Candidate questionnaires for City Council begin July 12; ballots go into mail

Posted on July 11, 2017 by cityhamilton

Candidate questionnaires for Sammamish City Council begin publishing tomorrow, July 12, in Sammamish Comment.

Tomorrow is also when King County Elections mails the ballots for the Aug. 1 primary.

Four Council seats are up for vote in the Nov. 8 general election: Positions 1, 3, 5 and 7. Three of the races, 3, 5 and 7, have three active candidates running, requiring a primary vote Aug. 1. The top two vote-getters will advance to the November election.

Position 1 has only two candidates running. This position won’t appear on the Aug. 1 ballot, with these two candidates going directly to the November election.

Sammamish Comment submitted a three-page questionnaire about City issues to the candidates last month. They were asked to return them by July 7, allowing for processing for publication beginning tomorrow.

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Paucity of local endorsements mark City Council races

Posted on July 10, 2017 by cityhamilton

The 11 active candidates running for Sammamish City Council have of local endorsements as the Aug. 1 primary closes in.

Some candidates have no endorsements listed on their web sites, which are also—for the most part—appallingly devoid of substantive discussion of their issues.

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Ghassemieh, Indapure each raise nearly $20,000 for Sammamish Council primary

Posted on July 10, 2017 by cityhamilton

It’s less than one month away from the Aug. 1 Sammamish City Council primary and fund raising by the candidates ranges from nearly $20,000 to nothing, an examination of filings with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission reveals.

The data below is through June. Each raised more money since then.

Minal Ghassemieh (Position 3) and Rituja Indapure (Position 5) raised the most money, at $17,384 and $19,400 respectively. However, only a small portion of their fund raising came from Sammamish: 26% of contributors totaling $5,050 for Ghassemieh, and 32% of the contributors donating $6,296 for Indapure.

Mark Baughman (Position 1) hasn’t raised any money, but there is no primary for this position. His sole opponent, Jason Ritchie, raised $3,569, who is self-funding most of his campaign so far.

John Robinson (Position 7) raised $1,500, of which $1,000 is from himself.