Print
Email Story
Kennewick's only at-large city council seat has a longtime planning commissioner trying to replace a two-term incumbent.
Mail ballots go out this week and must be postmarked by Nov. 3.
With little money to run her campaign and no prior experience seeking elected office, Candice Bluechel admits she has an uphill race against Bob Parks and his nearly $9,000 in campaign cash.
Parks is a nuclear operator at Hanford who has a reputation as a fiscal conservative on the council. He was the lone council member to oppose a $73 million capital projects five-year spending plan this summer, and has balked on spending more money for the antique carousel project.
Bluechel said she'd become increasingly concerned about the council's "bouncing around" on projects and not getting them done. She also was concerned about what she calls "bad decisions" such as giving $860,000 to the carousel project and a $3 million judgment against the city over a development proposal at Columbia Park Golf Course.
But it is Parks' stand on making Kennewick an English-only city and not allowing illegal aliens to live in Kennewick that most concern Bluechel.
"I struggled with Bob's thing with illegals in Kennewick," she said.
As business services outreach manager for WorkSource Columbia Basin, Bluechel said, she helped create classes in English and citizenship at Washington State University to help the people Parks believes should not live in Kennewick.
Bluechel has college degrees in French and business administration with an emphasis in finance. And with nearly a decade of experience on the city planning commission, she said she's ready to step up to the council.
"When I'm in a community, I want to see that I am doing some good," she said.
Parks is running hard, having received $8,700, much of which came from a Sept. 25 fundraiser. His big contributions include $2,000 from the United Steel Workers union and $1,500 from the Operating Engineers, plus $1,000 from the Benton County Republican Party.
Other notable donors include Rick Corson, Benton County coroner, for $250, businessman Bill Lampson for $200, and $100 from John Givens, who is on the Kennewick Public Facilities District board.
Parks said he's against spending more money on the antique carousel, especially for a $150,000 specially constructed barn to temporarily house it.
He said he's been endorsed by Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna, state Rep. Brad Klippert, the Homebuilders Association of the Tri-Cities, the Tri-City Association of Realtors, and the Central Washington Labor Council.
Parks hasn't gone on record recommending that the Port of Kennewick close Vista Field, but believes it can't remain as is. "Something has to change," he said.
Despite current economic pains and the city cutting 20 positions in six years, Parks insists on "no new taxes." He wants the carousel in Columbia Park and would like to see the city take ownership of the park from the Army Corps of Engineers.
Being tough on crime, big on fire protection and public safety and reducing illegal immigration also are part of Parks' campaign.
As a first-time candidate with $3,190 to spend, Bluechel punches hard.
"(Parks) says he wants to build and increase trust and community involvement. But he is confrontational and the Columbia Park Golf Course lawsuit shows he made a bad decision. This does not foster trust," Bluechel said.
A graduate of Leadership Tri-Cities, a member of the Benton-Franklin Council of Governments Economic Development Committee and the TRIDEC Case Management Committee, Bluechel says she is well schooled about Tri-City issues.
"I can bring strategic planning so the council won't be bouncing around on all these projects," she said.
She said campaigning door-to-door confirms her belief that Kennewick residents are "upset with the council as a whole."
Parks talks about the need for family wage jobs. Bluechel said as a WorkSource manager she understands job and wage issues in the Tri-Cities. "I know that light industrial creates more jobs than retail," she said, noting that Kennewick is heavy on retail development.
Bluechel has no hard position about the antique carousel and the future of the Vista Field airport other than that delaying decisions have cost money and potential jobs. She wants decisive action on both issues.
Parks said his doorbelling has shown that campaigning is more than signs and name identification. "In the end it comes down to principles," he said.
"After as many years as I have on the planning commission, I feel it's time for the next step and now the council is ready. There's a lot of work to do," Bluechel said.
Parks' campaign website is www.parks4council.com
Bluechel, who also serves on Kennewick's Arts Commission, also has a campaign website. It is www.ElectCandiceBluechel.info.
-- John Trumbo: 582-1529; jtrumbo@tricityherald.com
