(The Center Square)– Results from the August Primary Election reveal incumbent Pierce County Council District 6 Councilmember Jani Hitchen faces a tough challenge from Republican Loujanna “LJ” Rohrer, who leads all candidates for the county council seat.
According to the latest election results, Rohrer leads all District 6 candidates with 47.2% of collected votes. Hitchen, a Democrat, is trailing with 41.1%, and fellow Democrat Danny Hankins collected 11.6% of tallied votes.
Rohrer, a senior legislative assistant for the State House of Representatives, said she feels good about the primary results but feels that she has a lot of work to do.
“What the results show is that people are not satisfied with the incumbent,” Rohrer said to The Center Square in a phone call.
Rohrer will have to convince the 11.6% of Hankins supporters not to choose the incumbent Hitchen in the November Election, which she says she is confident she can do.
The top concern Rohrer is hearing from her constituents is the increasing cost of living, especially housing costs. She said she wants to look at where spending is being made as Pierce County revenues continue to increase and figure out what residents are prioritizing for where generated revenue goes.
General fund revenues for Pierce County increased 2.5% from $875 million in the 2022-2023 budget to $896.7 million in the 2024-2025 budget.
The two leading candidates differ on how to address affordable housing, with Rohrer saying that the county needs to step back and look at how to efficiently spend tax dollars.
Rohrer mentioned the Maureen Howard Affordable Housing Act, which implements a one-tenth of 1% sales tax for housing and related services, as an example of new tax sources that need to be more closely examined.
Taxpayers pay 10 cents for every $100 spent, with groceries, medicine, certain medical supplies and hygiene products exempt from the tax. The tax is expected to generate approximately $20 million in revenue each year, according to the county.
Hitchen touts her work to get the Maureen Howard Affordable Housing Act passed, stating that it would help the county partner with builders to produce permanently affordable housing and supportive housing in her campaign website.
Hitchen is focused on where units of affordable housing created by the sales tax go in order to address housing needs across Pierce County.
Rohrer said the county should focus on working with industry partners and businesses to figure out solutions to address housing affordability and overall costs. This includes creating incentives for businesses and developers to build affordable housing at the necessary rate.
The Center Square reached out to Jani Hitchen’s campaign for comment, but did not receive a response at the time of this publication.