JW Foster (Mayor of Yelm, Washington, candidate 2025)
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JW Foster is running for election to the Mayor of Yelm in Washington. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.[source] He was on the ballot in the primary on August 5, 2025.[source]
Foster completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
JW Foster provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on June 26, 2025:
- Birth date: November 30, 1955
- High school: East Greenwich High, Rhode Island
- Military service: United States Marine Corps, 1975-1979
- Gender: Male
- Profession: Firefighter / EMT
- Prior offices held:
- Mayor of Yelm (2016-2021)
- Yelm City Council (2011-2016)
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign slogan: Your Voice, My Job, Our Future.
- Campaign website
- Campaign endorsements
Elections
General election
General election for Mayor of Yelm
Joe DePinto and JW Foster are running in the general election for Mayor of Yelm on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
| Joe DePinto (Nonpartisan) | ||
JW Foster (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of Yelm
Joe DePinto, JW Foster, and Dustin Stephan ran in the primary for Mayor of Yelm on August 5, 2025.
Candidate | ||
| Joe DePinto (Nonpartisan) | ||
| JW Foster (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Dustin Stephan (Nonpartisan) | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
To view Foster's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. To send us an endorsement, click here.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
JW Foster completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Foster's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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30 year resident of Yelm. Former Marine, retired Firefighter/Paramedic (34 years), served on Yelm Planning Commission and City Council and as Mayor from 2016 to 2021. I have long been involved in our community, volunteering with the community school system, especially with the career and technical education programs, Dollars for Scholars, Rotary, Nisqually Land Trust (board president 9 years), and proud member of the VFW. My wife and I raised our four children here and presently enjoy having four grandkids living right next door. Yelm is a great place to live!
- Return active leadership to city hall. The present Mayor has a hands-off approach to managing the city, leaving a vacuum of leadership at the most important level. The Mayor should be present, visible and engaged in our community.
- Control the city's response to the rampant growth we've encountered over the past 20 years. Look for ways to smooth traffic flow locally, while working with the DOT and legislators to finally finish the promised state highway projects that affect our day-to-day lives and the regional economy.
- Take care of families: support our school system, hire the best employees and treat them well, support our local businesses that provide revenue, jobs and opportunities for families. Provide more local recreation by upgrading parks and trails and building walkable neighborhoods.
Budgeting. We need to adopt a far-looking budgeting strategy that depends on predictable, sustainable revenue sources. Spend today like there is a tomorrow that may not have the same revenue streams available. Other local cities have run into trouble by overspending their resources. We're on the same track and need to rein it in now.
So many! I have followed the lead of my parents in serving our community and focusing on family. But every teacher, coach, and leader I've served with has helped form my approach to life.
Integrity, honesty, compassion, collaboration, patience!
I'm a really good, empathetic listener. I'm open to new ideas and love to work with people rather than against them. I'm trustworthy and honest and respect others.
First and foremost, the Mayor needs to be present and engaged. Small towns need a leader who listens and then brings those voices back to city hall to adopt real change that reflects the wants and needs of the community. The other major responsibility of the Mayor is to craft a budget for Council to approve that is responsible to the tax and rate payers of the city.
Just that I was positive influence in the lives of people around me.
The assassination of JFK when I was 8.
Working for my parents in their small-town newspaper business, all through high school.
I think I'll just say most of James Michener's books - I learned so much from them, particularly "The Source"
I won't tell you, because then it will be stuck in my head again. But hint, I have four grandkids....
Finding time to do everything I want to do!
The Mayor has several roles, including preparing the budget and leading the City Council meetings. But the Mayor should also be a very visible community leader who engages with citizens and business leaders to and constantly champion the needs of our city. The Mayor should be the number one cheerleader of the city and take our message to the regional level to get as much funding and support as possible. You get that done by being Mayor 24/7/365.
Although the Mayor can act as city administrator as well, it's not a good idea. Hiring a professional who has experience in the personnel management, policy structure and general government practices allows the Mayor to focus on their other responsibilities. However, the Mayor needs to be in the office and responsible for the work of the city administrator.
The fact that having grown from a small city of 3,000 when we moved here in 1996, to a growing community of over 10,000 today, yet retaining that small town feel. Yelm is unique and although people will complain about one thing or another, they always say they love Yelm.
Our community and the surrounding unincorporated county is experiencing rapid growth. We have zoning and building codes to manage what that looks like and we've built up the infrastructure to provide service to those new residents, but we must always look for ways to maintain our identity as a small city that focuses on famlies.
The Mayor and city council members need to be constantly in the ear of our state representatives. The Mayor should, especially be engage and informed about state policy that affects Yelm.
We should be well known to our congressional representatives and they should be responsive to our requests for information and support.
What gets bigger the more you take away from it?
( a hole )
( a hole )
Providing a safe community is paramount to the Mayor's responsibilities. A good working relationship with the PD and support for the officers in training, equipment and a solid wage/benefit contract is key to hiring and retaining the best employees.
State Representative Lisa Parshley, Olympia Mayor Dantae Payne, Tumwater Mayor Debbie Sullivan, Tenino Mayor Dave Waterson, Port of Olympia Commissioner Bob Iyall, Yelm City Council member Tracey Wood, Former County Commissioner Gary Edwards, Former Port of Olympia Commissioner Bill McGregor...
Budgeting and spending should be completely transparent. Just publishing the biannual budget is not enough, it needs to be broken down to a monthly report that citizens can see and comment on.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Other survey responses
Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Foster completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
