A Backroom Vote Redraws Tacoma's First Ward
Tacoma Republicans reverse the base for municipal convention apportionment, threatening Council President Harris and the Wickersham faction's grip on the First Ward.
Tacoma, March 15.—Special.—The Republican city central committee held a meeting this evening and reconsidered its former action in basing the apportionment in the coming municipal convention on Huson's vote of 1,188. It was decided to base it on Orr's vote, with the representation 1 to 2. This changes the entire complexion of affairs in the First Ward, as it takes away the majority of Harris, the present president of the council, and gives it to the opposition element. Harris is one of the leaders of the Wickersham faction of the party. Much depended on his re-election.
“This changes the entire complexion of affairs in the First Ward.”
Ward-level apportionment fights still decide who controls city councils and which incumbents survive. In 1895 Tacoma, a single committee vote could shift a ward's majority—and with it the balance of municipal power.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.