Jason Ritchie
Jason Ritchie won Position 1 on the Sammamish City Council with 57.1% 
of the vote. His opponent, Mark Baughman, won just six precincts of 61.
The outcome of the Nov. 7 general election could not be predicted because there was no primary contest for Position 1 to gauge the vote, as there was in the other three City Council races.
The certified vote by precinct was released by King County Elections last week. 
Sammamish has 61 precincts and the November election was the first including the greater Klahanie area as part of Sammamish’s City Council elections.
Beginning tomorrow through Friday, Sammamish Comment published a race-by-race analysis of the precinct vote for City Council Positions 1, 3, 5 and 7; and King County Council District 3 with the 45th Legislative District State Senate race.
A preview:
Kathy Lambert, co-sponsor of a bill labeled “unlawful” that would impose a new tax on unincorporated King County households. Photo via Google images.
The King County Council is poised to adopt an ordinance intended to “coerce” utility companies and water and sewer districts into franchise fees to use street rights-of-way in order to raise millions of dollars in fees for the County’s general fund.
The problem—and there are many—is that the ordinance and use of funds is unlawful under state statutes, says a coalition of water districts that issued a press release today.
Ramiro Valderrama
Sammamish City Council Member Ramiro Valderrama, citing what turns out to be a series of unsubstantiated claims, executed a pirouette on his previous vote supporting a moratorium including the Town Center—and went splat.
The Town Center was exempted from the moratorium at the Nov. 21 meeting by a 4-3 vote, with Valderrama, Mayor Bob Keller and Council Members Don Gerend and Kathy Huckabay voting to lift it.
Valderrama said his vote always was about storm water management for the Town Center. In voting to exempt the Town Center, Valderrama claimed the emergency moratorium was not about traffic concurrency.
This simply wasn’t true.
Final vote counting in the Nov. 7 election confirmed election night results and Sammamish Comment’s projected winners.
Vote tallies for Positions 1, 3 and 7 were within one percentage point from election night to the final results.
Tallies in Position 5 narrowed almost two points. Winner Chris Ross on election night pulled 54.65% of the vote to Rituja Indapure’s 45.35%. By the final tally, the percentages were 52.77% and 47.17% respectively.
The detailed chart is below.
Sammamish Comment 