Would-be City Council candidate Hathaway won't run

Tacoma resident and political commentator John Hathaway announced yesterday that he will not run for an at-large seat on Tacoma City Council presently held by incumbent councilmember Julie Anderson.

Hathaway announced his decision Tuesday morning on his Web site, The New Takhoman ( http://www.thenewtakhoman.com ), which regularly posts news and commentary on City Hall. He could not be reached for comment yesterday afternoon. On his Web site, however, Hathaway said he decided not to run because he would “rather make an honest living.”

In February, the Index interviewed Hathaway, 61, as part of an ongoing series of Q & A’s with this year’s city council candidates (“A shadowy, perennial outsider eyes a seat inside City Hall,” Feb. 8). “Your average Tacoma citizen really doesn’t have a voice,” he said during the interview. “I don’t have the solution to get people involved in city politics. But 48 percent of people in Tacoma, last I heard, were poverty level or below. There is a group of people trying to put food in their mouths to survive. It might sound crazy, but those are the people I want to represent. I want to figure out somehow [a way to] get those people involved in local government, to give them a voice.”