Real Friends of Puyallup?

This is unprecedented. Puyallup has never seen big-money, corporate influence in its local politics – until now. We are seeing 3-4 times the amount of money spent in this year’s city council races than ever before.  Why?  Out-of-state warehouse developers have launched a Political Action Committee (PAC) with the very misleading name Friends of Puyallup (FOP) to promote city council candidates they feel (or know) will give them unfettered access to valley farmland.

We were tipped off about this when The News Tribune published the story in late September.  Through October 20th, there are just six contributors to the PAC, giving a total of $60,200 for political persuasion in a city council campaign of just 40,000 residents. This number does not include additional independent expenditures redundant PACs are making in support of the same candidates. FOP itself has:

• $25k from the St. Louis, Missouri developer;
• $10k from the state realtor’s PAC;
• $10k from the land owner outside Puyallup;
• $5k from the state builder’s PAC;
• $5k from the property manager in Tacoma;
• $5k from the engineering firm in Kent;

FOP was started by Running Bear Land Partners of Clayton, Missouri (St. Louis) which proposes to add seven more warehouses between Shaw Road and the Puyallup River. From our understanding, Running Bear is a subsidiary of the Michelson Property Management & Investment Corporation which owns Viking JV of St. Louis, Missouri, now building the current warehouse next to the Shaw Road overpass.

Running Bear, along with the Neil Walter property management company of Tacoma, launched the PAC with a $30,000 contract to New Media Northwest, a “full service political consulting and marketing firm” from Salem, Oregon, plus $7,000 to Nelson Reporting, also of Salem, for “polling” and other sophisticated mechanisms to sway public opinion.

Their directive:  promote three candidates friendly to the warehouse project, and attack candidates insisting on environmental and traffic mitigation for 1,750 additional semi-trucks on Main Street every day. It’s hard to believe those numbers. Let’s look more closely at the 1,750 increase in semi-trucks per day. That is the actual number Running Bear suggests in its proposal, noted in paragraph 9 of the city’s summary. Doing the math, that is:

• 73 extra trucks per hour if they go around the clock, or 146 trucks per hour working a 12 hour day;
• 1.2 extra trucks per minute, or 2.45 extra per minute working a 12 hour day;
• 1 truck every 49 seconds, or 1 new truck turning onto Shaw & Main every 25 seconds if deliveries in and out of the warehouses operate an average 12 hour day.

And they want to operate the warehouses BEFORE new road capacity is added. Traffic already backs up South Hill and across 410 through Sumner. That’s why the city of Puyallup balked at the county’s carte blanche approval of the project, bringing them to court and winning every appeal up to the State Supreme Court.

Running Bear’s recourse to losing in court? Stack the city council with candidates who will not challenge them. Classic corporate takeover of local politics, happening throughout the country and world. Our city’s effort to require environmental review of several additional warehouses now hangs on a slim majority of support in the current council.  With a couple friendlies already on council, Running Bear just needs one or two more. 

FOP has already started its “persuasion” campaign by advertising “polls” that make candidates and council members look bad who insist on environmental review and infrastructure requirements (roads) before warehouses are built. They’re worried the city can stop these warehouses … with the “right” council members.  They know how important this election is, how unpopular the warehouses are, and how much control local councils have over land use decisions.

If you want to keep big-money influence, as well as warehouses, out of Puyallup, join the Real Friends of Puyallup Facebook page. Tell your friends to “unlike” the Friends of Puyallup, with the first 300 “likes” adopted from a page it took over on August 7, 2019.

Please consider a donation of any amount, and invite your friends to like our Facebook page. Sponsored by Puyallup Voters for Integrity, PO Box 42, Puyallup WA 98371. No candidate or party contributes to, authorizes or controls this Political Action Committee which is registered at the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission. 2025 campaign season contributors over the $100 threshold so far include Chris Chisholm, PV4I Treasurer. When facts are presented, we want them to be accurate. If you find any errors, please email us with original-source evidence for correction.correction.