This is the final weekend before the Nov. 7 City Council election on Tuesday.
Voting has been underway since Oct. 20. We’re reposting links to endorsements, recommendations, candidate questionnaires and evaluations by various groups.
Sammamish Comment will be working Election Night, posting initial results as soon as possible after King County Elections posts (advertised for about 8:15pm, but it’s not unusual to be late).
The County updates the results daily, except weekends and Thanksgiving. So will The Comment, as long as any results are too close to call. We will post the final results Nov. 28 and follow up with a precinct analysis.
Typically, Election Night results are within a point or two of the final tally. Also typically, the vote spreads are enough to project winners on Election Night.
Four City Council seats open
In Sammamish, four seats are open with no incumbent running for reelection to the Council. There was no primary in Position 1, Mark Baughman v Jason Ritchie, so there is no gauge to predict how the General Election will go.
Position 3, Karen Howe v Karen Moran, is too close to call going into the General Election. Only 72 votes separated them in a three-way primary and only three percentage points between leader Moran and third place finisher Minal Ghassemieh. Sammamish Comment believes Moran is the underdog in this race, with Howe and Ghassemieh having backing from the same groups.
Position 5, Chris Ross v Rituja Indapure, saw Ross finish the primary with 47% of the vote to Indapure’s 31.6%. The remaining 21.3% went to Ryika Hooshangi. Indapure and Hooshangi share constituencies, but Ross has to pick up only 3% of the vote and Indapure 18.4% to claim victory in the General Election. Ross is the heavy favorite going into the election Tuesday.
Position 7, Pam Stuart v John Robinson, sees the latter as a decisive underdog. Stuart claimed 52% of the vote in the primary in a three-way race (the fourth candidate dropped out too late to remove his name from the ballot). Robinson claimed just 30.5% of the vote for his second place finish.
Sammamish Comment endorsements
Sammamish Comment made endorsements and recommendations for Tuesday’s race. The Comment also posted extensive candidate questionnaires in the August primary and November general elections.
For the first time in its history, the Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter made endorsements. Sammamish Friends, an environmental group, rated candidates. Links to these various posts and articles are below.
Sammamish Comment
Position 1
Endorsed: Mark Baughman.
Opponent: Jason Ritchie
Position 3
Endorsed: Karen Moran
Opponent: Karen Howe
Position 5
Endorsed: Rituja Indapure
Opponent: Chris Ross
Position 7
Recommended: Pam Stuart
Opponent: John Robinson
Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter
The Reporter combined all endorsements into one editorial. It did not publish any questionnaires prior to the endorsements.
- Position 1: Mark Baughman
- Position 3: Karen Howe
- Position 5: Rituja Indapure
- Position 7: Pam Stuart
Sammamish Friends
Sammamish Friends issued questionnaires to the candidates and then rated each with various shades of green to reflect their assessment of environmental friendliness.
The general landing page is here. The specific questionnaire links are below.
Position 1
Position 3
Position 5
Position 7
King County Council District 3
Sammamish voters also will vote on King County Council District 3 representation. Incumbent Kathy Lambert is seeking a fifth, four-year term. She is challenged by John Murphy of North Bend.
All of Sammamish is within District 3.
Sammamish Comment sent questionnaires to Lambert and Murphy. Lambert did not respond. The Comment Recommends Murphy’s election.
Recommendation: John Murphy
Opponent: Kathy Lambert
No Response to Questionnaire.
Sammamish Comment 
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