Last Friday was the final day for candidates to register to run in November’s elections, and several last-minute candidates did just that on May 21.
In North Bend, all three city council races have only one candidate, according to the King County Elections website. Incumbents Alan Gothelf (Pos. 2) and Ross Loudenback (Pos. 4) are without challengers, and Mark Joselyn (Pos. 6) is the only candidate registered to run for Chris Garcia’s seat. Garcia announced earlier this month he would not be seeking re-election.
Races in Snoqualmie are more competitive. Matt Larson, who has served as mayor since 2005, announced he would not seek re-election, and endorsed current city council member Katherine Ross in her bid for the mayoral seat. She will compete against Peggy Shepard, another current city council member, who also registered to run for mayor.
It’s sure to be a heated mayoral race as Shepard has often butted heads with the other members of the council as well as outgoing mayor Larson. In August, following email criticism of Snoqualmie police officers who incorrectly detained a Black teen in 2019 at the North Bend outlet mall — along with other comments questioning the department’s ability to investigate an unrelated sexual assault case — the council voted to censure Shepard.
Long-time Snoqualmie city council member Bob Jeans has not registered to run again for his current Pos. 1 seat. Ethan Benson is currently the only registered candidate for the position.
In Pos. 3, incumbent Bryan Holloway is running to defend his seat against challenger Anna Sotelo.
In Pos. 5, incumbent Matt Laase will try and defend his seat against challenger Tanya Lavoy. In Pos. 7, Jo Johnson and Catherine Cotton registered to run, but Cotton appears to have withdrawn her filing.
For the Metropolitan King County Council Dist. 3 race, which represents much of the Eastside, incumbent Kathy Lambert has registered to run for re-election. She faces two challengers by way of Sarah Perry and Joe Cohen.
King County Executive Dow Constantine is running to defend his seat against four challengers, including former Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Hirt who also ran against Constantine in 2017 for the county executive seat, Democratic Washington state Senator Joe Nguyen, perennial candidate Goodspaceguy and Johnathon Crines.
In Carnation, Jim Ribail (Pos. 2) and Kimberly Lisk (Pos. 4) are running unopposed re-election bids.
In the Snoqualmie Valley School District elections, inumbent Melissa Johnson is seeking re-election for her Dist. 1 seat, and is Gary Fancher in Dist. 4.
In Fall City, Daniel Meredith and Robert Angrisano are running for commissioner Pos. 3 for King County Fire Protection Dist. 27.
Races with more than two candidates will appear on the Aug. 3 primary ballot. The general election will be held on Nov. 2. Voters can register online, in-person or by mail and more information is available on King County’s website.
