Tag Archives: Hank Klein

Election Night Results: Malchow, Valderrama, Hornish sweep by wide margins

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  • Margins are wide enough to declare victory:
  • Position 2: Christie Malchow 59% vs Mark Cross 41%
  • Position 4: Ramiro Valderrama (Incumbent) 82% vs Hank Klein 18%
  • Position 6: Tom Hornish 55% vs Tom Vance (Incumbent) 45%

King County posted the Election Night results at about 8:15pm. Additional results will be posted every week day about 4pm for the next three weeks. The election will be certified November 24.

Historically, the final results are within 1%-2% of Election Night results. Sammamish Comment will update results regularly. The Comment will have an election analysis with tomorrow’s update in the late afternoon.

Low ballot return so far in Sammamish City Council race

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With six days to do to the November 3 election, in which three positions for the Sammamish City Council are on the ballot, City ballot returns through Oct. 26 are a dismal 7.8% of registered voters.

This is fractionally behind neighboring cities, Issaquah, Redmond and Kirkland, which are hovering around 8% ballot returns. Bellevue is slightly higher at 8.4%. All of King County, including Seattle where there are City Council races, is hovering around 8% ballot returns so far.

Off-year elections typically have dramatically lower voter turnout than presidential years or mid-term years in which the top of the ballot has a US Senator race. In Washington, the governor is elected in the same year as the president and mid-term elections have a US Senate seat at the top of the ballot.

City Council races are in the odd years, and don’t draw much in the way of turnout. Top top-of-the-ballot office races in King County are for Assessor and Director of Elections, two yawners that won’t help draw voters.

The top ballot initiative this year is I-1136, another Tim Eyman tax initiative that most people believe will be ruled invalid in a court challenge should it pass. A number of arcane advisory votes are on the ballot.

Eighty five percent of Sammamish voters typically turn out in a presidential election. This historically drops to 50% or less in an odd-year election. But since the City Council races are “down ballot,” by the time voters get down to these races, the actual voter participation is even lower.

Sammamish Comment has charted the statistics in three recent odd-year elections:

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Malchow, Valderrama, Hornish for City Council; ballot returns now

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Sammamish voters are beginning to mail their ballots for the November 3 City Council election. It’s a good time to review endorsements.

Position 2

Christie Malchow is the recommended choice over Mark Cross.

Christie Malchow, Position 2

Malchow is an energetic professional who got her baptism under fire in Sammamish as an appellant of a proposed project, Chestnut Estates West, that would have a material adverse impact on salmon-bearing Ebright Creek, traffic and a proposal to build on what had been designated as open space when the developer built Chestnut Estates (East). The City Hearing Examiner threw out the City Staff approval of West as improperly approved.

As with many who enter public service because of a passionate issue, Malchow came to understand there are bigger issues at stake than just a NIMBY issue. She learned that the City staff routinely waivers, ignores or grants variances to code to approve projects. City transparency and responsiveness is lacking. Malchow pledges to hold the staff’s feet to the fire, pry open the doors to transparency and to restore responsive government to Sammamish.

Malchow, if elected, will be the youngest member on the Council and the only one not eligible for membership to AARP. She’s 42 and has two small children, representative of the demographics of Sammamish.

Cross is a career government employee who served eight years on the Council, from 2004-2012. He seeks to return to Council after a four year break.

Cross, 65, served admirably on Council and is a faithful public servant. But his principal objective is to add staff to manage future road projects and to pave over the rest of the East Lake Sammamish Trail, though from his public statements, there is no evidence that environmental protection and property rights along the trail figure into his agenda. Cross will be a reliable member of the ruling majority, the so-called Gang of 4, all of whom have endorsed Cross for election. He also endorse Mayor Tom Vance, a member of the Gang, for reelection.

We need independent voices to challenge the Gang, not a reliable member to make it the Gang of 5.

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Sammamish City Council average age: 66; median age of Sammamish: 38

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Concert in Park

The median age in Sammamish is 38. The City has more young adults and children (18 and under) than any other city in the state. Our City Council’s average age is 66. Image: Sammamish Concert in the Park. Photo via Google images.

The Sammamish City Council is highly representative of senior citizens and grandparents.

It’s not at all representative of the demographics of the City: median age of 38 with children of high school age or less.

Three seats are up for election Nov. 3: Positions 2, 4 and 6, held by Nancy Whitten, 69, Ramiro Valderrama, 55, and Tom Vance, 63, respectively. Whitten is retiring after three terms. Valderrama and Vance are seeking reelection, each to a second term.

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Sammamish gave Mark Cross 5 days to correct campaign sign violation, Malchow and Valderrama 48 hrs

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Cross Safety Issue sign

Sammamish gave City Council candidate Mark Cross one week to remove this sign at Inglewood Hill Road one block east of the roundabout despite being in the public right of way and blocking the line of sight for cars entering Inglewood. This photo is taken from the driver’s seat of a car aligned with the stop sign’s white road stripe. To see westbound traffic on Inglewood, it is necessary to pull well forward of the stop sign’s white stripe. Cross’s opponent was given 48 hours to move a similarly sized sign out of the right of way on Sahalee Way. No safety issue was involved. Click on image to enlarge.

Sammamish gave former City Council Member and former Mayor Mark Cross five days to correct a code violation for two large billboard style campaign signs erected in a public right of way (ROW), but opponent Christie Malchow and Council Member Ramiro Valderrama, running in a different race, were given 48 hours to correct similar violations, Sammamish Comment has learned.

Cross’ signs blocked the line of sight from the cross street looking east on Inglewood Hill Road, requiring the driver to pull well forward of the painted white line aligned with the stop sign in order to see westbound traffic on Inglewood Hill Road.

Signs erected in different locations by Malchow and Valderrama did not have line-of-sight issues. Malchow and Valderrama said they were given 48 hours to remove their large signs in a public ROW.

Chris Hankins, the City’s code enforcement officer who handled the three cases, said that when Cross’ signs came to his attention Monday, Cross was notified that the signs had to be moved “immediately, but no later than Friday,” five days after the violation was recorded. He said “there’s absolutely no preferential treatment” that was afforded Cross despite the disconnect between the deadlines given Malchow and Valderrama of 48 hours to comply with City code.

“I would disagree with that” characterization of a disconnect, he said. He could not explain why Valderrama and Malchow were given a 48 hour deadline. “That’s a good question. It’s decided on a case-by-case basis,” he told Sammamish Comment.

“Just to be clear, there is absolutely no preferential treatment,” he said again.

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