Candidate for: Washington State Senate – 49th Legislative District. New candidate for this position.
Campaign website: http://lewis4senate.com Age: 37
Summary Analysis: Lewis Gerhardt is a new politician in the 49th Legislative District whose campaign appears to offer voters in the 49th a point of view and action plan that is very different than that the current liberal 49th state politicians. Mr. Gerhardt repeatedly speaks of reversing this big government direction and at a minimum wants to be a voice for this type of thinking in a legislative district that is difficult for a conservative to be competitive. It appears if Mr. Gerhardt was elected, he would be quite resilient to typical pressures of the political establishment and special interests. Instead he would be one of a growing number of voices to first serve the citizens and not special interests and big government. Lewis Gerhardt has a 66% composite score. See details about score in the composite score matrix.
Campaign manager and team: Apparently self-run with volunteers.
Education – higher: unknown
Relevant work experience: Yacolt City Council including sitting on the highly political CTRAN board (local transit agency). Professional work is supporting business software which trains discipline in process design and execution–with the goal of business efficiency and increased competitiveness.
Organizations and community involvement: Prior to moving into Vancouver in 2015, Lewis resided in Yacolt Washington, where he served as Town Councilman. During his time on the Council, he represented the Town as the appointed C-Tran Representative. He served on the C-Tran Board of Directors as an alternate to the Battle Ground Representative. Gerhardt has been active in the Clark County Republican Party as a Precinct Committee Officer, first in Precinct 600 in Yacolt and currently in Precinct 660 in Vancouver. Other Community Service as noted by candidate Gerhardt: “As a youth, I was a Police Explorer in Klamath Falls, OR. Organizer, Yacolt Junk & Jazz Music Festival.” Gerhardt volunteers for various Republican campaigns.
Donation analysis: Lewis Gerhardt’s donations are substantially from people known to be right-of-center and many known conservatives who are involved in local politics. These donors generally have strong insight about where the specific politician loyalties are, or will be. These people make donations based on this knowledge. Donations are considered sufficient for Mr. Gerhardt’s promotion to the general election but inadequate to be competitive in this particular political race in the general election in this left-of-center 49th legislative district. How to review donations.
Time in area: Clark County resident since November of 2007
Background for candidate: The following links have been chosen as they contain background information readers may find useful.
| Candidate website | Candidate | http://lewis4senate.com |
| https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewis-gerhardt-jr-418ba529 | ||
| https://www.facebook.com/lewis4senate/ | ||
| Reflector article | The Reflector – Newspaper | http://www.thereflector.com/news/article_95978338-e235-11e4-972e-db8aac49eab4.html |
| CVTV – Election 2016: Primary Video Voters’ Guide (07-07-16) (in interface scroll down and click the candidate’s name) | CVTV | http://www.cvtv.org/vid_link/18222 |
Original analysis: July 2016. Updated: October 2016.
Produced by ClarkCounty.info LLC 2016