NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015

Yakima voters are electing the first majority female city council in history

Seat­tle media may not care about what hap­pens east of the moun­tains, but we cer­tain­ly do. We’re incred­i­bly excit­ed to report tonight that change is com­ing to Yaki­ma… big change. As a result of the city’s adop­tion of dis­trict elec­tions (ordered by a fed­er­al judge), it appears Yaki­ma will soon have its first female Coun­cil major­i­ty in his­to­ry. It will also have its first two Lati­na councilmembers!

This is a big deal. A real­ly big deal.

Take a look at the ear­ly results in the Yaki­ma City Coun­cil races:

Yaki­ma City Coun­cil Results by District
#Win­ning CandidateLos­ing Candidate
1Dulce Gutiér­rez: 252 votes (81.82%)Rus­sell A. Mon­teiro: 45 votes
2Avina Cristal Gutiér­rez: 215 votes (61.08%)Maud Scott: 136 votes
3Car­men Mén­dez: 597 votes (51.38%)Kel­ly M. Rosenow: 549 votes
4Bill Lover: 498 votes (61.79%)Tony San­doval: 297 votes
5Kathy Cof­fey: 868 votes (62.76%)Reed C. Pell: 511 votes
6Mau­reen Adki­son: 1,292 votes (56.89%)Gavin D. Keefe: 952 votes
7Hol­ly N. Cousens: 1,001 votes (58.16%)Gun­nar Berg: 705 votes

“Until Tues­day, Yaki­ma had nev­er elect­ed a Lati­no or more than three women to the coun­cil. At least five of the sev­en seats will now be held by women if ear­ly results hold; a sixth seat remains too close to call,” notes the Yaki­ma Her­ald-Repub­lic.

Yakima City Council candidates with Democratic leaders

Yaki­ma City Coun­cil can­di­dates Dulce Gutiér­rez and Hol­ly Cousens with Teodo­ra Mar­tinez-Chavez and Demo­c­ra­t­ic orga­niz­er Gabriel Munoz (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

I had the plea­sure of hear­ing both Hol­ly and Dulce talk about their cam­paigns ear­li­er this year when the Wash­ing­ton State Democ­rats met in Wenatchee. I’m real­ly pleased to see them both doing so well. And so is the state party.

“Con­grat­u­la­tions to Dulce Gutiér­rez and Avina Gutiér­rez on their amaz­ing vic­to­ries,” said Wash­ing­ton State Par­ty Chair Jax­on Ravens. “Large­ly due to the Vot­ing Rights Act, a com­mu­ni­ty that had been dis­en­fran­chised will now have a voice in their local gov­ern­ment. That’s progress, but we are not done.

“This result fur­ther under­scores not only the con­tin­ued need of the Vot­ing Rights Act, but also the need to pass the Wash­ing­ton Vot­ing Rights Act (WVRA), which has been stalled in the state leg­is­la­ture. We need what hap­pened in Yaki­ma to rip­ple across the state, and that will only hap­pen if we pass the WVRA.”

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One Comment

  1. That is won­der­ful news.Yakima’s His­pan­ic com­mu­ni­ty will final­ly have voice on the Council.

    # by Mike Barer :: November 4th, 2015 at 6:13 AM
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