Smith is the clear choice

Lynnwood has a migrating center of gravity. For outsiders and Lynnwoodites alike, the Alderwood Mall is its anchor. The tendency is to look at the city through a prism, at segments of suburbia. What is drive-through country for I-5 commuters, however, is home to 36,000 souls. Neighborhoods and families are the sum of the city’s parts. They even eclipse the mall and all-thing-Nordstrom.

Mending the legacy of poor urban planning will take decades; it also requires farsighted, cohesive leadership to reignite a spirit community. The citizens of Lynnwood may get just that if they elect Nicola Smith mayor in November.

As The Herald Editorial Board noted in July, incumbent Mayor Don Gough has been an anemic and morale-bruising chief executive, with an abrasive style inversely proportional to the regard regional leaders have for his leadership. The people of Lynnwood deserve better.

Nicola Smith is the consummate citizen candidate. The dean of student life and development at Edmonds Community College, Smith took a calculated risk entering a race that included two seasoned city councilmen along with a beleaguered incumbent.

Voters, craving a fresh start, gave Smith a plurality in the August primary.

Smith combines an administrative grounding with experience finessing budgets, two critical skill sets for mayor. Like fellow candidate Mark Smith, who lost in the primary, Nicola Smith has an international-studies background that aligns with the city’s evolving demographics. Over the next several years, first-generation Americans will help shape Lynnwood’s economy along with its political culture.

There is work to do. This includes the basics of repairing communications within the city’s administrative departments as well as elevating a leader who can serve as a clear, strong voice in the final alignment of light rail. The smart-growth development of city center and the expansion and preservation of neighborhood parks are two essentials.

Nicola Smith’s agenda is foundational, with an emphasis on staff management, city services and fiscal stewardship. Her message and appeal span the political spectrum — a refreshing sign that puts people, not party first. Endorsers include her two primary opponents, Mark Smith and Loren Simmonds, along with sensible, well-regarded Republicans such as Renee Radcliff Sinclair and equally sensible Democrats such as Ruth Kagi and Mary Helen Roberts. Once elected, Smith shouldn’t hesitate to tap these political and community leaders to give Lynnwood an effective regional voice.

Nicola Smith is a political newcomer, yes, and that’s a distinct advantage. She has the experience, integrity and vision to do enormous good for the people of Lynnwood.

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THis is an editorial cartoon by Michael de Adder . Michael de Adder was born in Moncton, New Brunswick. He studied art at Mount Allison University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and painting. He began his career working for The Coast, a Halifax-based alternative weekly, drawing a popular comic strip called Walterworld which lampooned the then-current mayor of Halifax, Walter Fitzgerald. This led to freelance jobs at The Chronicle-Herald and The Hill Times in Ottawa, Ontario.

 

After freelancing for a few years, de Adder landed his first full time cartooning job at the Halifax Daily News. After the Daily News folded in 2008, he became the full-time freelance cartoonist at New Brunswick Publishing. He was let go for political views expressed through his work including a cartoon depicting U.S. President Donald Trump’s border policies. He now freelances for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the Toronto Star, Ottawa Hill Times and Counterpoint in the USA. He has over a million readers per day and is considered the most read cartoonist in Canada.

 

Michael de Adder has won numerous awards for his work, including seven Atlantic Journalism Awards plus a Gold Innovation Award for news animation in 2008. He won the Association of Editorial Cartoonists' 2002 Golden Spike Award for best editorial cartoon spiked by an editor and the Association of Canadian Cartoonists 2014 Townsend Award. The National Cartoonists Society for the Reuben Award has shortlisted him in the Editorial Cartooning category. He is a past president of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists and spent 10 years on the board of the Cartoonists Rights Network.
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