MARYSVILLE – Mark James can finally relax.

At least for a little while before he is sworn in as a new City Council member in January.

A newcomer to politics, Mark didn’t know what to expect when he decided to run for council against longtime incumbent Donna Wright. “There’s no game book, no map to tell you what to do,” he said.

His wife, Renae, agreed that was the toughest part about him running for office.

“We had to figure out how it works,” she said. “We had to make our own way.”

After thinking about it a bit, Mark said that also was the best part – because they did it on their own.

“The adventure into the unknown,” he said.

Renae said they were at a disadvantage compared with the incumbent, who had run many times before.

“We didn’t have those connections,” she said.

Mark added, “It was mentally tough trying to figure out everything to do.”

He said he found it odd to be doing things in the election process that had nothing to do with the job, like waving signs and sending out and receiving so many emails.

But he figured out the last two weeks that “all those things add up to show leadership and your skill set.”

Before the polling numbers were released, James said he had no idea what they would be. But Renae said support had been “phenomenal.” Mark said the people around him acted like he had it made. But if he listened to them, “I’d win by a landslide,” he said.

Maybe not a landslide, but he did win by quite a bit. Even the Jameses were surprised because the only bad thing they ever heard about Wright was that she had been in office too long – 24 years. Mark said the council should institute term limits, just like the county council, of three terms.

He said people would call him and ask if he was a Democrat or a Republican. “Neither, you don’t need to be” for this job, he would tell them. He said he has been called a “centrist.” His opponent is an avid Republican, but he didn’t get endorsed by Democrats because he doesn’t follow the party line. He said he probably leans a little bit to the conservative side.

Even though Mark had a big lead on election night, he was still a little uneasy.

“Donna upped her game at the end,” he said, adding she did more advertising, social media and web work late in the game, along with a phone campaign.

Kevin Poirier, a Marysville resident and school psychologist at Granite Falls, was one of about 20 people at a gathering for Mark on Election Night.

He said he supported Mark because he is a local businessman with the same kind of values and desires for Marysville. Poirier has lived here since he was 7 and feels it has gone downhill. “It used to be quaint,” he said. He added that the city has no identity.

“There’s not even strawberry fields anymore,” he said, adding that big box stores have taken over the town. “We’re hurting. We’re not a destination” like Snohomish, he said.