Tag Archives: sammamish city council election

Two competitive races, two unopposed in 2013 Sammamish City Council election

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The deadline for candidates to file for the 2013 elections has passed, and two of the four positions in Sammamish are unopposed.

Tom Odell, completing his first four year term, and a two year term as Mayor, is unopposed for reelection.

Bob Keller is also unopposed. He ran for the Council in the 1999 primary for our city’s first Council, but missed making the final cut. He’s been active in civic affairs since, including serving on the Planning Commission and the Planning Advisory Board. He, too, is unopposed.

Don Gerend, the lone remaining original council member from 1999, is running for a fifth term. He is opposed by newcomer Christine Malchow, who applied for a seat on one of the city’s commissions but didn’t get appointed (Gerend would have had a vote).

Malchow is a Republican (this is a non-partisan election, however). Her campaign website isn’t up yet but she has a blog on the Sammamish Patch and on WordPress. She has a Facebook page.

Kathy Huckabay, who like Gerend was one of the first City Council members elected in 1999, did not seek re-election four years ago. She’s back, seeking her old seat (being vacated by John James).

She is opposed by Larry Wright. Wright was a member of the state’s Charter School Panel. He is the Managing Director at the Bellevue Arts Museum and has been involved in mentoring endeavors, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also served on a commission on homelessness.

It’s all over; losers concede to winners

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It’s done: the concessions have been given. Tom Vance, Ramiro Valderrama and Nancy Whitten are the winners (though there has been no doubt since Election Night). The Sammamish Patch has now weighed in and declared them winners.

So how does the voting bloc line up on the Council now?

Left-leaning

Nancy Whitten

Tom Vance

Right Leaning

John Curley

John James

Center-Left

Tom Odell

Ramiro Valderrama

Center-Right

Don Gerend

As with any label, however, it’s pretty tough to accurately portray someone. For example, none of the council members can be described as entirely property rights or environmentalists. Gerend is the most pro-development Council Member but he also has an environmental streak.

Curley, a Libertarian at heart, wants to increase tree retention requirements.

Whitten, perceived as the staunchest environmentalist on the Council before this election, has a contrarian property rights streak in her.

James, a solid Republican, surprised me with his pragmatic view from his real estate profession that the pave-it-over plans for the Town Center espoused by Gerend and others are feasible. In other words, he is no knee-jerk pro-development Council Member that many expected when he was elected.

Vance and Whitten will form the left wing of the Council.

Valderrama, whose base of support is the lakefront–a conservative wing–also drew solid support from environmentalists–the conservationists wing. He and Odell are fiscal conservatives but favor environmental issues.

In fact, the entire Council, except for Gerend, favor fiscal conservatism. (Gerend still favors doubling the real estate excise tax, or REET).

With that, we are done with our election coverage.

Watch this space periodically for updates on other issues affecting Sammamish.

Day 3 of Election Results

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Nancy Whitten gained ground as measured by percentages, but only fractionally. Ramiro Valderrama and Tom Vance gained ground, also fractionally.

Yesterday (Wednesday) the Sammamish Review, the Seattle Times and the TV stations declared Whitten and Valderrama winners. Vance made the cut on Tuesday night with TV and the Seattle Times but not until Wednesday afternoon for the Sammamish Review.

Of course, you read it here first. We declared all three winners Tuesday night.

Thur, Nov 10 Votes %
Position 2
Nancy Whitten       4,474 53.36%
Kathy Richarson       3,889 46.39%
Position 4
Ramiro Valderrama       4,667 56.88%
Jim Wasnick       3,519 46.39%
Position 6
Jesse Bornfreund       2,494 31.44%
Tom Vance       5,405 68.15%
Wed, Nov 9, 2011 Votes %
Position 2
Nancy Whitten       3,756 53.29%
Kathy Richarson       3,278 46.51%
Position 4
Ramiro Valderrama       3,924 56.67%
Jim Wasnick       2,987 43.14%
Position 6
Jesse Bornfreund       2,125 31.74%
Tom Vance       4,546 67.90%
Election Night  Votes %
Position 2
Nancy Whitten       3,228 53.55%
Kathy Richarson       2,787 46.23%
Position 4
Ramiro Valderrama       3,345 56.47%
Jim Wasnick       2,566 43.32%
Position 6
Jesse Bornfreund       1,833 31.96%
Tom Vance       3,883 67.70%

Day 2 of the Election Results

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Here is the latest from King County:

Wed, Nov 9
 Votes %
Position 2
Nancy Whitten       3,756 53.29%
Kathy Richarson       3,278 46.51%
Position 4
Ramiro Valderrama       3,924 56.67%
Jim Wasnick       2,987 43.14%
Position 6
Jesse Bornfreund       2,125 31.74%
Tom Vance       4,546 67.90%
Election Night  Votes  %
Position 2
Nancy Whitten       3,228 53.55%
Kathy Richarson       2,787 46.23%
Position 4
Ramiro Valderrama       3,345 56.47%
Jim Wasnick       2,566 43.32%
Position 6
Jesse Bornfreund       1,833 31.96%
Tom Vance       3,883 67.70%

As you can see, there was little change in the percentages. I have declared Whitten, Valderrama and Vance the winners for reasons noted in the previous post.

Valderrama, Vance and Whitten win

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Note: Future results updates are available at the King County Elections website here.

The State’s Initiatives website results are here.

The Election Night tally, published about 8:15pm by King County Elections, provided the following results:

Position 2

Nancy Whitten               3,228     53.55%

Kathy Richardson         2,787    46.23%

Position 4

Ramiro Valderrama     3,345     56.47%

Jim Wasnick                    2,566      43.32%

Position 6

Jesse Bornfreund          1,833       31.96%

Tom Vance                      3,883       67.70%

Final results won’t be available until November 30. How, then, can I “call” the winners?

In every electoral race except one since Sammamish was incorporated in 1998, the results posted on Election Night mirrored the final results, within one or two percentage points. The sole exception was the 2001 race between Nancy Whitten and incumbent Ken Kilroy. Whitten led by 17 votes on Election night but lost by fewer than 150 votes when the final tally was in.

The County will post results updates daily; the link of the schedule is here (generally 4:30pm every work day). I’ll be watching the daily results and will update as well.

What do the results mean?

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