The Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors recently voted to endorse candidates in the King County Executive’s race, City Council races for Auburn and Pacific, the mayoral race in Auburn, and races for the Port of Tacoma and the Port of Seattle.

The chamber endorsed candidates not just on position, but on individual candidate qualifications.

Auburn mayoral candidates Nancy Backus and John Partridge each were “Endorsed Highly Qualified” by the chamber. The general election is Nov. 5.

The chamber invited all candidates running for the positions to participate in their interview process.  Each candidate who participated completed a pre-interview questionnaire and scheduled a private interview with the Chamber’s Government Affairs Candidate Interview Task Force.

The Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors voted to approve the following endorsements:

Endorsed Highly Qualified

Tom Albro, Port of Seattle, Position 4
Nancy Backus, mayor of Auburn
Connie Bacon, Port of Tacoma, Position 1
Stephanie Bowman, Port of Seattle, Position 3
Dow Constantine, King County Executive
John Creighton, Port of Seattle, Position 1
Claude DaCorsi, Auburn City Council, Position 2
Courtney Gregoire, Port of Seattle, Position 2
Pete Lewis, Port of Seattle, Position 1
John Partridge, mayor of Auburn
Rich Wagner, Auburn City Council, Position 6

Endorsed Qualified

Alan Lobdell, King County Executive
Yolanda Trout, Auburn City Council, Position 4

Endorsed

Stacy May Knudtson, Pacific City Council, Position 5

Not Endorsed

Michelle Binetti, Auburn City Council, Position 6

Candidates invited to participate but chose not to:

Brice Erickson, Pacific City Council, Position 2
Ronnie Harris, Pacific City Council, Position 7
Eric Holdeman, Port of Tacoma, Position 1
John Jones, Pacific City Council, Position 2
Frank Lonergan, Auburn City Council, Position 4
John Naubert, Port of Seattle, Position 2
Gary Nitschke, Pacific City Council, Position 5
Richard Pope, Port of Seattle, Position 4
Jodi Riker-Yap, Auburn City Council, Position 2
Tren Walker, Pacific City Council, Position 7
Michael Wolfe, Port of Seattle, Position 3

“Our Government Affairs focus is on relationship building with the candidates, ensuring they understand our key business issues, and asking for them to include us in their decision making processes,” said Nancy E. Wyatt, president and CEO of the Auburn Area Chamber.  “This approach leads to decisions that are more balanced and help to improve the economic vitality of our business community.”

About the endorsement process

The Task Force uses the following criteria to determine its endorsement recommendation to the Board of Directors:

• Candidate recognizes the Auburn Area business community as a meaningful constituent.
• Candidate includes the business community in their decision making process, i.e. contacting, engaging, listening and trying to find positive balanced solutions.
• Candidate uses a fair and balanced approach in finding solutions for all parties involved.
• Candidate’s connection with the Auburn Area business community’s priorities on key business issues.

The Task Force uses three ranking levels as endorsement possibilities:

Not Endorsed: Candidate does not satisfy enough of the criteria to earn an endorsement.

Endorsed: Candidate meets minimum criteria, needs substantial exposure & experience in understanding our key business issues.

Endorsed Qualified: Candidate satisfies all the criteria to earn an endorsement, but their knowledge of all the key business issues needs our assistance to improve.

Endorsed Highly Qualified: Candidate satisfies all the criteria to earn an endorsement and in addition truly holds a very strong understanding of the key business issues.