Tanya Ishikawa won a seat on the Federal Heights City Council in the Nov. 1 election with 67.5 percent of the vote. She earned 206 votes, compared to the other candidate in the race who had 99 votes, according to unofficial final election results from Adams County. Federal Heights is a city just north of Denver, Colo., with approximately 13,000 residents. Ishikawa was elected to the seven-person city council to represent Ward I, which had 806 active voters in autumn 2011.

Ishikawa, 45, will serve four years as a city council member, which is a nonpartisan position. She served on Federal Heights City Council from 2007 to 2009, after being unanimously appointed to fill a vacancy. During her previous service, she was proud to contribute to making sound financial decisions for the city, helping approve funding for a trail extension, assisting a citizen in getting a bus stop re-designated, and providing a voice of advocacy for low-income and disabled residents.

The Campaign to Elect Tanya Ishikawa raised $545 to cover its $545 expenses, which included spending on one postcard mailing, car magnets, and door hangers. A team of eight volunteers, mainly from various local Green chapters on Colorado’s Front Range, assisted in delivering the door hangers to nearly 500 households around the ward. Other volunteers assisted with getting petition signatures to get Ishikawa’s name on the ballot, creating voter lists and labels, and making phone calls to voters not at home when volunteers visited. The campaign re-used yard signs created during a 2009 city council election, when Ishikawa lost by 9 votes to the other candidate.

Ishikawa is an award-winning professional writer and editor, who works for various magazines, newspapers and other publications. She is also a filmmaker and freelance videographer, a part-time substitute teacher at a K-12 school in her neighborhood, and a mother of a 6-year-old son who is in 1st grade at The Studio School in Adams 12 Five Star Schools. She serves on the board of her neighborhood HOA and is board vice president of the Open Media Foundation, which operates Denver’s public access TV station and community media training center. She also volunteers to help the elderly through The Senior Hub and to raise funds and awareness for various causes such as the MS Society. She loves to dance and travel, and wishes she had more time for both.

Ishikawa is a past state co-chair and state secretary of the Green Party of Colorado. She is the secretary of the Adams-Jefferson (counties) Greens. She also serves on the state website committee.

The brief swearing-in ceremony for Federal Heights City Council will be at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 15, before the regular council meeting, at Federal Heights City Hall, 2380 W. 90th Ave., Federal Heights, CO 80260. The public is welcome, and refreshments will be provided.

For more information:

Federal Heights – ci.federal-heights.co.us

Campaign to Elect Tanya Ishikawa – votefortanya.ning.com

Adams-Jefferson Greens – facebook.com (search Adams-Jefferson Greens)

Green Party of Colorado – coloradogreenparty.org