Lively Pierce County Races Seen -- Rep. Gallagher To Call It Quits

TACOMA

The pundits who call North Pierce County legislative races predictable might be in for a surprise this year.

Democratic Rep. P.J. Gallagher, 74, says he will not run for re-election to his 29th District seat, ending 30 years in the Legislature. The district covers South Tacoma and parts of unincorporated Pierce County, including Brookdale and Parkland.

Speculation about Gallagher's retirement already has roused a number of well-known Democrats, including Gordon Mandt, 60, who managed Cathy Pearsall's successful run for Pierce County Council last November, and former Pierce County Planning Commission member and registered nurse Rosa Franklin, 63.

Republicans have no announced candidates yet - Tacoma Rescue Mission director Joe Ellis, 42, thought about running but has decided against it.

Former Tacoma City Council member Dick Sonntag, 47, a Democrat, started campaigning for Gallagher's seat early, then wrote to party officials recently to say he was no longer a candidate.

Sonntag, a sergeant for the state Department of Corrections at McNeil Island, says he needs to devote energy to running his brother Brian's re-election campaign for Pierce County auditor. But he said he might change his mind before the July 27 filing deadline ``if none of the other (Democratic) candidates is running a strong campaign.''

In the 25th District, which covers Puyallup, Sumner and Bonney Lake, Republicans and Democrats alike are trying to oust a first-term representative and a recent appointee.

Two Republicans - Puget Sound Power & Light business office manager Maury Knight and homemaker Sarah Casada - say they will challenge Rep. Don Bennett, D-Puyallup, who was appointed to fill the position left by Rep. George Walk's retirement at the beginning of the 1990 session.

Bennett, 33, is legal services director for the Washington State School Directors Association and a former attorney for the Senate Education Committee.

Casada, 53, who lost to Walk in 1988, said community activities, such as working with local food banks, have brought her closer than Bennett to the district.

Knight, 52, is a board member of the Puyallup Area Chamber of Commerce and a former mayor of Tenino, south of Olympia. He said his management and civic organization experience made him a better candidate than Bennett.

Democrats Sandy Caban of Bonney Lake and Bob Baltzell of Puyallup want to take back the seat Rep. Randy Tate, R-Puyallup, snatched for the Republicans with a ``doorbelling'' and yard sign campaign two years ago.

Caban and Baltzell say they'll attack Tate's youth - he's 24 - and lack of ``life'' and employment experience.

``He's not really in touch with the mainstream of people who have to work for a living,'' said Caban, 44, a nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup. She has worked in health-care administration and served on the Pierce County Mental Health advisory board.

Baltzell, 56, a retired Air Force colonel who sells insurance in Auburn, said he would try to support small businesses in the Legislature.

Tate says he's already accomplished much in the Legislature, including sponsoring a bill to require sex offenders to register with authorities when they come to a community. Portions of that bill were incorporated into the multifaceted bill passed by the Legislature on the sentencing and commitment of sex offenders.

Despite the early debate, the 25th District's candidates are surprisingly close on issues. Each named growth management and criminal-justice funding as the most important.

Voters refused to update the county's 1962 comprehensive plan four years ago, but candidates said they think residents are ready for such an update now. A growth-management bill adopted last session requires Pierce County to complete a new plan but specifies no penalties for not complying.

Tacoma has one district with no surprises yet - the staunchly Democratic 27th. GOP district leader Virginia Taylor, editor of the Northwest Dispatch community newspaper, said no candidates have come close to challenging Democratic Reps. Ruth Fisher and Art Wang, both of Tacoma. Sen. Lorraine Wojahn isn't up for re-election.

Fisher, who was chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee during the session when the long-debated gas-tax increase finally passed, will be particularly hard to beat this year, district leaders say. ``People are just reluctant to take 'em on,'' Taylor said.

Candidates may begin filing for the offices July 23.