SEQUIM — A hotly contested campaign for Sequim City Council between 10-year incumbent Walt Schubert and challenger Ted Miller has drawn some heavy hitters armed with money.
Ballots were mailed out in the all-mail general election on Oct. 14 and must be postmarked by Tuesday or must be returned to the Clallam County County courthouse by 8 p.m. that day.
Miller, a 63-year-old retired lawyer, has received a $1,500 contribution from the Sequim-area Lamb-Gunnerson Living Trust, while Schubert was supported by four fliers mailed by the Sequim Realtors Association produced and mailed for $6,000, according to records of contributions and expenditures the candidates released this week to the Peninsula Daily News and interviews with supporters.
Quieter race
The other City Council race between Michael East, 66, a retired terminal air freight manager for Consolidated Freightways, and Don Hall, 77, a former council member, retired quality assurance manager and current city Planning Commission member, has been quiet by comparison.
Hall said he spent only $18 of his own money to register as a candidate and has received no contributions.
East was unavailable for comment and did not answer several e-mail requests for an interview.
Candidates who run in voting districts with fewer than 5,000 registered voters and spend less than $5,000 do not have to file tallies of campaign contributions and expenditures with the state Public Disclosure Commission or make those records available to the public.
But even the Hall-East race was not without movement on at least one candidate’s behalf.
In support of Hall and Miller, actor Andy Romano of Sequim spent $4,000 on three newspaper ads, hiring a cartoonist to add some flare to the pleas, he said.
Aggressive campaign
Miller received his $1,500 contribution from the Lamb-Gunnerson Living Trust in Sequim as part of $2,130 he’s raised to unseat Schubert, fueling what he says is a necessarily aggressive campaign against a well-known incumbent.
Schubert, 69, owner and broker of Action Property Management, has neither rung doorbells nor sought campaign contributions, but the local Sequim Realtors Association has spent $6,000 in four endorsement fliers, in one, praising Schubert for “sharing our common-sense values.”
The association also has donated $500 to Schubert’s campaign, which has raised $1,400 and which Schubert said he has intentionally kept low-key.
He started the election season with $586 left over from his last campaign, he said.
“The campaign has been very different,” he said.
Negative campaign
“It’s been much more of a negative campaign by my opponent and by those who support him, which I will not play and will not do and did not do,” Schubert said.
“At the [voter] forums, pretty much every word out of my opponent’s mouth has been knocking me and my accomplishments and what I stand for.”
At one such forum on Oct. 14, the day ballots were mailed, Miller said, “My opponent has basically ignored seniors for 10 years.”
The comment outraged a member of the audience.
Miller said in an interview that he has no choice but to be aggressive and clarify real differences between him and Schubert.
“I have to because I’m the challenger,” he said. “I’m not really being negative, I’m just pointing out differences in issues.”
Being on the City Council pays just $20 a council meeting and $150 a month, with the mayor pro tem receiving $200 and the mayor $250.
The compensation made Hall scoff at the idea of spending thousands on City Council positions, recalling a Sequim City Council election two years ago during which, he said, each candidate spent $2,000 to $3,000 to win a council seat.
“To spend $3,000 on an $1,800-a-year seat is pretty stupid,” Hall said.
Dubois backs Miller
Here’s the kind of race the Schubert-Miller matchup has been: Mayor Laura Dubois has thrown her weight behind Miller, donating $100.
“I contributed as a voter, not a council person,” said Dubois, who has tussled with Schubert over impact fees and other development-related issues, while Schubert has accused her of wanting to hinder growth.
“It was a personal preference, and that’s all I have to say,” Dubois said.
Colleen Lamb-Gunnerson, a trustee of the Lamb-Gunnerson Living Trust and owner of Dungeness River Lamb Farm, said there was “no real reason” for donating the amount of $1,500 to Miller’s campaign.
“We just thought $1,500 would be appropriate in helping him. We believe in what he believes in, so we are there to help him,” she said, adding that the trust also donates to other causes, such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula and Friends of the Fields.
Miller said “heavy spending” in the election is appropriate, calling it “pivotal” for the future makeup of the council and predicting if Schubert wins, “pro-developer forces will likely regain control of the City Council.”
But Sequim Realtors Association member Mike McAleer, who donated $250 to Schubert’s campaign, said Miller’s campaign has become “personal.”
He said it mirrors the unsavory politics normally seen at the gubernatorial and national level that detracts from discussion about issues.
“There’s been a bunch of mud-slinging at Walt, and not just buy his opponent, but others,” McAleer said.
“I believe Walt has run on his record and run on ideas for the future and not been personal in the campaign. That’s not the case with his opponent.
Schubert’s total of $1,400 in contributions for this campaign consists of:
• $500, Washington Association of Realtors, Olympia; Allen Roofing, Sequim.
• $250, Mike McAleer.
• $100, Patricia Kasovia-Schmitt, Sequim.
• $50, Ray Robinson.
Schubert’s expenditures include $1,200 for a campaign mailer and $450 for 4-foot-by-8-foot signs.
Miller’s contributions of $2,130 consist of:
• $1,500, Lamb-Gunnerson Living Trust, C. K. Lamb and B.C. Gunnerson, Sequim.
• $100, Edward Damon, Sequim; Pat Thomson, Sequim; James and Beverly Harper, Sequim; Laura Dubois, Sequim; Nancy Goldstein, Sequim.
• $130, Small contributions of $25 or less
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.