

It will be an unusually active off-year campaign season, highlighted by elections for mayor of Gig Harbor, five positions on the City Council and what could be the highest-profile legislative election in the state.

Filing week continues through 5 p.m. Friday, May 9. Click here for information about filing to run for office.

State senator

The position of state senator representing the 26th Legislative District normally wouldn’t go before voters until 2026. But Democratic former Sen. Emily Randall, elected to the job in 2018 and 2022, won a seat in Congress last fall.

Pierce County council members and Kitsap County commissioners picked Deborah Krishnadasan to serve as state senator for the 2025 legislative session. The Gig Harbor Democrat is running to keep the job this fall.

State Rep. Michelle Caldier, R-Gig Harbor, already has announced a run for the seat. Other candidates could file this week, too.

Whoever wins the job would have to run again in 2026 if they want to keep it for a full term.

Only two other state Senate seats are up in 2025, both in King County. The 26th District is considered one of the few “purple” districts in Washington, winnable by either political party, meaning both Democrats and Republicans could pour resources into the off-year Senate election here.

State senators serve four-year terms.

City offices

In an unusual circumstance, both the mayor’s office and five of the seven Gig Harbor City Council positions are before voters this fall.

The mayor’s office is scheduled to be up this year. But the candidate voters picked in 2021 won’t be on the ballot, because former mayor Tracie Markley stepped down in November 2024, citing family health issues.

The City Council picked one of its own, Mary Barber, to replace Markley in the mayor’s office.

Two of the five council positions on this fall’s ballots have incumbents who were appointed, not elected.

The council appointed Reid Ekberg to fill Barber’s Position 4 seat in December 2023. And in January, the council appointed Emily Stone to serve in place of Brenda Lykins, who resigned Position 3 after moving outside city limits.

Other council positions up this fall include Position 1, currently held by Jeni Woock; Position 2, held by Roger Henderson; and Position 7, held by Seth Storset. Woock has announced that she will not run for re-election.

City council members and the mayor serve four-year terms. The Position 4 seat, however, will go before voters again in 2027, since this fall’s election is only for the remaining two years of the term Barber was elected to in 2023.

The Gig Harbor mayor makes $2,220 a month. Council members make $775 a month.

City positions are considered non-partisan. Council members are elected at-large, not from specific geographic districts.

School, parks district and fire boards

Other seats available this fall include:

Peninsula School Board: Positions 2 (Jennifer Butler) and 5 (David Olson) are up this fall. Olson ran unsuccessfully for state Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2024.

PenMet Parks commissioner: Positions 1 (Kurt Grimmer) and 4 (Laurel Kingsbury) are up this fall. Commissioners serve six-year terms.

Gig Harbor Fire and Medic One: Two positions on the fire district board are before voters: Position 3, held by Joe Urvina; and Position 4, held by Thomas Sutich.

Pierce County Charter Review commission

Three positions on the Pierce County Charter Review Commission also are available this fall. The 21-person commission, composed of three members from each of seven county council districts, proposes amendments to the county charter. If the commission proposes any amendments, they would go before voters for approval.

Eligible candidates must have lived in Pierce County for at least five years before the election; live in Council District 7 (Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula); and be a registered voter.

Click here for information about the Charter Review Commission.